A monthly reading club
Curious Apes
The Reading Selection
One book a month. I read it, I take notes, and I send you what I got out of it.
The November book
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin, 1859
Get the book, free
1859 first edition: EPUBKindleread onlineplain textall formats
Audiobook (LibriVox; it reads the 6th edition of 1872)
Darwin argued that species aren't fixed. Individuals vary, and some of that variation is inherited. More are born than can survive, so the ones whose variations suit their conditions tend to leave more offspring. He called that natural selection, and argued that over long stretches of time it can turn one species into several, so that living things descend from common ancestors.
He builds the case one step at a time, from pigeon breeding to the fossil record to life on islands, and gives four chapters to what he called “the most apparent and gravest difficulties on the theory”.
Two ways to read it
- The whole book. All of it, start to finish.
- The short path. The introduction, chapters 1 to 4, chapter 6, and the last chapter.
Read along
Give me your email and I'll send my summary, reading notes and a study outline for each book.