Last thing: In attempting to convince you to buy this book, or check it out of your library, it’s useful to tell you that the author is a normal person. Dave Wallace — and he is commonly known as such — keeps big sloppy dogs and has never dressed them in taffeta or made them wear raincoats. He has complained often about sweating too much when he gives public readings, so much so that he wears a bandana to keep the perspiration from soaking the pages below him. He was once a nationally ranked tennis player, and he cares about good government. He is from the Midwest—east-central Illinois, to be specific, which is an intensely normal part of the country (not far, in fact, from a city, no joke, named Normal). So he is normal, and regular, and ordinary, and this is his extraordinary, and irregular, and not-normal achievement, a thing that will outlast him and you and me, but will help future people understand us — how we felt, how we lived, what we gave to each other and why.
Have you ever read and loved a book that no one else believes is good? This has happened to me a few times, especially when I’ve recommended a book to someone. For some reason, if they don’t read the book I am a little hurt.
Maybe I take book recommendations too seriously. One book I recall this happening to is The Painted Bird by Jezy Kosinski. I read this book, loved it, and told someone about it. They never read it, and I continued to wonder why.
Has anyone ignored a recommendation you’ve made before?
I have recently undertaken a ginormous project- by starting Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. I am very excited about reading a huge tome again, which I haven’t done since Infinite Jest two summers ago. (Man I cannot believe it has really been that long!) My former policy with this little blog I write is to only chronicle Books I Just Read- to have an accurate running tally of books I read. Since I won’t be done with ATD for a while, I have decided to intermittently update about books I HAVE read. In the past. That I liked. I hope this ends up ok, I don’t want to get off track with my actual goal. But rest assured, I will have read all the books I write about here, and I will only choose favorites to write about.
I don’t want BOOKSIJUSTREAD to be too boring and not post anything until I finish this behemoth of a novel.
It took me a long time to read Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth because I’m not used to reading non-fiction. I was incredibly interested in the subject matter and read my little heart out. I felt like I was in college again, reading non-fiction! It was fun, and inspired me to be more educational with the books I choose to read from now on. And then I got to see a moderated discussion, featuring Dawkins himself discussing his book. It was really amazing.
This book was at all times engaging and interesting, even though there is a definite period of “review” for people who paid attention during science classes throughout their life. I was really into biology for a while- my teachers were always impressed with my abilities to name bones and muscles and whatever. That was a long time ago, but this book brought it all back, along with all the Discovery channel watching I did with my father. I think evolution is one of the most important scientific discoveries, and should be taught as such. So does Dawkins.
He goes through, step by step, why evolution is true. His methodology consists of thorough explanations of various experiments that prove evolution, the fossil record, carbon dating and dendrology, and more. He even explains some linguistic ambiguities and the way words like “theory” contribute to miseducation and ignorance regarding evolution. Most importantly, I feel armored against “history deniers,” as Dawkins calls them, and learned enough on the subject to defend my instincts and opinions. I was even more pleased to learn that Dawkins is working on a children’s book equivalent, and plan on buying it for my children and all the children for whom I ever have gift giving opportunities.
My favorite part of the book was Dawkins description of a very interesting biological experiment involving the evolution of e-coli. The experiment’s results prove undeniably that evolution happens, and the details and care that went into it are astounding.
If you read only one non-fiction book this year, make it The Greatest Show on Earth.
I recently established a charitable foundation dedicated to promoting ‘Reason and Science.’ During the protracted, extremely expensive, and ultimately successful negotiations to obtain charitable status, I received a letter from the British Charity Commission dated 28 September 2006 which contained the following: ‘It is not clear how the advancement of science tends towards the mental and moral improvement of humanism and rationalism.’ Religious organization, by contrast, are assumed to benefit humanity without any obligation to demonstrate it and even, apparently, if they are actively engaged in promoting scientific falsehood.
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Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth
These kinds of crazy conundrums can dominate my brain if I’m not careful.
