As a recent graduate about to move on to a Masters in paleoecology, I have been following this thread looking for good summer reads. So I went to the library and checked out some of the books that have been recommended. I have started by picking up The Selfish Gene and The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. I have read very engaging essays by Richard Dawkins, but find The Selfish Gene gratingly didactic, somewhat boring, and outdated (50 pages in). I can see that Dawkins' tone has the potential to alienate students on the fence instead of inspiring them to think about evolution (as Madhusudan Katti related). To echo Katti and Ken Leonard, I would not recommend using this book.
The Reluctant Mr. Darwin (100 pages in), while lacking insight into genetics, is very well written - occasionally makes me laugh out loud - and makes an engaging story of the development of Darwin's ideas; it has the potential to be a very good book for a humanities/social sciences class as an introduction to Darwin and evolution. I am interested in reading Cyril Aydon's biography of Darwin, as it comes recommended by Howie Neufeld over Quammen's The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. Fulfilling the same purpose, it might make a better selection for the course. Best of luck! Thank you all for your recommendations and insight! Next up, The Tangled Bank. Blake Hodgin B.S. Soil Science University of Idaho >
