Well, it should be, certainly for all science journalists, and probably for all science undergrads too. Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science is an enjoyable but very well-informed rant about how the media gets science stories wrong, and how to look for the real facts behind the reports.
Ben has a few chips on his shoulder – perhaps a few too many – but that doesn’t stop this from being a very important book. Recommended.
Somewhere I have a copy of the rather wonderful “Nonscience and the Pseudotransmogrificationalific Egocentrified Reorientational Proclivities Inherently Intracorporated In Expertistical Cerebrointellectualised Redeploymentation with Special Reference to Quasi-Notional Fashionistic Normativity, The Indoctrinationalistic Methodological Modalities and Scalar Socio-Economic Promulgationary Improvementalisationalism Predelineated Positotaxically Toward Individualistified Mass-Acceptance Gratificationalistic Securipermanentalisationary Professionism, or How To Rule The World”.
More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonscience