Books and audiobooks
Reading
Where to go next. Start with the first group if you are new to the subject; the rest follow the site's themes. Books marked 馃帶 are available as audiobooks.
Start here
- The Order of TimeCarlo Rovelli, 2018 馃帶 audiobook
A short, lyrical tour of how physics strips time of its familiar features, from relativity to quantum gravity.
- From Eternity to HereSean Carroll, 2010 馃帶 audiobook
The arrow of time explained through entropy and the low-entropy Big Bang. Longer and more technical than Rovelli, and very clear.
- In Search of NowJo Marchant, 2026 馃帶 audiobook
A science journalist on the mystery of the present moment, from Parmenides and Einstein to the neuroscience of how the brain builds a "now".
- In Search of TimeDan Falk, 2008
A journalist's history of how we have understood time, from early calendars to modern physics.
- Time: A Very Short IntroductionJenann Ismael, 2021
Compact and rigorous: what physics says about time, and why we experience it as we do.
- Travels in Four DimensionsRobin Le Poidevin, 2003
A friendly philosophical introduction to the puzzles of space and time.
Deutsch and the physics
- The Fabric of RealityDavid Deutsch, 1997
The book this site is built around. Chapter 11, "Time: The First Quantum Concept", argues that time does not flow and that other times are a special case of other universes.
- The End of TimeJulian Barbour, 1999
Time does not exist: only Nows, and time capsules that hold records of others. Deutsch's nearest ally.
- Time RebornLee Smolin, 2013 馃帶 audiobook
The opposite case: time is real, the present is real, and the laws of physics evolve.
- Something Deeply HiddenSean Carroll, 2019
A defence of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the foundation of Deutsch's multiverse.
- Mysteries of Modern Physics: TimeSean Carroll, 2012 馃帶 audiobook
An audio lecture course from The Great Courses, covering entropy, relativity and the arrow of time.
- Relativity: The Special and the General TheoryAlbert Einstein, 1916
Einstein's own popular account, including the famous train and lightning flashes on simultaneity.
The philosophy
- Time's Arrow and Archimedes' PointHuw Price, 1996
The view from nowhen: why the arrow of time lies in boundary conditions and in us.
- Real Time IID. H. Mellor, 1998
The classic defence of the tenseless theory: no tensed facts, but indispensable tensed beliefs.
- Philosophy of Physics: Space and TimeTim Maudlin, 2012
A clear, opinionated introduction from the leading defender of the passage of time.
- What Makes Time Special?Craig Callender, 2017
How physics singles out time, and how our experience of time grows from that.
- The Philosophy of TimeRobin Le Poidevin and Murray MacBeath (eds), 1993
The standard anthology, with McTaggart, Prior, Mellor and their critics.
- TimaeusPlato, c. 360 BC
Time as the moving image of eternity, made together with the heavens.
- PhysicsAristotle, 4th century BC
Book 4 defines time as the number of change; book 6 answers Zeno.
- Time and Free WillHenri Bergson, 1889
Duration, lived time that cannot be cut into instants, and its link to freedom.
Debates and history
- The Physicist and the PhilosopherJimena Canales, 2015 馃帶 audiobook
The 1922 clash between Einstein and Bergson, and how it shaped the century that followed.
- A World Without TimePalle Yourgrau, 2005
G枚del, Einstein and the rotating universe in which time travel is possible.
- Zeno's ParadoxesWesley C. Salmon (ed.), 1970
The classic collection on the arrow, Achilles and their modern solutions.
Time and the mind
- The Images of TimeRobin Le Poidevin, 2007
How we perceive, remember and depict time, and why none of it requires time to pass.
- How Physics Makes Us FreeJenann Ismael, 2016
Agency and freedom for creatures embedded in a deterministic world.
- The Principles of PsychologyWilliam James, 1890
Chapter 15, "The Perception of Time", introduces the specious present to psychology.
- Consciousness ExplainedDaniel C. Dennett, 1991
Includes the classic discussion of colour phi and how the brain times experience.
Links search Amazon and Audible, in the UK or US, for each title; they are plain links, not affiliate links. Audiobook availability was checked against the Audible catalogue in October 2026 and may change.