A book I knew of but have never read before. I had been put off by hearing that it was the most bought science book of its time but the least read.
In fairness I can see why, if this was your first book on this subject then it would be a tough one to read and take in all it was telling you.
It is however a really well written account of particle physics, time, quantum mechanics, and the lifetime of the universe. The best thing about the book is it starts off with the astronomical observations which then led to the esoteric theories which I think is essential in motivating the harder to comprehend physics.
The observational astronomy ranges from the earth orbiting the sun, Hubble's expanding universe, and Einstein's light being affected by gravity.
The other main theme of the book is the still unfinished work of unifying the large scale physics theory of gravitation with the quantum particle world. All this really boils down to is to understanding how gravity works at the quantum level. The best way of thinking of this is that we think on the large scale as gravity as a force that is not conveyed by a particle just an omnipresent force.
The foreword of the book is by Carl Sagan, now sadly dead. The book is very concise and well written, and Hawking is a man who despite his obvious disability has achieved a huge amount in the field - most of it after the time he was expected to have lived, as he was given a couple of years life after diagnosis of his disease.
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