I start with gravity. It's simple. Some physicists start with Relativity. But for me, Relativity is counterintuitive. A ton of math is required.

So I recommend Gravitation, by Professor Steven Weinberg of The University of Texas. Starting with gravity and proceeding to Relativity makes sense.

Recommendations

Read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Hilarious!

Feynman's Lectures on Physics is excellent. I recommend it to other physics students.

QUESTION ANSWERED - New e-book on Amazon Kindle

Life elsewhere in the Solar System? Microscopic life? Larger aquatic life forms in the newly-discovered oceans?

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MORE WORK FOR ASTRONOMERS

As I see it, much of astronomy needs revision. Astronomers should recalculate and account for gravity waves. Gravity waves are implied by Einstein's Theory of Relativity.


Einstein didn't develop the idea of black holes. He knew Schwarzschild's Singularity Theorem. But in physics, Black Hole Theory and observations came along later. Hawking developed much of this theory.

(Cambridge don Michel reasoned that dark stars would implode. But Michel never developed the mathematics.)

Of course, now we know that black holes exist. They've been observed. We know they create gravity waves. Waves in a pool of water affect light rays, and gravity waves affect light rays from distant sources. Therefore, it would be useful to figure out how much of our astronomical observations are affected by gravity waves.