Excerpt from On the Origin of Tepees by Jonnie Hughes, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I may have such a pair.

They're brand-new, still at the prototype phase - so new, in fact, they don't even have a name yet. I didn't make them. They're the work of a loose assembly of radical scientists and philosophers. They're very similar to Darwin's goggles in a lot of ways (and I'm sure he would have found them comfortable to wear), but they differ in that they are next to useless when looking at animals and plants. These goggles have been designed specifically for delivering a new perspective on our species and our species alone.

And, apparently, they're very good at it. The makers claim that with these goggles, the wearer will come to understand the human condition for the first time. At present, I'm not in a position to substantiate or refute this claim, because my eyes have only recently finished adjusting to their new lenses, but I have to say that it looks promising. These could be the goggles for me!

And they could be the goggles for you, too. That's why I'm writing this book. It is intended to enable you to make that judgment. I'm including a free pair of these new, nameless goggles with every volume. Let's put them on and explore the new world they bring into view together. Step one: Let your eyes adjust...

Excerpted from On the Origin of Tepees by Jonnie Hughes. Copyright © 2011 by Jonnie Hughes. Excerpted by permission of Free Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.