[Physics FAQ] - [Copyright]

Various small updates over the years.

Updated 1994–1997 by SIC, PEG.
Original by Vijay Fafat.

A Physics Book List: Recommendations from the Net

This article is a compilation of books recommended by sci.physics participants
as the "standard" or "classic" texts on a wide variety of topics of general
interest to physicists and physics students.  As a guide to finding the right
book for you, many of the comments from the contributors have been
retained.

All entries here are incomplete, and many good books are not yet listed. 
Please feel free to contribute to this project by contacting ushere.  When you
submit a book, please try to keep your note short like the entries already on
this page, so that I can easily copy/paste them in.

Details such as publisher, date, and ISBN numbers below are far and few
between.  This is partly because we are too lazy to type them in, but also
because these things can change with new editions and different countries
(slightly better excuse).  If you want to know more, do a search at one of the
internet book shops; a comparison of several sites can be had
at booksprice.com.

If you are looking for a book that is out of print, try:

 http://www.abebooks.com

Subject Index

 General Physics
 Classical Mechanics
 Classical Electromagnetism
 Quantum Mechanics
 Statistical Mechanics and Entropy
 Condensed Matter
  Special Relativity
 Particle Physics
 General Relativity
 Mathematical Methods
 Nuclear Physics
 Cosmology
 Astronomy
 Plasma Physics
 Numerical Methods/Simulations
 Fluid Dynamics
 Nonlinear Dynamics, Complexity and Chaos
 Optics (Classical and Quantum), Lasers
 Mathematical Physics
 Atomic Physics
 Low Temperature Physics, Superconductivity

General Physics (so even mathematicians can understand it!)

1. M.S. Longair: Theoretical concepts in physics, 1986.

An alternative view of theoretical reasoning in physics for final-year
undergrads.
2. Arnold Sommerfeld: Lectures on Theoretical Physics
Sommerfeld is God for mathematical physics.
3. Richard Feynman: The Feynman lectures on Physics (3 vols)
Highly recommended texts compiled from the undergraduate lecture
course given by Feynman.
4. Jearle Walker: The Flying Circus of Physics
5. There is the entire Landau and Lifshitz series.  They have volumes on
classical mechanics, classical field theory, E&M, QM, QFT, statistical
physics, and more.  Very good series that spans the entire graduate-
level curriculum.
6. The New Physics edited by Paul Davies.
This is one big book, and it takes time to look through topics as diverse
as general relativity, astrophysics, particle theory, quantum mechanics,
chaos and nonlinearity, low-temperature physics, and phase
transitions.  Nevertheless, this is an excellent book of recent (1989)
physics articles, written by several physicists/astrophysicists.
7. Richard Feynman: The Character of Physical Law
In his unique no-nonsense style, Feynman lectures about what physics
is all about.  Down-to-earth examples keep him from straying into the
kind of metaphysics of which he is often critical.
8. David Mermin: Boojums all the way through: Communicating science in
prosaic language
9. Frank Wilczek and Betsy Devine: Longing for the Harmonies: Themes
and variations from modern physics
10. Greg Egan: Permutation City
This is a science fiction novel which has more to say about the
philosophy of physics than do most philosophers and physicists.
11. Paul Nahin: Mrs Perkins's Electric Quilt
(British speakers will want to correct that to "Mrs Perkins' Electric
Quilt".)  This book is only included here as an example of a book that
probably has less appeal to physicists than it tries to make out.  Nahin
has written several books on general physics for the non-specialist.  I
wonder if this book is typical.  He tends to make mountains out of
molehills when explaining the mathematics, and he isn't always correct
(see, e.g., his incorrect analysis of the game of tic-tac-toe at the end of
Chapter 13).  This particular book is a series of rather dry and finicky
worked problems that Nahin finds interesting, but which probably won't
stimulate your appetite to learn more physics or maths.  One of the few
interesting problems in this book is a kinematical calculation in the first
chapter that produces a contradiction when it applies a particular
acceleration to a particle; and yet Nahin doesn't give a proper
explanation for why the relevant calculation fails.  (The reason it fails is
that the acceleration of "velocity cubed" can only describe a distance-
versus-time curve that is drawn such that its slope becomes infinite at
some finite time, and so it must be invalid to demand that this
acceleration applies for all times, as Nahin does.)  And yet, after
showing that this physical situation is indeed nonsense, Nahin would
have us believe, in his preface, that he has proved a mathematical
theorem using physics, by solving a very similar problem without asking
whether that scenario is also nonsense!  (In fact, contrary to Nahin's
claim, the problem he solves in the preface contains no physics, even
though it is dressed up as a physics problem.  It is simply a differential
equation.)  Nahin's comments on the zeta function are also incorrect: he
thinks that just because two or three values of the function appear in
physics, that "the zeta function often appears in physical problems". 
Rather, the zeta function never occurs in physics: Nahin doesn't
appreciate the difference between a function and its isolated values. 
 Nahin's reasoning is like saying that parabolas occur in calendars,
because the numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, and 25 appear as dates in a month.  It
is perhaps representative of his general approach in the book, in which
he gives a higher credence to many ideas and worked examples than
physicists and mathematicians would.
12. Don't read: The Physicist's World, by Thomas Grissom.  We
include this book as an example of a book that contains a good deal of
incorrect physics.  Grissom is a philosopher who managed to publish a
book about physics without knowing much physics, and it's a shame
that he has taught the content of this book for some (many?) years to
philosophy students, who must've gone out into the big world thinking
that physicists must be incredibly dumb if they really believe the na�ve
concepts that Grissom thinks physics is all about.  This book gets all the
big tenets of the subject wrong: Grissom thinks that special relativity is
all about what is seen with the eye, a mistake that only first-year
students are expected to make; he thinks that the Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle concerns the limits of measurement of quantities
that are otherwise perfectly well defined; he thinks that the Second Law
of Thermodynamics is an actual law that must be obeyed.  And
apparently he thinks that physicists spend a great deal of their time
pondering the philosophy of the Ancient Greeks.  All completely wrong.

