Recommended Readings for a Beginning Atheist

[Mudhammam]

I was wondering, and I thought maybe others may be as well, if any of you could recommend some decent books on atheism/atheistic thought? I'm rather new to all of this, and I like to explore what others have to say on the subject. I'm familiar with some atheistic philosophers, and people like Richard Dawkins; but I'm looking for some others as well and thought you all may have some favourites you'd like to pass along/share.

I need to get my summer reading list together. I don't have money to take classes this summer semester (and after finally having to get into the meat and potatoes of my pre-med this semester I"m not sure if I'd want to anyway lol) so I need to fill my time with some sort of learning.

If you're up for something that gets a little technical at times, I couldn't recommend anything higher than "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" by Daniel Dennett. It offers a thorough philosophical analysis of the tenets of evolution that might help you (it did for me anyways) better understand why the bottom-up approach is intellectually defensible while the top-down approach embraced by theists is not.

[Fromper]

I just want to second the "thank you" for all the recommendations. I'll hopefully have more time for reading soon, so it'll be good to have this thread to reference.

[Clueless Morgan]

James Randi - Flim Flam.

Although not specifically about Atheism, it is an entertaining look at sceptisicm and how fraudsters operate and fool people.

Sweet, I didn't know James Randi wrote books... *adding to my amazon wishlist*

[Cyberman]

JesusNeverExisted.com is also a fun and interesting resource, with many articles, podcasts and videos on the subject. It's how I cut my teeth in the world of internet atheism and I haven't looked back since (mainly 'cos it's too painful, what with these cut teeth and all).