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Books Do Furnish a Life: Reading and Writing Science

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At a time when science can seem complex and remote, it has a greater impact on our lives, and to the future of our planet, than ever before. It really matters that its discoveries and truths should be clearly and widely communicated. That its enemies, from the malicious to the muddled, the self-deluding to the self-interested, be challenged and exposed. That science should be brought out of the laboratory, taken into the corridors of power and defended in the maelstrom of popular culture. No one does this better than Richard Dawkins.

In bringing together his forewords, afterwords and introductions to works by some of the leading thinkers of our age—Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert—and a selection of his reviews, both admiring and critical, of a wide range of scientific and other works, Books do Furnish a Life celebrates the writers who communicate the ideas of science and the natural world in both fiction and non-fiction. It celebrates the courage of those who write about their experiences of escaping religion and embracing rationality, of protecting the truths of science and analytical rigour against charlatanry and obfuscation.

464 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2021

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Richard Dawkins

146 books21.3k followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
Profile Image for Tanja Berg.
2,214 reviews543 followers
October 1, 2022
This was a surprisingly delightful reading experience. The audio version includes several exchanges with other scientists and illuminaries such as Christopher Hitchens and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Not all of these people agree with Dawkins, and listening to their banter is at times hilarious and definitely enriching. So do try the audiobook version for this reason. Oh, and it’s read by Dawkins himself, which is great.

Although I have read quite a few books by Dawkins, I didn’t really think that I would read this one. A book about other books? Maybe I don’t know myself so well after all. It’s fantastic! There is so much to learn from Dawkins commentaries on other people’s work and I definitely expanded my reading list. Some of them he glorifies and others are cut to shreds with a scalpel. I wish I had half of Dawkins wit!

Before I’ve considered Dawkins a bit arrogant and almost a militant atheist. In this book I wouldn’t say that he comes across as humble, but definitely more human. I already miss his voice and am considering just listening to the whole thing again, immediately.
Profile Image for MacWithBooksonMountains Marcus.
355 reviews16 followers
March 9, 2024
This book represents a collection of Dawkins’ conversations with various icons of science including Neil degrasse Thyson, Carl Sagan and Lawrence Krauss. It’s simply beautiful to listen to these great minds discussing various topics in such a relaxed atmosphere. The giants who popularized science, indeed. The audiobooks version rewards the listener with very lively interactive discussions. There is laughter and and many moments of insights that seem to have come to the participants in an ad-hoc, unscripted manner.
Profile Image for Nicole.
1,213 reviews34 followers
June 23, 2021
Books do furnish a life by Richard Dawkins

'Including conversations with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley and more, this is an essential guide to the most exciting ideas of our time and their proponents from our most brilliant science communicator.

Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins' forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins' own remarkable canon of work.

Kurzmeinung
Ich habe ganz sicher nicht jedes wissenschaftliche Detail verstanden aber Richard Dawkins könnte ich ewig zuhören. Die Wunschliste ist definitiv gewachsen, genauso wie Bücher vom SuB aufgerückt sind.
Ein tolles Konzept für ein Hörbuch, ein Highlight, das ich mir ganz sicher noch einmal anhören werde. Die Original- oder auch da wo noch möglich nachgesprochenen Interviews waren großartig anzuhören. Empfehlung für jeden, der Englisch versteht und mit offenen Augen durch die Welt geht.
Profile Image for Ayla.
62 reviews
April 5, 2022
This was probably just about the worst place to start reading the work of Dawkins...
I wanted to get into his books since I had heard so much about him, and was tempted by this very recent work with a title that greatly intrigued this bookish nerd. Fair warning: the title is misleading!

This is a collection of previously published reviews, forewords, afterwards, and transcribed interviews. "previously published" means some are older than I am. Without much new material or a clear theme to bind these pieces together, it becomes repetitive fast, and fails to go beyond the surface of any issue. It ends up feeling like a gratuitous way of churning out another book.

This irritation also did not help me to overlook the sometimes arrogant, pompous writing. I normally don't mind so much, but for a book specifically about "the literature of science", I was not impressed with the clarity of the writing and I did find myself needing to look up words.

