I have a few of Dawkin’s books and I’m glad I started with this one: if I’d have read it after others (which seem a lot more in depth and aimed at a more adult audience) I think I would’ve found this less engaging.

The Magic of Reality is an amuse-bouche of the main pillars of scientific discovery whilst at the same time a fervent debunker of mythologies and faux-sciences propagated by religious and science fiction tendencies of human society.

This particular version is an illustrated copy by Dave Mackean and I’d like to state emphatically that illustrated non-fiction books are wonderful things (despite artistic license here occasionally spilling over into unnecessary illustrations). Most drawings enhanced the reading of the book however and created a useful visualisation of key concepts. As I’ve already alluded to, the level of science is perhaps more suited to a younger audience but it was still a decent read and overview of the main discoveries of our small time here on Earth. Being devoutly non-religious I was a bit surprised to feel that the underlining of the fallacies of beliefs to describe phenomena, was a little too insistent but Dawkins is a passionate scientist and exponent of critical thought and if this is indeed for younger readers, a message to question everything one is told, is not a bad thing. (For a great read on this topic of the importance of critical thought incidentally, Carl Sagan’s ‘Demon Haunted World’ is incredible.) All in all, ‘The Magic of Reality’ did it’s job and gets a 3/5. ( )

Not very exciting for an adult with a good grasp of science, but still very well written. Where I imagine it would shine is for teenagers, since it explains many complex scientific findings in clear and easy to understand language. ( )

If I had to recommend one popular science book for children/teens to study in schools here, it would be this. It's absolutely amazing and mind-blowing how seemingly complex matters can be made to be understood so easily, by everyone.

Now, you might think that this book is for children/young adults only. Wrong. I knew almost everything mentioned in this book but I don't think I ever really truly understood it that simply before. It will clarify what you already knew and make it easier for you to explain it to others. Either way, it's a fun read and it is aesthetically pleasing. I think I'll purchase the hardcover version of this book (the one I have is from iBooks), and keep it in my shelf for future reference - or whenever I need to explain something to someone. I will also try to get my nieces/nephews to read it once they are old enough to understand.

The chapters include:
1- What is reality? What is magic?
2- Who was the first person?
3- Why are there so many different kinds of animals?
4- What are things made of?
5- Why do we have night and day, winter and summer?
6- What is the sun?
7- What is a rainbow?
8- When and how did everything begin?
9- Are we alone?
10- What is an earthquake?
11- Why do bad things happen?
12- What is a miracle?

The God Delusion might have been a disappointment, but this book made Richard Dawkins awesome again. I am truly impressed.


( )

The audio version of this book is read by Richard Dawkins and some other Lalla Ward. This is mainly relevant because it meant that I got to spend 5 hours listening to British accents. =)

The book itself was good. Each chapter poses a question, gives some answers provided by traditional myths, and then talks about the real scientific answer. I'll lay out up front, that yes, Dawkins does use the Bible for some of his examples of myths, but except to the biblical literalists (especially of the Creationist variety), these are the parts of the Bible that are generally taken to have a mythical element.

Also, while I'm on the disclaimers, this book focuses on where Dawkins does best -- explaining science in a manner accessible to the lay reader -- but it does veer just a little into rantiness in one of the later chapters.

Moving along, the questions and answers presented in this book should be broadly familiar to anyone who had an retained a decent science education, but there was the occasional moment of "so that's how it works!" illumination. For me, one such moment was the explanation of why the angle of the earth relative to the sun makes such a difference in perceived temperature [1]. From an educational standpoint, I think that this would be a really great book to get for a high school student or even an advanced middle school student.

[1] When the sun hits the earth at a shallower angle, the same amount of solar energy is spread over a wider area, so the energy received per square inch is decreased. ( )

A tricky book to review, because it walks a narrow line between simplicity and complexity. The style is very 'young' (and well done). An illustration across every page and text that is clearly worded. But don't be misled: there's more depth to the content here than might be apparent. Unsurprisingly for Dawkins, the answer to most questions would be "evolution" and that's well covered.

The question is, what age group does this work best for? There's no simple answer to that. "Curious young minds" would be the only one, and that will depend on who's reading it. Some older kids who might appreciate it might be a little reluctant to take it as seriously as it does really deserve.

One thing it doesn't cover (despite the cover tagline) is "How we know what's really true". Epistemology and scientific method isn't part of this. It tells us how we learned a few things, such as dating rocks and evolutionary change, but it doesn't address some logical questions, such as "What is a scientific hypothesis?" and "How do we prove that the Earth is round?" ( )