Top ten titles for August 2000
1 The Elegant Universe (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Brian Greene (Vintage) pb 1999
2 A Brief History of Time (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Stephen Hawking (Bantam) pb 1988
3 Just Six Numbers (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Martin Rees (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) hb 1999
4 Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman! (Amazon, Amazon UK)
(ed) Edward Hutchings (Vintage) pb 1985
5 In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat (Amazon, Amazon UK)
John Gribbin (Corgi) pb 1984
6 Lucifer’s Legacy (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Frank Close (Oxford University Press) hb 2000
7 Faster (Amazon, Amazon UK)
James Gleick (Abacus) pb 1999
8 The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Richard Feynman (Allen Lane The Penguin Press) hb 1999
9 The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster) pb 1986
10 The Emperor’s New Mind (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Roger Penrose (Oxford Paperbacks) pb 1989
When it comes to sales of physics books, there are some titles that just never fade away. According to Amazon.co.uk, the on-line bookstore, five of the top ten best-selling physics titles during August were originally published back in the 1980s. John Gribbin’s In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat – in fifth spot in the list – is the veteran of the pack, still finding buyers 16 years after it first appeared. The Making of the Atomic Bomb – Richard Rhodes’ epic tale of how physicists developed nuclear weapons – is in ninth place, some 14 years after it was originally published. Stephen Hawking’s crowd-pleaser A Brief History of Time (1988) is second, although whether sales will be affected by the controversial new play God and Stephen Hawking (see p49) remains to be seen.
Time will also tell whether the other five books on the list, all of which were published either this year or last, remain classics in years to come. The Elegant Universe – Brian Greene’s prize-winning book on string theory – looks set to join the elite after riding high for more than a year, while The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – an edited collection of lectures and interviews by Richard Feynman – is bound to remain popular, if his many other hits, such as Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman! (1985), are anything to go by. Particle theorist Frank Close and the UK’s Astronomer Royal Martin Rees must be praying that their new books – in sixth and third place – also become firm favourites.