Classical Mechanics

1. Herbert Goldstein: Classical Mechanics, 2nd ed, 1980.

Intermediate to advanced; excellent bibliography.
2. Introductory: The Feynman Lectures, vol 1.
3. Keith Symon: Mechanics, 3rd ed., 1971 undergrad. level.
4. H. Corbin and P. Stehle: Classical Mechanics, 2nd ed., 1960
5. V.I. Arnold: Mathematical methods of classical mechanics, translated by
K. Vogtmann and A. Weinstein, 2nd ed., 1989.
The appendices are somewhat more advanced and cover all sorts of
nifty topics.  Deals with geometrical aspects of classical mechanics.
6. R. Resnick and D. Halliday: Physics, vol 1, 4th Ed., 1993
Excellent introduction without much calculus.  Lots of problems and
review questions.
7. Marion & Thornton: Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, 2nd
ed., 1970.
 Undergrad level.  A useful intro to classical dynamics.  Not as advanced
as Goldstein, but with real worked-out examples.
8. A. Fetter and J. Walecka: Theoretical mechanics of particles and
continua
Graduate-level text, a little less impressive than Goldstein, but
sometimes a little less obtuse.
9. Kiran Gupta: Classical Mechanics of Particles and Rigid Bodies (1988)
At the level of Goldstein, but has many more worked problems at the
end of each chapter as a good illustration of the material.  Very useful
for preparations for the PhD Qualifying Examination (I presume this is
America only — ed.).

Classical Electromagnetism

1. Jackson: Classical Electrodynamics, 2nd ed., 1975

Intermediate to advanced, the definitive
graduate(US)/undergraduate(UK) text.
2. Purcell: Berkeley Physics Series Vol 2.
You can't beat this for the intelligent, reasonably sophisticated beginning
physics student.  He tells you on the very first page about the
experimental proof of how charge does not vary with speed.
plus... Chen, Min, Berkeley Physics problems with solutions.
3. Reitz, Milford and Christy: Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory 4th
ed., 1992
Undergraduate level.  Pretty difficult to learn from at first, but a good
reference, for some calculations involving stacks of thin films and their
reflectance and transmission properties, for example.  It's a good,
rigorous text as far as it goes, which is pretty far, but not all the way. 
For example, it has a great section on optical properties of a single thin
film between two dielectric semi-infinite media, but no generalization to
stacks of films.
4. Feynman: The Feynman Lectures, Vol. 2
5. Lorrain & Corson: Electromagnetism, Principles and Applications, 1979
6. Resnick and Halliday: Physics, vol 2, 4th ed., 1993
7. Igor Irodov: Problems in Physics Excellent and extensive collection of
EM problems for undergrads.
8. William Smythe: Static and Dynamic Electricity, 3rd ed., 1968
For the extreme masochists.  Some of the most hair-raising EM
problems you'll ever see.  Definitely not for the weak-of-heart.
 9. Landau, Lifshitz, and Pitaevskii: Electrodynamics of Continuous
Media, 2nd ed., 1984
Same level as Jackson's book above, but with lots of material that is not
in Jackson.
10. Marion and Heald: Classical Electromagnetic Radiation, 2nd ed.,
1980.
Undergraduate or low-level graduate.

