Recommended physics reading, for Gringo the [not feeling so] great

[Gambit]

I tried, Paul, but there is a time limit for changing the title. Thanks for the suggestion, anyway. I see that you have other debates, Shelly, but I'm particularly interested in the origins of the universe and how shit works, at the minute. Seriously, I have no idea about this kind of stuff, so I feel like a real hypocrite when I debate people on religion and then tell them how ignorant they are.

Edit: The day after we scheduled that G+ chat with Mo, I actually managed to get through to him on the phone, Shelly.

You can read any of the texts on Cosmology but to be honest you will only get a superficial understanding. To really understand Cosmology you need to know General Relativity and some Quantum Mechanics. To understand General Relativity you need an understanding of Special Relativity, To understand Special Relativity you need to understand some Mechanics. Not to mention the advanced maths that will get harder with each level. Truth is you can be an autodidact at Cosmology but the chances of that are somewhere between zero and 10-9. It would be lots simpler (and lots less painful) to attend a university or hire a private tutor.

Thanks for that, Phil. I alluded to the fact that I need to go back to school in another thread. I'm not the sort of person to do things half assed, so I think yours is the best advice thus far. I understand enough about the field to know I'm never going to be comfortable unless I can speak from a reasonable level of authority. Now comes the hard part - getting my lazy ass back to school and committing myself to the task. I guess that comes down to how much I really want it.