For years teachers have provided students with lists of general interest books “for further reading” or even for supplemental assigned reading (see Knoblock, 1968, Plant Science Bulletin 14:4-6 for such a list).  In the early 1990’s, at LSU, I first began assigning students to read and critique up to three general interest biology books per semester, chosen from an annotated reading list. My objectives were first, to stimulate interest and introduce critical reading skills to students, but also to provide students an opportunity to earn a significant number of relatively easy points towards their class grade.  I have continued to do this in all of my courses, both majors and nonmajors, undergraduate and graduate.  Depending on the course, I limit students’ choices to specific topic areas on the reading list.  This annotated list will be shared.  Beginning in 2000, I began teaching a mixed majors/non-majors honors Biology course.  It serves as a general education lecture and lab for non-science majors and substitutes for the majors’ introductory biology lecture and laboratory, the pre-requisite for all upper-level biology courses.  The “lectures” are discussion-based; rather than a textbook I use four selections from the reading list, chosen to illustrate at least three of the following topics: organismal biology (structure/function); ecology;  evolution/genetics; molecular biology; and critical thinking skills.  Some of the books used will be highlighted.  For reference, students have access to a number of standard majors’ textbooks in the lab as well as the OpenStax Biology online textbook.  On a standardized assessment, given to both majors’ biology and honor students, the honors course typically outperforms the majors and some of the highest scores are from English and Economics majors.  Choosing the “best” textbook for a majors course is less important than actively engaging students.