Secular Elation

My sophmore year in high school, I took Biology class. One of the units was, of course, evolution. We learned mainly the key points of evolution in depth (natural selection, mutation, etc). That was two years ago and although I still have a good understanding of natural selection and mutation, I know there is still much more to learn about evolution. To me, evolutionary science is the most fascinating academic subject, and I would love the opportunity to learn more.

I was wondering. What is the best book I should read to become well-knowledgeable about evolution and Darwinism? I have always enjoyed this particular forum and reading some of the discussions, but because I am not an expert in evolution, I have not been able to be involved in the discussions.

As for book recommendations, you would probably immediately suggest Darwin's classic, On The Origin Of Species. However, must I read this book, or are there more modern books that have a more thourough and developed explanation of all that is evolution? I've heard that Steve Jones' Darwin's Ghost is a good book to read to learn all about evolution, but what do you think about it?

I know Richard Dawkin's books have great relevance to evolution. Over a year ago, I purchased his Climbing Mount Improbable and I was fascinated by his defense of natural selection as a process without divine design. However, this book doesn't reveal all about evolution as Darwin's classic probably does.

How about the late Stephen Jay Gould? I've never read any of his books, but from what I see, he has some reputation as an evolutionary thinker.

So I inquire of you...what is the best book on evolution to read to step toward being a know-it-all in evolution?

Kevin

Out of all the books on evolutionary biology for the beginner I've read, one of the best is Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer. It's the closest thing I've ever seen to a textbook-like presentation of evolutionary biology written for a popular audience. Carl Zimmer has also written a popular book on the evolution of tetrapods and whales called At the Water's Edge. Zimmer's writing in both books is first class, but I especially love the latter book. It captures not only how much information can be gleaned from the fossil record, it also gives a sense of the frisson of discovery (and made want to be a biologist--it came out around the time I graduated from high school with no real sense of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life ).

For a single case study of evolutionary research in the wild, I recommend The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. It covers one of the standard examples of evolution in the wild, among the finches of the Galapagos, so it will certainly be informative for you if it was covered as one of the examples in your biology book.

As your familiarity with evolution grows, you may want to seek out more technical information, and there's a good collection of articles edited by Mark Ridley contained in a book called, simply, Evolution (Oxford Reader). It can serve as a bridge between the popular science books and the textbooks, which I think you should read in due course for the fullest understanding of evolution. Mark Ridley is the author of a good textbook on evolution, and Monroe Strickberger's and Douglas Futuyma's textbooks are very fine too, but that's sometime in the future.

I wouldn't recommend reading Gould until well after familiarizing yourself with evolutionary concepts, because, in my opinion, Gould's presentation of modern evolutionary biology is highly biased and misleading. In the interests of not having this discussion spill over into this thread, I'll just note that you can find more about why I think this by following the link I gave in "The debunking of scientific fossils and straw persons" thread.

Lastly, I am using links to Amazon which go through my Associates ID, meaning I get a percentage off all sales made via one of these click-throughs. You certainly don't have to buy off me, or buy anything at all, if it doesn't suit you, I just do this in order to earn Amazon gift certificates back which I then use to buy books for donations to school libraries in my area. I also include a discreet sticker in each book pointing them back to my website, Talk Origins and the NCSE, having gotten the idea from the idiots in Alabama who ordered those disclaimers to be plastered in school textbooks.

ex-xian

The best I've read is "The Blind Watchmaker" by Dawkins.

vixstile

That book SUCKED!. Not necessarily the content, it had some interesting stuff about the HIV virus, but it quickly became monotonous. As pop science it was boring.

I would recommend starting out with Dawkins. Selfish Gene, Extended Phenotype, River out of Eden, and Blind Watch Maker.

Roller

Maybe Ernst Mayr's "What Evolution Is"

Dr.GH

There are a number of suggested books in the top thread of this forum. My suggestions are:

General Evolutionary/Creato debate Bibliography (Sans the creato references)

Burnie, David
1999 Get a Grip on Evolution London: The Ivy Press (Good place
to start)

Dalrymple, G. Brent,
1991 The Age of the Earth Stanford: Stanford University Press

Darwin, Charles
1872 (1995 reprint) The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection 6th edition New York: Senate Press

Eldredige, Niles
2001 The Triumph of Evolution: And the Failure of Creationism New Yor: W. H. Freeman and Co.

Iris Fry,
2000 "The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview" Rutgers University Press

Kaufman, Stuart A.
1993 The Origins of Order: Self -Organization and Selection in Evolution Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Not for the Math challenged)

Schopf, J. William
1999 "Cradle of Life:The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils," Prinston University Press

Tattersall, Ian
1995 The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution Oxford: Oxford University Press (Out of date already in terms of fossils found in just the last 8 years, but still a good general introduction)

R. E. Taylor & Martin J. Aitken, Editors
1997, Chronometric Dating in Archaeology New York: Plenum Press.

Doubting Didymus

I'll second ridleys oxford reader. You couldn't ask for a better mix of contributors.

KeithHarwood

No. This is a mistake that creationists make. They try to make out that Darwin was some sort of prophet and that his word is the ultimate authority on evolution. However, the ultimate authority is observation of the real world and in the 150 years since Origin many thousands of people have made many millions of observations, many of them in fields of endeavour that didn't exist in Darwin's day. Today, the undergraduate who just manages to scrape through his exams knows more about evolution than Darwin ever did or ever could.

In evolution, as in every field of science, any book that is more than twenty years old is either very superficial or seriously out of date.

God Fearing Atheist

I know its not a book, but if you havent already, be sure to check out Talkorigins.

I would second the Dawkins suggestions, and agree (obviously) with Kevin about Gould .

EDIT: Stupid spelling error.

-GFA

Secular Elation

No. This is a mistake that creationists make. They try to make out that Darwin was some sort of prophet and that his word is the ultimate authority on evolution. However, the ultimate authority is observation of the real world and in the 150 years since Origin many thousands of people have made many millions of observations, many of them in fields of endeavour that didn't exist in Darwin's day. Today, the undergraduate who just manages to scrape through his exams knows more about evolution than Darwin ever did or ever could.

In evolution, as in every field of science, any book that is more than twenty years old is either very superficial or seriously out of date.

That is true. However, if there is any value out of reading Darwin's classic, it may not be to learn all the up-to-date information on evolution, but it would be the benefit of learning the historical background and familiarity with the source of the theory. After all, it all began with Darwin.