I tried this earlier, with Great Explanations.
And you should also have mentioned Best Textbooks on every Subject.
Geometrical Vectors builds a visual intuition and vocabulary for dealing with vector analysis. It is a non-standard approach but very useful for visually oriented people,
For an exceedingly well written intro to crypto I'd recommend The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking by Simon Singh
When I got around to a final year security comp sci module it turned out that most of the information had been covered in The code book.
Peter Briscoe's Reading the Map of Knowledge is a helpful short monograph on helping you optimize your learning and research into different fields. It is meant for librarians and lay people alike.
Another one on computing: The Elements of Computing Systems. This book explains how computers work by teaching you to build a computer from scratch, staring with logic gates. By the end you have a working (emulation of) a computer, every component of which you built. It's great if you already know how to program and want to learn how computers work at a lower level.
"Mainstream and Formal epistemology" - Hendricks is an incredible book and should be read by most.
Metacademy is a knowledge graph of machine learning.
Visual Group Theory is a really well-written book on group theory.
some others I found worthwhile checking:
Human and Animal Behavioral Biology - Robert Sapolsky
General Relativity - Bertrand Russell - ABC of relativity
For LWers I believe Yudkowsky>Feynman>Drescher in explaining Quantum Physics by analogy.
Memetics, from the standpoint of engineering effective memes -> Made to Stick
Memetics, as a discipline, field of knowledge -> Tim Tyler
Anything he talks about - Steve Pinker
Zoology - Dawkins
Cognitive Neuroscience -> I have delved long and hard in this field and have yet to find a good explainer. Jeff Hawkins and Terrence Deacon are ok.
Winning -> Randy Pausch
Biotech trends -> Juan Enriquez
Statistical trends in humans -> Hans Rosling
Computing: The Pattern On The Stone by Daniel Hillis. It's shorter and seemingly more focused on principles than the Petzold book Code, which I can't compare further because I stopped reading early (low information density).
"Thinking Physics is Gedanken Physics" is a brilliantly intuitive approach to physics from mechanics to relativity.
There are many recommended reading threads on lesswrong. Some examples include: Math, Textbooks and Rationality.
I am looking to compile another such thread, this time aimed at "exceptional explainers" and their works. For example, I find Richard Feynman's QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter to be one such book.
Please list out other authors and books which you think are wonderfully written, in such a way that maximizes communication and explanation to laypeople in the given field. For example:
Physics: Richard Feynman - QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter.
Thank you,
Jeremy