yes, ayn rand has many great quotes from both her books! Though the sex scenes are a bit bland..they could be spiced up a bit....lol

I am currently Reading1. The Culture of Make Belive by Derrick Jensen2. About A boy by Nick Hornby3. Guns Germs and Steel4. The Feeling of What Happens by Damasio5. The princess bride by Goldman

Recently read and current books:1. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand2. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand3. The Selfish Gene by Dawkins4. Unweaving the Rainbow by Dawkins5. Cosmos by Carl Sagan6. The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore7. I am half way thru The Blind Watchmaker by DawkinsFollowing books are on order:1. Freedom from the Known by Jiddu Krishnamurti2. The Language Instinct : How the Mind Creates Language by Steven Pinker3. Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett

I just finished reading The Selfish Gene. Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul was before that(I'm a teacher--it was a gift!). Then there was Strange Behavior-Tales of Evolutionary Neurology, The Darwin Awards, and Darwin's Dangerous Idea. I also enjoy reading books about dogs, apes, mysteries, and just about anything suggested to me.

Last five:River out of Eden by Richard DawkinsAtheism: The case against God by George H. SmithUnweaving the Rainbow by Richard DawkinsA Choice of Enemiesby Mordecai RichlerThe Christians as the Romans saw them by Robert WilkenCurrently Reading:The Demon Haunted World by Carl SaganRequiem for a dream by Hubert Selby Jr.

I too tend to jump on recommendations. A member of another list forwarded Shermer's E-SKEPTIC FOR JUNE 11, 2003 which included two book reviews. I immediately ordered Jones, Y, Dennett, Freedom Evolves, Ridley, Nature via Nurture, and Damasio's new book, Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain, which is about to come out in paper. I don't remember which two were in Skeptic!My usual method is to keep one in the bathroom (currently, a collection of essays from The New York Times, Scientists at Work), one in the car (Ludlum, The Sigma Protocol, silly fiction because I ran out of non fiction on tape), and one in my bag, to read at lunch (Re-reading Wilson, Consilience).I recently finished Ridley, The Origins of Virtue, and Dawkins, A Devil's Chaplain; Unweaving the Rainbow; Miller, The Mating Mind (another Dawkin's recommendation), and Gopkin, Meltzoff, and Kuhl, The Scientist in the Crib. I've also begun and dropped Axelrod, The Complexity of Cooperation (Too technical, I got the point); and Hobbes, Leviathan. Science is neither a philosophy nor a belief system. It is a combination of mental operations that has become increasingly the habit of educated peoples, a culture of illuminations hit upon by a fortunate turn of history that yielded the most effective way of learning about the real world ever conceived. E.O.Wilson

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't. I've read the opposite; that attempts to measure weight loss at death have repeatedly failed to find any change at all, down to a tiny fraction of a gram. This may be another case of lying for jeebus. Science is neither a philosophy nor a belief system. It is a combination of mental operations that has become increasingly the habit of educated peoples, a culture of illuminations hit upon by a fortunate turn of history that yielded the most effective way of learning about the real world ever conceived. E.O.Wilson

My last five books include:1.Atheism: A Philosophical Justification by Michael Martin. not finished yet.2. Story by Robert McKee. A book on writing screenplays3. Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick. Tough read but well worth it. About political philosophy.4. Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer. 5. For whom the bell tolls Hemingway.

Hey wmmurrah, I've read story by Robert McKee also. You should see the movie Adaptation (written by the guy who did 'being john malcovich' and 'confessions of a dangerous mind'. The movie has nicolas cage going to one of McKee's story seminars. It's very entertaining.

I wanted to update my list by mentioning a new novel I just started. Cocksure by Mordecai Richler, who's one of my favourite novelists. Read some reviews Also try The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, which I've read and is excellent, and Barney's Version, which I haven't yet read but my friend Ryan praised to the moon and back.