Review: The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, by Richard Dawkins (ed.)
A book to treasure
Sometimes, as you near the end of a book, you start to feel sad that there isn’t much more of it left. Sometimes, a book is such a pleasure to read that you wish it could go on forever. Well that’s how I felt about The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, by Richard Dawkins (ed.).
I know it’s not a prepossessing title and the cover is pretty dull but this book is full of wonderful, marvellous things. It is written – and written well! – by some of the greatest minds of the 20th and 21st Centuries. It is a joy to read.
The book is a large collection of short extracts from the writings of many, many great scientists. There are scores of extracts and every one of them (barring just one or two) is a gem. Every one of them made me wish the extract were longer. Every one of them made me want to go to the original book and read the whole thing. (Fortunately, I already have a good many of them in my library, or have read them already.) But what a collection! Think of a big name in any field of science and they are likely to be represented in this book. Dawkins has done an excellent job of discovering and collating some beautiful, fascinating, and inspiring pieces of writing from a very broad spectrum of scientists. I wish that more writers of fiction could write as well as these scientists! My personal favourite scientist-writers were all there, from Edward O. Wilson to David Deutsch, Loren Eiseley to Peter Medawar, along with all the most popular and gifted scientist-writers of our age (including Stephen Pinker, Donald Johanson, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Roger Penrose, and so many others.) What’s more, Dawkins introduces each and every piece with a few comments of his own, setting it in context, explaining its inclusion, or simply reminiscing about the author – more than compensating for the fact that Dawkins has, modestly, not included extracts from his own brilliant corpus.
It’s not a perfect collection – it could have run to four volumes – or ten! – and never have done full justice to the wealth of great science and science writing that is out there. It could have included more scientists (it was sad that Max Born wasn’t included, for example) and, perhaps, had more from fields such as psychology – there was a slight biological bias, I must say. There is probably scope for a companion volume to include only science writing for young people, since little of that was included in this book.
Yet it was a book I will always treasure. One that will become well thumbed over the years as I dip into it to savour again some of my favourite pieces (the last three were very well chosen.) Books like this should always have ebook editions so that they are easily searchable. An ebook edition that linked to all the source texts, writer biographies, and writer bibliographies, would be a treasure indeed!
sounds like a great resource for sci fi writers!
Hmmm. Maybe not so much, J-A. The extracts are too short to be very substantial. However, it is a great set of pointers into some great resources.
Hey Graham, would it be any good for someone who is completely science-stupid??? Or is it too technical? I’ve waded through some Dawkins before – quite enjoyed bits and skipped over what I didn’t understand – and have a hankering for some non-fiction at the moment. Have just given up on a very confusing book about the Great Wall in China.
Kylie, I’d say it was all pretty much OK for the layman. Dawkins only does the brief introductions to each piece, so it’s not really him writing it. I think he chose all the pieces to be “accessible” and a good many of them don’t talk about science as such but the process, the people, the things scientists did while they were doing more serious stuff, the things their work inspired scientists to think about human nature and the nature of the Universe, and so on.
Cheers, thanks Graham. Now back to work! Surely you don’t think you get a day off just because it’s a public holiday!!
I certainly don’t! While the rest of the world is burning sausages and waving flags, the writers are hiding in the shed with a laptop and a glazed expression.
I will be looking for this one, thanks, Graham. I agree an ebook with links would be real boon. Interesting article in last weekend’s “Weekend Australian” review section – an introductory spread on ebooks with some emphasis on the kindle. Lots of shortcomings mentioned but quite strong statements made about the positive future for the ebook.
terry
If only these things were in the shops. If only people were able to see other people on the bus and ask if they could have a look. There’s a tipping point with technologies like this. There needs to be a sufficient number of units around to be played with so that people can hold them and touch them and get past their prejudices. I’m pretty sure the adoption rate is going to be exponential, but at the moment we’re on the long tail and it could be a decade yet…
This is so going on my To be Read list! I love good, accessible science writing.