Reddit reviews The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

Though Carl Sagan was an atheist he probably would have used "god" (in quotations) as a reasonable analogy or metaphor for what he sought and why, at least the title of this wonderful book would lead me to believe so. It is a collection of essays and lectures that discuss the concept of science as a kind of informed-worship of reality, rather than traditional religious practices being rituals dedicated to superstition. I'd highly recommend it.

Not only in this book but in all of his teaching, he took care to illuminate the human need to seek and embrace truth, and to find awe and delight that which is grander than oneself. He sought to show that there is no need to put artificial limits on the questions we ask or to place artificial answers to that which we do not yet know, or maybe even can't know. He uses what in many ways was traditionally the language of religion to embrace what is truthful in what we can observe, reason and imagine rather than what is fearful or unreasoned or limited in imagination.

Read all of his books.

The Demon Haunted World

Cosmos

Varieties of the Scientific Experience

Pale Blue Dot

The Dragons of Eden

Billions and Billions

His novel:
Contact

There are two Carl Sagan books which I believe are more important than all of the others. The first, details how to look at the world skeptically, and the second, how to look at the world with all the wonder that Nature deserves.

• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
  
• The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

I highly recommend anything Carl Sagan has written. The book Contact is a good start since it's fiction. It's basically Sagan's love note to science. I also enjoy many of his non-fictions since he has a way of explaining things so that even an ignoramus like myself can understand.

My favorite is The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, but the first one I read was The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal view of the Search for God. I really attribute this book with making me want to learn more about science. It's the first non-fiction book I ever enjoyed.

Oh yeah, and watch any interview you can find with Richard Feynman. He has such a great way of looking at everything!