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Chemistry Books for the Smart?

Posted by Cliff on from the next-best-thing-to-a-home-chem-kit dept.

enzyme asks: "A couple of weeks back, chrisd asked for recommendations on computer books. This made we wonder: What are the great chemistry books? I want to know what books the chemistry geeks recommend! What are good books on chemistry - textbooks, popular science...whatever! Anything that an intelligent person without a PhD in chemistry can comprehend. What can I read to help me understand chemistry - my old chemistry textbooks don't really do this."

2 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Simulation by leastsquares · · Score: 3, Informative

    Assumming that you are also interested in computers (based on the fact that this is a Slashdot post):

    "Computer Simulation of Liquids" by M. P. Allen, D. J. Tildesley (1997), Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0198553757

    It is a bit tricky to get hold of because it is out of print, but it is the only undergraduate chemistry textbook worth its shelfspace.

    With respect to understanding chemistry, what aspects interest you? Phys Chem, Organic, Bio, Inorganic, Theoretical? Understanding one won't necessarily help you understand the others. I've been studying chemistry for 10 years now, and I've given up trying to understand much of it...

  2. Children's chemistry books by The_Laughing_God · · Score: 3, Informative
    Not for the Geeks themselves (though I guarantee they would be good for many hours fo fun), but for geeks with kids in their lives, here are two books (both out of print, I believe, but available used on eBay)


    I read these books as a 9 year old, did all the experiements, and to this day, I still find myself reciting basic principles from them to my colleagues in hospitals, molecular biology labs and other technical settings [a college degree in a related science doesn't fill in all the gaps of a practical understanding of the day-to-day world. An early exposure grounds you in the basics, and gets you seeing/thinking about things in chemical terms]


    The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments (Robert Brent, 1960) (not any of the many variant titles) is head and shoulders above any other chemistry book I'd give a bright grade schooler. I hunted down a copy for my own kids, and they loved it.


    Chemical Magic (forgot the authors) is one of the best of the many "cool effects to impress your friends" books out there.


    Add a good grounding in stoichiometry, energies, entropy, electronegativity, and a few other basic
    things, and there's no telling how far it'll take them. I got thrown out of Chemistry in the first month of class (incompetent teacher wanted "her' answers on tests, not the correct ones) and took the Chemistry ACHs with no formal chemistry coursework. I got a 770 out of 800 (top 1%, beating all the advanced chem seniors at our school) and ended up placing out of a year of college chem, simply on the basis of having my eyes opened early. I ended up getting doctorates in Molecular Bio (which is largely chemistry) and Medicine, so those books must not have led me too far astray.