So You Want to Learn Physics (2016)
Well I disagree with many of the book choices, but if there's one thing that's absolutely spot-on is this:<p>>One big problem is that a lot of the popular books written about physics (especially those by famous physicists) are incredibly speculative and tend to present an unrealistic view of what the study of physics is all about. When you're learning physics, it's good to avoid these types of speculative books, and stick to the good ones that talk about the real physics we know exists.<p>Oh god yes. Why is it that whenever a lay person wants to talk about physics they talk about "11 dimensions", "string theory", or "time dilation", or any similarly crazy-sounding term that they read in a massively incorrect pop-sci article. Basically it makes it sound like physics is about all this crazy complicated and far-fetched ideas, rather than simple and beautiful principles to understand reality, which is what it is.<p>I don't know if I managed to convey what I mean.