How We Know What's Really True - The Magic of Reality

I am a great admirer of Dawkins and his lucid writing, but was curious to see wether this applied to writing for youngsters (having a 15 year old grandson). Happily this turned out to be the case. A minor point: as a MD I thought the medical part a little bit weak.

SInce the beggining of college that I am a big fan of Richard Dawkins.
I've read almost all of his books and I was really curious about this new project to write to teenagers.

I bought the book as soon it was released.

It is a magical book that every kid/teenager should read during his life!

I gave one to my nephew and he enjoyed a lot!
He started asking me how the nature works.

It's a good way to teach kids to be curious and to not accept every story people tell.

I picked up this book with the hope that it would be good bedtime reading with my 3-yr-old and 5-yr-old. They enjoy reading books about space and other aspects of science, so I thought that this one might be a good one to add to the rotation. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit that bill, because there's a lot more information here than my little ones will be able to enjoy and process.

I'm still really glad I bought it and read it, though, because it's a gorgeous and interesting book that will be great for them in about five years.

Dawkins covers a dozen general topics of science ("Who is the first person", "What is the sun?"), starting almost every chapter with ancient myths regarding the topic and then diving into the real science of the matter. His explanations are in clear, understandable language.

It's interesting to see when Dawkins the evolutionary biologist is in territory he understands well ("Why are there so many different kinds of animals?") compared with topics in which he's admittedly not an expert (some of the physics of "What is a rainbow?"). When he's not an expert on a topic, he lets us know up front what the limit of his understanding is, which is charming at times, and also gives the book a personal, familiar tone.

The illustrations throughout are fantastic, and they really illuminate the related text content throughout. I'm happy just to turn page after page looking at the brightly colorful pictures.

I can see why some Christians have objected to this book - some of the mythological explanations used in the beginning of chapters come from the Bible. For Dawkins, this makes sense, as he considers Judeo-Christian stories as no more grounded in reality than any mythology. There will definitely be many who read his reluctance to give Christianity special treatment as a targeted attack, but I personally think he's correct when he treats Christian stories equally with other stories.

Additionally, the final chapter, "What is a miracle?" will be seen by many as an attack on religion. That might be Dawkins' intent, but it's more clear that he's trying to prove his overall point, that the wonder of the real world is more impressive than either stage magic or supernatural stories.

Overall, this is a great general introduction to the wonders of science for preteens to adults.

A lot more general than his other works, 'Magic of Reality', is written in almost a 'textbook' style, and has creative illustrations that coincide w/the topics at hand. Also, compared to his other works, it is a much easier, quicker read, but none the less, still an intriguing and fun book to page through. Some of the topics even take me back to chapters in high school science class...

I will keep this short and on point. If you have read his other works then this is basically the same philosophical dialogue but written in a way to ensure that this is easily conveyed to the younger reader.

Absolutely everyone should be required to read this book. This is the perfect resource for parents who want to give their children REAL answers based on facts!! Anyone who values truth will love this book.

While targeted at younger readers, the clarity of explanation has a lot to offer adult readers also. Beautiful illustrations too, but on a few pages they made reading the text a bit challenging. Highly recommended.

Dr. Dawkins' brilliant thought processes shows up in this treatise about everyday matters which often require a moderately in-depth explanation. He does this in a manner which aims at an intelligent and curious readership of virtually all ages..

This book is super readable and re-readable. I enjoy it and find the logic a medicine to undo all the bi-bull brainwashing I grew up with. Dawkins is an excellent explainer of science; Hope he writes more.

This book helped crystallize some of my thoughts on living in a world with people who firmly believe in magic and superstition and the law of averages. I look forward to reading it with my two sons (both around 10 years old) in the upcoming months.

Loved the book. I though it was a great refresher for those things that we should know and did learn in the past. I also learned new things that didn't know exactly how they worked but had a general idea.

Too similar to another book I just read by Dawkins. Seemed too much a summary of other things he has written. Good for those who need an introduction to his work but not recommended for Dawkins readers like I am.

Richard Dawkins continues to amaze me with the clarity and range of his books. On a non-author note, it is also a commentary on the publishing world that in just over two years the hardcover is out of print, even with an author as popular as Dawkins.

Well written, in a very accessible style, and persuasive, as one would expect from a book written by Richard Dawkins. For those who have never read any of his many other books, the book is a real page turner. For those that have, well it is a different story as every chapter in the book is designed to show that religious believers are intellectual simpletons / fools. It is a thesis proposed by Dawkins with such unfailing regularity as to make his library a little bit akin to a one stop shop. But I liked it perhaps because I like page turners. .