Nevertheless, I am intrigued by some of the content and not quite discouraged enough to keep me from trying one of his actual books (as in: one cohesive book instead of a collection of recycled stuff). I hope I won't regret it as I did this one.
Profile Image for Udit Nair.
373 reviews79 followers
March 15, 2022
The book is more like a collection of essays, foreword and reviews Dawkins wrote for other books and themes. I enjoyed all of it because they are exploring faith, humanity and nature simultaneously. There are interactions between some of the greatest science communicators like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley and many more. I do agree with the criticism that it's not one of finest works of dawkins because it's mostly recycled material. Most of this has been made public before and hence people might find it boring. But if you are keen about topics like evolution or atheism or nature then this is the best place to find the musings. The biggest take away for me was further recommendations in terms of books. This book has surely managed to increase my want to read list by manifold.
Profile Image for Gary.
111 reviews1 follower
July 10, 2021
Completely green. Everything in the book is recycled material. I didn't mind the the discussions with other authors, even if I had heard them before. But reading essays, prefaces and reviews of other books, some decades old? Really, has Dawkins run out of things to say? Or does he need the money that badly? Even the biggest Dawkins fans, and I consider myself one of them, can give this book a pass.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1 review
June 17, 2021
This may be the best book to introduce one to Richard Dawkins' work and thoughts. It is a collection of reviews, forewords, afterwords and interviews consistently organised in 6 sections, each of them displaying a part of Dawkins' work and commitment.
Profile Image for Michael Huang.
995 reviews49 followers
April 29, 2024
This is a collection of writings and conversations from Dawkins. Most of the writings are introductions, forewords, afterwords, and reviews. The topics center around evolution, skepticism, religion, and writing.
A repeating occurrence is the explanation of evolution, including the book Selfish Gene. For instance, the book’s main point was that gene is the unit of natural selection, not individual nor species. Individuals are the survival vehicles that genes made to collaborate as well as to compete in order to survive.

There’s interesting discussion on scientific philosophy. For example, there are Holdane’s 3 theorems to satirize errors in scientific thinking:
1. Aunt Jobiska's Theorem (from Edward Lear): 'It's a fact the whole world knows.'
2. The Bellman's Theorem (from Lewis Carroll): 'What I tell you three times is true?
3. Pangloss's Theorem (from Voltaire and applying especially to biology): All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.'

Since this is book about other books, Dawkins recommends a lot. For most users on Goodreads, I suspect the title is an axiom. But the practical downside is this: your to-read list is likely to grow quite a bit.
843 reviews16 followers
December 24, 2021
I am a Dawkins fan. His first book, "The Selfish Gene", was my introduction to the profound implications of accepting evolutionary theory. We go from a world powered by the arrogance of man to one driven by the cleverness of genes. His later books where powerful extensions of the force of his central idea, that evolution works at the level of the gene, and serious atheistic arguments and polemics.

This book is a collection of incidental pieces. Many of them are short introductions to long forgotten books. Dawkins tries to bring some form to the book by gathering the material into themed sections, but it reads like a collection of random pieces.

Each section begins with excerpts from a conversation with a scientific or intellectual celebrity. We get bits of recorded conversations between Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Adam Hart-Davis, Stephen Pinker, Christopher Hitchins, Lawrence Krauss and Matt Ridley.

The only surprising thing I found in the conversations was Hitchins amazingly wrong prediction in 2011. "The extreme Protestant evangelicals, who do want a God-run America...I think they may be the most overrated threat in America....People don't want to come from the town or the state or the country that gets laughed at."

Most of the other pieces are quick recaps or summaries of stuff in his various books.

You would be better off re-reading "The Selfish Gene" or "The Blind Watchmaker".
Profile Image for Michael Kress.
Author 0 books13 followers
January 1, 2023
Dawkins has been publishing a lot of books lately, which I was initially excited about, since he was my gateway into evolutionary biology, but there seems to be a lot of filler in here. This feels like a contractual obligation. I'm a little bitter about it, I guess, because I paid full-price for a brand new hardcover version, something my broke ass doesn't often do, but it's the great Richard Dawkins, so I thought it'd be worth it. Part of the book is good and bad book reviews, something even a chump like me can do (although he probably does a slightly better job), but I found I wasn't interested in reading bad book reviews of books I wasn't going to read anyway. Another thing is the religion bashing. Surprise! Dawkins doesn't fancy religion. He doesn't cover much new ground here, except possibly criticizing some things he considers to be pseudo-philosophy. Then there are the interviews, which can probably be found elsewhere, and he just pulled the text out of them to fill up the pages of this book. They did the same thing with The Four Horsemen. It's not really a book; more like a podcast. All that being said, I'm still hoping and dreaming. I plan to check out Flights of Fancy. If he doesn't get sidetracked with that one, it might satisfy my craving for science.

Update: I don't like giving one star reviews, but I'm still salty about paying full-price for this, which is something I rarely do. I paid five cents for Dr. Faustus and it was a banger.
Profile Image for Jason Mills.
Author 11 books26 followers
December 28, 2021
Loose ends for the completist

This is a collection of book-related pieces: reviews, forewords, afterwords, and a few transcribed conversations. It's all good stuff, largely uncontentious and as eloquent as always, but it's a little repetitive and doesn't bring much to the table if you've already read Dawkins' more substantial works.
Profile Image for Jeff Koeppen.
666 reviews47 followers
May 30, 2022
There is a little bit of everything in this one. This is a collection of Richard's interviews with some of the giants in science, some of Richard's reviews of other works, and his forewords, afterwords, and introductions for various other science books and texts. The book is divided in to five sections concentrating on: science, nature, humanity, skepticism, faith, and evolution. Each entry is short, usually just several pages, except for the interviews which are a bit longer. The epilogue is the document he wants read at is funeral. He covers everything.