Quantum Mechanics

1. QED: The strange theory of light and matter Richard Feynman.

One need no longer be confused by this beautiful theory.  Richard
Feynman gives an exposition that is once again and by itself a beautiful
explanation of the theory of photon-matter interactions.  Taken from a
popular, non-technical lecture.
2. Cohen-Tannoudji: Quantum Mechanics I & II&, 1977.
Introductory to intermediate.
3. Liboff: Introductory Quantum Mechanics, 2nd ed., 1992
Elementary level.  Makes a few mistakes.
4. Sakurai: Advanced Quantum Mechanics 1967
Good as an introduction to the very basic beginnings of quantum field
theory, except that it has the unfortunate feature of using "imaginary
time" to make Minkowski space look euclidean.
5. Sakurai: Modern Quantum Mechanics, 1985
6. J. Wheeler and W. Zurek (eds.): Quantum Theory and Measurement,
1983
On the philosophical end.  People who want to know about
interpretations of quantum mechanics should definitely look at this
collection of relevant articles.
7. C. DeWitt and N. Graham: The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum
Mechanics
Philosophical.  Collection of articles.
8. H. Everett: Theory of the Universal Wavefunction
An exposition which has some gems on thermodynamics and
probability.  Worth reading for this alone.
9. Bjorken and Drell: Relativistic Quantum Mechanics/ Relativistic
Quantum Fields
(for comments, see under Particle Physics)
10. Ryder: Quantum Field Theory, 1984
11. Guidry: Gauge Field Theories: an introduction with
applications 1991
12. Messiah: Quantum Mechanics, 1961
13. Dirac: 
(a) Principles of QM, 4th ed., 1958
(b) Lectures in QM, 1964
(c) Lectures on Quantum Field Theory, 1966
14. Itzykson and Zuber: Quantum Field Theory, 1980
Advanced level.
15. Slater: Quantum theory: Address, essays, lectures.
Good follow on to Schiff.
Note: Schiff, Bjorken and Drell, Fetter and Walecka, and Slater are all
volumes in "International Series in pure and Applied Physics" published
by McGraw-Hill.
16. Pierre Ramond: Field Theory: A Modern Primer, 2nd edition.
Volume 74 in the FiP series.
The so-called "revised printing" is a must, as they must've rushed the
first printing of the 2nd edition because it's full of inexcusable mistakes.
17. Feynman: The Feynman Lectures, Vol. 3
A non-traditional approach.  A good place to get an intuitive feel for QM,
if one already knows the traditional approach.
18. Heitler & London: Quantum theory of molecules
19. J. Bell: Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics,
1987
An excellent collection of essays on the philosophical aspects of QM.
20. Milonni: The quantum vacuum: an introduction to quantum
electrodynamics 1994.
21. Holland: The Quantum Theory of Motion
A good bet for a strong foundation in QM.
22. John von Neumann: Mathematical foundations of quantum
mechanics, 1955. 
For the more mathematical side of quantum theory, especially for those
who are going to be arguing about measurement theory.
23. Schiff: Quantum Mechanics, 3rd ed., 1968
A little old.  Not much emphasis on airy-fairy things like many worlds or
excessive angst over Heisenberg UP.  Straight up QM for people who
want to do calculations.  Introductory graduate level.  Mostly
Schrodinger eqn.  Spin included, but only in an adjunct to Schrodinger. 
Not much emphasis on things like Dirac eqn, etc.
24. Eisberg and Resnick: Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules,
Solids, Nuclei, and Particles, 2nd ed., 1985. 
 This is a basic intro. to QM, and it is excellent for undergrads.  It is not
thorough with the mathematics, but fills in a lot of the intuitive stuff that
most textbooks do not present.
25. David Saxon: Elementary Quantum Mechanics
A decent undergraduate (senior level) text.
26. Bethe and Jackiw: Intermediate Quantum Mechanics
27. P.W.Atkins: Quanta: A Handbook of concepts
Short entries, arranged alphabetically, emphasis on stuff relevant to
quantum chemistry.  Concentrates on the intuition and not the
mathematics.
28. James Peebles: Quantum Mechanics (1993)
Intermediate level, based on lectures given by the author at Princeton. 
Very lucid exposition of the standard material with outstanding selection
of mostly original problems at the end of each chapter.

