I am interested in books that challenge things that we today currently accept as universal truths. Examples of books and the maxim they challenge
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* Determined by Robert Sapolsky – Humans have free will.
* Some Assembly Required by Neil Shubin – The concept of common ancestor.
* Debt by David Graeber – We had barter system, then it became too complicated, so we invented money.
* The End of Alchemy by Mervyn King – Money in circulation can be controlled by the govt
* The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber – The idea we went from hunter gatherers to farms to cities as we progressed in technology complexity.
Really interested in reading similar books, I love seeing my my mind & changed for the better.
by vada_buffet
1 Comment
Big fan of Neal Shubin! Here are some nonfiction books:
* [Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/174710.Seven_Myths_of_the_Spanish_Conquest). I found this in a thread on /r/AskHistorians
* [Why Everyone Else is a Hypocrite](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8733371-why-everyone-else-is-a-hypocrite). Challenges the idea that you truly know yourself and are in control of your own ideas.
* [Darwin Comes To Town](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34930832-darwin-comes-to-town). Many people think of cities and nature as two totally separate categories, but this book is all about wildlife adapting to live in cities, forming brand ecosystems and exhibiting unexpected behaviours.
* [Big Chicken](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33583833-big-chicken), about the role of agriculture in spreading antibiotic resistance diseases. I don’t know if “antibiotic resistance comes from humans improperly using antibiotics” is as much of a truism these days as it was when this book was written (2017, so not *that* long ago but long enough for minds to change). I used to work in a laboratory that studied antibiotic resistance a bit before before this book came out and I can say that it’s an accurate but layman friendly exploration of the history and present day of this problem.
* [Survival of the Sickest](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/119837.Survival_of_the_Sickest) about diseases being adaptive traits that cause problems out of their evolutionary context. I must warn you, this book does contain many inaccuracies. The idea of things we currently consider genetic diseases being adaptive traits in some prior context is a real one, it’s just that a lot of the examples he uses here are on shakier footing. Like for example, he describes iron supplements counteracting antibiotics, but cites *one* really, really old study. That’s because there isn’t actually a body of research to support that claim so he has to cherry-pick. I thought for a long time whether to include this book or not.