Need book suggestions

[Corwin]

Hey guys, recently I've been reading too much fiction, and I'm willing to go back to learning more about a whole lot of different stuff, widen my horizons a bit.

I can manage to find good stuff to read thanks to amazon and such, but since some of you guys seem quite interested in space, I figured you may be able to help me out. So I'm looking for a great book, or maybe short series of books, about Space (you know, what the fuck is it, what are shit like stars made of and how things evolve etc. etc.) Something not too technical, I don't need physics formulas or whole lot of contradicting unproven theories, but something not too casual either, more than is usually summarized in TV documentaries.

Thanks!

[Minos]

Not quite what you are looking for but I've been meaning to purchase this book for ages: http://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-Ast ... 691&sr=8-5

[Corwin]

Not quite what you are looking for but I've been meaning to purchase this book for ages: http://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-Ast ... 691&sr=8-5

Sounds pretty good actually. I'm curious now. Added to the list

[Duff-e]

Carl Sagan wrote a bunch of non-technical books about space.

http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan ... pd_sim_b_3

Cosmos has 13 heavily illustrated chapters, corresponding to the 13 episodes of the Cosmos television series.[2] In the book, Sagan explores 15 billion years of cosmic evolution and the development of science and civilization.[3] Cosmos traces the origins of knowledge and the scientific method, mixing science and philosophy, and speculates to the future of science.[4] Cornell News Service characterized the book as "an overview of how science and civilization grew up together."[5]

I never read Cosmos but I did watch the 7 dvd series. It was a little too hokey for me but it's loved by thousands of people and gets generally good reviews.

I read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything a few years ago and thought it was good. Bryson takes a bunch of technical information and presents it in a narrative non-technical style.

From primordial nothingness to this very moment, A Short History of Nearly Everything reports what happened and how humans figured it out. To accomplish this daunting literary task, Bill Bryson uses hundreds of sources, from popular science books to interviews with luminaries in various fields. His aim is to help people like him, who rejected stale school textbooks and dry explanations, to appreciate how we have used science to understand the smallest particles and the unimaginably vast expanses of space

[DaanO]

About space, but not TOO technical, i'd say try Stephen Hawking's books

[Corwin]

Cool, thank you guys, I'll look into those!