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teokajlibroj's review
3.0
A decent book, but not one where much really happens. Dawkins more or less lists off all the people he knew and places he lived as a child. Not much is said about himself, his thoughts or what he did. The last part of the book, where he describes his research is rather complex and confusing.
katykelly's review
4.0
A straightforward account of Dawkins' early life and his studies and work up to the time of The Selfish Gene.
I listened to the author narrating his book, and enjoyed his voice and style, it was easy to follow and a fascinating look at his young life - and also quite honest.
While some of the science is covered in more detail than I personally would delve myself, it's not overlong, and is important in his story.
Small snippets about the religious (or otherwise) ideas that will surely feature more strongly in the second part of his autobiography are there as well.
We see his childhood, schooldays, interest in biology growing, his days at university and his path into the adult world of academia and also glimpses into his private life.
This is not a long book, being only half the story, but does give useful background to a very well-known man, one that I found refreshing and illuminating. I will be looking out for part 2.
I listened to the author narrating his book, and enjoyed his voice and style, it was easy to follow and a fascinating look at his young life - and also quite honest.
While some of the science is covered in more detail than I personally would delve myself, it's not overlong, and is important in his story.
Small snippets about the religious (or otherwise) ideas that will surely feature more strongly in the second part of his autobiography are there as well.
We see his childhood, schooldays, interest in biology growing, his days at university and his path into the adult world of academia and also glimpses into his private life.
This is not a long book, being only half the story, but does give useful background to a very well-known man, one that I found refreshing and illuminating. I will be looking out for part 2.
dphillips's review
3.0
While I do not agree with his views on religion I cannot deny the man is a very interesting scientist. I really enjoyed the first half of this book & feel I would of enjoyed the second half more if it didn't read at times, while interesting, a bit tedious.
kevin_shepherd's review
4.0
"Cliché or not, 'stranger than fiction' expresses exactly how I feel about the truth. We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment. Though I have known about it for years, I never seem to get fully used to it. One of my hopes is that I may have some success in astonishing others."
In my humble estimation, Dawkins falls somewhere between Charles Darwin and Bertrand Russell, maybe even a hybrid of the two. He is as much of a philosopher as he is a biologist and sees himself, arguably so, as a champion of evolutionary science.
Ernest Becker points out in his Pulitzer Prize winning psychological study, The Denial of Death, that men who see themselves as historical figures marshal themselves toward the hard work and dedication necessary to achieve that perceived immortality. Richard Dawkins is no exception.
This is an autobiography that evolves, chapter by chapter, into an impressive multi-dimensional résumé. If you admire and respect Dawkins as much as I do, I suspect you'll find this captivating and insightful. Evangelical zealots need not bother.
In my humble estimation, Dawkins falls somewhere between Charles Darwin and Bertrand Russell, maybe even a hybrid of the two. He is as much of a philosopher as he is a biologist and sees himself, arguably so, as a champion of evolutionary science.
Ernest Becker points out in his Pulitzer Prize winning psychological study, The Denial of Death, that men who see themselves as historical figures marshal themselves toward the hard work and dedication necessary to achieve that perceived immortality. Richard Dawkins is no exception.
This is an autobiography that evolves, chapter by chapter, into an impressive multi-dimensional résumé. If you admire and respect Dawkins as much as I do, I suspect you'll find this captivating and insightful. Evangelical zealots need not bother.
yoshi5's review against another edition
3.0
Should have read the book at a library first.
For an autobiography, I found it rather impersonal, and it didn't give me much insight into the mind of Dawkins.
I found the autobiography to be a chronological, dry recount of his life, and didn't feel I understood "the making of a scientist", rather more the life events of one. I was hoping for something a bit deeper, philosophical, gripping, enthralling, an insight into the dilemmas he faced in his life, the moments of wonder and failure...
Enjoyed "Dreaming Spires" and the insight into a real education, and real learning.
For an autobiography, I found it rather impersonal, and it didn't give me much insight into the mind of Dawkins.
I found the autobiography to be a chronological, dry recount of his life, and didn't feel I understood "the making of a scientist", rather more the life events of one. I was hoping for something a bit deeper, philosophical, gripping, enthralling, an insight into the dilemmas he faced in his life, the moments of wonder and failure...
Enjoyed "Dreaming Spires" and the insight into a real education, and real learning.
saroz162's review against another edition
3.0
I had no idea this book was coming out. I stumbled on it, quite by accident, in a pre-Christmas sale display at a local bookstore. My father has both an avid interest in science and a lifelong philosophy of skepticism, and I recalled that he had read and enjoyed (well, been intrigued by - that's about as good as you can ever get with my dad) a couple of Dawkins books in the past. Personally, I'm at least passingly familiar with Dawkins' fame/notoriety, though I admit I got there largely through following the career of his wife (the actress Lalla Ward). Dad doesn't read many books each year, but I thought this might be one we could read "alone together" and use as the basis for conversation. It gets hard, you know, when you and your parents get older and you realize your interests have diverged. It makes the telephone conversations hard.
