Alan Lightman Books in Order
Alan Lightman has written 30 books, published between 1975 and 2025. The first book is Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation (1975) and the newest is The Shape of Wonder (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 30
- Published
- 1975–2025
- Pages on record
- 5,689 in 24 of 30 books
- Reading time
- 95–142 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 5,689 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 24 of 30 titles with a page count on record.
Alan Lightman, born in 1948, is an American physicist, writer and social entrepreneur who has taught at Harvard and at MIT, where he is a professor of the practice of the humanities and was among the first to hold a joint faculty post across the sciences and the humanities. Lightman contributes to The Atlantic and is a past member of the United Nations Scientific Advisory Board, and the writing works the seam between science, philosophy and religion. The catalogue holds 30 books, from a Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation (1975) to The Shape of Wonder (2025), taking in Einstein's Dreams (1992), Good Benito (1995) and The Diagnosis (2000). Cosmology, physics, philosophy and popular science head the recorded subjects.
How many Alan Lightman books are there?
Alan Lightman has 30 books, released between 1975 and 2025.
Alan Lightman Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 30 Alan Lightman books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation1975 · 616 pages · confirmed 1/419756161/4
- 2Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe1984 · 168 pages · confirmed 1/419841681/4
- 3A Modern-Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court and other essays on science1986 · 183 pages · confirmed 1/419861831/4
- 4Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists1990 · confirmed 1/41990–1/4
- 5Ancient Light: Our Changing View of the Universe1991 · 184 pages · confirmed 1/419911841/4
- 6Einstein's Dreams1992 · 140 pages · confirmed 1/419921401/4
- 7Good Benito1995 · confirmed 1/41995–1/4
- 8Dance for Two: Essays1996 · 169 pages · confirmed 1/419961691/4
- 9The Diagnosis2000 · 369 pages · confirmed 1/420003691/4
- 10Reunion2003 · 231 pages · confirmed 1/420032311/4
- 11World Is Too Much with Me2003 · confirmed 1/42003–1/4
- 12Living with the Genie2003 · 360 pages · confirmed 1/420033601/4
- 13The Best American Science Writing 2005Best American Science Writing #32005 · 300 pages · confirmed 2/420053002/4
- 14A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit2005 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/420052241/4
- 15The Discoveries2005 · 553 pages · confirmed 1/420055531/4
- 16What's the Matter?: Readings in Physics2006 · confirmed 1/42006–1/4
- 17Ghost2007 · 243 pages · confirmed 1/420072431/4
- 18Song of Two Worlds2009 · 99 pages · confirmed 1/42009991/4
- 19Mr g About The Creation2012 · 214 pages · confirmed 1/420122141/4
- 20The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew2013 · 157 pages · confirmed 1/420131571/4
- 21Screening Room: Family Pictures2015 · 247 pages · confirmed 1/420152471/4
- 22Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine2018 · 226 pages · confirmed 1/420182261/4
- 23In Praise of Wasting Time2018 · 102 pages · confirmed 1/420181021/4
- 24Three Flames2019 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/420192081/4
- 25Ada and the Galaxies2021 · 40 pages · confirmed 1/42021401/4
- 26Probable Impossibilities2021 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/420212241/4
- 27Isabel and the Invisible World2023 · confirmed 1/42023–1/4
- 28The Transcendent Brain2023 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/420232081/4
- 29The Miraculous from the Material2024 · confirmed 1/42024–1/4
- 30The Shape of Wonder2025 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/420252241/4
Alan Lightman books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Best American Science Writing in order
1 bookStandalone books
29 books29 Alan Lightman titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Alan Lightman books in order?
No. No source lists any of the 30 Alan Lightman books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.
Where to start with Alan Lightman
Start with Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation (1975), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Alan Lightman book?
The Shape of Wonder (2025) is the newest Alan Lightman book released so far.
Is there a new Alan Lightman book coming?
No next Alan Lightman book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Alan Lightman at a glance
- Still publishing
- Alan Lightman published a book as recently as 2025.
- Release pace
- Alan Lightman books have appeared about one every 2 years on average.
- Length
- 5,689 pages across the 24 of 30 books with a recorded length, a median of 219 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Alan Lightman books, 10 of 30, were published in the 2000s.
What the Alan Lightman books are about
23 of the 30 Alan Lightman books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: science is tagged on 8 of 23. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Science 8 of 23 books
- Cosmology 5 of 23 books
- History 3 of 23 books
- Miscellanea 3 of 23 books
- Philosophy 3 of 23 books
- Physics 3 of 23 books
- American literature 2 of 23 books
- Astronomy 2 of 23 books
- Biography 2 of 23 books
- Physicists 2 of 23 books
- Popular works 2 of 23 books
- Psychological fiction 2 of 23 books