Reading List

I acquired a lot of good books over the past few months. Here’s some of what I’ll be reading over the next few snow-barren winter months. Feel free to share your own lists, too.

• Douglas Adams (1986) The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – That’s right, I never got around to reading this until now. I’m at the beginning of the 4th book now, and I can’t put it down!
• Søren Kierkegaard (1843) Fear and Trembling – “If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?” Upon recommendation by my brother.
• Joseph Campbell (1959) The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology – In his four book Masks of God collection, Campbell examines the history and development of world mythology, stretching back as far as written and oral tradition reach in the first volume and continuing on to the East, West, and modernity in the following three. And, of course, I’m rarely disappointed by Campbell.
• Frans de Waal (2006) Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved – Religion is often argued to be necessary because atheism is without morals, yet most atheists are decent people. People often think of morality as a cultural invention, but de Wall develops an evolutionary argument for a strong continuity between human and animal behaviors.
• John Gillespie (2004) Population Genetics: A Concise Guide – I just began a population genetics course this semester, which looks like it will consume a lot of time. I’m enjoying it so far, though; it’s a good combination of probability mathematics and genetic logic, and my genetic vocabulary is slowly returning to me.