Wormholes, paradoxes, twins oh my!..... uh twins?

A Brief History of Time – Stephan Hawking

Black Holes, Time Travel, wormholes – Relativity, what could be more fun than that!

Seriously though, this is the most readable astrophysics book you’re likely to ever run across..... . for what that's worth! [some argument could be made that Carl Sagan's Cosmos is sort of an astrophysics book for laymen, but it doesn't actually explain the principles in depth - and come on, aliens??? And then there is the story of T & I almost running him down at Cornell in the early 90's..... but that's another story - possibly apocryphal]

If you are into the whole sci-fi book craze (and who isn't?) you may also enjoy this book as an erudite background to your somewhat demented view of this sick-sad world (ah Daria how I miss thee). Of course, I wouldn’t try to read this without first hitting yourself on the head with a 2x4 - - the headache will warm you up for what you’ll experience while trying to understand the very complex topics Mr. Hawking gets into. I first read this in high-school.... yeah I was a chick magnet....

For those who aren’t aware of Mr. Hawking’s severe medical condition please note that this book comes from a man so severally impaired by ALS (Lou Geherig’s Disease) that he is unable to talk, walk or type without colossal amounts of effort and voice synthesizing via a very powerful computer. The time and effort it must have taken to write this book is colossal – but you will get the impression that this is mere child’s play to the author.

Educational Gratification: A+
Fun Story Factor: C-

Other subject oriented works of similar depth:
The History of Pi - Petr Beckman (this is quite good actually)