My friend Randall Parker sent me an email where he suggested I should put up a post relating to books for the holidays. This makes sense, since I’m a book nerd. Over the years I’ve started to realize time is precious, and have offloaded a lot of the hard work of figuring out things to others who have domain specific specialties (e.g., I have friends who are into nutrition or exercise, and rely on them to give me appropriate pointers and direction). As implied by the title I’ll probably try and do this every year now. Also, I’ll avoid textbooks in the following list, and will attempt to be more diverse in my disciplinary focus than usual….

The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. The variorum edition from 1958 with J. H. Bennett is what you want. R. A. Fisher is dense, but this isn’t a textbook. If you understand 10%, that’s a lot of understanding.

The Isles. Norman Davies’ magisterial narrative history of the British Isles.

In Gods We Trust. You won’t look at religion the same way after.

Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations. All about endogenous growth theory and its origins. More interesting than it sounds. As important as it sounds.

From Plato to NATO. This book has had many lesser copycats.

The Truth About Everything. A history of western philosophy. It has illustrations.

Prehistory of the Mind. Underrated hybrid of evolutionary psychology and paleoanthropology.

The Fall of Rome. A materialist take on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. I’ve read this book three times.

The Number Sense. Like The Language Instinct for numeracy.

What Hath God Wrought. An anti-Jacksonian history of early America.

When Genius Failed. The template for “too big to fail.”

The Imitation Factor. Great short read on behavioral ecology.

Mutants. Armand Leroi can write beautifully even about the grotesque.

Descartes’ Baby. The child is the father of the man.

Calculus Made Easy. This is an old and chatty book. It’s not a text.

A Beautiful Math. Game theory and John Nash’s science.

Grand New Party. Not the Tea Party.

Genome. Compulsively readable.

The Human Web. One of William H. McNeill’s later books.

From Dawn to Decadence. Jacques Barzun’s magnum opus.

Readers are invited to offer their list of 20 in the comments. Randall has been challenged to put one up at his blog. Though I hope people will try and make the books at least somewhat accessible and relevant to a general intelligent audience (e.g., no books on Design Patterns or The Art of Computer Programming).