As with all of his books - everyone should read this one. But, as with all his books, I have the impression that he is capable of much more. ( )

I expected to find this work fascinating, right up my alley, blah blah, etc. Instead, I was immediately put off by Bloom's self-aggrandization, and then bored by his essays. I couldn't get through the book. I've been reading and thinking about the biological bases of human behavior for a few decades, so I felt overcome by unoriginality.

BTW, the folks at Wikipedia think that he wrote his own entry.

David Sloan Wilson, in the foreward, says Bloom is "an intellectual, originally trained in science, who decided to avoid the limitations of an academic career...." In other words, he was a smart kid who dropped out of college, made a bunch of money (in PR), and became an autodidact (i.e. he educated himself by reading a lot). It shows. Some of his ideas are really pop science, and like many people who have a hard time dealing with the oft-times plodding nature of real science, he can't pick the conceptual wheat from the chaff. He likes the breadth of ideas, not the depth. (No Darwin he.)

These drawbacks might be seen as assets to another reader, however. You just have to remember that these essays are highly speculative and deal with concepts that aren't exactly scientific.

I have a lot of time on my hands. Maybe I'll give it another shot and revise my opinions. ( )

True - it is not deep in sources but it is a very good read with some interesting ideas in it. i would not pass it up - unless you are trying to use it as a source for a thesis paper. Other than that - have fun with it! ( )

It is poorly researched, not very scientific and often inaccurate.
However, it is very provocative.
Sort of a deathmetal meets E! meets Dawkins.
Great starter sort of book to get people to then read real books. ( )

Interesting, but scientifically unreliable. It's not all crap and some of the ideas really are interesting, but I would not recommend reading it if you do not have enough science to see through the crap. Entertaining at the very least.