The Selfish Gene
Dawkins reframed evolution from the perspective of the gene (not organism, not species) and coined the word "meme." Even readers who dispute his conclusions about altruism and consciousness find their thinking permanently altered by the gene's-eye view of life. The most important popular science book since Darwin.
Dawkins oversells his own metaphor in the title, and later admitted he could have called the book nearly the opposite without changing a line of the argument. Genes do not want anything; the language of selfishness invites exactly the misreading he then spends chapters swatting down. The meme chapter, endlessly quoted, is the most speculative and least supported part of the book.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
