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@humanists.uk Sep 19, 2026, 9:00 AM

Wole Soyinka, the first Black African winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, knows this firsthand. He was imprisoned in Nigeria for nearly two years, much of it in solitary confinement, and has spent his life defending the freedom to write. Put The Man Died on your #HumanistBookshelf.

‘Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress truth.’

@humanists.uk Sep 19, 2026, 9:00 AM

Nobel laureate Doris Lessing's rules for reading: browse freely, follow what attracts you, drop what bores you, and never read out of duty or to keep up with a trend. A book that bores you at twenty may open doors at fifty. #HumanistBookshelf

‘There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag-and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.’

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 6:30 PM

Few humanist authors are as well known as Salman Rushdie, who in 1989 was sentenced to death by a fatwa issued by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini over his novel The Satanic Verses, and in 2022 was stabbed on stage at a lecture in New York. He is our patron, and one of our heroes. #Humanistbookshelf

‘Nobody has the right to not be offended...If you are offended it is your problem, and frankly lots of things offend lots of people. I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is telling you to finish it.’

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 5:30 PM

In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft made a radical claim: women are rational beings, and education, not nature, is what held them back. She argued for reason and human dignity, challenging custom and religious justifications used to surpress women. She's been on our #humanistbookshelf ever since.

‘I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings are only the objects of pity, and that kind of love which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.’

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 4:15 PM

There are books that change lives.

And there are books that change the world.

Few have changed our understanding of the world as profoundly as On the Origin of Species.

So, here are perhaps some of the most important words ever written. #HumanistBookshelf.

@jackru.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:24 PM

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Another recommendation for the #HumanistBookshelf. Probably not the first Culture novel to read if you're new to Iain M. Banks' career-defining series, but my favourite and quite possibly the nerdiest. Excession.

@jackru.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:20 PM

My first two nominations for the #HumanistBookshelf are both by Douglas Hofstadter.

First up is his classic, Pulitzer-prize winning, Gödel, Escher, Bach (or GEB for short), wherein his brilliant mind interweaves the stories of three even more brilliant minds.

@lazerlout.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:18 PM

From scientific discovery to morality without gods, and finding meaning in the one life we know we have, humanist ideas have inspired some of history's greatest books. Recommend your favourites and discover more on the #HumanistBookshelf website today! humanists.uk/humanistbook...

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 11:45 AM

Really great recommendations! #HumanistBookshelf.

Get yours in now. Sagan is certainly in the lead as our most recommended author at the moment.

Also, just for fun, here's one of our favourite Douglas Adams quotes.

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful. Without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? Douglas Adams. Author and humanist.

@snewsma.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 11:04 AM

@andres746.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 10:07 AM

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 10:03 AM

What a book. What a quote!

'Clutching crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.'

Carl Sagan. #HumanistBookshelf

"Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world. This book is a personal statement, reflecting my lifelong love affair with science. But there's another reason: science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of content in our enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less**)**, lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations of pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance

humanists.uk/2023/08/24/1...

Explore the #HumanistBookshelf website today and find your next favourite book. Don’t forget to email your top three (or more) book recommendations to [email protected], or DM or shout out at us here on Bluesky. Happy Reading!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2mU...

We've also curated a brand new #HumanistBookshelf YouTube playlist featuring authors exploring humanism, history, philosophy, science, and more - all taken from our events and lecture series. Start watching now.

Bookshelves, not Bibles!

We've just launched #HumanistBookshelf and we're inviting you to get involved. The aim is simple: to celebrate great humanist writers and books that you think belong on everyone's bookshelf.

We've had an incredible response so far 🧵

@stuartaken.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 9:11 AM

@partisanne.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 8:56 AM

@steve-hill.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 7:23 AM

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@jackru.bsky.social Sep 19, 2026, 9:09 AM

No #HumanistBookshelf would be complete without at least one book (and preferably many, many books) by the truly legendary:

Ursula K. Le Guin 💙

@humanists.uk Sep 19, 2026, 9:00 AM

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 6:30 PM

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 5:30 PM

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 4:15 PM

There are books that change lives.

And there are books that change the world.

Few have changed our understanding of the world as profoundly as On the Origin of Species.

So, here are perhaps some of the most important words ever written. #HumanistBookshelf.

@jackru.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:24 PM

@jackru.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:20 PM

My first two nominations for the #HumanistBookshelf are both by Douglas Hofstadter.

First up is his classic, Pulitzer-prize winning, Gödel, Escher, Bach (or GEB for short), wherein his brilliant mind interweaves the stories of three even more brilliant minds.

@lazerlout.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:18 PM

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 11:45 AM

Really great recommendations! #HumanistBookshelf.

Get yours in now. Sagan is certainly in the lead as our most recommended author at the moment.

Also, just for fun, here's one of our favourite Douglas Adams quotes.

@snewsma.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 11:04 AM

@andres746.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 10:07 AM

@humanists.uk Sep 18, 2026, 10:03 AM

What a book. What a quote!

Carl Sagan. #HumanistBookshelf

humanists.uk/2023/08/24/1...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2mU...

Bookshelves, not Bibles!

We've just launched #HumanistBookshelf and we're inviting you to get involved. The aim is simple: to celebrate great humanist writers and books that you think belong on everyone's bookshelf.

We've had an incredible response so far 🧵