 | Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley
Buy new: £5.73 / Used from: £0.63 Excellent. anyone can read this
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 | The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £1.41 A good read. It's about tracing ancestors via mitochondrial DNA.
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 | The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis: Most Credible Theory of Human Evolution by Elaine Morgan
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £1.14 Several books refer to this, e.g. Genome, so it is worth finding out what the arguments for this hypothesis are.
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 | The Darwin Wars: The Scientific Battle for the Soul of Man by Andrew Brown
Buy used from: £2.22 Good description of the warring factions. Interesting to read about extreme characters like George Williams.
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 | The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind (Penguin Science) by Steven Pinker
Buy new: £7.11 / Used from: £2.75 From what I have read so far, he writes very enthuseastically but sometimes he can lose you with the descriptions of gramatical structure.
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 | The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language by The late John Maynard Smith
Buy new: £9.48 / Used from: £8.06 Good technically but I find it would have helped if I knew more biology. Another book I am currently reading
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 | Mendel's Demon: Gene Justice and the Complexity of Life by Mark Ridley
Buy used from: £5.71 Quite readable but again one of many books I am in the process of reading
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 | Beginnings: the Story of the Origins of Mankind by Isaac Asimov
Buy used from: £1.00 Steps back through evolution and keeps going to the formation of the earth and beyond. A bright child could read this.
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 | The Great Evolution Mystery (Abacus Books) by Gordon Rattray Taylor
Buy used from: £0.01 A good author who had no axe to grind. He just wrote a book about the state of evolutionary theory which means he thought Darwinism has a tough time explaining everything.
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 | The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (Penguin Press Science) by Matt Ridley
Buy new: £7.17 / Used from: £3.46 Interesting but not such a great read as Genome. I've read about half of this so far.
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 | The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Buy used from: £1.02 I'm still reading this. He writes well about the things I already understand but leaves me wanting to know more about the things I don't know anything about.
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 | Almost Like a Whale: The 'Origin of Species' Updated by Steve Jones
Buy new: £7.76 / Used from: £3.89 I didn't like this. See my review to find out why.
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 | Human Instinct by Robert M.L. Winston
Buy used from: £0.01 An entertaining read but not very good science. He presents the material but is not convinced himself and finishes up telling you about his belief in God.
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 | How the Mind Works (Penguin Press Science) by Steven Pinker
Buy new: £7.12 / Used from: £3.69 I have read some of this and it seems very interesting so far
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 | The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution (Cambridge Reference Book)
Buy new: £38.25 / Used from: £17.67 Being an encyclopedia I have only browsed or cherry-picked from this. But it has a wide scope which means you can learn a lot which is not available in books by popular writers.
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 | Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth by Lawrence M. Krauss
Buy used from: £9.00 Just bought this. I saw it in a shop and could not resist the concept of describing the life and times of an Oxygen atom from the start of the universe
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 | The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
Buy used from: £2.39 Another one I bought but have not got around to reading apart from a few pages. Perhaps after Atom I will want to find out more and this will be a good continuation
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 | Genes, Peoples and Languages by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
Buy used from: £2.23 I had just read The Seven Daughters of Eve and this seems an ideal follow up. But Sykes is a better writer than Cavalli-Sforza on this evidence.
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| What Is Life by Lynn Margulis
Buy used from: £14.00 A bit of a coffee table book which means it is big with lots of pictures. Probably why I have not read more of it - a small paperback is easier to hold and carry around!
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| Einstein's Universe: Guide to the Theory of Relativity (Pelican) by Nigel Calder
Buy used from: £0.01 I read this years ago. It made me think I understood Einstein's theories.
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| The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan
Buy used from: £1.91 At the time, I read this and other Sagan books like Brocas Brain. They were very good.
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 | Adam's Curse: A Story of Sex, Genetics and the Extinction of Men by Bryan Sykes
Buy used from: £0.69 Sykes seems to enjoy writing and we enjoy his prose
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