Statistical Mechanics and Entropy

1. David Chandler: Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics, 1987

Chandler's book is short, but although its discussions are dressed up as
being about physics, you will gain little knowledge of statistical
mechanics by reading it.
2. R. Tolman: Prinicples of Statistical Mechanics. Dover
3. Kittel & Kroemer: Statistical Thermodynamics
Not a bad book—but, that said, it has little competition, since good
books on statistical mechanics are hard to find.
4. Keith Stowe: An introduction to Thermodynamics and Statistical
Mechanics, 2nd ed., 2007
Stowe has written an excellent book that has plenty of physics and
some very good explanations.  This is worthwhile to buy as your entry
into the subject.  His mathematics is sometimes a little short of what you
might like to see: for example, he has left a very important calculation to
Appendix C, but turns it into something overly complicated there. 
Stowe's non-postulatory approach to the subject is far more modern and
physically valid and meaningful than Callen's outdated experiment of
simply postulating everything (see below).
5. F. Reif: Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics.
Reif's book is well known.  You can find much interesting and useful
discussion in it, but its mathematics is generally a forest of obscure
notation and unnecessary formalism, heavily cluttered by primes and
 overbars that add nothing.  Its topics are not presented in a particularly
pedagogical or clear way.  Although it's a good book to refer to (once
you manage to find what you are looking for), it is not for anyone
wanting to learn the subject.  It is a very difficult read, even for
advanced physicists, on account of its cluttered notation and long
discussions that don't always deliver what they promise.
6. Felix Bloch: Fundamentals of Statistical Mechanics.
7. Radu Balescu: Statistical Physics
Graduate Level.  Good description of non-equilibrium stat. mech., but
difficult to read.  It is all there, but often you don't realize it until after you
have learned it somewhere else.  Nice development in early chapters
about parallels between classical and quantum statistical mechanics.
8. Abrikosov, Gorkov, and Dyzaloshinski: Methods of Quantum Field
Theory in Statistical Physics
9. Huw Price: Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point
Semi-popular book on the direction of time, by a philosopher.  It has
been controversial because of its criticism of physicists such as
Hawking, for their "double standards" in dealing with the old problem on
the origin of the arrow of time.  It is thought provoking and clearly
written.
10. H. Callen: Thermodynamics and an Introduction to
Thermostatistics, 2nd ed., 1985.
In the preface to this second edition, Callen described his 25-year-old
postulatory approach to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics as
"now widely accepted".  In fact, by the time of his second edition, his
approach was completely outdated, because it springs from nineteenth-
century ideas of thermodynamics in which concepts such as entropy
were not understood.  This means that Callen simply postulated the
core quantities such as entropy and temperature with essentially no
context, and without providing any physical insight or analysis.  It might
all look streamlined, but his approach will give you no insight into the
difficult and interesting questions of the subject.  Callen described his
approach as rendering the subject transparent and simple; but his
approach comes across as obscure.  For example, in the early part of
the book, he insists on repeatedly writing "1/T1 = 1/T2" for two
temperatures that are ascertained to be equal, when anyone else would
write "T1 = T2".  And, for what he does write, the devil is often in the
details that he tends to leave out.  Even at the start, when Callen
introduces the concept of work, he fails to say whether he is talking
about the work done on the system, or by the system, leaving the
reader to work that out for himself from some irrelevant comments about
 the mechanical work term −P dV.  Callen's incorrect renditions of the
Taylor expansion in an appendix seem to suggest, rather oddly, that he
didn't understand the difference between "dx" and "Δx".  His book
includes a 20-page postscript in which he makes claims about the role
of symmetry in thermodynamics; but, as far as I can tell, this section
says nothing useful at all.  I suspect that the reason this book is as
frequently cited as it is said to be lies in its being used as the basis for a
course by many lecturers who never learned the subject themselves,
and hence don't realise that the book's approach is outdated.  If you
really want to learn the subject, use the modern statistical approach, in
which entropy is defined to relate to numbers of configurations.  As far
as readability goes, Callen's writing tends to omit commas; but this can
make his sentences tedious to read, since the reader ends up having to
make two or three passes to decode what some sentences are saying. 
(If you use few commas yourself, study a typical sentence in Callen's
book: "the intermediate states of the gas are nonequilibrium states for
which the enthalpy is not defined".  Callen is not singling out a special
set of non-equilibrium states here; instead, enthalpy is not defined
for any non-equilibrium state.  He should have included a single comma,
by writing "the intermediate states of the gas are non-equilibrium states,
for which the enthalpy is not defined".) 
11. R. Pathria: Statistical Mechanics.
12. D. Forster: Hydrodynamic Fluctuations, Broken Symmetry, and
Correlation Functions.
13. H. Stanley: Introduction to Phase Transitions and Critical
Phenomena.
14. S.K. Ma: Modern Theory of Critical Phenomena.
15. N. Goldenfeld: Lectures on Phase Transitions and the
Renormalization Group.
16. J. Sethna: Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters, and
Complexity.
Apparently Sethna's book is meant to be teaching statistical mechanics;
but this is not an introductory book, and it provides no real insight into
statistical mechanics and entropy.  (I don't know about its sections on
order parameters and complexity.)  It is mostly a collection of exercises
for the reader, aided by the author's comments.  Don't believe
everything you read in it; for example, in his exercise 5.7, Sethna
misinterprets the meaning of entropy to say, incorrectly, that the entropy
of an isolated system remains constant in time.  He incorrectly
describes our universe as photon dominated on page 160, when in fact
it is matter dominated.  These and other instances give one the
 impression that Sethna is not always working in his comfort zone.  His
many exercises might have some content, but they can be tedious to
read, since new paragraphs are not indented in them.

Condensed Matter

1. Charles Kittel: Introduction to Solid State Physics (ISSP),

introductory
2. Ashcroft and Mermin: Solid State Physics,
intermediate to advanced
3. Charles Kittel: Quantum Theory of Solids.
This is from before the days of his ISSP; it is a more advanced book.  At
a similar level. . .
4. Solid State Theory, by W. A. Harrison 
(a great bargain now that it's published by Dover)
5. Theory of Solids, by Ziman.
6. Fundamentals of the Theory of Metals, by Abrikosov
Half of the book is on superconductivity.
7. Many-Particle Physics, G. Mahan.
Advanced.

Special Relativity

1. Taylor and Wheeler: Spacetime Physics Still the best introduction out

there.
2. Relativity: Einstein's popular exposition.
3. Wolfgang Rindler: Essential Relativity.  Springer 1977
With a heavy bias towards astrophysics and therefore on a more
moderate level formally.  Quite strong on intuition.
4. A.P. French: Special Relativity
A thorough introductory text.  Good discussion of the twin paradox, pole
and the barn etc.  Plenty of diagrams illustrating Lorentz-transformed
coordinates, giving both an algebraic and geometrical insight to SR. 
(Seems to be out of print)
5. Abraham Pais: Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert
Einstein
The best technical biography of the life and work of Albert Einstein.
 6. Special Relativity and its Experimental Foundations Yuan Zhong Zhang
Special relativity is so well established that its experimental foundation
is often ignored.  This book fills the gap and will be of relevance to many
discussions in sci.physics.relativity

