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The Essential Skeptic’s Bookshelf

joobz

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joobz
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Aug 31, 2006
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I just wanted to get some advice on what people consider the essentials for reading into skepticism.

I did a search and found that there are some threads similar to this, but I wanted to get an updated view.
 
The ones I always keep handy, for reference or else, are:

Carl Sagan - The demon-haunted world
Michael Shermer - Why people believe weird things
Martin Gardner - Science: Good, bad, and bogus
Theodore Schick - How to think about weird things
James Randi - Flim-flam!
Todd Carroll - The Skeptic's Dictionary (I actually consult this one online for the most part, but the book is nice)
 
Thank you!
I'm setting up a amazon order, and wanted to round it out a bit.
I already had Sagan, shermer and Randi on the list, but I didn't know the others.

thanks!
 
Anyone read Joe Nickell's "Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal"? I love his articles in Skeptical Inquirer, and this is a collection of the best. If that's the case, I imagine it'll become an essential part of my bookshelf soon!
 
I've got the next one, "The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files". It's pretty good.

Depending on your interests--there's a lot of stuff on i.d./creationism and evolution, separation of church/state. Also theism--Dawkins' new book The God Delusion (I only got it a couple days ago).
 
Oh yeah--I really like The Rejection of Pascal's Wager, A Skeptic's Guide to the Bible and the Historical Jesus by Paul Tobin. You can read it on his website too. (I think it could've benefited from a better proofreading, but it's a great reference.)
 
The Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon and any other religious text as a reference guide.
 
I would recommend "The Conscious Univserse" by Dean Radin.

Simply because all good sceptics should be informed on either side of the debate. You may not agree with the content!
 
davidsmith73 said:
I would recommend "The Conscious Univserse" by Dean Radin.

Simply because all good sceptics should be informed on either side of the debate. You may not agree with the content!
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As long as you don't consider it a question of equally valid arguments from each "side of the debate".

While "The Conscious Universe" does not contain any evidence of the paranormal, it is a lesson in how the Superstitious think and argue.

Book Review: Dean Radin, "The Conscious Universe"

An Evening With Dean Radin

Skeptical books worth having:

Flim Flam!, James Randi
The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan
Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, T. Hines
Why People Believe Weird Things, M. Shermer
Missing Pieces: How to Investigate Ghosts, Ufos, Psychics, & Other Mysteries, R. Baker and J. Nickell
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, M. Gardner
Science: Good, Bad and Bogus, M. Gardner
Voodoo Science - The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, Robert Park
 
For light reading- Kurt Butler's A Consumer's Guide to "Alternative Medicine"

For more detail on the same material (and more)- Barrett and Jarvis (eds.) The Health Robbers

Bob Park's Voodoo Science

Joel Best Damned Lies and Statistics

For a good background in Science- Bill Bryson's A Short History of Everything
 
On issues of evolution- Richard Dawkins; The Selfish Gene and The Extended Phenotype. On Religion, The God Delusion.
Isaac Azimov's collected science essays (try any good second hand shop, probably in the Science Fiction section. (They shouldn't be, but I doubt The Good Doctor would have minded).
 
A bunch my recommendations are already recommended...

Sam Harris: End of Faith

And for daily inspiration, grab Cosmos on DVD.
 
Delphi said:
Anyone read Joe Nickell's "Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal"?
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Yes. It's quite a fun read.

Others:

Jamie Whyte, Crimes Against Logic.
Alan Sokol and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense.

William Dembski, No Free Lunch, because this is the only attempt by Creationists to present a mathematical argument.

~~ Paul
 
Richard Feynman's transcripts on critical thinking/irrationality (I think they're included in What Do You Care What Other People Think?, or it might be The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, but get both cause all his books are amazing).

Further to the Sagan recommendations, Billions and Billions is very good and has some nice stuff about the environment in it.
 
tkingdoll said:
Richard Feynman's transcripts on critical thinking/irrationality (I think they're included in What Do You Care What Other People Think?, or it might be The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, but get both cause all his books are amazing).

Further to the Sagan recommendations, Billions and Billions is very good and has some nice stuff about the environment in it.
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Thanks for the Feynman suggestions. I read Surely Your Joking... He was hot. :D

I've been looking to add others to my list.
 
PBS has an 8-hour program on Evolution (First aired October 2001) and there is a companion book by Carl Zimmer. The video begins with a few hours of actors playing the part of Darwin and friends. If this does not suit you, skip ahead to where each segment addresses some aspect of evolution.
 
Walter Gratzer: The Undergrowth of Science (gets a hostile review on Richard Milton's "Alternative Science" website ;) )

For an examination of some "myths" of science, John Waller: Fabulous Science

On a lighter note, and if you can find a second-hand copy, John Sladek: The New Apocrypha
 
Good suggestions already. I'll just add anything by Martin Gardner, such as the delightful Did Adam and Even have Navels? Debunking Pseudoscience and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science.
 
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Soapy Sam said:
On issues of evolution- Richard Dawkins; The Selfish Gene and The Extended Phenotype. On Religion, The God Delusion.
Isaac Azimov's collected science essays (try any good second hand shop, probably in the Science Fiction section. (They shouldn't be, but I doubt The Good Doctor would have minded).
Click to expand...
Asimov!!:mad:

Out of print but still findable is Nicholas Humphrey's Soul Searching. It very successfully analyses the failure of decades of parapsychologica research to come up with hard, repeatable evidence, alongside interesting sidelines on the fact that Jesus never did anything that couldn't be duplicated by a conjurer. He even mentions Randi!
 
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