Books About Time
With Daylight Savings TIme just around the corner, we wanted to share some titles that cover the study and topic of time
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - Predictably, this list must begin with Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. Some may have held off on reading it due to the daunting subject matter — his book may have sold 10 million copies, but Hawking was well aware of its reputation as “the most popular book never read“. Rest assured, A Brief History of Time was written specifically for those of us who don’t know our quarks from our gluons. It briefly covers the origin, development, and future of the universe but in a comprehensive, digestible, and — most importantly — enthusiastic way. Here’s an excerpt: “Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?”
The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life (A Self-Help Guide to Time) by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd Ph.D. - From the New York Times bestselling author of The Lucifer Effect comes a breakthrough book that draws on thirty years of pioneering research to reveal, for the first time, how your individual time perspective shapes your life and is shaped by the world around you. Just as Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences permanently altered our understanding of intelligence and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink gave us an appreciation for the adaptive unconscious, Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd’s new book changes the way we think about and experience time. It will give you new insights into how family conflicts can be resolved by ways to enhance your sexuality and sensuality, and mindsets for becoming more successful in business and happier in your life. Based on the latest psychological research, The Time Paradox is both a "big think" guide for living in the twenty-first century and one of those rare self-help books that really does have the power to improve lives.
Your Brain Is a Time Machine by Dean Buonomano - Buonomano, a neuroscientist at the University of California Los Angeles, is one of the leading scientists trying to understand how the brain tells and navigates time. Here, he takes the reader on a tour of the latest research, from the workings of our neurons to the notion of “mental time travel” – how we project ourselves into the past and future. Why does time seem to flow? Do we have one clock in us or many? It’s a fun and fascinating exploration and very accessible.
Which one will you be reading?