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I'm looking for something that is going to blow my mind without any scientistic ideas (e.g. something that sounds like science, but doesn't have anything in common with science), written by a professional physicist who spent a lot of time considering "what it all means". I'm reasonably proficient in math and stats, but I'd prefer something that I could spend time listening to in my free time.

Any recommendations on good and exciting books on quantum physics written by scientists?

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    $\begingroup$ to each his own, but that is not how science works... $\endgroup$
    – AccidentalFourierTransform
    Feb 25, 2017 at 14:55
  • $\begingroup$ I am at present reading Sneaking a look at God's cards by Ghirardi, which seems to be an excellent book on QM. $\endgroup$
    – Deep
    Feb 26, 2017 at 5:20

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I really enjoyed

though to be honest it's now getting uncomfortably close to fifteen years since I read it as a high school student, and I don't have my copy at hand to give it a critical assessment. As a high schooler I found it engaging and accessible, and if you want to you could see it as very successful in my case - it was my first introduction to quantum paths, and here I am working in the field a decade later, though I'm unsure that effect is uniform across its readership. As I recall, though, I looked it over a few years ago and didn't find anything that was worryingly inaccurate or misreepresentative of how modern quantum physicists see the field.

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Try "What is Quantum Mechanics" by Transnational College of LEX. It is very unorthodox. Under the supervision of a Nobel Prize winner the book was assembled by a number of different people who had to discover quantum mechanics from the ground up. Amazon or your local library. Be sure it's the second edition.

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I very much enjoyed "The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen", by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. I believe that it was written for a slightly-above-lay audience, so your knowledge of maths and stats should be more than sufficient to get through it. The book has a witty and conversational style, but is not in any way dumbed-down. Both authors are academics and public science communicators by trade: Jeff Forshaw is a Professor of Particle Physics at Manchester, where his co-author Brian Cox is an "Advanced Fellow" in the same field, and a well-known TV personality.

I should point out as an aside that the title "Professor" has more gravitas in the UK than in some other Western nations; specifically it is not equivalent to a lecturer. However, I was unable to produce the name of a specific Chair occupied by Jeff Forshaw.

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I would like to recommend this book, the theoretic minimum: quantum mechanics written by Leonard Susskind. It is very nice to talk about many important points in quantum mechanics.

Here is course website for this course.

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I would recommend Feynman lectures on physics vol 3. Where he discusses about quantum physics. Feynman is excellent in explaining hard concepts simply so almost anyone can understand.

I would also recommend introduction to quantum mechanics by David Griffiths. David Griffiths has written many educational books in physics and is very pedagogical.

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