Miscellaneous Book Recommendations

I thought I'd start a topic to group book recommendations, such that they don't so easily just get lost in the pile of other messages.Recommended by Coragyps, at " Has evolution been proven?".

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Life on a Young Planet by Andrew H Knoll. 250 pages, in English, on Precambrian fossils, with about 20 pages of references at the end.

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Moose

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
(I've heard it's pretty inaccurate - but besides that, it tells a great story)The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking

1. The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
2. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking(had to read it 3 times to fully grasp all the ideas)
3. Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
4. Ethics For the New Millennium by The Dalai Lama

I especially reccommend the illustrated version. I like to look at pich'ers!

1.) Magician: Apprentice & Magician: Master by Raymond E. Fiest.
- Two of my favorite fantasy stories (actually one story, two books). His later stuff isn't as good, but the first two were excellent.2.) The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
- An intersting book that looks at the the biological impacts of evolution and nature on human history. Deals with the ideas of genetics, memes, group evolution dynamics, etc. Note: while this book is well supported and documented, it isn't much of a scientific analysis. It is an intersting insight that may open avenues of thought though.3.) Neuromancer.
-Old school sci-fi , but still a classic4.) 1984
Well written and very insightful.

I'd Add Alan Guth's _The Inflationary Universe_ to Hawking.For general science I'd add almost any book by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart. _The Science of Discworld_ is a pretty painless introduction to a lot of the science discussed here - and it's interspersed with a Discworld story. _The Collapse of Chaos_ and _What Does a Martian Look Like_ are also well worth a look.For evolution Carl Zimmer's _Evolution_ is probably the best popular introduction around. Ernst Mayr's _What Evolution Is_ goes into more depth - but if you're prepared to spend the money Mark Ridley's _Evolution_ (the textbook - the third edition has recently appeared) is proably easier to read and has more in it.

???Old-school? I wasn't aware that the 80's counted as "old-school." In fact given that Gibson still writes best-selling novels I don't see how he could be anything but new-school.Old-school would be Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov and Clarke. I think you'd have a tough time putting softer sci-fi like cyberpunk into the "old-school" categories.

Sticking with pop sci on evolution, and avoiding the evo-cre debate books, I'd like to add five books that are in the "exceptionally well-written and understandable" category (in no particular order):E.O. Wilson, "The Diversity of Life", WW Norton 1999. Simply the best, most readable and comprehensive book on evolution for the non-scientist out there. So well written it might even make a believer out of a Believer.Carl Zimmer, "At the Water's Edge", Touchstone Books 1998. Everything you ever wanted to know about how life came ashore and then decided it was a bad deal and returned to the sea .Jonathan Weiner, "The Beak of the Finch", Vintage Books 1995. Covers the Grants' 30-year studies of natural selection in the Galapagos. If you had any lingering doubts about the creative power of natural selection, this should settle them. It's also a great example of science in action.David Quammen, "The Song of the Dodo", Touchstone Books 1997. A brilliant introduction into island biogeography, the book covers the scientists, the science, and the studies that show islands are evolution's laboratories. It discusses what we know, what we don't know, and even corrects some of the things we thought we knew. Anyone interested in biodiversity, extinction, and biogeography needs to read this book if they read no others on the subject.Connie Barlow, "The Ghosts of Evolution", Basic Books 2000. A fascinating, if sometimes whimsical, look at evolutionary anachronisms. The world abounds with leftover bits - plants and fruit whose fantastic adaptations were evolved to deal with long-vanished organisms. Highly recommended.

Recently bought:From By Raup, D. M. 1991. Extinction. Bad genes or bad luck?and from Hallam, A. and Wignall, P. B. 1997. Mass extinctions and their aftermathTwo inexpensive books. Both wrote in simple english text. Easy to understand and for all audiences. Many details, examples and logs/diagrams.Denesha[This message has been edited by Denesha, 03-17-2004]

this is a book i didn't read for my biodiversity class a couple years back. jared diamond - the third chimpanzee: the evolution and future of the human animal. i'm only into the second part but it's really interesting. i have a whole stack of books i haven't read for classes. gotta love small book based classes instead of textbooks. many of them may end up here.

If you want to gain a firm grasp on string theory and/or inflationary cosmology I highly recomend "the elegant universe" and "the fabric of the cosmos"For students of myrmicology "The Ants" is amazing (and won a Pulitzer!) as is it's far less expesive sequil "Journey to the ants"For the occational discussions of imortality that pop up on this forum John Perry's "A dialoge on personal identity and immortality" reads like a play (literaly) and will change the way you define the word "self"