Particle Physics

1. Kerson Huang: Quarks, leptons & gauge fields, World Scientific, 1982.

Good on mathematical aspects of gauge theory and topology.
2. L. B. Okun: Leptons and quarks, translated from Russian by V. I. Kisin,
North-Holland, 1982.
3. T. D. Lee: Particle physics and introduction to field theory.
4. Itzykson: Particle Physics
5. Bjorken & Drell: Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
One of the more terse books.  The first volume on relativistic quantum
mechanics covers the subject in a blinding 300 pages.  Very good if
you really want to know the subject.
6. Francis Halzen & Alan D. Martin: Quarks & Leptons,
Beginner to intermediate, this is a standard textbook for graduate level
courses.  Good knowledge of quantum mechanics and special relativity
is assumed.  A very good introduction to the concepts of particle
physics.  Good examples, but not a lot of Feynman diagram calculation. 
For this, see Bjorken & Drell.
7. Donald H. Perkins: Introduction to high energy physics
Regarded by many people in the field as the best introductory text at the
undergraduate level.  Covers basically everything with almost no
mathematics.
8. Close, Marten, and Sutton: The Particle Explosion 
A popular exposition of the history of particle physics with terrific
photography.
9. Christine Sutton: Spaceship Neutrino
A good, historical, largely intuitive introduction to particle physics, seen
from the neutrino viewpoint.
10. Mandl, Shaw: Quantum Field Theory
Introductory textbook, concise and practically orientated.  Used at many
graduate departments as a textbook for the first course in QFT and a
bare minimum for experimentalists in high energy physics.  Chapters on
Feynman diagrams and cross-section calculations particularly well
written and useful.
11. F.Gross: Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Field Theory
I am familiar with first part only (rel. QM) which I warmly recommend in
conjunction with Mandl, since Klein-Gordon and Dirac Equation are
explained in greater detail than in Mandl.  One of my professors likes a
lot the rest of the book too, but I haven't spent much time on it and can't
comment.  Published in 1993.
12. S. Weinberg: The Quantum Theory of Fields, Vol I,II, 1995
The usual Weinberg stuff: refreshing, illuminating viewpoints on every
page.  Perhaps most suitable for graduate students who already know
some basics of QFT. 
13. M.B. Green, J.H. Schwarz, E. Witten: Superstring Theory (2 vols)
Although these two volumes do not touch the important new
developments in string theories, they are still the best texts for the
basics.  To keep up with this fast developing subject, it is necessary to
download the papers and reviews as hep-th e-prints.
14. M. Kaku: Strings, Conformal Fields and Topology
Just a little more up-to-date than GSW.
15. Superstrings: A Theory of Everything, ed. P.C.W. Davies
Through transcripts of interviews with Schwarz, Witten, Green, Gross,
Ellis, Salam, Glashow, Feynman, and Weinberg, we learn about string
theory, and how different physicists feel about its prospects as a theory
of everything.  This also predates the new developments that
revolutionised string theory after 1993.
16. A Pais: Inward Bound 
This can be regarded as a companion volume to his biography of
Einstein (see special relativity section).  It covers the history of particle
physics through the twentieth century, but is best for the earlier half.
17. R.P. Crease, C.C. Mann: The Second Creation 1996
Another history of particle physics in the twentieth century.  This one is
especially good on the development of the standard model.  Full of
personal stories taken from numerous interviews, it is difficult to put
down.
18. L. Lederman, D. Teresi: The God Particle: If the Universe Is the
Answer, What Is the Question? 2006
This book describes the search for the Higgs Boson at Fermilab.  It
describes what the Higgs is and gives some background to the subject
of particle physics.  It also gives an account of some more general
physics history.
General Relativity

1. Meisner, Thorne and Wheeler: Gravitation W.H. Freeman & Co., San

Francisco 1973
Usually referred to as "MTW".  It has two tracks for different levels.  A
famous work in the subject whose main strength is probably its various
asides, historical and otherwise.  While it has much interesting reading,
it is not a book to learn relativity from: its approach is all over the place,
and it pushes gawdy notation which no one actually uses to do anything
useful.
2. Robert M. Wald: Space, Time, and Gravity: the Theory of the Big Bang
and Black Holes.
A good non-technical introduction, with a nice mix of mathematical rigor
and comprehensible physics.
3. B. Schutz: A First Course in General Relativity.
A readable and useful book, to a point.  The 1988 edition, at least,
unfortunately has a tangled approach to its Lambda index notation that
is wrong in places.  Schutz goes to great lengths to convince the reader
of the usefulness of one-forms, but is clearly unaware that everything he
does with them can be done far more simply using vectors alone. 
Beware the show-stopping typos in the Riemann components for the
Schwarzschild metric on page 315.  The discussion about Riemann
tensor signs on page 171 is also wrong, and will give you wrong results
if you apply it.  Indeed, that discussion is indicative of a general
na�vet� in the book's early mathematics as a whole.
4. Weinberg: Gravitation and Cosmology 
A good book that takes a somewhat different approach to the subject.
5. Hans Ohanian: Gravitation & Spacetime (recently back in print)
For someone who actually wants to learn to work problems, ideal for
self-teaching, and math is introduced as needed, rather than in a
colossal blast.
6. Robert Wald: General Relativity
A more advanced textbook than Wald's earlier book, appropriate for an
introductory graduate course in GR.  It strikes just the right balance, in
my opinion, between mathematical rigor and physical intuition.  It has
great mathematics appendices for those who care about proving
theorems carefully, and a good introduction to the problems behind
quantum gravity (although not to their solutions).  I think it's MUCH
better than either MTW or Weinberg.
 7. Clifford Will: Was Einstein Right? Putting General Relativity to the Test
Non-technical account of the experimental support for GR, including the
"classic three tests", but going well beyond them.
8. Kip Thorne: Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous
Legacy
An award-winning popular account of black holes and related objects
with many historical anecdotes from the author's personal experiences. 
The book is famous for the final sections about time travel through
wormholes.
9. Ignore Dirac's small book on lectures in GR, unless you like reading
books that have almost no discussion of their mathematical content
(and almost no discussion of anything else, either).  It's a sure bet that
this book was only published because Dirac wrote it.

