I recently read The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins and was very impressed by Dawkins. I know he has written a ton of books and would like to read something else by him…Any suggestions? I am more interested in his ideas on evolution, genes, etc. than his battles with religion.
Blind Watchmaker and Climbing Mount Improbable were enjoyed muchly by this non-scientist.
Were they a series of essays – like ancestor’s tale?
The Selfish Gene is pretty much a must-read. I’m on The God Delusion at the moment, and I do find his pugnacious atheism a little shrill and grating: I can’t disagree with most of what he says, but when he writes about religion he comes across like a clever 14 year old. And his Douglas Adams cock-sucking is just fucking annoying.*
*Fun fact: Dawkins’ wife, Lalla Ward, was an actress who played Doctor Who’s Time Lord assistant Romana back in the 70’s - she was introduced to Dawkins by Douglas Adams, who wrote some of her shows.
Not sure if it was because it was the first, but “The Blind Watchmaker” had the biggest impact on me. It really flushed out the cursory explanation of evolution that I had learned in high school. I would recommend it highly.
I also read “River Out of Eden”, but was not as impressed.
His best book is definitely ‘Unweaving The Rainbow’. This is because I’m mentioned in it.
Okay, perhaps that’s a little biased!
The Selfish Gene is a must-read, and I personally thought Climbing Mount Improbable was also very good.
I’ve only read The God Delusion and really enjoyed it. Defiantly going to read more of his books. Was thinking of ordering Climbing Mount Improbable next week. The woman at teh bookstore recommended it.
I am currently reading The Selfish Gene, very slowly, there seem to be too many items on my To do list lately. It is great.
Having read Dawkins’ books in backwards order, I would suggest the Selfish Gene (I didn’t recommend it earlier because I am not finished with it yet) then the rest of his books in order. He has a brilliant even if it somewhat combative writing style, which I find enjoyable and, after all the quote mining by Creationists, completely deserved.
Read his stuff and also find interviews and debates via Youtube, his “brash” writing style has less to do with him being a nasty man and more like Nietzsche’s no holds barred writing style.
The two most memorable for me were “Selfish Gene” and “Blind Watchmaker”. “Selfish Gene” is a little more “sciency” than most of his other books besides it’s sequel “Extended Phenotype”, but I was able to understand it easily enough in Junior High. It was one of his earliest books so it’s a little dated but it’s a great book describing how the object of selection in evolution is really individual genes. “Blind Watchmaker” is an easier read, and was his first major attempt to explain how the complexity of biological life is not an argument against evolution. Neither book (or any of his others, I believe) are as “essayish” as “Ancestor’s Tale”. With the exception of “Extended Phenotype” which is a sequel to “Selfish Gene”, and “The God Delusion” which is about athesim, I think most of his other books are about evolution, and probably cover the same ground and expand on his thoughts on evolution from “Blind Watchmaker”.
I would definitely read “Selfish Gene” because it’s a somewhat different topic and also a science “classic”. I would consider reading “Blind Watchmaker” because while his other books cover the same ground and are expanded and up to date, this one still sticks out in my mind as more “classic” and memorable.