I’m throwing this one out to all of you.
What do you think are the five must-read books on atheism?
I got this question from a friend of a friend who knows about my godless blogginess. And my first answer, right off the top of my head, was: Five?!?!? Are you kidding? Trust me — you need more than five. Five will just get you started. Five will just scratch the surface.
That being said:
My first reaction (after “You need more than five!”) would be to cite the writers jokingly referred to as the Four Horsemen: Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, and Harris. These writers keep getting cited over and over again, by countless atheist writers and thinkers. The most important books by those authors — the ones that keep getting cited over and over again — are probably:
The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel C. Dennett
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens (or instead, possibly the anthology he edited, The Portable Atheist)
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris
And then I’d add to that:
Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
But that’s just off the top of my head, and I’m not sure that’s really the best representation. For one thing, all these titles are very recent, part of the so-called “new atheist” movement. It doesn’t include Bertrand Russell, Robert Ingersoll, W.E.B. DuBois, Epicurus… anyone in the long, rich history of non-belief. And all of them but Ayaan Hirsi Ali are white Western men.
So, per the request of this friend of a friend, I’m throwing this question out to the sharks:
What do you think are the five must-read books on atheism?
And do you think the answer would be different for different situations? Would you give a different answer to a bookstore buyer? A librarian? A private individual who just wants to learn more about atheism? Would it matter if the library were a public library or a graduate academic library? If the individual were a believer or an atheist? I’m curious to know what everyone thinks; I’m wondering if I need to add still more books to my teetering “must read ASAP” pile… and my friend of a friend will be grateful. Thanks!