Eight Books Everyone Should Read, According To Neil deGrasse Tyson
Fact: I once walked past astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on the street and wanted really badly to talk to him but I was too nervous. I react to astrophysicists like 13-year-old girls react to Justin Bieber. If you ever need proof that I am a huge nerd, there it is.
Tyson is the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and a Research Associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. He's also a Reddit user, and recently someone asked him, "Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet?"
He listed the following books with this note: "If you read all of the works above, you will have profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world."
The books are:
- The Bible
- The System of the World by Sir Isaac Newton
- On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift
- The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
- The Art of War by Sun Tsu
- The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
So, LitReactors, what do you think of Tyson's list? And what would you add to this?
News by Rob Hart
Rob Hart is the class director at LitReactor. He's also the author of five novels and the short story collection Take-Out, and co-wrote Scott Free with James Patterson. His next novel, The Warehouse (Crown, August 2019), has been sold in more than 20 countries and been optioned for film by Ron Howard. Find more at www.robwhart.com.
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Comments
Love this guy. See him on Discovery and the Science Channel all the time.
I too have had a brush with scientific fame. Michio Kaku lives in my neighborhood. I drove past him once. Next time I see him I'm getting out of my car.
Michio Kaku is great too! I read one of his books!
I love science!
I've read 5 + much of the bibe so I think I'm off to a great start. Now on to tackle Darwin and Newton...
Neil Tyson rules. If you don't follow him on Twitter, do so immediately.
Fuck Tyson. He demoted Pluto. Love Kaku or Gribbin, though. Man, if I lived by Kaku I would follow him home and have him autograph all his books that I have.
Tyson might be brilliant. But his reading list leaves a lot to be desired.
Where's the Nietzsche?
Read The Pluto Files, man! Pluto isn't a fucking planet at all! HAHA
I laughed out loud when I saw that the Bible was followed by Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species.
He should have replaced Darwin, with Dawkins, that would have been even.
I have no idea waht you're all talking about, but seems like too much the worth... You're all talkin' about Darwin, and Pluto and Gribbon?... Man, seriously, who the fuck cares? Does it really matter now? I don't don't even know know who Gribbon is... What the fuck do I care?
Sorrry... Don't mean to stir the pot up... Okay, yeah I do... But, really, I'm curious... Learns me... I make fun, because I'm simple like that.
Jesus.. I just jumped into a pile of shit i I should have have stayed out of.
What each of these books have in common is a vast influence on humanity that continues to this day. I would add two more to make it an even ten: The Communist Manifesto and Candide.
Tyson is a brilliant man. I've seen him in several interviews, some pertaining to astrophysics and some completely irrelevant to the field. Regardless of the subject, he's always extremely knowledgeable and is very good at articulating his opinions. He's a great man of reason in an era of sensationalism.
I'm going to plug it for him, if you don't listen to his podcast, StarTalk Radio, you should. It's damn entertaining.
I would add Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti. Although it may not have the same influence on the West as the books listed above, it certainly does a lot to explain why we tend to get very silly when we get together.
These certainly aren't the greatest books ever written--but probably the most influential; so it's a decent list. All that it *really* needs is some Homer: Iliad or Odyssey. And probably some Dickens.