Columbia University string theorist Brian Greene can put his feet up this Christmas, safe in the knowledge that his popular-science title The Elegant Universe is this year’s best-selling physics book on both sides of the Atlantic, according to Amazon, the on-line bookstore. The book already scooped the Aventis Prize for Science Books earlier this year.
“I think it is wonderfully gratifying that ideas about the universe, which thousands of physicists worldwide have devoted themselves to developing over many years, are now being widely shared with the general public,” Greene told Physics World. “I am surprised at how well my book has done and I feel its success directly reflects the depth of curiosity that people have about the workings of the universe.”
Top ten titles for 2000 at Amazon.co.uk
1 The Elegant Universe (Amazon UK)
Brian Greene (Vintage)
2 A Brief History of Time (Amazon UK)
Stephen Hawking (Bantam)
3 Just Six Numbers (Amazon UK)
Martin Rees (Phoenix)
4 In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat (Amazon UK, Amazon)
John Gribbin (Corgi)
5 Hyperspace (Amazon UK)
Michio Kaku (Oxford Paperbacks)
6 Chaos (Amazon UK)
James Gleick (Minerva)
7 The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (Amazon UK, Amazon)
Richard Feynman (Allen Lane )
8 Strange Beauty (Amazon UK)
George Johnson (Jonathan Cape)
9 The End of Time (Amazon UK)
Julian Barbour (Phoenix)
10 Lucifer’s Legacy (Amazon UK, Amazon)
Frank Close (Oxford University Press)
Top ten titles for 2000 at Amazon.com
1 The Elegant Universe (Amazon)
Brian Greene (Vintage)
2 A Brief History of Time (Amazon)
Stephen Hawking (Bantam Doubleday Dell)
3 Just Six Numbers (Amazon)
Martin Rees (Basic Books)
4 Hyperspace (Amazon)
Michio Kaku (Anchor)
5 The End of Time (Amazon)
Julian Barbour (Oxford University Press)
6 Chaos (Amazon)
James Gleick (Penguin USA)
7 Strange Beauty (Amazon)
George Johnson (Knopf)
8 The Holographic Universe (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Michael Talbot (Harperperennial Library)
9 At Home in the Universe (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Stuart Kauffman (Oxford University Press )
10 Relativity (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Albert Einstein (Crown)
* A full review of The Elegant Universe by John Charap appears in the July 1999 issue of Physics World.
