Richard Dawkins' Reading Recommendations

[kennyc]

Richard Dawkins: By the Book
Published: September 12, 2013

The author of “The God Delusion” and “An Appetite for Wonder” doesn’t care for “Pride and Prejudice”: “I can’t get excited about who is going to marry whom, and how rich they are.”

What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year?

I’ve been reading autobiographies to get me in the mood for writing my own and show me how it’s done: Tolstoy (at one time my own memoir was to have been called, at my wife’s suggestion, “Childhood, Boyhood, Truth”); Mark Twain; Bertrand Russell; that engaging maverick Herb Silverman; Edward O. Wilson, elder statesman of my subject. But the best new book I have read is Daniel Dennett’s “Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking.” A philosopher of Dennett’s caliber has nothing to fear from clarity and openness. He is out to enlighten and explain, and therefore has no need or desire to language it up like those obscurantist philosophers, often of “Continental” tradition, for whom obscurity is valued as a protective screen, or even admired for its own sake. I once heard of a philosopher who gushed an “Oh, thank you!” when a woman at a party said she found his book hard to understand. Dennett is the opposite. He works hard at being understood, and makes brilliant use of intuition pumps (his own coining) to that end. The book includes a helpful roundup of several of his earlier themes, and is as good as its intriguing title promises.

Who are your favorite contemporary writers and thinkers?

I’ve already mentioned Dan Dennett. I’ll add Steven Pinker, A. C. Grayling, Daniel Kahneman, Jared Diamond, Matt Ridley, Lawrence Krauss, Martin Rees, Jerry Coyne — indeed quite a few of the luminaries that grace the Edge online salon conducted by John Brockman (the Man with the Golden Address Book). All share the same honest commitment to real-world truth, and the belief that discovering it is the business of scientists — and philosophers who take the trouble to learn science. Many of these “Third Culture” thinkers write very well. (Why is the Nobel Prize in Literature almost always given to a novelist, never a scientist? Why should we prefer our literature to be about things that didn’t happen? Wouldn’t, say, Steven Pinker be a good candidate for the literature prize?)
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/bo...anted=all&_r=0

[Marrella]

Interesting article. It took me years to enjoy Dawkins's writing (always preferred Stephen Jay Gould), but these days, I do.

I totally agree with what he said about Pride and Prejudice.

[kennyc]

I've far from read all his work, but The Selfish Gene completely blew me away when I read it back in college not long after it was published. I'm actually re-reading parts of it at the moment to study the writing/presenting style. Some of it is dated, but it is still one of those breakthrough life/world changing books.

[Marrella]

What put me off Dawkins was The Blind Watchmaker, which I found to be a bore at the time I read it. I didn't touch his books for years after that, but then The God Delusion came along and well, I thought again about reading his other stuff.

I have The Selfish Gene on my Kindle, but haven't read it yet. I know I should (soon).

[tecweston]

If anyone here hasn't read The Greatest Show on Earth, I highly recommend it. It makes the subject of evolution fascinating. The Selfish Gene was really good, The God Delusion was okay, and The Blind Watchmaker was kinda boring. But The Greatest Show on Earth is my favorite of his.

[Marrella]

Originally Posted by tecweston

If anyone here hasn't read The Greatest Show on Earth, I highly recommend it. It makes the subject of evolution fascinating. The Selfish Gene was really good, The God Delusion was okay, and The Blind Watchmaker was kinda boring. But The Greatest Show on Earth is my favorite of his.

Ok. I have The Greatest Show on Earth on my wish list at Downpour and will rearrange my priorities. I have listened to The Magic of Reality earlier this year, and even so it is a bit on the "light side" of popular science books, I really enjoyed it. The narration was also quite good.

[tecweston]

Oh yeah, I forgot Climbing Mount Improbable. Also a good read, but not as fascinating as The Greatest Show on Earth.

[Graham]

The Ancestor's Tale is wonderful. Dawkins starts with humans and follows our branches of the evolutionary tree backwards to the earliest forms of life, with our genetic cousins joining at each stage deeper into history.

Graham

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by tecweston

If anyone here hasn't read The Greatest Show on Earth, I highly recommend it. It makes the subject of evolution fascinating. The Selfish Gene was really good, The God Delusion was okay, and The Blind Watchmaker was kinda boring. But The Greatest Show on Earth is my favorite of his.

Absolutely agree about The Greatest Show on Earth. It dramatically changed how I look at life.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Graham

The Ancestor's Tale is wonderful. Dawkins starts with humans and follows our branches of the evolutionary tree backwards to the earliest forms of life, with our genetic cousins joining at each stage deeper into history.

Graham

+1 for The Ancestor's Tale.

[kennyc]

I find it a bit fascinating that a post on Dawkins Reading Recommendations immediately morphed into a discussion of Dawkins' books themselves rather than those he recommended.

I'm not complaining mind you, just find it interesting.

Me, I'm looking forward to reading that Daniel Dennett book...it's on my wishlist as soon as I can get to it....but may wait on the library to get it...

Carry on....

[Marrella]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I find it a bit fascinating that a post on Dawkins Reading Recommendations immediately morphed into a discussion of Dawkins' books themselves rather than those he recommended.

I'm not complaining mind you, just find it interesting.

Me, I'm looking forward to reading that Daniel Dennett book...it's on my wishlist as soon as I can get to it....but may wait on the library to get it...

Yeah, Dennett looks interesting, I haven't read anything by him so far.

I tried to read Dark Universe earlier this year. I knew that someone whom I respected had recommended it somewhere (it was Dawkins in another interview, don't remember where). I just couldn't get into it. But then, I often fail to appreciate older science fiction, the so called "classics" aren't my cup of tea at all.