OUTAGE: Website maintenance April 2024

Our website will be unavailable from 5 to 8 pm on Tuesday 23 April due to planned maintenance. 

It's August so we are celebrating National Science Week! There are so many fascinating books about science, invention, discovery and nature; it can be hard to choose. So library staff have gathered up some weird and wonderful science-y reads for you to enjoy. 

Want to keep up to date with the latest discoveries? You can access over 100 science titles on Overdrive/Libby Magazines using your library membership.

Fascinating science reads

  • To speak for the trees: my life's journey from ancient Celtic wisdom to a healing vision of the forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
  • The art of more: how mathematics created civilisation by Michael Brooks
  • Lightning often strikes twice : the 50 biggest misconceptions in science by Brian Clegg
  • Scientifica historica: how the world's great science books chart the history of knowledge by Brian Clegg
  • Ten days in physics that shook the world: how physicists changed everyday life by Brian Clegg 
  • Latitude: the true story of the world's first scientific expedition by Nick Crane
  • Breakthrough: spectacular stories of scientific discovery from the Higgs particle to black holes by Marcus Chown
  • Gadgets, games and gizmos: 122 inventions that changed the world by Jean-Marie Donat
  • The plant-hunter's atlas: a world tour of botanical adventures, chance discoveries and strange specimens by Ambra Edwards; cont. Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
  • Shape: the hidden geometry of absolutely everything by Jordan Ellenberg
  • Gory details : adventures from the dark side of science by Erika Engelhaupt
  • Broad band: the untold story of the women who made the internet by Claire L. Evans
  • The light ages: a medieval journey of discovery by Seb Falk 
  • How to solve a crime: an A-Z of forensic science by Professor Angela Gallop
  • Eight improbable possibilities: the mystery of the moon, and other implausible scientific truths by John Gribbin
  • The future of dinosaurs: the continuing search for a lost world by David Hone
  • How to spend a trillion dollars: the 10 global problems we can actually fix by Rowan Hooper
  • The code breaker: Jennifer Doudna, gene editing, and the future of the human race by Walter Isaacson
  • The joy of science by Jim Al-Khalili
  • Under a white sky: the nature of the future by Elizabeth Kolbert
  • The man who tasted words: inside the strange and startling world of our senses by Guy Leschziner
  • The insect crisis: the fall of the tiny empires that run the world by Oliver Milman
  • Why trust science? by Naomi Oreskes
  • A molecule away from madness: tales of the hijacked brain by Sara Manning Peskin
  • Genius makers: the mavericks who brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the world by Cade Metz
  • How the world really works: a scientist's guide to our past, present, and future by Vaclav Smil
  • Entangled life: how fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures* by Merlin Sheldrake
  • What's the use? the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics by Ian Stewart
  • The flame of reason: clear thinking for the twenty-first century by Christer Sturmark
  • Exactly: how precision engineers created the modern world by Simon Winchester

To reserve a book, select the title you would like to reserve, and use your membership number and PIN to place a reservation. Visit our Reserve and request page for more information.

Titles with an asterisk (*) are also available from our eBook collection which you can see on our eBooks and audio books page.

Visit our All booklists page for more reading recommendations, or our Book groups page for everything you need for book groups.

Libraries