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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Pretty awesome book. Only reason I gave it 4 is because it gets insanely boring at time. Dawkins has this tendency to keep emphasizing the same point again and again and again.
While this got rather dry and long-winded in its explanation at times, the ideas presented are done so with meticulous clarity and undeniable logic. Since starting this book I found myself applying “selfish gene” principles to a diverse range of discussions I had with friends concerning evolution, disease, behaviour and mortality. The relevance of Dawkins’ arguments to so many different aspects of life makes this book absolutely required reading for everyone, in my opinion.
informative
slow-paced
There's a lot of fascinating information here. It could easily have been 5 stars. But there's also a whole lot of Richard Dawkins here, telling us how he is and was right and others were and are wrong. Still, it's been on my list for a long time and I'm glad I got to it finally.
What a crazy good book!
Dawkins rhetoric is brilliant and the prose unexpectedly uplifting, way distant from the vocal activist he seems to take nowadays. For something written in the 70s it feels fresh and pertinent.
I rob him of a star for not being (entirely) convinced by some arguments, like the gameta differentiation for instance. Also, for lacking a proper conclusion.
Favourite quote:
"And here is a case history to provoke more Freudian anxiety than the Peter Pan beetles - parasitic castration!"
Dawkins rhetoric is brilliant and the prose unexpectedly uplifting, way distant from the vocal activist he seems to take nowadays. For something written in the 70s it feels fresh and pertinent.
I rob him of a star for not being (entirely) convinced by some arguments, like the gameta differentiation for instance. Also, for lacking a proper conclusion.
Favourite quote:
"And here is a case history to provoke more Freudian anxiety than the Peter Pan beetles - parasitic castration!"
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Dawkins breaks down the fundamental components that drive evolutionary change. He introduces the concept of “replicators”, the building blocks of life, which lead the reader to understand how random changes at the individual level can shape group-level composition.
informative
reflective
The book is incredibly interesting. The arguments presented in the book were very well constructed and put. It made me think differently, not only about evolutionary biology, but about many other things (like the evolution of languages and cultures)
I only wish a roadmap was given in the introduction or the first chapter of the book.
I only wish a roadmap was given in the introduction or the first chapter of the book.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
I feel like this is a remarkably pessimistic view of humanity. I personally prefer to think that humans have a soul