So with that in mind, I gave the book to my dad for Christmas, and he is, I think, working his way through it slowly. I decided to get a copy from my university library and read it so I would be prepared. To be honest, I found the initial chapters hard going. Although I was intrigued by Dawkins' descriptions of growing up in 1940s colonial Africa, much of the writing seems derived from study of his mother's journals and his own...well, shall we say, postulations. That lends a detached and sometimes even condescending air to his prose, and there are times in those childhood sequences when he digresses as firmly and didactically as any Christian evangelist. While my own philosophy is broadly atheistic, I found Dawkins' musings on the potential harm of fairy stories and the need to foster skeptical thinking in children more than a little self-righteous. Yeah, we get it, Richard. We get that you think the belief in the "power of prayer" is misguided. Staring down your nose at those who do believe in it doesn't add any credence - or, indeed, interest to your argument. And again, I say this as a non-religious person who broadly agrees with his point of view.
Fortunately, once Dawkins moves out of childhood and into his living memory, the book greatly improves. His early exploits at Oxford are quite interesting, if a little foreign to a reader who works in the American university system, and I really enjoyed his reflective journey through his early experiments with behavioral predispositions in animals and the development of his "selfish gene" theory. I blazed through the second half of the book, frankly, and it leaves me wanting to pick up the second volume when it comes out in (he predicts) two years' time. I'm also quite interested to read The Selfish Gene - and as I do not have my father's natural scientific inclination, that comes as quite a surprise.
An Appetite for Wonder, then, is a game of two halves. Once we set into the young Dawkins' wonder at science, yes, the book is excellent reading. Getting to that point is occasionally a little awkward, at least to this reader, but thankfully, the eventual goal is well worth attaining.
So with that in mind, I gave the book to my dad for Christmas, and he is, I think, working his way through it slowly. I decided to get a copy from my university library and read it so I would be prepared. To be honest, I found the initial chapters hard going. Although I was intrigued by Dawkins' descriptions of growing up in 1940s colonial Africa, much of the writing seems derived from study of his mother's journals and his own...well, shall we say, postulations. That lends a detached and sometimes even condescending air to his prose, and there are times in those childhood sequences when he digresses as firmly and didactically as any Christian evangelist. While my own philosophy is broadly atheistic, I found Dawkins' musings on the potential harm of fairy stories and the need to foster skeptical thinking in children more than a little self-righteous. Yeah, we get it, Richard. We get that you think the belief in the "power of prayer" is misguided. Staring down your nose at those who do believe in it doesn't add any credence - or, indeed, interest to your argument. And again, I say this as a non-religious person who broadly agrees with his point of view.
Fortunately, once Dawkins moves out of childhood and into his living memory, the book greatly improves. His early exploits at Oxford are quite interesting, if a little foreign to a reader who works in the American university system, and I really enjoyed his reflective journey through his early experiments with behavioral predispositions in animals and the development of his "selfish gene" theory. I blazed through the second half of the book, frankly, and it leaves me wanting to pick up the second volume when it comes out in (he predicts) two years' time. I'm also quite interested to read The Selfish Gene - and as I do not have my father's natural scientific inclination, that comes as quite a surprise.
An Appetite for Wonder, then, is a game of two halves. Once we set into the young Dawkins' wonder at science, yes, the book is excellent reading. Getting to that point is occasionally a little awkward, at least to this reader, but thankfully, the eventual goal is well worth attaining.
matthewabush's review against another edition
2.0
I am not sure exactly why I chose to read this book. I an a professing Christian and sometimes enjoy reading others' viewpoints; believing that one can learn by seeing from the other side of the coin.
This book really didn't provide any of those discussions that I was looking for. This book, to me, was the fairly boring memoir of a relatively unremarkable man. I found myself bogged down when he shared the songs or rhymes that he enjoyed as a child and found myself wanting to learn more about growing up in colonial Africa. I found there to be little of interest in his description of life at Oxford, which I would believe to be an incredible experience. Finally, I was turned off in the last chapter of the book by Dawkins' arrogance.
It is quite possible that I would have appreciated this book more if I had already read The Selfish Gene (which I have yet to do). It will be interesting to see if I give the forthcoming second volume of this memoir a chance.
This book really didn't provide any of those discussions that I was looking for. This book, to me, was the fairly boring memoir of a relatively unremarkable man. I found myself bogged down when he shared the songs or rhymes that he enjoyed as a child and found myself wanting to learn more about growing up in colonial Africa. I found there to be little of interest in his description of life at Oxford, which I would believe to be an incredible experience. Finally, I was turned off in the last chapter of the book by Dawkins' arrogance.
It is quite possible that I would have appreciated this book more if I had already read The Selfish Gene (which I have yet to do). It will be interesting to see if I give the forthcoming second volume of this memoir a chance.
lalulorlor's review against another edition
2.0
You know how sometimes you sit down with a grandparent or elderly relative and you think they're going to tell you an awesome war story or about something crazy that happened when they were younger, but instead they just bore you with the minutiae of what they ate at school as a child? That's pretty much how this book is. The first 220 pages are wordy and and boring. It's only toward the end of the book, when Dawkins starts to discuss his research and writing, that things get intriguing. I liked the last three or four chapters. I felt like I learned a lot from him at that point. But reading anecdotes about classmates from school when he was a child? Not so much.