Richard Dawkins - Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

Pros: A lot of information
Cons: Perhaps a bit of coldness and condescension at times, but not often

Dawkins takes his title from John Keats, who decried Isaac Newton's explanation of light as "unweaving the rainbow." Far from robbing the wonderment at light by revealing some of its mysteries, Dawkins maintains that the greater understanding can only...

Pros: Extremely well-written look at the poetry in science; wicked humor of the author
Cons: absolutely none

Richard Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Endowed in 1995 by Charles Simonyi of Microsoft, Dawkins is the first appointee to this chair. In my opinion it would be hard to find anyone ...

Pros: Something for everyone - beautiful, informative and inspiring.
Cons: People most likely to benefit from it are the ones least likely to read it.

The theme and purpose of "Unweaving The Rainbow" becomes clear from the preface. Dawkins writes:

"A foreign publisher of my first book confessed that he could not sleep for three nights after reading it, so troubled was he by what he saw as...

Pros: a wonderful uplifting look at the poetry of Science
Cons: perhaps a little difficult to get into when you first pick it up

This is one of the few 'scientific books' that I have read which didn't leave me with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach! Science is often perceived as a dry, dull subject, and Richard Dawkins in particular has often been accused of sapping...

Pros: interesting, an easy read
Cons: treatment of non-biological subjects is weak

The technical lay reader with an interest in biology/genetics/evolution will probably have read several books by Steven Jay Gould (The Panda's Thumb, The Flamingo's Smile, ...) and parts or all of others by Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, The Extended...

Pros: Easy reading, little or no science background
Cons: Drifts through too many issues

This is my third Dawkins' book after Selfish Gene and Extended Phenotype. The Selfish Gene was easy reading but the Extended Phenotype was not, especially for a non-biologist. Unweaving the Rainbow is easy reading and comprehensible by anyone with some...