Must read books / authors?

[lister]

Hi,

Although I have been a skeptic for a couple of years now, I have only read two "skeptical" books, "Flim Flam", and "The Faith Healers", both by Randi of course.

I also read a lot of laymans physics books.

Can anyone recommend any other books I should read? I keep hearing "The Demon Haunted World" mentioned. I take it this is a good one?

Thanks,
Lister

 

[tkingdoll]

Yes, it's essential! I actually used to carry a copy around with me cause I could never remember all the cool bits to flaw stupid arguments with.

I also recommend Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer.

 

[Bikewer]

Martin Gardner has several fine titles, one for instance:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...f=pd_bbs_8/103-8445205-2939034?_encoding=UTF8

Also, CSICOP, the committee for the scientific investigation of the paranormal, has several collections of essays in book form. They have a lot of fine articles archived on their site as well. Search for Skeptical Inquirer.

 

[Anacoluthon64]

A really, really valuable book, probably my favourite alongside Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World, is Theodore Schick & Lewis Vaughn's How to Think About Weird Things. It's pricey, but worth every cent.

Other books in this genre worth reading, aside from those mentioned in other posts, and in no particular order, are:
Pseudoscience and the Paranormal by Terence Hines
Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction by by Charles M. Wynn, Arthur W. Wiggins & Sidney Harris
The Psychic Mafia by M. Lamar Keene and Allen Spraggett
Bad Astronomy by Philip C. Plait
Leaps of Faith by Nicholas Humphrey
How We Know what Isn't So by Thomas Gilovich
Science: Good, Bad and Bogus by Martin Gardner
Did Adam and Eve have Navels? by Martin Gardner
Tales of the Rational by Massimo Pigliucci
Encounters with the Paranormal Ed. Kendrick Frazier
Denying Evolution by Massimo Pigliucci
Atheist Universe by David Mills
The Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll
Voodoo Science by Robert L. Park
Bad Medicine by Christopher Wanjek

You should be able to find all of these at Amazon.com.

'Luthon64