The Duck That Won the Lottery: 100 New Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher

A good introduction to critical thinking, using actual quotes and incidents to demonstrate his points. The main problem I might express is his obvious lack of knowledge of biology creates some that are questionable; it appears likely he has never heard of biomagnification or bioaccumulation. Of course, it is rare to get the biology correct in a book of philosophy, but if he doesn't know those things, he might want to leave those examples out until he checks if what he is saying is relevant or accurate. Otherwise, he writes well (a few editing problems, mostly with inaccurate plurals, but that might be the British English working; I'm not an expert). Overall, I recommend the book highly.

Another great bathroom book, or for short-attention span readers. I did not enjoy it as much as The Pig Who Wants to be Eaten but it was still a thought-provoking read. Instead of touching on classic philosophical ideas, it covers common logical fallacies.

Great fun; how we all fall into error thro sloppy thinking, and how the media and urban legendists build on that. Somewhat similar slant to Goldacre's Bad Science, but less sustained and angry. Uses wide range of refernce both in examples and in deconstructing them, incl his background as a Philosopher. Almost makes one see a point in philosophy after all. Realised how my own thinking is less rigorous than I'd like to think!

About: Baggini describes and provides examples of 100 logical fallacies such as "quantity doesn't equal quality", "forced choice" and "begging the question."

Pros: Thought provoking. Made me think of how many of these fallacies I use. It's cool learning about fallacies I used to think were good arguments. 100 2-4 page chapters leads to quick reading. Sources cited.

Cons: 100 fallacies can seem overwhelming, I almost felt that there's no such thing as a valid argument. Hard to keep them all straight.

Grade: B

Most of these were already familiar to me, which diminished the enjoyment somewhat. However, the examples are well-chosen and illustrative