A Brief History of Time
The best-selling science book in history for good reason: Hawking made black holes, the Big Bang, and the nature of time accessible without dumbing them down, wrapping it all in an implicit philosophical argument about humanity's place in the cosmos. Over 25 million copies. It made physics feel like literature.
It is the definitive unread bestseller, “the most bought science book of all time... most likely gave up on after a chapter or two,” and an analysis of Kindle highlights found them all clustered near the start. The quantum chapters are where readers lose the thread, “dense and overwhelming as a crash course on theoretical physics,” and chapter 8 on imaginary time is “very nearly incomprehensible in this overly brief presentation.” Readers find “his explanations to be lacking and a lot of his conclusions weren't explained,” leaving them to take the no-boundary proposal on faith. One reading group's verdict: “I don't think this book lends itself to discussion.” Approach with caution.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
