New Dawkins books now available
Alright, I will admit, I am a huge Dawkins fan, have read three of his books, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable and The Ancestor’s Tale.
I always wanted to get myself his Oxford Book on Modern Science Writing, but it was until now only available in expensive Hardcover.
The brand new book, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution was released on my birthday as a sign from God. Well perhaps not.
As the cover and name would suggest it is a book on the evidence for evolution. His previous books where all on the process of evolution, his gene centered view in his first book; The Selfish Gene, the process of natural selection and the improbabilities of the forming of complex systems is covered in TBW and CMI. The Ancestors Tale was a rather long walk to the origins of life from modern man. This new book now delves into why we know evolution is true, by using evidence gathered through various areas of the sciences. 
Two must have books in my opinion. But I first need to wait, as I have about three unread books and another two from A.C Grayling on order.
You’re going to love The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing. I’m also a huge Dawkins fan, having read all of his books (more than once, or twice!)
He is without a doubt my favourite non-fiction writer. Hands down. I can’t wait to get the new book — I’ve been phoning around over the past weekend, but nobody seems to have it yet. (I’m also from SA and I am not sure why but they’re taking their precious time getting this one here — we didn’t wait this long for The God Delusion!). Will have a go again tomorrow. I can’t wait to read it! Anyway… you’ll thoroughly enjoy The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing. It’s perfect for travelling or reading in bed at night, as the pieces aren’t too long and can be read seperately. 
Yes, I can’t wait to read the Greatest Show myself as you should have gathered from my post. However some of my mental faculties are striking because I am biased towards the biology faculty
. I need to read a bit on other sciences as well. I have been thinking to read some Feynman before I read another Dawkins book. What non biology popular science books would you recommend?
Interesting that you mention the God Delusion, I have not read it. When it was released I only had some vague knowledge of the book’s existence, but that was during a time in which I was studying political science and socio informatics at university and had no time for things outside of that scope.
However when I finished in mid 2008 I had(still) a crisis of faith, which I had for about 3 years, so I wanted to know what makes an atheist tick and find out for myself why I am vibrating to it’s notions. Somewhere in around 2005 I experienced what Christopher Hitchens calls the “baptism”.
The ‘baptism’ occurred was during a conservative Christian sermon.
So I bought The Blind Watchmaker instead and that was good enough for me. Even after I have read it, I still struggled with personal incredulity, but reading Climbing Mount Improbable delivered me from my foolishness. Since then I have never looked back, and how thankful I am for being brave enough to respond to the baptism.
When you say you’re biased towards the biology faculty — it’s thanks to Dawkins’ books that I decided to quit studying visual multimedia and get a degree in zoology instead, which I currently am! All thanks to The Extended Phenotype and The Blind Watchmaker, really!
Some of my absolute favourite science books for a general audience:
*Science in general:
Galileo’s Finger — The Ten Geat Ideas of Science, by Peter Atkins
Science: A History, by John Gribbin
The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle In The Dark, by Carl Sagan
Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond
Unweaving the Rainbow, by Richard Dawkins
*Biology:
Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, by Daniel Dennett
Genome, by Matt Ridley
Why Evolution is True, by Jerry Coyne
Your Inner Fish, by Neil Shubin
*Psychology:
The Blank Slate / How The Mind Works, by Peter Atkins
Consciousness Explained, by Daniel Dennett
The Mind Made Flesh, by Nicholas Humphrey
*Physical Sciences:
Cosmos / Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan
The Trouble With Physics, by Lee Smolin
*Philosophy:
Freedom Evolves, by Daniel Denett
An Introduction to Philosophical Logic, by AC Grayling
The System of Nature, by Baron d’Holbach
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume
…and lots and lots of others… I could be here all day.
I loved Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great. Have you read that one? Oh, and I have quite a few of these books in pdf format on my PC as well. I’d be happy to send them to you, if you’d like?
Oops. The Blank Slate and How the Mind Works is by Steven Pinker, not Peter Atkins. My bad.
Nice list, I’ll have a look into some of them. I also have the ebook from Hitchens(some 12 in 1 pack), but I don’t enjoy reading books on the pc at all. I have however his book Letters to a Young Contrarian, which was great.
I have also read The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, and have How the Mind Works waiting on the shelf. TLI is a phenomenal book, I highly recommend it to you.