The Selfish Gene (Popular Science) (book)

Well written and thought out. A must read for critical thinkers.

I agree with some other reviewers, that I wish I could unread the book. Selfishness, a trait regarded negative by the society, is the very fundamental aspect of life.

Dawkins, at times tend to get very rigorous, which is challenging sometimes. He supplies evidence for his theory, which somtimes is overwhelming. His examples are wonderful.

Introduction of game theory to explain the behaviour of animals was my favourite part of the book.

Ofcourse, its amazing that, genes, mere chemicals, are the writers of the nature's amazing drama called Life, and we, mere puppets.

Dawkins' delving into the supposed evolution of the "selfish gene" is often interesting and thought provoking and, just as often, rather a plodding look at an interesting subject.
I found myself skipping portions of the early part of the book, but was often fascinated by the middle and end portions of the book. You might say it was a mixed bag, but certainly worth the time and trouble to read it.

I just gave up on this book after getting about half way through. It's the second straight Richard Dawkins book (The Blind Watchmaker) I've had that reaction to and it will be the last.

Sprinkled throughout all the glowing reviews of Dawkins books on this site you will find a number of us who ended up feeling ready to scream at the way he belabors points, piles one analogy and metaphor on top of another, and rambles on endlessly to qualify insignificant statements that seem irrelevant to the points being made. I feel he ends up presenting such a muddled picture that even if you agree with his ideas you just want to say "Enough already!!"

Going into the Selfish Gene I felt it was important to understand genetics up front. In the initial chapters of the book Mr. Dawkins attempted to describe DNA and genes in terms of an architect's plans for construction of a building. Things were compared to bookshelves, volumes, and pages of information with the caveat that the metaphors wouldn't really hold up. Combining genetic information became a matter of swapping pages in and out. Pages weren't really pages and volumes weren't really volumes, etc. I finally went to a web site and got an excellent description for exactly the processes Mr. Dawkins was talking about and had no difficulty understanding them. Then I went back to the book thinking I would be ready for the material to follow.

It seemed to me that the material that followed just meandered all over the place and the points it was trying to make got lost in the endless details and qualifications he presented. Exceptions that weren't really exceptions, definitions that would suffice for the moment, etc. After a while I just didn't care to continue and I didn't.

Unfortunately, I had ordered this book at the same time I ordered The Blind Watchmaker. I fully believed in evolution before reading what he had to say so it's not as if I'm a fan of Creationism or Intelligent Design. After a while though I got to the point where he just wore away my interest in the subject. More endless qualifications and pursuit of minutia than I could take.

I read a lot of books about cosmology, evolution, physics, neurology, consciousness, etc. and sometimes have to struggle through the material being presented but I generally feel it is because the material is difficult. In this case the material seemed conceptually easy but presentation was the barrier.

I received the book in a short amount of time. It was in good condition just like seller said. I would buy from this seller again.