alok-g

for contributing to helping me come out of excessive questioning of everything (philosophy) to science that helps towards actually answering the questions answerable.

Feynman Lectures in Physics [3] and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman [4], with no need to explain "how".

Feynman's Lectures are much more complete in that sense, even though as other comments on this thread note, the reader may not be able to use the learning to solve practical problems without going beyond Feynman's lectures.

Feynman Lectures in Physics [3] and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman [4], with no need to explain "how".

I have a love-hate relationship with that book. It elegantly shows how to think about the topics, but it also left me with many unanswered questions

Minds, Brains and Machines, by Geoffrey Brown

for introducing me to the complexities of the mind-body problem. It did not show the answers of course, but helped me think right about it.

Parsing Techniques by Dick Grune [6] for teaching me the fundamentals of computer science and helping me proceed with my deep interest in Artificial Intelligence.

The Ghost in the Atom [5] for explaining varied views on the nature of science, especially Quantum Mechanics, and what goes in the minds of the top-notch scientists working on these problems.