Stop the immaturity and ignorant accusations, it's not a book about religion.

It's also not about science, maths or philosophy and even if this conspiracy theorist hack does touch on something that falls into any of those camps his writing is certainly no "gem".

Here's a guy who read it asking someone who (probably) didn't what it's about. What is it about, then? You guys must know best.

I have only read his book about the Dead Sea Scrolls and essentially his point seemed to be that the apocryphal books told the true story and that they somehow discredit the canonical stories of the birth of Christianity. To believe that the hidden scrolls tell the truth shows a staggering willingness to believe anything that even smells of conspiracy and to think that the canonical story of the birth of Christianity needs anything beyond its own ludicrous narrative to discredit it shows complete lack of critical faculties.

As for this book; whenever an unqualified gentleman so low on the literary totem pole that he felt Dan Brown was stealing ideas from him writes a book which suggests a view that differs from the scientific communities by so much that anyone could walk away from it thinking that dinosaurs may have lived with humans I think we are justified in viewing it with a little skepticism.

Consider my vote to be a -1 for this book and leave it at that.

Some of these works are rock solid. LOL at Tractatus. Seriously? For non-philosophers I could only recommend Problems of Philosophy (which is about a two hour read) and Hume's Enquiries here. And the reason I'd recommend them is because both authors are exceptionally good communicators. When you read this sort of thing your first reaction should be "This is so incredibly easy I can't believe anybody thought I was so stupid as to tell me this" and then "If that's the case why didn't I think of this before then?".

I've got 3-4 good recommendations for my interests from this thread. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned much to do with Evolutionary psychology yet. I've only read this and I found it really interesting. Can anybody suggest what I should read next in that subject? I thought about getting this but I think maybe that's a step too far at the moment. Anybody recommend something between the two?

I haven't read this yet (as it's not out) but I've been looking forward to this for ages now. For the last 2 years I've had a look to see if it's out yet and it keeps getting pushed back another few months, which is really irritating.

Big monkey,

The Oxford Handbooks are excellent sources for first-rate information. I base this on having a number of them myself. You can't go wrong purchasing one on a subject of your interest.

-Zeno

I can't imagine a reader who would not benefit more by reading Plato and the Nichomachean Ethics before even considering your list.

Having read all of Richard Dawkins' main books, I would rank them in this order:

1) The Extended Phenotype
2) The Selfish Gene
3) The Ancestor's Tale
4) The Blind Watchmaker
4a) Climbing Mount Improbable
6) The Greatest Show on Earth
7) The God Delusion

Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick is a must read for those interested in political philosophy. Its quite an eye opener if you haven't been exposed to that side of political philosophy.

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by Richard Rorty (already mentioned) offers a powerful critique of much of western philosophy and is another must read for philosophers.

For those looking for good introductory texts, Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy provides useful background understanding. Pretty much anything by Hume is good too. As already stated, a lot of his stuff makes so much sense - indeed there's a likelihood you'll have already thought of some of it yourself. This being the case, reading the texts will serve to clarify and formalise your thoughts.

It's About Time by David Mermin is a nice and inexpensive book about special relativity.

I don't know which collection to find it in but I read Russell's essay 'A Free Man's Worship' recently and found it pretty inspiring. Basically its Russell's opinion on the meaning of life. It can be found (legally) here:
http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/...%20Worship.htm

This is def the biggest "gem" for any and all John Stuart Mill fans. Its called The Online Library of Liberty. I think it has many other authors but I only use this page (maybe once a week). It has, as far as I have found, the biggest collection of JSM; everything from published books to debate ideas he jotted on the back of postcards. Enjoy.

http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=c...n=21&Itemid=28

Just picked up The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, edited by Richard Dawkins.

http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Book-Mo...&sr=1-1http://

This is a fine anthology of great writing about science by scientists, a book that eveyone interested in Science and the world about them should read.

Below are two reviews of the book; both give praise, which I agree with....


Review by The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...writing-review

Review by The Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...ns-828939.html


-Zeno

Here is one of my favorite passages on writing in sociology:

This! It's so nice to see someone who has read this book and recognized its importance and the genius of Richard Rorty. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity is a must read as well, imo - his interpretations of Nietzsche and Proust w/r/t creating yourself completely changed my life and pulled me out of a slight depression when I first read the book.