RELEVANT BOOKS–I’d love to hear about physics books people love (or hate).

Thirty Years that Shook Physics by George Gamow–This is my favorite introduction to the quantum theory, full of Gamow’s wonky, sometimes transcendent drawings, anecdotes of Bohr rock-climbing up civic buildings and Pauli insulting beautiful women, and lots and lots of winningly explained quantum mechanics by one of the 20th century’s greatest physicists (and characters). As if all this were not enough, in the back is reproduced (almost) the whole Copenhagen “Faust” of 1932.

Einstein, Bohr, & the Quantum Dilemma by Andrew Whitaker–Next, read this: one of the best books on the history of the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Written by Bell’s biographer, it covers the broad terrain with grace and clarity.

Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics by John Bell–Bell is a simply magical writer and a reliably fascinating and incisive thinker. These essays span his career and range from famous (his two 1964 papers and “Bertlmann’s Socks and the Nature of Reality”) to accessible (”Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics” and “Six Possible Worlds of Quantum Mechanics”) to technical, but all are wonderful. The new edition (purple jacket) is better than the old one (green) because it contains “Against ‘Measurement’,” as well as a nice forward by Alain Aspect, but it costs $100 as opposed to $20, alas….

Quantum (Un)speakables, edited by Reinhold Bertlmann and Anton Zeilinger (who also contribute great articles)–This book, the proceedings of the Bell memorial conference in Vienna in 2000, is full of gems, particularly John Clauser’s and Nicolas Gisin’s essays (Clauser warns to “Beware of Experimentalists Lurking About” while Gisin recounts “Sundays in a Quantum Engineer’s Life”). I only wish Roman Jackiw’s essay on Bell could have been included in this conference rather than the earlier one.

Notes on a Paulian Idea by Chris Fuchs–This is a feast of fascinating, deep, and witty letters between Fuchs and many of the other important thinkers in the field of quantum information. Fuchs is himself an entertaining writer, interested in both the history and philosophy of his subject, and he presents the most seductive version of the Copenhagen interpretation around. You can download all 2,000 KB from Fuchs’ website, which is nice because it’s easier to search than in hardcopy form.

The Infamous Boundary: Seven Decades of Heresy in Quantum Physics by David Wick–A great and accessible introduction to the history of the “Quantum-Orthodoxy-Doubting Subculture.”

Boojums All the Way Through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age by David Mermin–One of my favorite books of all time. This series of essays is never anything short of delightful, fascinating, and edifying.

Genius by James Gleick and Strange Beauty by George Johnson–I always think of these books as a pair: they are the greatest biographies I have ever read, and in fact two of my favorite books of any kind. Gleick’s is on Richard Feynman and Johnson’s is on Murray Gell-Mann. These books are two great inspirations to those who want to write about science clearly and beautifully.

‘Subtle is the Lord…’, Niels Bohr’s Times, and Inward Bound by Abraham Pais–The definitive trilogy on the history of 20th century physics. Pais, a physicist friend of both Einstein’s and Bohr’s, wrote each of their biographies (the rest of Einstein’s quote is “…but He is not malicious”) and followed that with a book that covered everything else. You might not set out to read these books cover-to-cover, but you will constantly return to their fascinating details (and maybe find, in the end, that you have come close).

Entanglement: The Greatest Mystery in Physics by Amir Aczel–A short and clear overview of the subject and its history, from Planck to quantum teleportation.

The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon by Brian Clegg–This was recommended by the Library Journal over my book, unfortunately with the wrong (though less sensational) title “The Good Effect.” I haven’t read it; will report when I do.