Reddit mentions of On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition

I absolutely love examining the characteristics of books. I especially like large books with heavy, glossy pages (like textbooks) although they are a pain in the ass to actually read.

My two favorite books (based on the feel) are:

• The Ancient World At War: Cloth hardcover; textbook style pages. Almost 4 lbs.
  
• The Origin of Species (Illustrated Edition): Cloth hardcover; textbook style pages. 6 lbs!
  
  After those two, my next favorite would have to be a 50-year old softcover Penguin Classics Crime & Punishment. It is super floppy, lightly yellowed, and has the perfect book smell.

I highly recommend Darwin's "The Origin of Species [by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life]." It sets the groundwork for a lot of modern biology, while also being an outstanding philosophical endeavor (his second work, "The Descent of Man" even moreso, but it also carries some cultural artifacts that are less than ideal these days). Despite what you might assume, it does not require much technical understanding, and is not nearly as dry as modern scientific papers. I honestly very much enjoyed reading it, and Darwin does an amazing job of explaining himself. I highly recommend an annotated version of Origin with the illustrations from his notebooks.

EDIT: I recommend either this illustrated version or this annotated version. These have the first edition text, crisp and clear and strong, and not nearly as watered down as some of the later editions of Origin. I've heard that this particular annotated version is considered one of the best ever produced, so it's probably your best bet.

The closest relatives of gorillas are chimpanzees and humans, all of the Hominidae having diverged from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. This, among many other explanations for evolution are addressed in Charles Darwin's book One the Origin of Species.

David Quammen's Illustrated Origin of Species is good.
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