I am a PhD student in mathematics who knows little more about physics than what one learns in high school. For my research on tilings of space and aperiodic order, every now and then I have to skim a physics research article on solid state physics. And it would be good for me to know more about the basic principles and ideas of this field.
Since I lack advanced physics training I cannot just pick up any old book on solid state physics and start reading it. I am looking for a recommendation of maybe a sequence of books that I should read which culminates in a decent book on the subject. I am particularly interested in crystals, quasicrystals and aperiodic order.
Please don't get me wrong, I don't expect it to be easy to catch up and I don't expect to be handed a leaflet that covers everything I should know. I just don't want to spend my time reading lots of stuff I don't really need in the end for understanding the subject.
