What should I read? What are the most important works? What are the classics? I have only The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype, and the first edition of The Origin of Species, though I haven’t read much of any of them.
I recommend TalkOrigins, especially its index to criticisms of evolution which is useful in debates about evolution.
Dawkins makes evolution seem a walk in the park. I particularly enjoyed "River out of Eden”
I would start with a basic bio I and bio II book then:
I don’t think there is much need to actually read Darwin
Dawkins would be a great resource, but he is a pompous yergoph. Origin of species is a little old and technical, making it double the chore, and it is a little outdated.
Biology, specieation, macro/micro evolution, dna, genetics, selection methods; sexual, social, natural, etc, mutation… look for things like these.
Evolution is a pretty broad subject, you might want to get some geography/geology to go with it.
Also, TED conference; artificial life, look it up.. fascinating.
I haven’t read him, but another big popularizer besides Dawkins was Stephen Jay Gould
And there’s Daniel Dennet’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. (that’s a lot of D’s)