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Does anyone enjoy reading Dawkings books?

Yep, like 'em.

My favorites are The Selfish Gene/The Extended Phenoptype, which kind of feed into each other.

I also liked The Ancestor's Tale, Climbing Mount Improbable, and The Blind Watchmaker.

Never read The God Delusion (yet).
 
mushy said:
Oh and in his last book he used the same thing over and over again

a___ is a ___ is a ____ (insert any word)
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Really? I just did a search of the book and could only find this pattern in one place, and where it was used it was used as example of Platonic thinking:

Chapter 2 said:
For the mind encased in Platonic blinkers, a rabbit is a rabbit is a rabbit. To suggest that rabbit kind constitutes a kind of shifting cloud of statistical averages, or that today's typical rabbit might be different from the typical rabbit of a million years ago or the typical rabbit of a million years hence, seems to violate an internal taboo.
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Seems your opinion is modifying your memory to better fit your opinion.
 
Nobodys mentioned Greatest Show on Earth which i though of as "Evolution for Dummies".

REALLY well written, accesible and enjoyable.
 
H'ethetheth said:
...depending on who you ask.

He was a bit of a pompous ass when my father, biologist and fan, asked him to sign a book about (or by, I forget) his PhD advisor Niko Tinbergen at an event called the Niko Tinbergenlezing where Dawkins did a talk about Niko Tinbergen.
My father already owned the book Dawkins was signing there, and he therefore bought a Tinbergen book at the Tinbergen event. Dawkins simply refused to sign the book, because it wasn't his book.

I thought that was rather disappointing.
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That would have been a bit insulting to Niko though, no? I could see a polite enough person refusing to do that, indirect though it may be.

Unless he did it yearbook style with a signed comment about Niko, or something.
 
mushy said:
General opinion? I don't. I think he is too converned with sounding smart as opposed to just explaining things. Oh and in his last book he used the same thing over and over again

a___ is a ___ is a ____ (insert any word)
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I like him because he is so converned.
 
Beelzebuddy said:
That would have been a bit insulting to Niko though, no? I could see a polite enough person refusing to do that, indirect though it may be.

Unless he did it yearbook style with a signed comment about Niko, or something.
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Well, seeing how Tinbergen is a bit of a legend in the Netherlands, and dead to boot, I don't see how Dawkins' signature on a book about Tinbergen, bought at a lecture by Dawkins on Tinbergen, could be offensive to Tinbergen, in whose honour Dawkins was there, as well as the event in general.

Anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest. Carry on.
 
H'ethetheth said:
Well, seeing how Tinbergen is a bit of a legend in the Netherlands, and dead to boot, I don't see how Dawkins' signature on a book about Tinbergen, bought at a lecture by Dawkins on Tinbergen, could be offensive to Tinbergen, in whose honour Dawkins was there, as well as the event in general.

Anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest. Carry on.
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I can completely understand why he wouldn't sign it. Not just the part about putting his name in a book he didn't write of have anything to do with but also with how he is a target for theists making lies up about what he did and why he did it.

Have you forgotten the video editing fiasco of a couple years ago? I bet he hasn't.
 
Dawkins is fine. I have no problems with his books but I enjoy reading Micheal Shermer more.
 
I've read the first hundred pages of The Ancestor's Tale and I want to continue. I love the concept of the book, but haven't yet found the time. If there was an unabridged audiobook, I'd listen to that.

I also have The Greatest Show on Earth, The Oxford Guide to Modern Science Writing (lots of excerpts from lots of scientists and science writers he collected and introduced) and The God Delusion.

I saw him give a lecture last year in Melbourne. His lecture wasn't the best one of the weekend but it was interesting. It was about why people feel compelled to be thankful to something for chance events, I think.
 
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The Selfish Gene remains an example of the best science writing ever.

They held an event for the 30th Anniversary edition celebrating how amazing it was. There were some great speakers. (transcript and MP3)
 
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