Dawkins is probably my favorite science communicator and critic of religion and this book did not disappoint. I wasn't interested in all the content in Books Do Furnish a Life but it moves along and much of this did resonate with me. And I remember reading some of the forewords and afterwords in their original published works. I marked a number of pages as Dawkins just nails his points so well and I wanted to remember what he said. Some of the book reviews are complimentary and in some he savages the book in typical Dawkins fashion. Great stuff.

I probably wouldn't recommend Books Do Furnish a Life to a first-time Dawkins reader. I would start with The Selfish Gene, The Greatest Show on Earth, or The God Delusion as these book really display the genius and wit of Dawkins. But Dawkins fans will probably enjoy the rapid fire nature of the content and reading some Dawkins that they may have missed. Plus, you'll get some great book recommendations in the process.

Profile Image for Sajith Kumar.
701 reviews136 followers
February 27, 2022
Today’s world watches with increasing concern the tussle between science and superstition on the ideological front. The exact sciences like physics, chemistry and astronomy have virtually vanquished their opponents with razor-sharp mathematical predictions and other tangible devices people can feel with their own hands. There is no device in all the lore of humanity that can even remotely be compared with the mobile phone in your pocket. NASA predicts a total solar eclipse in Mexico on Apr 8, 2024 beginning at 18:18 UTC and lasting 4 min 28 sec. Can any traditional astrologer match the precision of this prediction? But the biological sciences obviously don’t enjoy this privilege in equal measure. There are people who challenge the advisability of adopting cutting edge medical technology in favour of traditional medicinal practices or unproven alternatives like homeopathy. However, biology finds greatest resistance when evolution is presented as the most viable explanation of the origin and transmutation of species. Creation and Intelligent Design are the two alternatives put forward by the believers in order to accommodate the divine element somewhere in the grand scheme of things, especially after the collapse of flat earth or earth-centric solar system hypotheses. Scientists thus have a paramount duty to explain their subject and make it as simple as possible, but not simpler, as Einstein insisted. This is especially important as 45 per cent of Americans are reported to believe that all species originated through intelligent design less than 10,000 years ago. In this volume, Richard Dawkins summarises his vast experience in popularizing science through own books and reviews, forewords and afterword written for others’ books. It also includes informative discussions he had with doyens of science.

There is no original material in this book as it consists of articles published as early as the late-1980s. In spite of this, none of it appears dated or irrelevant. Dawkins’ arguments against creationism and intelligent design are as sharp as ever. A glaring chink in the armour of Design-advocates is the laryngeal nerve in mammals, especially the giraffe. In the case of lower animals in the evolutionary pyramid, this nerve started from the brain, went past the heart and reached the larynx which was nearby. As the neck became longer through evolution, this nerve was caught on the wrong side of the heart. In man, the distance between brain and larynx is hardly 10 cm, but the nerve comes down from the brain, takes a detour around the heart and goes up again to the larynx. In the case of a giraffe, the length of this nerve is around 15 feet whereas a good designer could have made it within one foot by redesigning. So, Dawkins concludes that the design is not that intelligent, unfit to be the handiwork of an omnipotent divine being.

Religion thrives on the innate urge of people to find a purpose to their lives. It is perfectly okay to feel disappointed when you first learn that there is not much purpose to it, as nature has decreed. On closer look, what purpose could there be, other than those equally regulating an animal’s life? Science denies any pre-ordained purpose to life, but Dawkins warns that this should not be treated as a spoilsport. There is reason for everything and understanding it is a part of the pure delight that science gifts to us. While on the topic, he also describes how even reputed scientists can go totally wrong sometimes. When Darwin first published his theory of evolution, it proposed a very long timeframe to sculpt the various life forms. However, the accepted consensus at that time was that the earth, and even the solar system, was only a few thousands of years old. The great physicist Lord Kelvin countered the Darwinian claim with the outrageous contention that assigning an age of millions of years to the earth does not tally with physical principles. Having only the arsenal of thermodynamics with them, the physicists thought that sun’s energy output is caused by burning of a fuel such as coal and the sun’s size constrained it to an age of a few thousands of years. Clearly, the physicists were in serious error of the most fundamental kind here. Though their calculations of the rate of coal burning and estimation of the time required for exhausting a mound of fuel the size of sun was mathematically correct, the energy output from a star followed a brand new approach unknown to nineteenth century physics. The concept of nuclear fusion, which is the secret of sun’s energy, was developed only half a century later, but Kelvin did not live long enough to see his ridiculous arguments upended.