Mathematical Methods

1. Morse and Feshbach: Methods of Theoretical Physics.  This book used

to be hard to find, but can now be bought atfeshbachpublishing.com.
2. Mathews and Walker: Mathematical Methods of Physics.  An absolute
joy for those who love math, and very informative even for those who
don't.  [This has been severely disputed!--ed]
3. Arfken: Mathematical Methods for Physicists Academic Press
Good introduction at graduate level.  Not comprehensive in any area,
but covers many areas widely.  Arfken is to math methods what
numerical recipes is to numerical methods — good intro, but not the last
word.
4. Zwillinger: Handbook of Differential Equations. Academic Press
Kind of like CRC tables but for ODEs and PDEs.  Good reference book
when you've got a differential equation and want to find a solution.
5. Gradshteyn and Ryzhik: Table of Integrals, Series, and
Products Academic
THE book of integrals.  Huge, but useful when you need an integral.
6. F.W. Byron and R. Fuller: Mathematics of Classical and Quantum
Physics (2 vols) 
is a really terrific text for self-study; it is like a baby version of Morse &
Feshbach.
Nuclear Physics

1. Preston and Bhaduri: Structure of the Nucleus

2. Blatt and Weisskopf: Theoretical Nuclear Physics
3. DeShalit and Feshbach: Theoretical Nuclear Physics
This is serious stuff.  Also quite expensive even in paper.  I think the
hard cover is out of print.  This is volume I (structure).  Volume II
(scattering) is also available.
4. Satchler: Direct Nuclear Reactions
5. Walecka: Theoretical Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics (1995)
Covers advanced topics in theoretical nuclear physics from a modern
perspective and includes results of past 20 years in a field which makes
it unique.  Not an easy material to read but invaluable for people
seeking an updated review of the present status in the field.
6. Krane: Introductory nuclear physics
Introductory-to-intermediate level textbook in basic nuclear physics for
senior undergraduates.  Good, clear and relatively comprehensive
exposition of "standard" material: nuclear models, alfa, beta, gamma
radioactivity, nuclear reactions. . .  Last edition issued in 1988.

Cosmology

1. J. V. Narlikar: Introduction to Cosmology.1983 Jones & Bartlett Publ.

For people with a solid background in physics and higher math, THE
introductory text, IMHO, because it hits the balance between
mathematical accuracy (tensor calculus and stuff) and intuitive
clarity/geometrical models very well for grad student level.  Of course, it
has flaws but only noticeable by the Real Experts (TM). . .
2. Hawking: A Brief History of Time 
The ghost-written book that made Popular Science popular, but an odd
mixture of easy physics and very advanced physics.
3. Weinberg: First Three Minutes
A very good book.  It's pretty old, but most of the information in it is still
correct.
4. Timothy Ferris: Coming of Age in the Milky Way and The Whole
Shebang
More Popular Science, and very readable.
5. Kolb and Turner: The Early Universe.
At a more advanced level, a standard reference.  As the title implies,
K&T cover mostly the strange physics of very early times: it's heavy on
 the particle physics, and skimps on the astrophysics.  There's a primer
on large-scale structure, which is the most active area of cosmological
research, but it's really not all that good.
6. Peebles: Principles of Physical Cosmology. Comprehensive, and on the
whole it's quite a good book, but it's rather poorly organized.  I find
myself jumping back and forth through the book whenever I want to find
anything.
7. Black Holes and Warped Spacetime, by William J. Kaufmann III.
This is a great, fairly thorough, though non-mathematical description of
black holes and spacetime as it relates to cosmology.  I was impressed
by how few mistakes Kaufmann makes in simplifying, while most such
books tend to sacrifice accuracy for simplicity.
8. M.V. Berry: Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation
This is very well written, and useful as an undergrad text.
9. Dennis Overbye: Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos The unfinished history of
converge on Hubble's constant is presented, from the perspective of
competing astrophysics rival teams and institute, along with a lot of
background on cosmology (a lot on inflation, for instance).  A good
insight into the scientific process.
10. Joseph Silk: The Big Bang
I consider Silk's book an absolute must for those who want a quick run
at the current state of big bang cosmology and some of the recent
(1988) issues which have given so many of us lots of problems to
solve.  [of course that's eons out of date now--ed.]
11. Bubbles, voids, and bumps in time: the new cosmology edited by
James Cornell.
This is quite a nice and relatively short read for some of the pressing
issues (as of 1987-88) in astrophysical cosmology.
12. T. Padmanabhan: Structure formation in the universe
A no-nonsense book for those who want to calculate some problems
strictly related to the formation of structure in the universe.  The book
even comes complete with problems at the end of each chapter.  A bad
thing about this book is that there isn't any coverage on clusters of
galaxies and the one really big thing that annoys the hell outta me is
that the bibliography for each chapter is all combined in one big
bibliography towards the end of the book which makes for lots of page
flipping.
13. P.J.E. Peebles: The large-scale structure of the universe
This is a definitive book for anyone who desires an understanding of the
mathematics required to develop the theory for models of large scale
structure.  The essential techniques in the description of how mass is
 able to cluster under gravity from a smooth early universe are
discussed.  While I find it dry in some places, there are noteworthy
sections (e.g. statistical tests, n-point correlation functions, etc.).
14. Andrzej Krasinski: Inhomogeneous Cosmological Models
If you are blinded by the dogma of the cosmological principle, this book
is a real eye opener.  A technical, historical and bibliographical survey of
possible inhomogeous universes from solutions of general relativity.
15. Alan Lightman and Roberta Brawer: Origins: The lives and worlds
of modern cosmologists, 1990
Transcripts of interview with 27 of the most influential cosmologists from
the past few decades.  This book provides a unique record of how their
cosmological theories have been formed.

