OT: best book in years

[Philip Austin]

Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> writes:

> 
> Gould is a great writer, even though in his later works he often gives in to
> unstructured rambling (I can of course well sympathize with THAT 
> temptation:-) -- Dawkins, IMHO, isn't, even though in "The selfish gene" he
> does manage (by a mix of his powerful ideas and his dry direct prose) to
> be truly riveting.  My personal choice for Gould's masterpiece is "The
> Mismeasure of Man".  If you do want to see (essentially) Dawkins' ideas
> presented by a truly great writer, try Matt Ridley -- "Genome", "Origins of
> Virtue", "Red Queen", all superb writing (haven't read "Nature via Nurture"
> yet -- I'll wait for the paperback).  Not to be confused with *Mark* Ridley,
> who also writes (quite worthwhile books and antologies) in exactly the
> same field, mind you.


See Allen Orr's New York Review of Books article for a cogent
critique of Ridley's "Nature via Nurture":

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16522

Phil

Associate Professor
Atmospheric Sciences Programme
Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences
The University of British Columbia
6339 Stores Road
Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z4