# Recommend a Carl Sagan book for my stoner friend **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 27, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986 "2010-05-27T20:05:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juliette_Culture_Junkie)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/1 "2010-05-27T20:05:02Z")
I’m looking to introduce my friend to Carl Sagan, the brilliant humanist and astronomer (and poet, imho). It’s fairly well-known that he was also a huge pothead. Can anyone kindly recommend some Carl Sagan books that might be of interest to a young guy who likes exobiology, astronomy, humanism, and alternative realities? Preferably something not too dense, if possible. Commentary on any of Sagan’s work is welcome in this thread. Thank you 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/2 "2010-05-27T20:17:52Z")
[The Demon Haunted World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World) is my personal favorite by Sagan. It’s primarily about critical thinking; I’ve used the “baloney detection kit” from that book many times (within copyright “fair use”) for students. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/3 "2010-05-27T20:53:34Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > [The Demon Haunted World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World) is my personal favorite by Sagan. It’s primarily about critical thinking; I’ve used the “baloney detection kit” from that book many times (within copyright “fair use”) for students. Seconding this and adding Broca’s Brain as a close second. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/4 "2010-05-27T21:39:21Z")
I thought Broca’s Brain was a mandatory required reading for all stoners?😉 ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/5 "2010-05-27T22:01:45Z")
Demon-Haunted World is my first choice too. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/6 "2010-05-27T22:38:12Z")
**COSMOS** - book and accompanying miniseries (which is on DVD)- is what really made Sagan internationally famous, but does anybody know if it’s been updated? He wrote it 30 years ago and even though the space race is long over and NASA’s lower key now there’s been a lot of discovery (other planets for instance) so I’ve wondered if newer releases have added that in. Either way it’s still a great book. Much of it has to do with the history of science- Eratosthenes and the Library of Alexandria, Galileo, Keppler, etc.- or observations such as the artificial selection that made the [samurai crabs](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/373216489_e18a6473af.jpg)and basic evolutionary theory that hasn’t changed. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/7 "2010-05-27T23:23:42Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > I thought Broca’s Brain was a mandatory required reading for all stoners?😉 I do believe that was in the one where Carl hipped us to the fact that he did indeed partake in the weed himself, which was mindblowing to the 16 year old stoner me. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/8 "2010-05-28T00:26:10Z")
I remember reading one I accidentally got when in my teen Von Daniken phase. Yes, I admit I accidentally got a book about science when I wanted crap! _L_ (And such crap is still a guilty pleasure.) That book was IIRC- THE COSMIC CONNECTION. It was philosophical, much about the Voyager & its engraved plate with the naked human couple, and I am sure greatly dated, but fascinating. Wish to God I still had it! ---
**Author:** ![Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juliette_Culture_Junkie)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/9 "2010-05-28T00:58:08Z")
Thanks y’all! I just ordered copies of Broca’s Brain and Demon-Haunted World. I’d still love to hear your thoughts on them or more recommendations if there’s interest. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/10 "2010-05-28T01:46:08Z")
His last book, [_Billions and Billions._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billions_and_Billions:_Thoughts_on_Life_and_Death_at_the_Brink_of_the_Millennium) ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-carl-sagan-book-for-my-stoner-friend/540986/11 "2010-05-28T02:58:48Z")
Oh goody, I 'm the first one to suggest [The Dragons of Eden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dragons_of_Eden). In my druggy days I suggested that the belief in dragons was an instinctive memory of the time when our ancestors lived in fear of being eaten by large reptiles. I was accused of ripping off the idea from this book, but I hadn’t heard of it. It’s the “R-complex”, man.