The Road to Reality
The Road to Reality by Roger Penroseby Roger Penrose
Shares rank 9 of 13 physics textbooks by recommenders
Praised as a broad, nonrigorous overview of physics and mathematics, though its first part is a long mathematical foundation. Critics say it is hard to learn from directly.
Praised as a broad, nonrigorous overview of physics and mathematics, though its first part is a long mathematical foundation. Critics say it is hard to learn from directly.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Broad nonrigorous overview of physics
“Road to Reality is good to get a general overview of everything but I dont think you can actually learn the things he talks about”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Expository/Succinct Books on Modern Physics” “For a nonrigorous introduction/overview:”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Expository/Succinct Books on Modern Physics” Called excellent by a reader
“Road to Reality is excellent. Be warned the first 382 pages are just building the mathematical foundation”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Expository/Succinct Books on Modern Physics” Useful history of mathematics
“You could read a book about the history of mathematics, for example Roger Penrose's Road to Reality.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to learn from directly
“Road to Reality is good to get a general overview of everything but I dont think you can actually learn the things he talks about”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Expository/Succinct Books on Modern Physics” Only useful after learning it
“it's only useful if you've already learned it once and forgotten it”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Expository/Succinct Books on Modern Physics”
Other physics textbooks people recommend
The four most recommended other physics textbooks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Feynman Lectures on Physicsby Feynman, Leighton and Sands | 34 | 3 | 92% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Course of Theoretical Physicsby Landau and Lifshitz | 8 | 1 | 89% | 6 | — | — |
| Computational Physics (2nd Edition)by Giordano and Nakanishi | 7 | 1 | 88% | 1 | — | — |
| General Relativityby Robert Wald | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| The Road to Realityby Roger PenroseThis page | 3 | 1 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“You could read a book about the history of mathematics, for example Roger Penrose's Road to Reality.”
“it's only useful if you've already learned it once and forgotten it”
“Road to Reality is good to get a general overview of everything but I dont think you can actually learn the things he talks about”
“For a nonrigorous introduction/overview:”
“Road to Reality is excellent. Be warned the first 382 pages are just building the mathematical foundation”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.