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Buy Some Of The Best Skeptic Books Of 2009!

By Kylie Sturgess

21
Dec. 09

This year has been an excellent one for new books — some of my favorites published this year include:

SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable by Bruce M Hood. The Skeptic Zone interview is on episode thirty and you can also read the interview in the next UK Skeptic magazine!
Beyond Belief: Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal by Dr Martin Bridgstock, launched at the recent Australian Skeptics National Conference to great acclaim!
59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot by Richard Wiseman, who is about to tour the USA… so keep an eye out for him state-​​side!
There’s the very thought provoking and debate-​​inspiring Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum.
Dr Karl’s Get Fact is a definite for young and the young at heart — an excellent discussion of a range of scientific questions.
Of course, no one would have missed The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution — by Richard Dawkins.

Ones that you may have missed — Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia by Brian Regal. It spans the full spectrum of scientific and nonscientific pursuits, from chemistry, biology, psychology, and medicine to eugenics, religion, cryptozoology, the occult, and paranormal activities.

Don’t Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style- by Randy Olson PhD, whose documentary ‘A Flock of Dodos’ was screened at the Australian Skeptic’s national Convention in Adelaide.

Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy is by Seth C. Kalichman and you should also check out Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives by Michael Specter.

Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History by David Aaronovitch is a great overview of many popular conspiracy claims — and don’t forget to subscribe to skeptical magazines such as Skeptical Inquirer, the UK Skeptic, The US Skeptic at skeptic​.com and Australian Skeptic’s Skeptic Magazine — found at www​.skeptics​.com​.au.

Finally, the popular science and skepticism poetry blog called The Digital Cuttlefish - they also have a Volume Two out — and they’re giving away both volumes for free as a pdf. They can be downloaded thanks to www​.digitalcuttlefish​.blogspot​.com.

On the blog Podblack Cat you can find a post called — Skeptic’s Guide To Getting Good Stuff This Holiday Season, where I’ve also included some non-​​reading greats which have been released. There you should check out the efforts to get Tim Minchin’s single for ‘White Wine in the Sun into the top forty. There’s also the Here Comes Science album by They Might Be Giants, which I got as a present for a friend’s new baby this year. There’s the Macbeth: The DVD Edition (Folger Shakespeare Library) of Penn and Teller fame… and much more!

Here’s to a well-​​read holiday and keep checking the Young Skeptics Amazon list too!

Tags: 2009, Books, links elsewhere, news, reading list, recommendations, science books, Skepticism, skepticism books, Token Skeptic

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 9:48 am and is filed under Conspiracy Theories, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Kylie Sturgess, Media, Paranormal, Philosophy, Pseudoscience, Religion, Research, Science, Skeptic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Buy Some Of The Best Skeptic Books Of 2009!”

  1. 1
    Bing says:
    December 21st, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    Ohhhh. Groan.…I tried to read Hood’s book, and it was like a root canal. It’s not the science, though I didn’t really see what was new, it was the style. Anyway, I did a brief review on my site, to which Hood had some pretty classy retorts. A gentleman scholar, I would call another person. Not Hood.

    http://​hjhop​.blogspot​.com/​2​0​0​9​/​1​2​/​h​j​h​o​p​-​r​e​v​i​e​w​-​s​u​p​e​r​s​e​n​s​e​-​w​h​y​-​w​e​-​b​e​l​i​e​v​e​.​html

  2. 2
    What Review? says:
    December 21st, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    There was a criticism raised on that link that “You didn’t challenge his logic or conclusions or anything. You didn’t engage with his thesis at all. You expressed an opinion about his style. What thoughtful response could he give?”

    I think it’s a little difficult to give ‘classy retorts’ if you’re not given classy review in the first place. ‘Gentleman scholar’ isn’t what was being shown in the first place to his work. I’d strongly suggest that people give Hood’s work a chance regardless.

  3. 3
    Bing says:
    December 21st, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    It’s a fair point, but truth be told, I generally agree with him (well, as much as I could get through, anyway). But that’s also what’s so frustrating about the book; I did not see what was new or ground breaking. Maybe I couldn’t get that far, but it seemed to be a rehash. Now, if you were to give it to someone who was not a skeptic or someone not up on the skeptical literature, there is a very good chance that they would learn a lot. I got a headache.

    (There was a bit in the book where he speculated about his audience, and I think he totally got them wrong. Essentially he said, “Skeptics don’t buy books like this [about skepticism],” which is sort of a bad misjudging of his audience in the first place, I suspect. Maybe that’s why there was so much rehashing.)

    There is also the question of kairos. There are some places where you just don’t jump into the fray. I mean, if there really is nothing of use to be said, why say anything? He’s completely entitled to, of course…but really, was, “Where did you get your degree?” the grown up thing to do? He seems to impart mystical significance to his own degree, as if it made him a better writer somehow. I’ve seen a lot of people say they really, really like the book. That’s fine. The science is fine. It’s the style that killed this book for me.

  4. 4
    What Review? says:
    December 21st, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    He was asked about ‘skeptics’ don’t…’ on the Skeptic Zone podcast interview (episode #30 at http://​skepticzone​.libsyn​.com/​i​n​d​e​x​.​p​h​p​?​p​o​s​t​_​i​d​=​4​7​9​1​6​0​&​a​m​p​;​c​o​m​m​e​n​t​s=on) — and if you read his site, he says that he reconsidered and removed the comment from the US edition, after getting to know skeptical communities more than he had in the past.

    “I mean, if there really is nothing of use to be said, why say anything? ”

    So, we should get rid of Dawkins’ new book, because everything that had to be said about evolution has already been said by Darwin? ;)

  5. 5
    Bing says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 9:51 am

    Well, I’ll be damned.

    HJ

  6. 6
    Bing says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 9:53 am

    Also, touche.

    HJ

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