'A short history of nearly everything' is extremely readable. Written by a comedic writer. It surveys much of scientific knowledge roughly narrated as a history of scientific discovery and the development of science.
'Elegant universe' is a little denser. It's about as accessible as string theory gets, and that's surprisingly accessible. It also surveys a lot of scientific knowledge. For example, it has a very intuitive explanation of how knowing about the constant speed of light (Einstein) makes time travel possible. Also, it explains open questions that string theory is trying to solve, which are the big, TOE questions in physics currently.
Hard to beat Hawkins though. He heavily influenced and inspired these guys, an proved that hard science is interesting for everyone. Goodbye Professor. You will be missed.
> 'A short history of nearly everything' is extremely readable. Written by a comedic writer.
Bill Bryson normally writes travel books, so the way this book is written is not your standard science approach. This book in particular is very entertaining since the topic is out of the authors comfort zone.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is actually my favourite book to read while travelling, funnily enough.
I've been told that Roger Penrose's The Road to Reality is awesome if you already know enough math. If you're an engineer, for example, you shouldn't have problems. Unfortunately, my personal level of mathematical maturity is too low and I've never made it past the first ten chapters. Maybe some day with more effort. :/
Second that. It's an awesome book that explains pretty much everything when it comes to physics. As for the math, it's true that they're hard but you should really give it another try since the second part of the book has less equations and more text.
Feynmann's "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter" is a popular science book which contains a small amount of approachable mathematics. It's a good choice if you want something a little more meaty.
I really liked Kip Thorne's Black Holes & Time Warps. Some overlap with Brief History of Time in content, but much bigger and detailed but still reasonably accessible (I thought).
There's a very good book called E=mc^2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation written by David Bodanis. I think I read it at about 16 and it was very approachable.
The others are suggesting Bill Bryson, Brian Greene, Lee Smolin and Leonard Susskind books but they came quite a bit later. Good suggestions though.
What stands out that I could read in the 1980s? I mentioned George Gamow's little book: One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science.
Many Carl Sagan books were available by then. Ask Google.
Isaac Asimov wrote about everything, but his monthly essays in the Fantasy & Science Fiction (magazine) often covered some physics topic. I love how he tells the story: Always about the person, the time, the ideas, the meanings of the words, good analogies. He made it all seem so simple, but I know now that he was a master and loved it (and bragged about it too). Those essays were often collected into paperback collections, and my high school library got them.
Asimov also wrote a History of Physics book. Really thick and long. I read it for a book report for English class, because I was a total nerd and it seemed like a fun project. Most others read a comic book because those passed as "non-fiction" (for real).
One of the better textbooks is Introduction to Electrodynamics by David J. Griffiths. That one stands out in my mind.
"An Introduction to the Meaning and Structure of Physics", by Leon N Cooper, also another Nobel laureate in Physics. Filled my mind with wonder when I read it some 15 years ago.
Many of Lee Smolin's books are phenomenal, and despite being very indepth into their subject matter, are easy and enjoyable to read. Trouble With Physics is my favorite.