Apart from evolutionary biology, of which the author is a master, the book contains some essays on rationalism and scepticism. A talk with the legendary Christopher Hitchens is included which is a leading light for science enthusiasts of all time. The book is divided into many sections, and the part titled ‘Supporting Scepticism’ is the most interesting. Dawkins also gives a tantalizing hint about the title of his next book. He had planned the title of his previous book as ‘Evolution, the Greatest Show on Earth, the Only Game in Town’. Perhaps ‘The Only Game in Town’ is what it is going to be.

As with other books from the same author, all articles carry the same incisive flare in exposing superstition or pseudoscience. It is also good for readers to find and read those books for which Dawkins had written testimonials which are reproduced in this book. The book takes the readers along with it in a lucid exposition of the ideas at stake which is delightful and at the same time enlightening too.

The book is highly recommended.
Profile Image for Corina Chambre.
6 reviews
January 15, 2023
I received this book as a departure present and in a way, I felt like it was the best book to read while embarking on a new journey. It is a fairly dense and alluring work, and for sure gets the wheels in your brain working. This book can be read by someone who isn’t in the scientific field but I feel like you do need a scientifical background in order to be fully immersed into this convoluted publication. I was particularly fascinated by the author’s comments and I did find that the part I enjoyed the most was the last few paragraphs- Epilogue: To be read at my funeral was truly effective in the sense of binding the whole book together. I do believe it can be quite hard for someone who is not keen on understanding science, Darwin’s evolution and other important topics in the world of science but the ones that get to read it are in for a scientific refreshment.
197 reviews2 followers
May 25, 2022
I'm a huge fan of Richard Dawkins and his writing and speaking have influenced me greatly over decades.

So, there was no doubt I would enjoy this collection of snippets such as forewords and afterwords to books and book reviews. There are also transcripts of conversations he's had with other evolutionary biologists and people in related fields.

And I did enjoy it - particularly when his writing became acerbic when critiquing creationists and young earthers.

I've only given it 4 stars because a few of the articles (maybe 5 or so) got too technical for me and I was unable to fully follow them.

But, overall, a good and educational read
Profile Image for Samantha Pini.
12 reviews
March 30, 2024
Enjoyed this book. Excerpts from some of the greatest scientific minds.
Profile Image for Kasia Kulma.
60 reviews5 followers
July 11, 2024
A pretty disappointing money-spinner - a collection of Dawkins' reviews, interviews, anthology contributions, etc. I couldn't finish the whole book as most pieces bled with pompous verbosity and self-importance. Dawkins used to be my hero in my adolescence and heavily influenced my choice of academic career (PhD in evolutionary biology), but there was very little science here and more linguistic showing off.
Profile Image for Mahesh Karthik.
59 reviews25 followers
abandoned
February 20, 2022
I was listening to the audiobook. Abandoning it mostly because I am unable to like the voice of the readers.
Profile Image for Emil Petersen.
433 reviews25 followers
June 14, 2021
It's never a bad thing to read Richard Dawkins, but this is one of his lesser works. It is a compilation of forewords, interviews and commentaries of various sorts. Think of it as a bundling of many of the things RD has written elsewhere than in books. As individual pieces, the writing is very good; as a whole there is limited coherence. If you've already read most of RD's books, then by all means go ahead with this one. Otherwise, I would start somewhere else.
Profile Image for Ben Smith.
16 reviews1 follower
October 30, 2021
2.5. It was alright. Personally, I felt that Dawkins was scraping the barrel publishing a book of his book reviews. That was probably why I found this signed copy in Waterstones with £5 off. There are moments when Dawkins’ wit shines through, as well as his undoubtedly skilful way with words. However, I did find it a drag. In the book, Dawkins seems only to not be bitter and angry when he’s talking about biology and it’s in those sections when he’s at his best. The rest is missable. At times he is the controversial yet likeable Oxford don. At others, he’s a Facebook warrior with bigger platform.
Profile Image for Luke Illeniram.
245 reviews1 follower
August 26, 2021
An intersection of three of my passions: reason, science, and literature.

It will be a strange day indeed when I hear about a Dawkins book that I dont immediately seek to read. Dawkins is a wonderful and entertaining communicator that exudes a passion for both the truth and beauty of science. He raises the intriguing point that Nobel Literature judges seem reticient in awarding the brilliant writers of science, which is made all the more disappointing when one reads the beauty and clarity of a Carl Sagan, or indeed, a Richard Dawkins. The book is a compendium of various essays, afterwords, forewards and reviews of science books, and includes conversations with some great minds. They also stray into another of my favourite topics - atheism. From front to back, there are many salient and interesting points made, though there is a slight amount of repitition of certain ideas and concepts, which is to be expected, but may have been able to be edited in some way.

