Books to Read

One of my favorite atheist writers is Massimo Pigliucci, his blog is Rationally Speaking. He doesn't write often but when he does it's always worth a read. What he has on today's blog is a list of must read books.

This is his list of Top Ten books on Evolution.

And this is his Top Ten for Philosophy.

This is on Amazon with a note from Massimo on each book. I have to admit I haven't read even one of these, but I've heard about most of them, read parts of them and read people talking about them. It seems odd that a defender of evolution such as myself, with a better than average knowledge of the subject has never read Origin of Species by Darwin. When it comes to scientific stuff I prefer magazine articles, entire books can be very daunting, plus I know that many things have changed in evolutionary science since Darwin's day so I tend to think it's better to read more modern things.

A Trip To The Bookstore

Few things in life are more fun than a trip to Barnes & Noble and I scored today. Got the latest Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer. The subtitle of SI is Science, God, and (non)Belief - YUM! Also got my favorite magazine Scientific American Mind, all kinds of stories on the latest research into the mind. It only comes out quarterly so I love it when I get one. Then there's the books, I've been dying to get the first Dresden Files by Jim Butcher ever since the Sci Fi Channel's show came out and I found it. Just a little way into it so far and he's got a pleasant, easy to read style. And it's written in first person narrative, a favorite of mine, probably from reading all those Heinlein books as a teenager. Then a surprise find, something in the same genre as the Dresden Files but by a writer I never heard of, Charlaine Harris - Dead Until Dark. It just had a whimsical feeling to it that looked interesting so I gave it a try. I'll write reviews on all these as I read them but it will take a while, I'm a slow reader. This stuff will keep me busy for months, heh heh.