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r/askscience · 2023

Most-mentioned books in r/askscience during 2023

This page ranks books by exact tracked mentions in r/askscience within the published source unit for 2023. Counts come from the reconciled subreddit-by-month matrix; a source unit may be a bounded sample.

14
Books ranked
34
Tracked mentions in 2023
Sort by upvotes = sum of comment scores on recognized mentions
Cover of The Selfish Gene #1

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins

A biologist argues you're not really driving the car — your genes are, and they've been doing it since before there was a you.

6 in 2023
Cover of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body #2

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Neil Shubin

A paleontologist traces the five-fingered human hand back through Tiktaalik to the fins of a 375-million-year-old fish.

5 in 2023
Cover of A Brief History of Time #3

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking explains black holes, time, and the universe's beginning without a single equation, for readers who never took physics.

4 in 2023
Cover of Cosmos #4

Cosmos

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan's 1980 tour of 15 billion years of cosmic history, written for anyone who once looked up and wanted a real answer.

3 in 2023
Cover of On the Origin of Species #5

On the Origin of Species

Charles Darwin

A naturalist explains how species arise without a designer, backed by decades of finch beaks, barnacles, and pigeon breeders.

3 in 2023
Cover of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid #6

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas R. Hofstadter

A Pulitzer-winning tour through Gödel's incompleteness theorem, Bach's fugues, and Escher's impossible loops — all in service of one question: what is consciousness?

2 in 2023
Cover of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life #7

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life

Ed Yong

Ed Yong takes the microbiome from lab jargon to something that makes you look at every living thing differently.

2 in 2023
Cover of Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive #8

Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive

Philipp Dettmer

Philipp Dettmer, the voice behind Kurzgesagt, explains why your body sets off a full-scale war every time you catch a cold.

2 in 2023
Cover of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer #9

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Siddhartha Mukherjee

Siddhartha Mukherjee traces cancer from ancient Egyptian scrolls calling it untreatable to his own oncology ward, and calls the four-thousand-year fight a biography, not a history.

2 in 2023
Cover of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! #10

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Richard P. Feynman

A Nobel physicist recounts the anecdotes behind the equations, cracking safes and playing bongos at Los Alamos on his way to explaining what energy actually is.

1 in 2023
Cover of The Double Helix #11

The Double Helix

James D. Watson

James Watson tells the story of discovering DNA's structure in 1953, and treats Rosalind Franklin badly enough on the page that the argument has outlasted the science.

1 in 2023
Cover of The Elegant Universe #12

The Elegant Universe

Brian Greene

Brian Greene walks you from Newton to superstrings using astronauts, blinking lights, and rubber-sheet gravity — no physics degree required.

1 in 2023
Cover of The Feynman Lectures on Physics #13

The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Richard P. Feynman

Feynman's three-volume lecture series, free online, used to teach Caltech freshmen physics from particles to gravity.

1 in 2023
Cover of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat #14

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Oliver Sacks

A neurologist's case files: patients who lost the ability to recognize faces, bodies, and the right side of the world — and remained fully themselves.

1 in 2023