My reading list has grown large after this...
Profile Image for John Hewlett.
37 reviews2 followers
October 26, 2021
I'm going to give it 4 stars instead of 5. It's a fairly typical Dawkins book and I can't overstate the fact that I absolutely appreciate his passion for science and his level of unabashed curiosity about the world - however - there are plenty of forwards, afterwards, and book reviews here that have something about "creationism" or "religion" gratuitously injected into them where no mention of either topic was needed or warranted. We get it Richard; we know where you stand on those issues, and most of us reading your books agree with you. That said, your discussions of science, is where you really shine, "The God Delusion" notwithstanding.
Profile Image for Justin Drew.
195 reviews8 followers
April 14, 2023
This book contains a range of writing and discussions that Richard Dawkins has written or interviewed. It's brilliant, with many interesting and illuminating pieces around a range of subjects. These are some of my favourite takeaways:
- PALE BLUE DOT: It includes some wonderful writing, including Carl Sagan’s comment on a photograph of a small blue dot caught on a picture taken from Saturn’s rings: ““Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot…. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” The whole passage is in the book and it's one of the greatest pieces of writing ever. The introduction has some wonderful writing.
- GLASS OF WATER: If you were to put a glass of water and pour it into the sea, leave time for it to stir and dissolve in the sea for sometime, by the time you picked up another scoop of water, it would at least contain one molecule from the glass of water that you poured in the in the sea. That is because there are more molecules in a glass of water than there are glasses of water in the sea, which is an incredible fact.
- PAIN AND PHOBIAS: In discussion with Steven Pinker, there is a fascinating comment about phobias and how people think about things that will probably do no harm to them such as spiders in this country or walking under ladders and yet people don't have phobias about driving fast and not wearing a seatbelt and these are the things that can kill you it's an interesting comment.
- Steven Pinker also talks about a range of mental health problems so for example it's important that we have anxiety in small measures because this is what helps us to finish work or complete a project but when anxiety takes a more significant form, it can be very debilitating. The same can also be said about sadness which makes sure and allows us to look after our children and care for them but when we have significant sadness it can lead to depression, which can become debilitating, so we need emotions but in excessive amounts they can be very debilitating and lead to mental health problems. If you don’t have emotions, you can’t make decisions.
- “Emotions may be maladaptive in the sense that they might have been good for our ancestors, their evolution over time or even what's good for us today. An analogy would be pain and we would probably like as little pain as possible but people who are congenitally unable to feel pain die very young because they chew through their lips, they scold themselves with boiling hot coffee that they don't mind drinking, they fail to change positions while sitting and so they suffer from chronic inflammation of their joints, whereas when you feel pain you're prompted to constantly shift to allow the blood to circulate. At first glance we might imagine how wonderful it would be never having to feel pain, but in fact it would be a curse”. People who do not feel pain lead short lives and die very young. This is one of the most powerful arguments about why we should feel pain.
- EVOLUTION: We and chimpanzees are closer to each other than chimpanzees are to other great apes, and this is important to think about because we are still part chimpanzee as much as we are living human beings also from our past. However, we are also, as all living things are also, part of Stardust, and it's the elements from exploding stars that make up our bones, our blood and our brains. Everything originated from the explosion of supernova stars, creating all the elements except for the first two elements; hydrogen and helium, which were created in the Big Bang at the beginning of time.
- HITCH: There is a fascinating conversation with Christopher Hitchens in his final ever interview, and it's a real delight to hear the man speak if you have the audio version and to hear some fascinating views that he has on religion. I particularly often hear it cited that a lot figures from the second world war, such as Stalin and Hitler, were caused by atheists, but actually we don't know if either was an atheist and we might actually think that Hitler was and certainly many of his people in his command were religious, they also had a large influence on Catholicism being a part of this cause of what the Germans did, as well as the fact that they probably wanted to create their own religion. Christopher Hitchens makes an interesting point about Christmas, and that shepherds and the three wise men are all made up
- IS THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT A VILLIAN: Dawkins talks about God could be described as follows: ““The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
- What is remarkable about this quote which caused a lot of controversy when it was written is that a person that Hawkins knew called Dan Barker, who knew the Bible inside out, looked to see if you could look for counter arguments that the God of the Old Testament is kind, generous, encouraging, forgiving, charitable, loving, friendly, good humoured, supportive of woman, of homosexuals, of children, freedom loving, open minded, broadminded, non violent that you can't find any of those nice verses that describe the God of the Old Testament. I found that very interesting.
- I also love an interesting character called Seth Andrews, who said that people would comment to him that if he didn’t believe, he would be going to hell. He replies “the fact that if you believe that you're going to go to hell, what kind of God is that that is so angry at you because you just don't believe that, that he's gonna spit roast you and send you to hell”.
