Don't let Rough Guides let The Rough Guide to Evolution go out of print!

Is it possible to be very happy and very disappointed at the same time? That is about how I am feeling right now!!

Why am I happy?

Well, as I pointed out a few posts back, my university, the University of Birmingham, has taken the bold step of buying 6000 copies of my book The Rough Guide to Evolution and will be giving a copy to every new undergraduate student at the start of the next academic year in September.

This is a wonderful initiative--just imagine students, studying every subject we teach (and all their lecturers), all reading about evolution and its impact on every aspect of human thought at the very same time in the very same week!! Has there ever been anything like it?!! Other universities have had student books, but these have always been novels or memoirs. This is the first time, a whole cohort of students has been simultaneously reading one factual book and, Darwin and evolution fans, rejoice in the fact that it is on evolution!!

And to cap it all, we are having a series of events at the University allied to the launch of this "Great Read" initiative, including a talk from the award-winning Ken Miller, subject of so many positive tweets for his recent talk at the Evolution 2011 conference in Norman, Oklahoma and Darwin descendant and novelist Emma Darwin talking about the evolution of a novel!

So, why am I disappointed?

Because the University has now emptied the warehouse at Rough Guides of copies of the book and so this initiative will drive the book out of print, unless Rough Guides agree to a reprint. The minimum reprint is 3000 copies and I shouldn't imagine Rough Guides are paying more than a couple of quid per copy to be printed, so we are talking only a few thousand pounds of investment here.

So how have Rough Guides responded?

They have said that it is too risky for them to print another 3000 copies, because they cannot be certain of the demand! :-(

And why does it matter if the Rough Guide to Evolution is now out of print?

It seems very sad to me that the Rough Guide to Evolution will soon be out of print, when ideally you the public should be at least be getting a reprint and at best a new edition. All those five star reviews and for nothing!

And then there is the fact that the Great Read initiative will soon be communicated to hundreds of thousands of our alumni, many of whom are likely to want to buy their own copies of The Rough Guide to Evolution.

And some of the parents of students coming here are going to want their own copies.

And so will some of our university staff who are not teaching first years, and so don't get a copy of the Rough Guide to Evolution for free!

And what about all those who hear of the initiative via media reports?

And finally there is all you evolution fans out there in the blogosphere and twittersphere and on Facebook.

If you don't have one already, wouldn't you still like to be able to buy a copy for yourself?

And if you do have your own copy, wouldn't you recommend The Rough Guide to Evolution to friends and family?

And if you work for an organisation that defends evolution and science (e.g. the NCSE), wouldn't you want to continue to be able to recommend it--or even buy it for use in--your outreach programme?

An experiment

So, dear reader, why don't we do an experiment to see how much support and demand their is for a reprint, just from you people reading this, let alone all those alumni and parents?

If you are on twitter, please tweet or retweet "@roughguides please don't let #roughguidetoevolution go out of print; I want a copy; please reprint now!" with a link to this page. I will retweet the message each day for a week!

If you are not on twitter, please add a comment to this blog (and follow the link to get here if reading on Facebook) confirming that you don't want the Rough Guide to Evolution to go out of print and why.

If you feel particularly strongly about this, please e-mail Rough Guides editor Andrew Lockett (Andrew.Lockett@uk.roughguides.com) politely expressing your dismay and providing evidence for the value of keeping The Rough Guide to Evolution in print.

So, let's see how it goes. If we get only a few dozen statements of support, then Rough Guides are right not to do a reprint. If we get hundreds, that will give them pause for thought, but probably won't be enough. But if we get thousands, then they will have to take notice.

And if all my twitter followers retweet the message that and then all their followers retweet it, we could have thousands of tweets in days!

The game's afoot--get tweeting!

A five-star review

This from Howard Kornberg via the Amazon.co.uk site:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything Evolutionary, 6 May 2009

By

Howard Kornstein (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Evolution (Rough Guide Science/Phenomena) (Paperback)

If you're only going to purchase and read one book about Evolution, this has GOT to be the book. Pallen's great achievement is that he's been able to create a virtual encyclopaedia of information about Darwinian science, history and influence in a mere 340 pages. This does not mean that the treatment of any part of the subject is at all superficial; Pallen's great talent (aside from producing such clear and readable text) is his ability to get to the heart of the matter in such a direct and concise way. For the non-scientifically inclined reader this means that he/she can come to grips with these not so obvious concepts without what seems a long, confusing and tedious uphill grind. Nor is the excellent treatment of how the mechanisms of Evolution work done at the cost of less focus on the implications of Evolution on Philosophy, Politics, Religion, the Arts and even modern hip culture. Pallen brings to life the histories and character profiles of the great evolutionary scientists - Darwin himself, Mendel, Bill Hamilton, John Maynard Smith and many others, making the subject all the more human.

Pallen's treatment of the subject of the "science wars" of Creationism vs. Evolution and Religion vs. Science, where such an understanding is so necessary these days for a well-informed reader, is unparalleled in both clarity and conciseness. Pallen also provides many light-hearted Evolutionary diversions, e.g. a "top-10" evolutionary iPod playlist, evolution based games, entertainments, and one of the best reference reading guides around.

The book can be read "cover to cover" or even by just skipping about, without losing any understanding of the topic; indeed the book is an entirely enticing and tasty smorgasbord of information about this important and fascinating subject. The book is not just an excellent introductory read for the newcomer to the subject, even someone who have done some quite a lot of serious reading on the subject of Evolution is still certain to broaden, clarify or update his/her subject knowledge by reading Rough Guide. All-in-all a wonderful read by someone who not only writes well, but also an author who really knows and loves his entire subject.

The phoenix rises from the ashes, the coelacanth from the ocean!

Apologies, dear reader. This blog has been dormant for over a year...

There were a couple of reasons for this

1. I felt the need to re-focus my efforts on my "day job" in bacterial pathogenomics rather than devote myself to things Darwinian and evolutionary
2. I also did somewhat max out on Darwin and evolution during the Darwin bicentenary year.

However, in the last eighteen months, I have had some success in getting grants in and papers out (although papers still lagging behind grants), what with an MRC grant on Acinetobacter genomics, a BBSRC grant on the chicken gut microbiome and a major stake in an NIHR research centre for surgical reconstruction and microbiology. Plus the blog and twitter feeds associated with my research group (@pathogenomenick and @mjpallen) are now well established. So, there is now enough slack in the system for me to return to this blog!

But another more pressing reason presents itself—in fact, a new highly positive development. My University, the University of Birmingham, has adopted my book The Rough Guide to Evolution as the "Birmingham book", which will be given out to all new undergraduates starting this October (>5000 students!).

The book was selected after a due process involving judges from all over the University. I am very flattered that the selection panel agreed that the book covers the influence of evolutionary thinking across all disciplines and human endeavours, so it can form a talking point for tutorials and teaching in all sorts of courses. Its adoption by the University is a bold move, but our Vice-Chancellor has said that whether students agree with or disagree with, like or dislike the subject, they have to confront the big ideas of time and evolution is one of them. It is going to one huge evolution fest, with so many students and staff thinking about evolution all in the same place and at the same time. Does anyone know of any similar venture elsewhere in the world!?

Anyhow, with this new development, I am more conscious than ever of how events have moved on in the last couple of years since I wrote the book and how much needs updating. I have discussed the possibility of a second edition with the publishers, but it seems that the book trade is down on its luck at the moment and they won't commit to that just now.

So, I intend to fill in the gaps here, on this blog, reviewing all the exciting new publications and productions that stemmed from the bicentenary year, plus highlighting new discoveries that augment what is in the book, so that when students start in October they will have an online supplement to bring them right up to date. Please send me your suggestions for what I should review or discuss as the big discoveries or best publications/productions in evolution 2009-11!

I thank anyone who has kept me in your blogroll and ask all those who deleted it to restore it!

And to jump-start the renaissance of the blog, let me post my favourite top ten posts from the 180+ that I posted in 2008-9:

1. Neanderthal jigsaw puzzles

2. Could life play fairy chess?
3. Darwin's smelly rude bits
4. Darwin's Descendants: a Legacy in Science and the Arts
5. 2009, Tom Paine's Remains and Darwin
6. Dispatches from the cutting edge of flagellar biology part 2 and a half
7. From Darwin and Lincoln to Obama: Freedom Evolves!
8. Ten myths about Darwin and his theory of evolution
9. David Hume's influence on Charles Darwin
10. جميع الرجال الاخوة כל הגברים הם אחים

Rough Guide to Evolution in the Malvern Gazette

My local newspaper, the Malvern Gazette are running a story this week on The Rough Guide to Evolution, complete with my ugly mug. You can pick up the story online here. But for the mugshot, you will have to buy a  print copy!

Favourable reviews of The Rough Guide to Evolution: but what do you think?

I have to confess that I am a little disappointed that The Rough Guide to Evolution hasn't received more reviews, whether in the quality press or in blogs or even on the Amazon websites. I guess that the market is somewhat saturated with books on Darwin and evolution in this bicentenary year.

Anyhow, I am pleased to see three favourable reviews out there in cyberspace. The first, a five-star review on amazon.co.uk, has been up for some time and is from Ray Higginson from Pontypridd:

"This is a superb little book about evolution. Pallen's style is engaging, informative and at times funny (The section on Darwin's ipod, for example). What makes this such a good book is its up-to-date discussions on evolution and the science behind the 'theory'. Some textbooks on evolution can be a bit dry but this one is far from that and will serve as a great introduction to both evolutionary science and Darwin himself. A very fitting addition in the year celebrating 200 years since Darwin's birth. Great!"

Yesterday, this was joined by another five-star review, this time from John Kwok and on amazon.com. Kwok's review is far too long to quote in full (look at it here), but is generally highly positive:

"It is simply no exaggeration to regard [t]his book as the best, most succinct, introduction to evolution and its impact on human culture that I've encountered. It is, quite simply, an utterly delightful book, replete in clear, concise, prose."

Helpfully, Kwok includes a few hints at what should perhaps be included in the second edition (but note that many things had to be left out of the book for reasons of space!).

A couple of weeks ago, Gary McGrath McGath reviewed The Rough Guide to Evolution for the site LibraryThing. His review is also generally highly positive in tone, starting as follows:

The Rough Guide to Evolution is a very enjoyable and readable book on evolution, which everyone but the incurably ignorant can probably learn something new from. It presents some solid science without getting so deep as to lose non-specialist readers like me. It also has quite a bit of fun, citing The Simpsons and the Flying Spaghetti Monster as well as Mendel and Huxley.

Later, he quibbles over the fact that I mention in the book that the execrable film Expelled drew a legal challenge from Yoko Ono, but fail to mention that Ono lost the case. Well, there is no conspiracy here--when the relevant section was written, the case was still pending. I will make an amendment in the second edition. 

McGrath McGath also expresses a dislike for the Rough Guides house style, particularly the boxes that are interspersed with the body text. I find this curious, because, for me, this was one of the attractions of the house style, in that allowed one to go off on tangents and explore many more side topics that would be the case if everything had to be woven into one continuous narrative.

So, dear reader, what do you think of The Rough Guide to Evolution? What did you like or dislike? Did you like the boxes? Is there anything that you think I left out and should include in the next edition? Anything I should drop? And please feel free to add your own reviews to the amazon.co.uk and amazon.com websites!

The Book is Here!

A couple of days ago I returned from a short holiday in Sicily to discover five advance copies of The Rough Guide to Evolution in the post! It is thrilling to see something which started off as just an idea culminating as a finished product! Although I wrote it and had seen all bar the index and final few pages as proofs, it is another thing entirely to hold the book in my own hands.

Now, with the passage of time since I wrote it, I can almost start to read it as if it were written by someone else. I hope I won't appear smug if I say that I thoroughly pleased with the whole product. OK, there are a few typos that slipped past myself, the editor and the proofreader--I expect Dawkins will tolerate being called "arguably the world [sic] best science writer", although he might quibble about the "arguably"!

But in compensation for the typos, there are a few last minute changes and additions that improve upon what I have seen in proof. The image of Heston's inter-species kiss, which, as I pointed put in an earlier posting, we weren't allowed to use on the cover, now appears in the section on Evolution in science fiction. 

The two cover images, which epitomise contemporary biology (a chimp on the front) and the history of evolution (Darwin on the back) have now been joined by an iconic image from palaeobiology for the inside front cover (an Archaeopteryx). And fittingly, the last image in the book is of the label for Wasatch Evolution Amber Ale, in the section on Darwinian retail!

Thumbing through the index is also a delight, bringing home the reality of just how much I have been able to cover in this small but densely packed volume and emphasising the uniquely eclectic reach of the work. Where else would you find indexed together in the same volume under the same letter:

• Behe, Michael
• Biblical manuscripts, evolution of
• breasts, evolution of

or 

• Malthus, Thomas
  
• Marley, Bob
  
• Megalonyx jeffersonii
  
• Moby Dick
  
• Muslim responses to evolution
  

In fact, I have to smile at the way in which I have managed to include multiple references to the city in which I work (Birmingham, England 9, 21, 80, 158, 188, 237) and to another enduring interest of mine (reggae music 74-75, 92, 262, 267), as well as  a reference to one of John Maynard Smith's rude neologisms (sneaky fucker mating strategy 127).

I should emphasise at this point that what I have are five advance copies of the book, that have been airfreighted to the Rough Guides office. It is not yet on sale. The book has been printed in Hong Kong and is now on its way to Europe and the US, quite literally, on a slow boat from China! The staff at Rough Guides assure me that we are on target for having it on sale before Christmas, but quite when it will appear in which shop or online outlet will depend also on the efficiency of the retailer's ordering and supply chains. Amazon. com are advertising a December 15th release date, so US readers should get it in time for Christmas. 

Go on: pre-order it now! You won't be disappointed!!