Most Engaging Scientific Nonfiction
2. 
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by:
Steven D. Levitt
4.01 avg rating — 885,877 ratings 
4. 
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by:
Jared Diamond
4.04 avg rating — 445,096 ratings 5. 
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
by:
Dava Sobel
3.99 avg rating — 75,034 ratings 
7. 
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
by:
Oliver Sacks
4.05 avg rating — 239,840 ratings 8. 
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by:
Michael Pollan
4.19 avg rating — 208,905 ratings 9. 
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
by:
Richard Preston
4.16 avg rating — 119,596 ratings 
11. 
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
by:
Brian Greene
4.10 avg rating — 101,040 ratings 
13. 
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by:
Eric Schlosser
3.75 avg rating — 206,251 ratings 14. 
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
by:
Matt Ridley
4.06 avg rating — 27,646 ratings 
17. 
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
by:
Richard Dawkins
4.16 avg rating — 55,479 ratings 18. 
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character 4.27 avg rating — 213,236 ratings
23. 
The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism
by:
Fritjof Capra
3.97 avg rating — 19,258 ratings 24. 
The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
by:
Simon Winchester
3.82 avg rating — 13,927 ratings 25. 
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by:
Jared Diamond
3.93 avg rating — 73,876 ratings 26. 
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
by:
Simon Winchester
3.88 avg rating — 21,503 ratings 
29. 
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by:
Jon Krakauer
4.26 avg rating — 551,065 ratings 30. 
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
by:
Michael Pollan
4.06 avg rating — 58,656 ratings 31. 
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
by:
Deborah Blum
4.01 avg rating — 36,512 ratings 32. 
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by:
John M. Barry
3.98 avg rating — 42,022 ratings 
34. 
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by:
Steven Johnson
3.89 avg rating — 55,259 ratings 
36. 
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
by:
Joshua Foer
3.88 avg rating — 93,084 ratings 
41. 
The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear
by:
Seth Mnookin
4.07 avg rating — 5,764 ratings 42. 
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by:
Lynne Truss
3.87 avg rating — 106,070 ratings 43. 
Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer and the Century-Long Search to Discover Its Secrets
by:
Jo Marchant
4.09 avg rating — 548 ratings 44. 
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by:
Erik Larson
4.05 avg rating — 70,032 ratings 45. 
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
by:
Sebastian Junger
4.12 avg rating — 117,729 ratings 46. 
Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos
by:
Lisa Kaltenegger
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,255 ratings 
48. 
Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
by:
Michael J. Behe
3.79 avg rating — 4,017 ratings 49. 
Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
by:
Carlo Rovelli
4.33 avg rating — 15,942 ratings 50. 
51. 
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
by:
Richard Dawkins
4.05 avg rating — 27,035 ratings 
53. 
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons 4.39 avg rating — 8,662 ratings
55. 
Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
by:
Carl Zimmer
4.20 avg rating — 5,906 ratings 56. 
The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug
by:
Thomas Hager
4.09 avg rating — 5,801 ratings 57. 
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
by:
Steven Pinker
4.09 avg rating — 25,079 ratings 58. 
Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution Is Wrong
by:
Jonathan Wells
4.05 avg rating — 738 ratings 59. 
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by:
Steven Pinker
4.01 avg rating — 22,310 ratings 60. 
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by:
Mary Roach
3.95 avg rating — 59,465 ratings 61. 
Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension
by:
Michio Kaku
4.15 avg rating — 23,942 ratings 
63. 
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by:
Simon Singh
4.30 avg rating — 28,489 ratings 
65. 
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by:
Malcolm Gladwell
3.96 avg rating — 614,742 ratings 66. 
The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works Of Richard Feynman
by:
Jeffrey Robbins
4.23 avg rating — 13,315 ratings 
70. 
Machine Learning: An Introduction Math Guide for Beginners to Understand Data Science Through the Business Applications
by:
Samuel Hack
4.39 avg rating — 23 ratings 71. 
Strange Chemistry: The Stories Your Chemistry Teacher Wouldn't Tell You
by:
Steven Farmer
4.21 avg rating — 76 ratings 72. 
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
by:
Brian Greene
4.13 avg rating — 40,010 ratings 72. 
The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
by:
Sean Carroll
4.18 avg rating — 9,960 ratings 
76. 
78. 
The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors
by:
Ann Gibbons
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 741 ratings 79. 
Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
by:
Neil Shubin
4.04 avg rating — 28,102 ratings 80. 
The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
by:
Sam Harris
3.90 avg rating — 24,024 ratings 
82. 
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya
by:
Dick Teresi
3.36 avg rating — 281 ratings 83. 
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen 4.30 avg rating — 228,818 ratings
86. 
The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
by:
Norman Doidge
4.20 avg rating — 39,550 ratings 87. 
Fingerprint of God: Recent Scientific Discoveries Reveal the Unmistakable Identity of the Creator
by:
Hugh Ross
3.99 avg rating — 269 ratings 88. 
Genesis and the Big Bang: The Discovery Of Harmony Between Modern Science And The Bible
by:
Gerald Schroeder
4.09 avg rating — 577 ratings 
90. 
The Descent of Woman: The Classic Study of Evolution
by:
Elaine Morgan
4.14 avg rating — 951 ratings 90. 
Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off
by:
Fazale Rana
4.31 avg rating — 167 ratings 
95. 
The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
by:
Richard Dawkins
4.09 avg rating — 41,146 ratings 96. 
The Puzzle Solver: A Scientist's Desperate Quest to Cure the Illness that Stole His Son
by:
Tracie White
4.10 avg rating — 572 ratings 96. 
The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos
by:
Jaime Green
3.99 avg rating — 1,094 ratings 96. 
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims 4.38 avg rating — 1,330 ratings
99. 
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
by:
Paul Stamets
4.41 avg rating — 3,298 ratings 