- WONDER: If we can accept that we have one simple, ordinary, beautiful life, and appreciate all the wonder that is going on around us then we don't need God or religion. We just need to make the most of one time on this earth, but many can’t accept this, and people are literally becoming imprisoned by illusionary, delusional gods. As Stephen Hawking said, “religion is fairytales for people who are afraid of death.”
- BIBLE ON RAISING CHILDREN: Laurence Reese talks about in a conversation with Dawkins about that if you're going to "the old is the scripture of the Bible stating that homosexuality is wrong and you also have to accept everything in the in the Bible which includes things like “being able to kill your children, if they're disobedient” or the right to ‘sleep with your father if you need to be impregnated and there are no other men around’, - there’s a lot about how you should punish children and nothing mentioned on caring, loving or raising a child without punishment.
- What is also remarkable are the pieces of knowledge that we can currently observe (like the universe shortly after the birth of the universe, early stars and what we know of how the universe works and was formed). The theory behind the big bang and all the evidence that is all around us, but in many many years time they will be scientist who will not be able to observe this and our universe will have expanded to such an extent that one day, scientists won’t be able to see our galaxy in our world and there will be no evidence of other galaxies, so they will never have the access to the knowledge that we have today. It's interesting to think about in these words by Lawrence Krauss, what it might mean for science, the future and how we pass on knowledge.
- WHY WE BELIEVE IN RELIGION: The book looks and tries to answer the question of why do we believe in religion, and one argument is, it's quite similar to our craving for highly processed food with sugar that in the past, there was such scarcity in the past but now we have so much around us that it is causing us to harm both ourselves and others. Understanding the psychology of addictions to things like highly processed foods and sugar, helps you to understand the psychology of why people believe, it's a basic need, and it drives people to seek patterns such as clowns in clouds and other such things can help simplify the reason for why we exist, and allows us to have fairy tales for people afraid of death.
- ISIS: There is a part of the book that looks at a young woman called Farida Khalaf, who escaped from the clutches of Isis. When Isis came to her village and everybody was a non-believer and who did not follow the Koran, all the men were executed, and all the women sold into slavery. As the author was a young girl who was an infidel in the book, she could be used by men in any way that they wanted, including rape, which is what happened to her. And these people claim to be scholars, even though they only follow one book.
- WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE: Jerry Coyne’s book on ‘why evolution is true’. I look fit a wide range of factors that show that we are all connected in the most remarkable days. Since the 1950s we've had molecular biology to look at the understanding of DNA and this recipe blueprint that is turned on by four different chemical messages. Each gene’s code uses the four nucleotide bases of DNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) that in various ways to spell out three-letter “codons” that specify which amino acid is needed at each position within a protein - which can make eyes, hair, blood, bone, and everything else that makes who we are, what we are. Dogs have better smell than humans, but the genes that allow dogs may have strong DNA that allows them to smell where as in humans these same cells have the same DNA cells but they just deactivated.
- IS EVOLUTION TRUE: How can you say that evolution is true? Isn't that just your opinion, isn't it just a theory. Jerry Coyne's book ‘why evolution is true’ discusses sciences has allowed us to travel on a Boeing 747 rather than a magic carpet or a broomstick, if you have a tumour you want the best surgeon available rather than the shaman or a priest. Our understanding of evolution, even if we call it a theory, the evidence is so overwhelming from the fossil records, DNA, and how animals have evolved that it is pretty much a fact in the same way that it's a theory that the sun will rise tomorrow. And yet in America 40% of people believe that life on earth and humans has existed in its present form since the beginning of time. And in Britain only 69% want evolution to be taught at all - which means that 29% don’t. Evolution is a true story of why we all exist and is an exhilarating, powerful and satisfactory explanation. It supersedes any other narrative that we have about how we all came to be on this planet. We have been able to trace the tree of life and see how we are all connected, not just man with animals but also with fungi and plants. However, it's also worth noting that some people believe the earth is flat.
- TO BE READ AT DAWKINS FUNERAL: The book ends with an epilogue to be read at Richard Dawkins funeral “we live on a planet that is all but perfect for our kind of life: not too warm and not too cold, basking in kindly sunshine, softly watered; a gently spinning, green and gold harvest festival of a planet. After a million years of sleep, here is a whole new fertile globe, a lush planet of warm pastures, sparkling with streams and waterfalls, a world bountiful with creatures, darting through alien green Felicity.... I am lucky to be alive and so are you. Privileged, and not just privileged to enjoy our planet. Moreover, we are granted the opportunity to understand why our eyes are open, and why they see what they do, in the short time before they close forever.”
The book is a potpourri of wonderful writing and illuminating ideas. I hope to read it again.
Profile Image for Grant Keegan.
241 reviews
November 18, 2021
Richard Dawkins is one of the best thinkers and writers alive today. He is exceptional at exploring and presenting ideas in the name of critical thinking, science, and the fight for rationality. He is a source of inspiration for many free-thinkers, myself included. And this book is a good way to explore a lot of his often-missed essays, reviews, and introductions to other works.

