Three books that made me reexamine long-held but baseless beliefs

All science-y.

Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
A huge thank-you flies out to George for recommending this. To be brief and partially inaccurate, Jaynes thinks the people of Western civilization were all what we now call schizophrenic before the Iliad. He’s probably wrong but outlines a stunning theory. The idea of self suffused throughout the body instead of lodged in the head finally hit home for me after this.

J. E. Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia
Probably right and not at all hippy-dippy. He doesn’t get into earth-as-Living-Planet-with-unfathomable-thoughts territory at all. No, it’s good science.

Timothy Taylor, The Buried Soul: How Humans Invented Death.
2005 has been a gothy year for me.