Pretty much what any Dawkins fan has come to expect. Intricate, imaginative, and intellectually stimulating, or author walks us through the idea that science is a beautiful thing to be celebrated in the arts, and that while good poetry can enhance or scientific experience and understudying, bad poetry can misguide us (intentionally or unintentionally. You'll learn a lot of wonderful things about the natural world and roll your eyes at embarrassing bastardizations or misapplications of science like the dreaded astrology. ( )

Not nearly as focused or convincing as The God Delusion. Dawkins comes across in this one as a grumpy ageing man who has spent too long being the voice of atheism and needs a vacation, and maybe a habit of mindfulness meditation or similar relaxation techniques such as Sam Harris promotes. And, the genetics in this book is outdated. I remember when the DNA between protein coding sequences was called 'junk', but since then we know all sorts of cool stuff about epigenetics and alternative sequences that utilize those sections of our DNA. There are still some good ideas and points in this book, but I suspect that Dawkins has more recent and better books covering these points. Also, I listened to the audiobook of this one, and the male voice, which I am assuming is Dawkins, sounds like he has a sore throat for much of the book. I don't normally pick up on such details but listening to this one for a while actually gave me a sympathetic sore throat too. It's a fun demonstration of psychosomatic illness, but folks sensitive to this sort of affect might want to just read this one in print. ( )

Yup the magic is there and it is real. ( )

Cuando Newton, con un simple prisma, descompuso la luz blanca en el espectro de colores que se oculta tras ella, ¿despojó de lirismo al arco iris, como le recriminó Keats en un célebre poema? ¿Acaso la ciencia, ese peculiar modo de entender el mundo, priva al universo de todo sentido poético? Richard Dawkins demuestra que la ciencia –desde la astronomía hasta la genética, pasando por el lenguaje y la realidad virtual– también entraña belleza, y que el descubrimiento de los mecanismos que rigen los fenómenos naturales no sólo no destruye su poesía sino que la ensalza, revelándonos aspectos sorprendentes que de ninguna otra manera podríamos apreciar o imaginar.

Enjoyed this book a lot especially the chapters on how humans delude themselves or allow others to delude them, including newspapers that include astrology columns. That seems very fitting for todays world where politicians yell fake news if they don't like the story about themselves. The final chapter is really great as well about memes and language.