Astronomy

1. Hannu Karttunen et al. (eds.): Fundamental Astronomy.

The very good book covering all of astronomy (also for absolute
beginners) AND still going into a lot of detail for special work for people
more involved AND presenting excellent graphics and pictures.
2. Pasachoff: Contemporary Astronomy
Good introductory textbook for the nontechnical reader.  It gives a pretty
good overview of the important topics, and it has good pictures.
3. Frank Shu: The physical universe: an introduction to astronomy
This is a really grand book, which covers a huge sweep of physics in its
600-odd pages.  Not only does it describe the field of astronomy in great
detail, but it also covers in detail the laws of classical and quantum
mechanics, atrophysics and stellar evolution, cosmology, special and
general relativity; and last but not least, the biochemical basis of life.  In
fact the last few chapters would make a great addition to
a biochemist's library!
4. Kenneth R. Lang: Astrophysical formulae: a compendium for the
physicist and astrophysicist
Here is everything you wanted to know (and more!) about astrophysical
formulae on a one-line/one-paragraph/one-shot deal.  Of course, the
formulae come complete with references (a tad old, mind you) but it's a
must for everyone who's working in astronomy and astrophysics.  You
learn something new every time you flip through the pages!
Plasma Physics

(See Robert Heeter's sci.physics.fusion FAQ for details)

Numerical Methods/Simulations

1. Johnson and Rees: Numerical Analysis Addison Wesley

Undergraduate level broad intro.
2. Numerical Recipes in X (X = C, Fortran, Pascal, etc.) Tueklosky and
Press
3. Young and Gregory: A survey of Numerical Mathematics Dover 2
volumes.
Excellent overview at grad. level.  Emphasis toward solution of elliptic
PDEs, but good description of methods to get there including linear
algebra, matrix techniques, ODE-solving methods, and interpolation
theory.  Biggest strength is it provides a coherent framework and
structure to attach most commonly used numerical methods.  This helps
understanding about why to use one method or another.  2 volumes.
4. Hockney and Eastwood: Computer Simulation Using Particles Adam
Hilger
Good exposition of particle-in-cell (PIC) method and extensions. 
Applications to plasmas, astronomy, and solid state are discussed. 
Emphasis is on description of algorithms.  Some results shown.
5. Birdsall and Langdon: Plasma Physics via Computer Simulations
PIC simulation applied to plasmas.  Source codes shown.  First part is
almost a tutorial on how to do PIC.  Second part is like a series of
review articles on different PIC methods.
6. Tajima: Computational Plasma Physics: With Applications to Fusion and
Astrophysics Addison Wesley Frontiers in physics Series.
Algorithms described.  Emphasis on physics that can be simulated. 
Applications limited to plasmas, but subject areas very broad, fusion,
cosmology, solar astrophysics, magnetospheric physics, plasma
turbulence, general astrophysics.

Fluid Dynamics

1. D.J. Tritton: Physical Fluid Dynamics

2. G.K. Batchelor: Introduction to Fluid Dynamics
 3. S. Chandrasekhar: Hydrodynamics and Hydromagnetic Stability
4. Segel: Mathematics Applied to Continuum Mechanics Dover.

Nonlinear Dynamics, Complexity, and Chaos

There is a FAQ posted regularly to sci.nonlinear.

1. Prigogine: Exploring Complexity
Or any other Prigogine book.  If you've read one, you read most of of
them (A Poincar� recurrence maybe?).
2. Guckenheimer and Holmes: Nonlinear Oscillations, Dynamical
Systems, and Bifurcations of Vector Fields Springer
Borderline phys./math.  Advanced level.  A nuts-and-bolts "how to"
textbook.  They let the topic provide all the razzmatazz, which is plenty if
you pay attention and remember the physics that it applies to.
3. Lichtenberg, A. J. and M. A. Lieberman (1982): Regular and Stochastic
Motion.  New York, Springer-Verlag.
4. Ioos and Joseph: Elementary Stability and Bifurcation Theory.  New
York, Springer.
5. Heinz Pagels: The Dreams Of Reason
He is a very clear and interesting, captivating writer, and presents the
concepts in a very intuitive way.  The level is popular science, but it is
still useful for physicists who know little of complexity.
6. M. Mitchell Waldrop: Complexity
A popular intro to the subject of spontaneous orders, complexity and so
on.  Covers implications for economics, biology etc and not just physics.

