1. How comfortable the book is to hold/read. I never like reading those tiny mass market paperback books with their tiny letters and their small margins. Nor do I like reading a book that is too wide. Something in the middle works for me.
2. How beautiful the cover is. A beautiful cover means extra points for any book.
3. How good the bonus material in the book is. Pretty much every edition of Origin of Species has at least an introduction discussing the history of the book, and sometimes much more.
4. Anything else you like!
Write in the comments the edition you like best (who published it and when). I think my favorite edition so far is this one:
The Origin of Species (Modern Library)
I'm also considering this: Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated
It's an updated version of the Origin.
It's interesting that you would make this post because in the last couple of days I have been looking for a good edition of the Origin. I have never read it and am looking for the best one to go through.
ReplyDeleteLike you I am not interested in a mass market edition. What I would like, though, is one that presents the first edition with some type of running commentary containing some of the following information:
1. Comparing the first edition with the others
2. Showing where Darwin was correct and where he was wrong
2. Updating any scientific information that clarifies or corrects what Darwin wrote
So far I haven't found one that quite meets this criteria.
Hey Anthony,
ReplyDeleteI'll also recently heard about an updated version of Origin of Species, and I updated my post to link to it.
Thanks for the recommendation. Although Darwin's Ghost sounds good and I will order a copy, it's not quite what I was looking for.
ReplyDeleteI did however find one that I think does, it's called The Annotated Origin, here is some information about it at Amazon and here is what it looks like at Google Books.