Recommendations about a biology non-fictional book i could read?

How about Bonk?

Lives of a Cell, by Lewis Thomas is a wonderful and readable series of essays.

Here’s a review by a ninth-grade science teacher;

5.0 out of 5 stars
By Pamela Farrell….

“Lewis Thomas has done an excellent job interpreting his thoughts on life through the language of science. He blends the two so delicately and precisely, that one starts to forget where the line between real life and scientific theory is drawn. Lewis Thomas found joy in science and it is illustrated in his essays. He manages to show the reader a peek at how a scientist….looks at the world.

I have chosen this book as one for all of my ninth grade Honors Biology students to read and report about. The book definitely makes the reader ‘think’...you will not be able to just read one page after the other..one will need to keep a dictionary close by. Thomas uses…alot of scientific terminology. It is….not for the lazy reader. It is for those…..who read to learn more and enjoy the challenge of new vocabulary to broaden their own horizons in science or language itself. I enjoy giving my students a challenge… .”

Bonk gets a GA from me.

I dislike this book’s author, tenor, and conclusion, but it is good background reading, and is extremely popular: The God Delusion.

@wildpotato that’s a philosophy book, though.

Grr. I feel like I should know something to suggest, but my mind’s coming up blank. It’s a shame you’re stuck to non-fiction, or I’d suggest ‘Evolution’ by Stephen Baxter.

or you could try ‘Moby Dick’. I was classified as non-fiction for several years after he wrote it, actually. Doubt they’d let you, though.

Your Inner Fish is a great read about how human evolution can be linked to these seemingly unrelated fish fossils found in the arctic. Pretty amazing stuff. Easy read, too.

The Secret Life of Germs

We need them, you know! Well, some of them, anyway.

What about Stephen Jay Gould, such as Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes

The Serpent and the Rainbow I had to read it for my anatomy class. It’s pretty wicked.

Food books, like Heat (by Bill Buford), anything Michael Pollan’s written (In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Botany of Desire), books by Anthony Bourdain (he’s got bad language but good writing), biographies of famous chefs (like Julia Child), books about/by food critics…only if you like food, of course. :P

For something completely different, The Gecko’s Foot deals with inspiration from nature to build new and different things.

Or anything by Robert Sapolsky. He’s been featured on RadioLab, so you know he’s good. :D

Do you need more recommendations?

@BhacSsylan No. It’s nothing so rigorous as to be called a philosophy book. It’s a biology book, written by a biologist, refuting theories of intelligent design from a biological standpoint. Read the book description on Amazon.

@wildpotato I’ve read it. I don’t think it’s not about biology, I just find it to be more centered around (and for) the philosophy. But, that may also because I read it for the philosophy, so I’ll concede the point.

Oops! The food books are probably a stretch. But The Gecko’s Foot and Robert Sapolsky are still good.

Sorry!

I’m glad for all of these responses, i didn’t think i’d get that many suggestions!. I have more than enough, and am actually a bit more excited than i was before (i wasn’t excited at all) lol. I’ll be sure to write them all down and check them out, maybe at the library tomorrow and pick one.

Thanks! ;)

Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” is a powerful and important classic.

The Selfish Gene

Climbing Mount Improbable

How the Mind Works

All enjoyable, insightful and thought provoking, and you don’t need a degree in biology to understand the principals.

The Selfish Gene gets my vote.

And I will vote again for The Selfish Gene. After the Origin of the Species, it is the most important book in biology.

The Hot Zone… I had to read it in my microbiology class in high school. i can’t remember the author’s name though. its short but it was a college level book. i read it in a few days.

The Hot Zone is by Richard Preston. I read it earlier this year and thought it wasn’t bad.

+1 The selfish gene

Also red queen is fascinating.

Any of Asimov’s biology books

The Red Queen*** super awesome and all about sexual reproduction

Sperm Wars*** also super awesome and all about sexual reproduction

Silent Spring

A Fierce Green Fire-about the start and growth of the environmental movement