Dawkins opens up on fascinating life

An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist,

by Richard Dawkins (Bantam Press, RRP $40):

I’m no science geek, in fact I happily admit to still being quite impressed by the magical ability of my fridge to spit out ice at the touch of a button, so you know a science dude is impressively famous when he’s one of just three living science dudes I would be able to pick out in a lineup.

Richard Dawkins is a fascinating bloke who has a knack for writing fascinating books.

The God Delusion in 2006 put him centrestage as the ultimate sceptic, and The Selfish Gene gave us a new view of evolution and introduced us to the term “meme”. And where would the internet be without memes?

However, while this latest book is a lot more personal it is every bit as interesting.

Dawkins lets us in on his early life, showing us a little of what made him the man he is today.

Those experiences, from a childhood in colonial Africa to his time at Oxford, an Elvis record and a later taste for Bach all served to deliver to the world a man who changed the way many of us think and turned science on its head.

Aside from all that, he also comes across as a warm and funny bloke who has had a pretty great life.

You don’t have to be a science junkie to enjoy an interesting life story.

And in case you are wondering who the other two science dudes are that I could pick out in a lineup: Stephen Hawking and Dr Sheldon Cooper.

Bazinga!

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