Peter Godfrey-Smith's 6 favorite books for expanding your mind

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Philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith is the author of the 2016 best-seller "Other Minds," which explored what octopus intelligence reveals about the development of consciousness. His new book, "Living on Earth," offers a grand tour of the history of life on Earth.

'Close Range: Wyoming Stories' by Annie Proulx (1999)

Short stories, including the original "Brokeback Mountain" and more. I was given this book by a friend about 20 years ago, and it reset my view of what writing can do. Buy it here.

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'The Honorary Consul' by Graham Greene (1973)

I picked this novel off the bookshelf of a bed-and-breakfast almost randomly about three decades ago and started reading. I went on to read just about all of Greene's books, and I think this one and "The Power and the Glory" are his best. (I've read that Greene agreed about "The Honorary Consul.") I don't remember the plot well, after the botched kidnapping. It's the Greene nexus of degradation, alcohol, religion, and redemption. Buy it here.

'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting' by Milan Kundera (1979)

Another book that changed my view of literary possibilities (perhaps I keep lapsing into a too-narrow view and need to be jolted out of it). Kundera also inspired me on the stylistic side, through his relaxed, direct, transparent writing, and I also appreciate the gentle humanism of his outlook. Buy it here.

'American Salvage' by Bonnie Jo Campbell (2008)

More American short stories, grittier and less lyrical than Proulx's. Set in Michigan. Campbell creates wonderful characters. Buy it here.

'Moby-Dick' by Herman Melville (1851)

I reread "Moby-Dick" when I was writing "Metazoa," the second of the trilogy that began with "Other Minds" and ends with "Living on Earth." There's nothing like entering Melville's universe and floating around in it for a month or two. Buy it here.

'Gödel, Escher, Bach' by Douglas Hofstadter (1979)

A logical-philosophical-computational tour de force. Very long, very rewarding. I read it between the end of high school and the start of my university years, and it set me up well for my journey into philosophy. Hofstadter also typeset the book, and one has the sense that the book embodies its writer to an unusual degree. Buy it here.

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