Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science

Dawkins, Richard

3.84

1,510 ratings by Goodreads

9780062417183: Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science

ISBN 10: 0062417185 ISBN 13: 9780062417183

Publisher: Harperaudio, 2015

In this hugely entertaining sequel to the New York Times bestselling memoir An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins delves deeply into his intellectual life spent kick-starting new conversations about science, culture, and religion and writing yet another of the most audacious and widely read books of the twentieth century The God Delusion.Called one of the best nonfiction writers alive today (Stephen Pinker) and a prize-fighter (Nature), Richard Dawkins cheerfully, mischievously, looks back on a lifetime of tireless intellectual adventure and engagement. Exploring the halls of intellectual inquiry and stardom he encountered after the publication of his seminal work, The Selfish Gene; affectionately lampooning the world of academia, publishing, and television; and studding the pages with funny stories about the great men and women he s known, Dawkins offers a candid look at the events and ideas that encouraged him to shift his attention to the intersection of culture, religion, and science. He also invites the reader to look more closely at the brilliant succession of ten influential books that grew naturally out of his busy life, highlighting the ideas that connect them and excavating their origins.On the publication of his tenth book, the smash hit, The God Delusion, a resounding trumpet blast for truth (Matt Ridley), Richard Dawkins was catapulted from mere intellectual stardom into a circle of celebrity thinkers dubbed, The New Atheists including Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett.Throughout A Brief Candle in the Dark, Dawkins shares with us his infectious sense of wonder at the natural world, his enjoyment of the absurdities of human interaction, and his bracing awareness of life s brevity: all of which have made a deep imprint on our culture."

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Review:

"Readers of Brief Candle are in for many treats: lively prose from one of our greatest living writers; stimulating ideas on the nature of life and the human condition; and the opportunity to eavesdrop on the workings of an extraordinary mind, intellectually fierce yet personally generous." (Steven Pinker)

"[Dawkins] is a thunderously gifted science writer" (The Times)

"Dawkins's greatest gift has been as a lyricist ... His writing can still sparkle. He excels at capturing the scenes behind a scene, deftly explaining a scientific principle, capping a story with an amusing anecdote ... At such moments, one feels transported to a tweedy evening at Oxford, pouring the sherry as a charming senior faculty member holds court." (Nature)

"A highly readable account of the fascinating career of the science populariser ... Among its attractions are handy summaries of the central arguments of each of Dawkins's books ... It shows Dawkins in all his contradictory guises" (Prospect)

"Dawkins has written with passion, urgency and clarity" (Guardian)

Book Description:

The second and final part of Richard Dawkins' memoirs

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