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Steven Pinker's Reading List

Cognitive psychologist, linguist, and Harvard professor; author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now.

Steven Pinker's Top Ten Favorite Books

Curated for One Grand Books with personal commentary from Pinker.

Source: onegrandbooks.com

One, Two, Three... Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science

George Gamow · 1947 · Buy on Amazon

"A delightful introduction to number theory, Einstein's theory of relativity, higher dimensions, and other mathematical and scientific topics."

The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design

Richard Dawkins · 1986 · Buy on Amazon

"Perhaps the best display of expository scientific prose of the twentieth century. It gave me the idea to try my hand at the genre in The Language Instinct."

The Evolution of Human Sexuality

Donald Symons · 1979 · Buy on Amazon

"The founding document of evolutionary psychology, filled with insights about sex and the sexes."

The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do

Judith Rich Harris · 1998 · Buy on Amazon

"A grandmother from New Jersey uses genetics, ethnography, and child psychology to refute the dogma that parents shape their children's intelligence and personality."

36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein · 2010 · Buy on Amazon

"A moving, hilarious, and intellectually deep novel about religion and atheism."

Enemies, A Love Story

Isaac Bashevis Singer · 1972 · Buy on Amazon

"Perhaps my favorite contemporary novel by someone I'm not married to."

Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History

Matthew White · 2011 · Buy on Amazon

"Brush up your history, and marvel at the cruelty and stupidity of our species."

Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose

Francis-Noel Thomas · 1994 · Buy on Amazon

"Perhaps the best analysis of writing style, and a major inspiration for my own The Sense of Style."

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

David Deutsch · 2011 · Buy on Amazon

"This 21st-century statement of the ideals of the Enlightenment offers fresh insight on a vast number of topics."

Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary

Stewart Brand · 2009 · Buy on Amazon

"The environment is not hopelessly despoiled and depauperate, says eco-modernist Stewart Brand."

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