Being a biologist by profession, I find that the non-technical/textbook books tend to be very helpful and a nice change of pace for me. Some books that I recommend are (sorry for no authors, but I'm doing this off the top of my head):
A Tour of the Calculus: A nice history of calculus and *why* it is so useful.
Relativity: an intro into his theory in simple terms. Also see, a brief history of time by Hawking.
The Beak of the Finch: Pultizer prize book and a fascinating read about the study of the evolutiuonarry relationships in Darwin's finches in the Galapogos Islands.
Fermats Enigma: nice story of one of the most famous math problems ever.
These books might not make you more proficient in actually doing any problems, but they are good insights into why and how math/science thinking is done.
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Being a biologist by profession, I find that the non-technical/textbook books tend to be very helpful and a nice change of pace for me. Some books that I recommend are (sorry for no authors, but I'm doing this off the top of my head): A Tour of the Calculus: A nice history of calculus and *why* it is so useful. Relativity: an intro into his theory in simple terms. Also see, a brief history of time by Hawking. The Beak of the Finch: Pultizer prize book and a fascinating read about the study of the evolutiuonarry relationships in Darwin's finches in the Galapogos Islands. Fermats Enigma: nice story of one of the most famous math problems ever. These books might not make you more proficient in actually doing any problems, but they are good insights into why and how math/science thinking is done.