What can I say about this one, really? I am no physicist. The basics of theoretical physics are familiar to me, to the extent that I could take Interstellar apart on first viewing, but really nothing more. And this is a lot more. In the space of a hundred pages, it offers a brief and beautifully written history of the major discoveries of the twentieth and twenty first centuries: relativity, quantum mechanics, and the rest.
What is most wonderful about it, though, is the way that it makes a science which is usually so far removed from day to day life into something real and tangible. I’ve already lent my copy to someone else so I can’t quote it, but there’s a paragraph in there that really made me think about the world and my place in it. This book, though brief, is both beautiful and important. I suspect that I shall be recommending it to many people for years to come.
How to read it: Be prepared for anything, because this is the kind of wonderful book which makes you change the way you see the world.