Textbooks for "rethinking" the school curriculum?

Dmitry Logvinenko2012-05-09 21:20:26

Books

Dmitry Logvinenko, 2012-05-09 21:20:26

I did well at school. But at the same time, I don’t remember almost anything now, but I would like to. What would you recommend to read on physics, chemistry, history, Russian language and culture of speech, etc?
I would like to read a lot from zero to university beginnings. Still, at an older age, the perception is different (as with classical literature - you need to “grow up” to many things). Well, we do not choose the school program.
For example, a course in physics. School - textbook comrade. Gromov - 200 pages at the most, everything is so brief that nothing is clear. College - A. A. Pinsky (would kill) - 800 pages, but everything is so "abstruse" (like "a continuous function is the one whose graph is drawn without lifting the pencil from the paper") that nothing is clear.
There was a mess with history in general - at school she was absolutely uninteresting, and in college a maniac teacher (in a good way) used several textbooks that contradicted each other, and only she knew where, in fact, the truth.
I know this is a bit of a weird question, but still...

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11 answer(s)

denver, 2012-05-09
@denver

You and I are of the same blood :) I was also bored then, but it became interesting now.
In the sciences and history of discovery, the super-good " A Brief History of Nearly Everything " by Bill Bryson. Digest from antiquity to the present, geography, geology, astronomy, biology, chemistry. I enjoyed it immensely. Good as a starting point.
In chemistry, I also read with interest " A Brief History of Chemistry " by Isaac Asimov (the same one). Also great promotion.

Aquahawk, 2012-05-09
@Aquahawk

Watch videos with Feynman, read his books. You can try the Feynman lectures on physics, but I'm still not going to read it.

Anton Karmazin, 2012-05-09
@kriptomen

A Guide to Science is a great book by Isaac Asimov. I really liked it. Oh, I wish I had read it earlier...

mr_idiot, 2012-05-10
@mr_idiot

www.khanacademy.org - excellent video tutorials in all areas of science. But - if more or less with English.

javax, 2012-05-09
@javax

Familiar. Began to be interested in history after the army.
Just don't wait for the "truth" in history. This is not physics for you, in which a theory can be tested by experiment.
Start with Wikipedia on topics that interest you and then follow the links. Just look at the English Wikipedia too - English and Russian often complement each other
. I remember in the 90s we taught general physics according to Sivukhin, and non-physics (but serious guys like mathematicians) according to Savelyev. Try them

ixSci, 2012-05-10
@ixSci

We, in the CIS, are really strange people. When you need to study, we don’t study, but then we start :)
I have a situation similar to you, for myself, I decided to “start” the story with the History of the Russian State, Karamzin. The books by Valentin Pikul are also very good, that's all. Of course, they cannot be taken as the ultimate truth, but, on the other hand, what kind of books can be? In addition, novels are much easier and more interesting to read.
Regarding physics, I chose 2 books for myself, but have not yet decided which one I will read: one and two. Both books are in English. I chose the English versions for 2 reasons: 1) each of them contains a complete course 2) From my own experience, Russian-language books are difficult for self-study, and English ones are often chewed so that the child will figure it out. At least that's how I study discrete mathematics. And the English textbook is a great help.
In Russian, I would advise you to find everything that you can find Rosenthal.
Good luck with self-education!

Mikhail Tsarev, 2012-05-10
@aitras

In college, a maniac teacher (in a good way) used several textbooks that contradicted each other, and only she knew where, in fact, the truth.

And the truth, by the way, she may not know.

sergeypid, 2012-05-11
@sergeypid

Roger Penrose "The New Mind of a King" - Mathematics, Physics and Bonus Track: The Quantum Theory of Mind.
Richard Dawkins "The Blind Watchmaker" - biology in the broadest sense (evolution and natural selection).
David Deutsch "The Structure of Reality" (Fabric of Reality) - quantum physics and, as it were, a theory of everything.

myrslok, 2013-12-08
@myrslok

but everything is so "abstruse" (like "a continuous function is one whose graph is drawn without lifting the pencil from the paper") that nothing is clear.

This is just the least abstruse (to the point of being incorrect) way to define a continuous function.
Specific recommendations: Landau, Kitaygorodsky "Physics for All" (4 small books). How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life by Louis A Bloomfield. Well, the Feynman course, of course.
According to the analysis, I will advise you the book by Zeldovich and Yaglom .

kimor, 2013-11-13
@kimor

A wonderful popular book on the history of Russia (so far, however, only the first part has been written, but the rest will appear in modern times):

Boris Akunin "History of the Russian State. From the origins to the Mongol invasion"

dvasya, 2017-04-21
@dvasya

I can recommend good textbooks "Physics: get to the bottom!" by Deltsov. For self-education, the best that could be found.