Here's a brief and simple introduction to modern physics, very beautifully and elegantly written by Richard Feynman. Considering the scope of the book and the level of the material, not much has changed in the last fifty years to significantly affect the contents.
The collection consists of six easy pieces taken from 'The Feynman Lectures on Physics'. What I appreciate most about the book is that it implicitly reveals the underlying philosophy of physics and natural sciences in general. It is a very honest approach that is rarely encountered in academic texts. Apart from this, Feynman's flair for finding excellent illustrations to explain some of the most difficult concepts in physics is unparalleled and makes the book a veritable source of excitement for students and teachers of physics alike.
Every once in a while I feel obliged to unchain the wild math and physics loving animal that lives inside me and indulge its insatiable desire to whisk me away into a joyfully unrestrained all things nerdy fun-a-palooza. Although that curious beast mostly appears to lie dormant, it is always there; and the sheer joy that this book generated within the deepest layers of my being is the best proof of it.
I sometimes pine for the old days when I studied math and was on my way to being able to fully grasp the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Yet apparently that simmering desire to dedicate my life to such endeavors has never been strong enough, for I do not regret the decision to depart from that field. Incidentally, it is a very timely occurrence that I read this book at the time when due to my withdrawal from the idealistic quest to understand the essence of objective reality my intellectual and philosophical superposition has largely collapsed into the probabilistic triumph of reductionist perception of the world as neatly shaved by the Occam's razor. This last sentence may appear to be a joke, but I most likely mean it.
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