comments:
I loved Max Tegmark's Our Mathematical Universe... perfect for beginners because it goes through like "all of physics/cosmology" in order of history and discovery. It's not necessary to follow his ultimate thesis, which is that "reality IS math" and later chapters are him going out on a limb talking about multiverses and stuff but I would highly recommend this one... and then I would check out Sean Caroll's "The Biggest Ideas in the Universe" books. These are NOT text books, they are kinda "physics for everyone" books but they do need you to have your brain switched on/do involve a few higher-level concepts. Also, if you want to learn more about the math equations underlying physics this book is awesome, partly becasue its seperate essays about seperate topics so you don't need to commit to reading the whole book, just those chapters/topics that interest you. It Must Be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science: Farmelo, Graham: 9781862075559: Amazon.com: Books