Submitted by AutoModerator t3_z3i5f3 in books
Welcome readers,
Today is Evolution Day which celebrates the day of the original publishing of On the Origin of Species (which can be downloaded for free here). To celebrate, we're discussing our favorite books about evolution!
If you'd like to read our previous weekly discussions of fiction and nonfiction please visit the suggested reading section of our wiki.
Thank you and enjoy!
"Your inner fish" is a great read.
Richard Dawkins has written many detailed, accessible books about this topic, but if I had to pick one, it would be The Ancestor's Tale.
It follows human evolution backwards through time, telling "tales" of various other animals as they join us at different milestones on the journey.
It gave me an appreciation for my place in the grand family tree of life, and is packed with interesting anecdotes about how various features might have evolved.
It would be a great first Richard Dawkins book.
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne. Came in handy as a good start into the subject when I was deconverting from creationist programming.
I'm a huge fan of "Darwin's Unfinished Symphony", explores gene-culture co-evolution.
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time" by Jonathan Weiner.
Describes how evolution was actually documented occurring. What's more it was among Darwin's finches on the Galapagos islands. A heroic tale of quantitative biology.
Ernst Mayr, Populations, Species and Evolution.
Darwin’s Dangerous Idea - Daniel C. Dennett
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Just to add another Dawkins book, The Selfish Gene is incredible
I have a few I liked Darwin and an Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior by Richard J Roberts from a history of Science perspective.
For some more technical biology books Randomness in Evolution by John Tyler Bonner was interesting and Chance and Necessity by Jacques Monod.
I enjoyed Almost Like A Whale by Steve Jones. It is a retelling of On The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, updated with modern science. It is a fun and easy read. However since it was published in 1999 the science is probably out of date now.
Bitch: The Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke
Stephen Baxter wrote a very cool sci-fi book called Evolution.
It’s a fun view of the history of life on Earth from distant past into the far, post-homo sapiens future. Storytelling style similar to Michener.
The Malay Archipelago by co-inventor of theory of evolution Alfred Russel-Wallace.
Part evolutionary theory, part anthropology, part travel dairy of a fascinating man.
Hard to say its main topic but Consilience by EO Wilson makes a fine argument for caring about evolution as it pertains to making sense of evolutionary psychology + connections between other disciplines. Up until that point, to my uni student mind, 'classic' Psychologology just seemed fascinating yet unhinged. It really influenced how I saw evolution.
A lot of good recommendations here, but I'll throw in a curveball and recommend Signature in the Cell by Stephen Meyer.
The ones that don't exist. For 1000.
okiegirl22 t1_ixm1u8z wrote
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins is super interesting and accessible. Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin is also a good one.
Right now I’m also reading The Selfish Gene by Dawkins and it’s good so far. It presents a gene-centered view of evolution that’s very interesting.