Optics (Classical and Quantum), Lasers

1. Max Born and Emil Wolf: Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory

of Propagation
Standard reference.
2. Sommerfeld: 
For the more classically minded.
3. Allen and Eberly: Optical Resonance and Two-Level Atoms.
For quantum optics, the most readable but most limited.
4. Goodman: Introduction to Fourier Optics.
If it isn't in this book, it isn't Fourier optics.
 5. Quantum Optics and Electronics (Les Houches Summer School 1963 or
1964, but someone has claimed that Gordon and Breach, NY, are going
to republish it in 1995), edited by DeWitt, Blandin, and Cohen-
Tannoudji, is noteworthy primarily for Glauber's lectures, that form the
basis of quantum optics as it is known today.
6. Sargent, Scully, & Lamb: Laser Physics
7. Yariv: Quantum Electronics
8. Siegman: Lasers
9. Shen: The Principles of Nonlinear Optics
10. Meystre & Sargent: Elements of Quantum Optics
11. Cohen-Tannoudji, Dupont-Roc, & Grynberg: Photons, Atoms and
Atom-Photon Interactions.
12. Hecht: Optics 
A very good introductory optics book.
13. Practical Holography by Graham Saxby, Prentice Hall: New York;
1988.
This is a very clear and detailed book that is an excellent introduction to
holography for interested undergraduate physics people, as well as
advanced readers, especially those who are interested in the practical
details of making holograms and the theory behind them.

Mathematical Physics

Lie Algebra, Topology, Knot Theory, Tensors, etc.

These are books that are sort of talky and fun to read (but still substantial--
some harder than others).  These include things mathematicians can read
about physics as well as vice versa.  These books are different than the
"bibles" one must have on hand at all times to do mathematical physics.

1. Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, Cecile DeWitt-Morette, and Margaret Dillard-

Bleick: Analysis, manifolds, and physics (2 volumes)
Something every mathematical physicist should have at his bedside
until he knows it inside and out--but some people say it's not especially
easy to read.
2. Jean Dieudonne: A panorama of pure mathematics, as seen by N.
Bourbaki, translated by I.G. Macdonald.
Gives the big picture in mathematics.
3. Robert Hermann: Lie groups for physicists, Benjamin-Cummings, 1966.
 4. George Mackey: Quantum mechanics from the point of view of the
theory of group representations, Mathematical Sciences Research
Institute, 1984.
5. George Mackey: Unitary group representations in physics, probability,
and number theory.
6. Charles Nash and S. Sen: Topology and geometry for physicists.
7. B. Booss and D.D. Bleecker: Topology and analysis: the Atiyah-Singer
index formula and gauge-theoretic physics.
8. Bamberg and S. Sternberg: A Course of Mathematics for Students of
Physics
9. Bishop & Goldberg: Tensor Analysis on Manifolds.
10. Dodson & Poston: Tensor Geometry.
11. Abraham, Marsden & Ratiu: Manifolds, Tensor Analysis and
Applications.
12. M. Nakahara: Topology, Geometry and Physics.
13. Morandi: The Role of Topology in Classical and Quantum Physics
14. Singer, Thorpe: Lecture Notes on Elementary Topology and
Geometry
15. L. Kauffman: Knots and Physics, World Scientific, Singapore,
1991.
16. C. Yang and M. Ge: Braid group, Knot Theory & Statistical
Mechanics.
17. D. Kastler: C-algebras and their applications to Statistical
Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory.
18. Courant and Hilbert: Methods of Mathematical Physics Wiley
Really a mathematics book in disguise.  Emphasis on ODEs and PDEs. 
Proves existence, etc.  Very comprehensive.  2 volumes.
19. Cecille Dewitt is publishing a book on manifolds that should be out
soon (maybe already is).  Very high level, but supposedly of great
importance for anyone needing to set the Feynman path integral in a
firm foundation.
20. Howard Georgi: Lie Groups for Particle Phyiscs Addison Wesley
Frontiers in Physics Series.
21. Synge and Schild.

Atomic Physics

1. Max Born: Atomic Physics

A classic, though a little old.
 2. Gerhard Herzberg: Atomic spectra and atomic structure, Translated with
the co-operation of the author by J. W. T.Spinks. — New York, Dover
publications, 1944
Old but good.
3. E. U. Condon and G. H. Shortley: The theory of atomic spectra, CUP
1951
4. G. K. Woodgate: Elementary atomic structure, 2d ed. Oxford: New York:
Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1983, c 1980
Introductory level.
5. Alan Corney: Atomic and laser spectroscopy, Oxford, New York:
Clarendon Press, 1977
Excellent,fairly advanced, large experimental bent, but good
development of background.  Good stuff on lasers (gas, dye)

Low Temperature Physics, Superconductivity

1. The Theory of Quantum Liquids, by D. Pines and P. Nozieres

2. Superconductivity of Metals and Alloys, P. G. DeGennes A classic
introduction.
3. Theory of Superconductivity, J. R. Schrieffer
4. Superconductivity, M. Tinkham
5. Experimental techniques in low-temperature physics, by Guy K. White.
This is considered by many as a "bible" for those working in
experimental low-temperature physics.

Thanks to the 30+ contributors who made this compilation possible.