Books Do Furnish a Life is a collection of reviews, responses, and forewords to other books where Dawkins deconstructs ideas that he either agrees or disagrees on. It is also a way to introduce someone to the main topics he has focused on over decades of his career.

The best way I can describe this book is as a brief overview of Richard Dawkins’ main ideas that are found throughout his own books. From evolution to atheism and the fight against unfounded ideas, it was nice to go back and review these important concepts.

Although the book’s style can be a surprise for some, I enjoyed this format of Dawkins writing an essay on each book that has inspired him, with an overarching theme that ties together each chapter. It reminded me of John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed, also released this year which is also a showcase of the authors’ shorter, but equally important ideas compared to full books.

As is usual with his works, Books Do Furnish a Life is full of amazing writing that makes me feel inspired by the wonders of science. As someone who primarily has read Dawkins on his takes on religion, I can’t wait to read more classics on evolution, such as The Selfish Gene.

Sometimes the book can get repetitious, especially in the middle chapters. This might come from the fact that the book is a collection of separate writings that cover the same topics of Darwinian evolution and atheism over again. But it is still enjoyable, although reading the whole thing with no rest (like I did) might get tiresome as the same ideas are repeated often.

I definitely recommend Books Do Furnish a Life if you are a fan of Richard Dawkins as I am. If you are unfamiliar with him, I suggest reading his previous works before this one. But I think any person passionate about science and reason will take a lot of value from this collection.

Final Score: 82/100

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669 reviews7 followers
December 12, 2022
I always enjoy Richard Dawkins. He's one of the most influential people on my life due to his thinking and some of his books. I thought this was a great book with a variety of subjects that he covers that refresh some of his classic opinions which I haven't heard in a while. It was basically a mix between interviews with authors or friends or other scientists and book reviews. The point of the book was that literature is a vital part of discovering and understanding science, as opposed to always learning academically or from a textbook. You don't have to be a scientist to appreciate science. That isn't to say that he wasn't intensely critical of many people in this book, even of his "fellow" scientists. He understands the complex details of Darwinism and natural selection to the point where he will, and should, fiercely defend it. It's interesting to see how much he disagrees with some of his interviews, like Neil DeGrasse Tyson. More from and ethical viewpoint though. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Christopher Hitchens. It was also the last one he would ever make. He sounded like a shell of himself in the audiobook version where the real audio was heard. It's inspiring to get the perspective though of such a knowledgeable and cultured man like Hitchens though. I took down notes of the other books or authors that I should pay attention to as the concepts of evolution are way more complex and vast than I thought. I think the book achieved it's purpose and I am looking forward to read more of his work. There were some chapters that I could skip because I had already heard him say those points in other books or interviews.
I also greatly enjoyed the audiobook version of the book as it was read by the author himself and he is such a great teacher. He makes a good point at the start of the book that if a scientist cannot make his point understood to a laymen, then he doesn't understand the concept very well or is trying to hide something himself. That changes my perspective or criticism drastically of future scientific books.

Lastly, the most memorable quote of the book was when Richard admired Hitchens for his prolific reading and Hitchens said that he once had dinner with the Italian author, Umberto Eco and the subject of a polymath came up. Eco said :" I want to be interested in everything and in nothing else!"
Profile Image for E.T..
1,011 reviews289 followers
May 2, 2023
3.5/5 This is a collection of pieces written by Dawkins in 6 sections. Each section contains a short interview of/by Dawkins of a famous scientist / atheist / science-author. A lot of the book is responding to religion and the religious from various angles. While I love Dawkins, I think (the publicly available videos on youtube of) The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution were much better in comparison.
My own take is that I do not mind if some1 believes in a god or religion or whatever as long as they limit it to their private sphere. My problem is when they demand parity with science/reason and try to influence legislation in secular spaces - insistence for religious clothing and symbols (hijab & others) in school classrooms, asking for mythology/religious education in school classrooms, violation of shared spaces (say the menace of loudspeakers in places of worship), tax benefits for religious institutions and the disgustingly gender discriminatory religious "personal laws".
Speaking from some empathy with the religious :-
If you believe that:- (your) religion and religious figures are divine. Hence eternal and omniscient. Hence infallible. Hence everything must be made to fit in with the religious tenets thru silly excuses like "interpretation". But then criticism or demonstration of factual/moral problems in your religion results in 2 responses.
a) Punishment (Sar Tan se Juda!).
b) That religion must be understood in a certain context. Gotcha ! In that case it is not eternal, not omniscient. Great (but importantly they r flawed too) men have appeared throughout history and helped move societies progress morally and spiritually. I think that it is that spirit that has to be imbibed. And progress/reform has to be continued. While remembering they have been products of their times.
PS:- Repeating my recommendation to spare a couple of hours and watch/listen/read "The Four Horsemen" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpiVk...
Profile Image for Peter.
122 reviews1 follower
May 11, 2022
I bow to no one in my admiration of, and respect for, Balliol alumnus Richard Dawkins. But his enconium for Peter Medawar in this book’s introduction seems entirely unsubstantiated by the quotes from his hero’s oeuvre.

