I never believed a bit in creationism, but still for me Richard Dawkins Selfish Gene was the book to end them all.

IMO, The Extended Phenotype is a better book than The Selfish Gene. While aimed at biologists it’s still accessible to the layman.

I can apply the systems used in this book to almost any question.

I find the Shubin & Prothero books a great one-two punch and recommend any time there is the least opportunity to do so.

I also found Jerry Coyne’s ‘Why Evolution Is True’ very good and it is a third book I suggest to folk interested in learning more about evolution. Coyne’s blog of the same name bears little resemblance to the book which is all about the positive case for evolution.

I’d recommend Shubin to anyone, but if I were recommending a book for someone inclined to creationism because of their religion but still somewhat open-minded (and there are some), I think Coyne’s book would be less likely to provoke a negative reaction than Prothero’s. Prothero’s book does shine as a handy compendium of everything needed for a detailed destruction of any YECs and I’ve used it as such on several occasions. The material on the Grand Canyon alone is excellent for this.

The best thing about the Shubin, Prothero and Coyne books, though, is that they are fascinating reads even if you come into them, as I did, convinced that evolution is true. Even if there was no evolution – creationism kafuffle, they’d be well worth reading.

Sorry, I guess I did, but I didn’t mean to. I like your book a lot, although I’ve only seen a borrowed copy of it. In this case, however, my objective was to chose the one definitive book on the fossil record and evolution with a certain degree of attention to the problem brought to the table by creationists, and Don’s book is the clear choice among many. I’m sure your book will turn up on a forthcoming list of topically defined books.

But you totally did anyway. Thanks a lot, Greg.