As a celebrity astrophysicist and witty host of StarTalk, Neil deGrasse Tyson has penned dozens of books over the years, but as they say, you never forget your first.
That designation belongs to an amusing volume compiled in 1989 when Tyson was a graduate student at Columbia University, titled "Merlin's Tour of the Universe." It's a collection of over 200 questions posed to him by the general public for a column he wrote in the StarDate newsletter for The McDonald Observatory of West Texas. These varied queries ranged in topics from astronomy and planetary science, to gravity, black holes, and time travel that the young 20-something scientist would answer through the persona of an intergalactic sage named Merlin.
