Recommended reading list

These days there are countless books available that deal with atheism, religion, philosophy, popular science and other topics that any humanist might have an interest in (including of course, humanism!), but rather than restrict our recommended reading list to those areas, we asked our members for their favourite book of any sort, to get an idea of what humanists might enjoy reading outside of those subjects. We also tweeted a few well know people in the humanist/atheist/skeptic field to get their (current!) picks. As it can be very hard just to pick one, there is also a section full of other choices. Please let us know what your favourite book or books are, by e-mail, our Facebook page or Twitter.

Each book choice has a link to the Amazon page for that book and, as we are an Amazon associate, we get a small contribution every time one is bought, so make sure you click those links if you choose to get any of these great reads.

First of all, here’s a book by our patron Lord Joel Joffe: The State Vs. Nelson Mandela: The Trial That Changed South Africa, which simply has to be the first book we recommend you to read!

 

Swindon Humanists members and Facebook page favourites:

 

Neil Davies chose Frankenstein: or `The Modern Prometheus’

“Better still, get this stunning illustrated version”: Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein

 

 

 

Lisa Davies chose Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome

 

 

 

Belinda Neal chose A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss

 

 



 

Nikki Dancey chose Stoner: A Novel by John Williams

 

 



 

Fred Pound chose The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

 

 



 

Andy Bentley chose The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R.Tolkein

 

 



 

Helen Mann chose The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane

 

 



 

Benjamin Carter chose High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

 

 



 

Jo Garton chose Middlemarch by George Eliot

 

 



 

Andrew Whitford chose Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C.Clarke

 

 

 

Twitter replies:



@seanmcarroll – The Problem Of The Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How to Reconcile Them

 

 


@PhilipPullman – The Balloonist by Macdonald Harris

 

 



@andrewcopson – The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell

 

 



@ArianeSherine – After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell

 

 



@SLSingh – The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

 

 



@helenarney – Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

 

 



@warrenellis – Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

 

 



@iszi_lawrence – The Whitsun Weddings by Phillip Larkin

 

 



@chriscfrench – Parapsychology: Science or Magic? by James Alcock

 

 



@JosieLong – Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates or Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut

 

 



@EmmaK67 – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

 

 



@ShappiKhorsandi – The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend

 

 



@ProfFrancesca – Last Temptation by Nikos Kazantzakis

 

 



@RealDMitchell – Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

 

 

Other favourite choices:



 

The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity

 

 



 

The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress

 

 



 

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett

 

 



 

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

 

 



 

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris

 

 



 

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

 

 



 

The Demon-haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

 

 



 

Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character as Told to Ralph Leighton

 

 



 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

 

 



 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

 

 



 

Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith

 

 



 

The Particle at the End of the Universe: The Hunt For The Higgs And The Discovery Of A New World by Sean Carroll

 

 



 

Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking by Susan Cain

 

 



 

Why Does the World Exist?: One Man’s Quest for the Big Answer by Jim Holt

 

 



 

Doubt: A History by Jennifer Hecht

 

 



 

The God Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life by Jesse Bering

 

 



 

Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell

 

 



 

The Good Book: A Secular Bible by A.C.Grayling

 

 



 

Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics by Simon Blackburn

 

 



 

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

 

 



 

The Complete Human Body by Alice Roberts

 

 



 

Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane

 

 



 

Why Does E=mc²? by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw

 

 



 

Tricks Of The Mind by Derren Brown

 

 



 

Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry by B.S.Johnson

 

 



 

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

 

 



 

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

 

 



 

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

 

 



 

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

 

 



 

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle

 

 



 

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

 

 



 

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman