"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

-- Charles Darwin, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, 6th ed., p. 429

So just what is this thing called "evolution?" Everyone has heard of it, but what actually is it? What does it say? Where did it come from? What does it mean? Why do scientists accept it as valid? The books listed on this page will (I hope) help you answer these questions.

Because of the way I got interested in the subject, my approach to studying evolution is sort of like the Blind Men and the Elephant in that no one of these books will give you the whole story, but when you put them all together I think you'll have a pretty good mental image of the theory and what it says. And also what it doesn't say, which in some ways is just as important.