Best Books About The Brain [Top 10] [2024 Update]

What are the best brain books? How does your brain actually work? In this list of recommendations, you will find good book tips to learn more about the brain, the science behind it, fun facts about the brain, and its psychology. The books are interesting for both adults and children. Read along…

The best books about the brain selected by our editors

Here you will find an overview of the best books about the brain so that you can discover what is actually happening in your head. We start our recommendations with the top 10 best books about the brain of all time. This list has been updated this year, including all the recent titles.

Best Books About The Brain	Author
The Brain That Changes Itself	Norman Doidge
How The Mind Works	Steven Pinker
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain	Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
The Tell-Tale Brain	V. S. Ramachandran
The Brain: The Story of You	David Eagleman
Phantoms in the Brain	Sandra Blakeslee
Consciousness and the Brain	Stanislas Dehaene
Descartes’ Error	Antonio Damasio
The Mind and the Brain	Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Sharon Begley
The Brain’s Way of Healing	Norman Doidge

The updated top 10 list: the best books about the brain

The Human Brain Book: An Illustrated Guide to its Structure, Function, and Disorders

We recommend this book to anyone who is interested in scientific information about the brain. With illustrations and normal vocabulary everyone will be able to understand how the brain works.

My First Book About the Brain (Dover Children’s Science Books)

If you have children that are curious about the body, this book would be perfect to explain the brain. Things like sleep, dreams, and balance are only some of the subjects that are in ‘My First Book About the Brain’.

Your Brain, Explained: What Neuroscience Reveals About Your Brain and its Quirks

Marc Dingman is a neuroscientist, and he has written this book to elaborate on the brain and the key role it plays in the most simplest of actions, like speaking, remembering, and sleeping.

Healing the Broken Brain: Leading Experts Answer 100 Questions about Stroke Recovery

In our opinion this is one of the best books on brains after having experienced a stroke. It gives answers to the 100 frequently asked questions by survivors of a stroke or their families.

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

For those of you who don’t want a 400-page book with complicated scans and hard-to-understand texts, this book by Lisa Feldman Barrett is a jewel. Learn the basics of your brain by reading the seven short essays.

The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep

We believe that ‘The Nocturnal Brain’ will be able to answer many questions for bad sleepers. Different conditions are being discussed, from mild ones to extreme cases. The examples of Dr. Guy Leschziner’s patients speaks volumes and will help you understand more about sleep and the lack of it.

The Brain: All about Our Nervous System and More! (Smithsonian-science)

This book made it to our top ten list, because the picture book makes understanding the brain and how it functions really easy. If you want to get to know the brain the most simple and straight-to-the-point way, this is your book.

A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

Intelligence is still something we find hard to comprehend. How do cells in the brain work together to form information? Jeff Hawkins reveals what structure the brain uses for the internal creation of intelligence.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk is an expert when it comes to trauma. He uses science to show you the effect of trauma on the body and brain and the effects of it. We find that the most interesting aspects of this book are the innovative treatments and when these could be effective.

A Million Things To Ask A Neuroscientist: The brain made easy

Our last book on this list, by Mike Tranter, also discusses the brain in a clear and simple way. You will find a collection of his answers on some of the most pressing questions on the subject of the brain that people shared with him.