Newbie Advice Needed

While "introductory" is somewhat subjective, I'd suggest starting with Darwin's "On the Origin of
Species". He described it as one long argument for the theory and it's an easy read - it gives many
major concepts, lays out Darwin's (excellent) insight into problems with the theory and gives a
great sense of the history all in one.

Steve Jones' "Darwin's Ghost" is a good single-volume update (and some sort of update is needed),
but I didn't find it nearly as fun to read as Darwin.

If time permits, I'd suggest anything by Richard Dawkins (e.g. Climbing Mount Improbable, The Blind
Watchmaker) and almost anything by Steven Jay Gould (his essay series are superb reads... Dinosaur
in a Haystack, Bully for Brontosaurus, etc., as is his Wonderful Life, and The Mismeasure of Man is
a great historical look at man's attempts to put his species and individual races atop all others).
Have fun. Best regards, Brett.

Oh, and especially if you're a baseball fan, you might like Gould's Full House.

"Kenneth Ramstad" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello group, I would like to learn about evolution in general. What would be a good introductory
book on the subject? Cheers Ken

I'm sort of in agreement here. However, I'm assuming you know nothing at all
about this topic, which is a fascinating topic, so if you can get hold of it
I would first of all suggest this:

amazon.co.ukref=sr aps software 1 1Open ↗ 026-8356382-0673225

This will start you off nicely. After that I would suggest trying Darwin's Origin of species. which
will get you started but is very out of date. Steve Jones has updated it, but as the previous poster
said it is nowhere near as gripping. I have also to state that you have to remember that Darwin's
book is one long argument so he repeats the same point in many different ways. I found myself saying
out loud to the book "Oh, come on, I get the point", as I really wanted to move on a bit, but then
it hit me that it's one long argument aimed at a sceptical public.

I would certainly recommend anything by Richard Dawkins, but the first book to try is The Selfish
gene, then Blind Watchmaker, the Climbing Mount Improbable.

If you want to learn more about human evolution I would recommend starting

selection. It also reads better than Origin of Species in my opinion as it is in parts a commentary
on the nature of the human and human life.

The BBC series Walking with cavemen is excellant at bringing you up to date. I would also recommend
Richard Leakey's 'The origin of humankind'.

Evolution is a fascinating topic, and in some ways a beutifully simple one, which opens your eyes so
much to the nature of the world.