• Weinberg, Steven. "The First Three Minutes; A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe 2nd ed.", New York : Basic Books, July 1993. ISBN# 0465024378 The first popular cosmology book, written 27 years ago by a Nobel Prize winning particle physicist. A very readable account of the basic Big Bang model.
• Guth, Alan H. "The Inflationary Universe; The Quest for a New Theory of", Addison Wesley Longman, Incorporated, Jan. 1997. ISBN# 0201149427. Inflation is the most important idea that has migrated into cosmology from particle physics. Guth invented inflation and here spends quite a bit of time explaining it clearly. Personal anecdotes make it very readable.
• Hogan, C. "The Little Book of the Big Bang", New York: Springer-Verlag New York, Incorporated, 1998. ISBN# 0387983856. A nice overview of modern cosmology
• Hubble, Edwin. "The Realm of the Nebulae", New Haven: Yale University Press, Dec. 1982. ISBN# 0300024991. The notion would not necessarily be to read the whole book, but just to browse through it for background. The course is, in fact, retracing Hubble's footsteps.
• Overbye, Dennis. "Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos; The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe", New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Incorporated, Jan. 1992. ISBN# 0060922710 (out of print).
• Riordan, Michael & David Schramm. "Shadow of Creation; Dark Matters & the Structure of the Universe", New York: W. H. Freeman & Company, Oct. 1995. ISBN# 0716723662.
• Rees, Martin J. "Before the Beginning; Our Universe & Others", Perseus Books, Oct. 1998. ISBN# 0738200336.
• Goldsmith, Donald. "Einstein's Greatest Blunder?; The Cosmological Constant & Other Fudge Factors in the Physics of the Universe", Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Sept. 1995. ISBN# 0674242416. This book describes the history of the idea of the cosmological constant, a parameter first introduced by Einstein to "fix" his theory. It has re-emerged time and again over the last 80 years and is now at the peak of its popularity.
• Greene, Brian. "The Elegant Universe; Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions & the Quest for the Ultimate Theory", New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated 1999. ISBN# 0393046885. This recent bestseller is about string theory, which if it eventually emerges as the true theory of everything will have to explain cosmology as well. Greene includes here several chapters on cosmology and possible connections between string theory and cosmology.

More Technical Suggestions

• Bernstein, Jeremy. "Introduction to Cosmology", Paramus: Prentice Hall, Sept. 1997. ISBN# 0139055487. Undergraduate level textbook by an award winning popular writer. Bernstein emphasizes the connection between particle physics and cosmology.
• Kolb, Edward W. and Michael Turner. "The Early Universe", Reading: Addison Wesley Longman, Incorporated, Jan. 1993. ISBN# 0201626748. The standard graduate textbook on cosmology.
• Peebles, P. J. "The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe", Princeton: Princeton University Press, Sept. 1980. Out of Print, ISBN# 0691082391. A deceptively brilliant book from the foremost researcher in the field. Everything about large scale structure is in here.

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