Book recommendations
25/6/19
One of the questions people often ask is which books on skepticism do you recommend. These are the three we think are great starters, but it's by no means definitive. We start off with The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by the late, great Carl Sagan. Though a little dated (1995) it nonetheless gives a great primer to critical thinking and why skepticism is so important in the pursuit of knowledge. It introduced the 'Baloney detector' and the 'Invisible Pink Dragon' to the conversation.
Our second book is Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine by Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst. The book breaks down various alt-med treatments such as acupuncture, homeopathy, aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic and many more. They review each modality and what evidence there is (or isn't) for its efficacy.
Lastly, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake by Steven Novella. Steve - along with his brothers Jay & Bob, Cara Santa Maria and Evan Bernstein - is the host of the very popular Skeptics Guide podcast. The book is great at setting out what is skepticism all about, why all of us fall into the same irrational traps and how we can best avoid them. There are lots of great skeptical authors out there, go buy their books and support them and add your recommendations to our social media posts.