Two Books To Read
I have two books to recommend to make good reading during the year-end break. The first book, What Evolution Is by one of the greatest evolutionary biologist of our time, Ernst Mayr, is an exceptional book in terms of conciseness and clarity. Pages after pages facts are brought upfront without much fluffing around, evolution concepts and ideas are explained with great clarity and parsimony, occassionally contrasting them with what Creationism could offer. I have yet to finish the book myself having read only halfway through but I feel happy that I already got my money’s worth just the same. This is one book I will be keeping in my library to serve as a handy reference whenever I need to check my facts or give me a hint on how to proceed when questions about evolutionary theory crops up for clarification, or if I simply have to drill down to the details of the updated theory. The book disagrees with Richard Dawkins‘ gene-centric approach to evolution.
The other book is Free To Choose by Nobel Prize in Economics winner Milton Friedman. It’s co-written by his wife, Rose Friedman. This book picks in the latter half of the 20th century where other libertarians left off earlier. Written in the same spirit as On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, this book will not fail to provoke your thoughts, on the ideal relationship of the individual and the state, with emphasis on personal freedom and conscience. The same spirit that I suppose was the intention by the framers of the Philippine constitution, and which remains an ideal rather than a reality.
Enjoy reading!
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December 17th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
is the book “What Evolution Is?” available locally? and how much is it?
one other thing, could you please recommend other evolution related books which are available locally, other than the book mentioned.
thanks.
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:07 am
I am not sure if Mayr’s book is available locally. I will check it out. There is this bookstore in Rockwell that carry some of the books that are difficult to find from the other local bookstores. As for other books on evolution, Darwin’s Origins is available locally and I think should always be the first book to read on the subject followed by an updated one like Mayr’s if you don’t have much time. On human evolution, I haven’t read Darwin’s Descent Of Man yet (it’s sitting in my shelf for some time now) but I recommend Spencer Wells’ The Journey Of Man. This narrates the most likely story on how humans dispersed and came to occupy territories based on genetic analysis. Very cool stuff.
If you prefer to see more pictures, Carl Zimmer’s Evolution (The Triumph Of An Idea) is a good book written for the layman in us.
cheers!
KSW