 | Ecoviews: Snakes, Snails, and Environmental Tales by J. Whit Gibbons
Buy new: $17.95 / Used from: $0.01 Top quality first book to read for the uninitiated to the realm of natural science. The first half has the authors set on rapid fire, explaining many interesting roles and interactions found in nature. The second half is more of a narrative that gives you an idea what it is like to be a researcher in this field.
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 | The nature of natural history by Marston Bates
Buy used from: $2.00 Biology in words for the layman. Highly accessible, classic.
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 | The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change by Vaclav Smil
Buy new: $18.25 / Used from: $15.99 Amazingly concise synthesis of nearly everything we know that deals with science and life. If you do not want to read all the books on this list, you might be able to get away with just reading this one. The only draw back being the author does not spend much time on individual topics nor does he define many words. A glossary would make this book perfect. Not for the new to science.
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 | The Diversity of Life by Edward O. Wilson
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $3.50 Biodiversity, what it means, how it came about and why it is important. Explained by one of the most important biologists of our time
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 | The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem by Jon R. Luoma
Buy new: $22.38 / Used from: $18.29 Explains many of the recent insights into forests that Long Term Ecological Research has brought about.
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 | Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas by Carl Safina
Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $1.51 This book introduces the reader to all things ocean.
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 | The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen
Buy new: $15.84 / Used from: $3.99 One of the must read ecology books.
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 | Life at the Limits: Organisms in Extreme Environments by David A. Wharton
Buy new: $33.00 / Used from: $17.16 Great introductory book into the wide variety of extremophiles. Covers all the interesting research to come out of the study of life living under extreme conditions.
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 | Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard: The Mysterious World of Mushrooms, Molds, and Mycologists by Nicholas P. Money
Buy used from: $4.85 The Wonderful World of Fungi and the people who study it.
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 | Under Ground: How Creatures of Mud and Dirt Shape Our World by Yvonne Baskin
Buy used from: $0.08 If you've ever wondered what's going on in dirt, this book is for you.
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 | A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $2.87 Title explains it all. Covers most of everything in a way that is easy to understand.
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 | Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick
Buy new: $11.25 / Used from: $2.50 This book goes into the research that deals with introduced species and their ecological impact. Great narrative that covers both terrestial and ocean ecosystem invasions.
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 | A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Buy new: $11.65 / Used from: $0.01 This is the book that kick started a lot of important ideas and research. At its base it is just one man's observations of his piece of land
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 | Nature Revealed: Selected Writings, 1949-2006 by Edward O. Wilson
Buy new: $32.00 / Used from: $11.00 Ants, Biodiversity and other topics. This book collects some of E. O. Wilson's best papers. These are the kind of scientific, peer reviewed papers that the books on this list are based on.
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