Rather Medawar appears to be a pompous, snobbish prig whom I would have avoided like the plague (in passing I will comment that often the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree).

As evidence I re-use one of the sentences that Professor Dawkins cited:

“The spread of secondary and latterly tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.”

I hadn’t pegged Sir Peter Medawar as a eugenicist until now but I fear I must entertain that possibility. I’m sorry that Dawkins finds those sentiments amusing.

In any case, ugh.

Maybe sensitised by that introduction, and by the fact that many of the essays etc. were opinion pieces or reviews I found some of Dawkins' (mostly historic) pieces to be guilty of the charge of stridency which has previously been levelled at him. It seems to me Lawrence Krauss has a point in the discussion included in this book and elsewhere.

Having said that Professor Dawkins is a very clever (I nearly said "bright" but that's another term I hate in the context of atheism, even though I am an atheist) man who has revolutionised the field of genetics and therefore our understanding of biology and (perhaps) psychology.

So there's that.
Profile Image for Laurence.
1,122 reviews40 followers
May 31, 2023
Here ensues unedited stream of consciousness. Vague, undeveloped, wrongly used words etc.

This selection of conversations and forewords and afterwords is a good summary or refresher on who Dawkins is and what he believes (okay bad joke).

To me atheism is a logical given so I don't need convincing. How to navigate and try to educate a world stuck in supernatural belief is what comes next.

As someone on his team, his sense of wonder at the real universe is refreshing. His discussion and respect of Carl Sagan reminds me I need to read more Sagan. His characteristic and familiar explanation of evolution and how a god would also need to be evolved, and how those stuck on religion are likely to lack intellectual curiosity or bravery is a nice reminder of how backward we as a people still are. Imagine if we were living in a world where only 10% were religious.

His note that he needs to work on how to approach those who are unlikely to be swayed because of the assumption that 'people generally think like me' is a great reminder of a key communication tool.

I am reminded that I was told by someone who has no understanding of science that it is likely that science and religion will converge. Yikes.
Profile Image for Calvin Caulee.
126 reviews3 followers
July 15, 2022
My first reaction to this book was: A collection of reviews and forewords, GREAT. I had felt it was just an excuse for Dawkins to publish something and be relevant in 2020. But I was so wrong, this is a wonderfully crafted book. It's a typical Dawkins book: erudite, funny, sarcastic but each word perfectly chosen to prove the clarity in his thoughts and how beautifully he has been able to express his beliefs without filling it with jargons. This book brought me back to my teenage years when I was that rebellious kid trying to find a clever way to make a case against everything conventional including religion. I read excerpts from The God Delusion. Dawkins was THE Atheist who could debate every point that theologians would throw at him. However this book shows Dawkins in a slightly different light. It shows a man who is in love with science, with research, who enjoys battling with people on the other side of the conversation. It is also a long love letter to Charles Darwin. A Man ahead of his time. Maybe someday Dawkins too will be remembered as a man ahead of his time whether you agree or not with him.
Profile Image for Chad Brown.
77 reviews3 followers
May 7, 2023
This is a collection of thoughts/interviews with Dawkins as the interviewer talking about various scientific subjects and the importance of science to Dawkins. It's a rather friendly introduction to many scientific subjects, filled with interesting peoples and pertinent information extending from a range of sciences.

Dawkins, in my mind, sometimes gets a rather bad wrap. Those that hate him portray him as this monstrous intellectual snob, which he can certainly come off like that at times, but really he's just passionate about what values and what he values is rigorous scientific pursuits. Dawkins is quite meek in contrast to how he's portrayed by his detractors and this book will likely fuel those people who just don't like Dawkins and want to portray him in the worst light. I don't always agree with Dawkins, I think he's a product of his time and out of step on some social issues, but you can't fault him by saying he doesn't know science or that he's not capable of being wrong.

Where this book shines is the introduction to subject matter via interviews with other scientist in their respective fields. I especially liked the interview with Steven Pinker about language and the interesting questions surrounding the evolution of language, which prompted me to instantly go out and add a list of Pinker's books to my want to read list.
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