The Sleepwalkers

By Arthur Koestler,

Book cover of The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe

Book description

A thought-provoking account of the scientific achievements and lives of cosmologists from Babylonians to Newton.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Sleepwalkers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

It's a history of scientific advances, particularly in cosmology. It’s old now and I don’t know if it’s the best book on the topic, but it influenced my thinking a lot when I was a teenager.

Many advances in science require letting go of what you think you think you know. Letting go of even obvious assumptions – that the sun goes around the earth (plain to the naked eye); that the world is made of 4 elements  – fire, water, earth, wind; that time flows the same everywhere for all people.

My book similarly shows some of the current…

From Michael's list on changing how you see the world.

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I Am Taurus By Stephen Palmer,

The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.

Each of the sections is written from…

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