I really enjoyed reading Longitude: The True Story of the Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel. The book provides a well written narrative on the eventual development by John Harrison of a chronometer which could accurately measure time during ocean voyages.
For a remarkable and insightful book on cannabis sativa, I would suggest reading Marijuana Reconsidered by Lester Grinspoon. The book provided the first real scientific investigation into the psychedelic properties of cannabis sativa. I found the section by Mr. X (Carl Sagan) to be informative, accurate, and humorous. The fact that marijuana was documented, by William Osler, long before the 1930’s to be the most effective cure for a migraine was a complete surprise to me. I highly recommend this book and any other by Lester Grinspoon.
The Biggest Bangs: The Mystery of Gamma-ray Bursts, the Most Violent Explosions in the Universe by Jonathan Katz is a decent book on gamma-ray bursts and their history. I would recommend this book as an introduction to these transient phenomena.
Blaise Pascal’s short book, Pensées. The entire work comes from Pascal’s thoughts etched as a sort of rough draft for a future book. His thoughts are interesting and mainly deal with Christian theology. The idea of Pascal’s Wager comes from this book.
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