There are no required books for this course, and the lectures are self-contained and based on a wide range of source material.

That said, an excellent non-technical introduction to astrobiology is Life in the Universe by Lewis Dartnell (Oneworld, 2007).

An up-to-date, introductory astrobiology textbook that covers essentially all the material in the course is Life in the Solar System and Beyond by Barrie W. Jones (Springer-Praxis, 2004).

There is also excellent, but slightly earlier, book by Jakosky, The Search for Life on other Planets (Cambridge University Press, 1998). Although slightly more dated than Jones' book, it provides slightly more detail on the geological and planetary science aspects of astrobiology.

It would be well worth everyone taking this course making the effort to read at least one of these three books.

Another good recent book, dealing especially with the search for life elsewhere in the Solar System, and emphasising the likely importance of human space exploration in this quest, is Looking for Life: Searching theSolar System by P. Clancy, A. Brack and G. Horneck (CUP, 2005).

A good book for reference, that I found very helpful in compiling the notes, is The Universe and Life by G.S. Kutter (Jones and Bartlett, 1987). The UCL library has a copy.

Many recent research results are summarised in Astrobiology: The Quest for the Conditions of Life, edited by G. Horneck & C. Baumstark-Khan (Springer, 2002).

For background reading on the Solar System and planetary science, The New Solar System edited by J. Kelly Beatty, C. Collins Petersen, and A. Chaikin (4th ed., CUP, 1999) is outstanding in all respects.

An excellent discussion of the origin of life, its evolution, and its cosmic context has been given by the Nobel-Prize-winning biochemist Christian de Duve in his book Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative, (Basic Books, 1995).

A more up-to-date summary of the palaeontological aspects, with detailed discussion of the recent controversies concerning the earliest evidence for life on Earth, may be found in Life on a Young Planet by Andrew H. Knoll, (Princeton University Press, 2003).

For background on extremophiles, have a look at Life at the Limits by David Wharton (CUP, 2002). For an excellent guide specifically to the biology of hydrothermal vents, I can throughly recommend The Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents by Cindy Lee Van Dover, Princeton University Press (2000).

For background reading on planets around other stars, Planet Quest by Ken Croswell (Oxford University Press, 1999) is by far the best of half a dozen or so recent books on the subject.

The Web is a good source for up-to-date information and stunning photographs -- check the the Useful links.