DEBUNKING RELIGIOUS MYTHS, MAGIC AND MIRACLES

A must read for the young and a very helpful read for every parent. A great refreshed of the Science you knew and a great introduction of the Science you didn't know. Great support to answer the many questions of the curious little ones at home. Great way to help everybody to understand the beauty of Nature, the fun of Science, the value of traditions and the emptiness of the non-rational beliefs of religion.

The material is geared to someone who knows very little about the theory of evolution. A previous reviewer had indicated that it had many good illustrations. There were none in this book. Maybe they were referring to verbal illustrations.

RICHARD DAWSON HAS THE GIFT OF MAKING COMPLEX ISSUES EASY TO UNDERSTAND. HIS VAST KNOWLEDGE OF PHYSICS AND MATHEMATHICS MAKES THE BOOK AN EXCELLENT READ. FROM START TO THE END THE READER IS CAPTIVATED BY HIS COMMAND OF ENGLISH AND HIS SIMPLE WAY OF EXPLAINING DIFFICULT ISSUES. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK AS A MUST READ TO UNDERSTAND THE MIRACLE OF NATURE.

I've read about one-half of this book. It is written for a lay audience, but at a level that seems more juvenile, e.g. directed toward adolescents. Or toward someone who has no background whatsoever in the sciences? Not sure if I would recommend it.

Another one that need 6 stars. As Gore's global warming apocalyptic sermon is to "the Great Global Warming Swindle", the "Magic of Reality" is to various myths and undocumented beliefs by "the church". Let the readers discuss and decide. Then read F. Hayek's Nobel Prize ( ~ 1974) speech about man's ability to understand very complex phenomena, and then expect to manipulate those phenomena with a predictable conclusion.

Dawkins is an excellent writer when he sticks to the science. This book appears to be an exercise in converting the less educated to a rational empirical view. Good luck with that!(sincerely). For anyone who has read much popular science the tone is condescending and the content dumbed down to a point where it fails to exercise the intellect.

This book is an easy read by Dawkins to draw the attention of readers to the magic of the real world and science rather then the superstitious world of mythology and religion. To do so, he descends from the lofty heights of academia and takes for some what could be considered to be an elementary approach and much of the content will prove to be 'old hat' to anyone with even a basic knowledge of science. However, if you are one of those who do not know how long it takes for the earth to go round the sun, this is essential reading. But if you are that much of an ignoramus, you probably won't be buying this book in the first place.

Love this game. I wish I knew what I was doing to earn bonus points and I don't understand the whole chicken yard, but I love playing it, and I love all the hearts and love the birds send me when I visit the yard and buy them something new with my points. For not knowing any of the rules of the game - I'm surprised that I really can't stop playing it.

Simply a beautiful book, entertaining, captivating and Factual! Just finished reading it myself, look forward to the family discussions after my children read it. :D

I have to admit I was a little hesitant to give it to the kids at first, while I'm a fan of Dawkins he is very harsh at times towards religion. And while I'm not raising my kids, in any religion. They are a little to young to understand the reasons behind the harshness.
If that is your hesitation have no fear.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. The wonders of nature are explained in an easy and entertaining way. I like the way Mr. Dawkins empathizes with the reader about the more complicated concepts and is respectful not to offend theists, but invites them to witness the awe and "Magic of Reality".

Excellent book but has not turned my reader grandkids into avid page turners. It needs the Lucy & Stephen Hawking style treatment found in their "George & the Big Bang". Maybe Dawkins can find a collaborator among his family or friends. In any case, I enjoy it and it provides talking points and a place to refer the kids to for specific subjects.

It is books like this one that we should be reading to our kids. Maybe if more parents taught their kids facts from science books and less myths from religious books our species could evolve into something better than it is today. A must read for those who enjoy learning basic science from brilliant scientists.

Dawkins is the premier spokes men for scientific inquiry rather than blind faith. His explanation of natural phenomenon is down-to-earth and should be intelligible to all. Having said that, someone with a science education my find his explanations too simplified. However, Dawkins is not aiming the book at the choir. Great book and I recommend it highly.

The other morning I was treated to an episode of my father going on about how the world is going to end this year. When I asked him how he knew this he showed me a book he had that was filled with nonsense superstitions and signs. He asked me to read it. I handed him my copy of The Magic of Reality and said "I'll read your book if you read mine."

Dawkins book is a pleasant reminder, in this age of fundamentalism, u.f.o. sightings & conspiracy theorists, that the scientific method is, & has always been, the most reliable way for us to truly understand, appreciate & thrive within our universe.

Simply put, this book is a masterpiece. The meticulousness of the writing is at the level of Dawkins' other books, and McKean's visuals will take your breath away.

We bought this for our niece, but will be ordering another copy for our bookshelf.

* Note: This review is for the hardcover edition. As I understand it, the other editions do not include any illustration.

I've thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Dawkins other books, including his recent memoir. I had not expected this book to be written for
bright teenagers. Had I known, I might not have purchased it. Nonetheless, every bright teenager should read it. It conveys the
excitement (dare I say the "spirituality") of a scientific, questioning approach to the world around us.

"And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
John 8:32
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear."
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

This was a fun read. Dawkins explains the science behind some simple questions that children may ask. Why do we have night and day? What is a rainbow? He really writes some absorbing books. I recommend this for all ages.

Dawkins is extremely intelligent author and man of science. He captivates me with all his works. He's a great teacher to young and old alike. Always encouraging thought and curiosity to the world around you. Hoping to enjoy his work for years to come

I purchased the book more for my children than myself, but I have found myself lost in the pages. My children are 4 and 5, but I was able to take parts of the book, simplify the words and start small discussions about stars, earthquakes and magic. My children will 'grow into' the book, but for now I am enjoying learning things that I didn't even know.

I would definitely recommend this book for children who are middle school age, it has a lot of great information, but some bigger words. Younger children are going to need an adults help picking the book apart. I am really glad I purchased this book, I know it will serve me as I raise my freethinking children.

We'd all be better off. Unfortunately, the people who most need to read it (creationists, religious fanatics and people who believe the fairy tales in the Bible and other sacred books) probably won't.

Dawkins makes an unassailable case for reason over unreason, faith and dogma, while leaving an important role for love, sympathy, beauty and other things that lift our spirits.

Dawkin's book is more an explanation of the universe and everything in it due to science rather than any attempt to appreciate that not everything could possibly be because of science. A solid read if you believe that everything you're aware of is all because of atoms.

I felt as if Professor Dawkins walked me through each subject personally. An amazing introduction to science, surprisingly I thought I knew a lot about some of the content. I discovered that I could learn a lot more... And from such a small book. It keeps you interested and intrigued throughout, with a perfect blend of humor and seriousness. A new favorite.

the best way to undetstand the state of art of astronomy

if every one understand the content of this book, the mankind will be better
it put us to understand the meaning of the religion : NOTHING !

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True by Richard Dawkins

"The Magic of Reality" is the latest contribution by evolutionary-biologist icon Richard Dawkins. Professor Dawkins is on a mission of education and in this enlightening book he reaches a younger audience by introducing science like only he can. In one of the most beautifully illustrated science books, he takes the reader on a ride on a wide-range of topics of interest that masterfully navigates between myth and what is real. This mesmerizing 272-page book is composed of the following twelve chapters: 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? ,and 12. What is a miracle?

Positives:
1. A wonderful book on science that is accessible to a younger audience without compromising the science lovers in all of us. Bravo!
2. It's a book written by the great Richard Dawkins, so you know the quality goes in before the product goes out.
3. A true labor of love. The educator in Professor Dawkins comes out and now even our children will benefit from his prodigious knowledge.
4. One of the most beautifully illustrated books you will ever find. Great quality binding only matched by its substance.
5. Science knowledge conveyed in a brilliant, lucid manner.
6. Great format. In each chapter, Professor Dawkins illustrates clearly the difference between the wishful and what is "really" real.
7. What a wonderful way to learn about science. Great practical examples throughout this beautiful book. A ride of knowledge, hop on! Readers of all ages will enjoy this great book.
8. Even-handed and pleasant tone throughout.
9. A wide range of fascinating science topics in the hands of the master.
10. Great wisdom throughout, "We should always be open-minded, but the only good reason to believe that something exists is if there is real evidence that it does".
11. The book cleverly goes from myth to reality.
12. The concept of magic in three tiers: supernatural, stage and poetic.
13. Evolution in the hands of the master. Awesome.
14. Was there ever a first person? Insightful indeed. The best illustrated example I've ever read.
15. Great explanation on DNA.
16. Clever examples throughout, one of the many strengths of this book.
17. A wide range of fascinating science topic in the hands of a master.
18. The three common phases of matter.
19. The importance of the scientific method.
20. The concept of empty space...I finally get it.
21. The importance of carbons, organic chemistry.
22. Telling that there are no myths to describe atoms...
23. So what causes the difference between winter and summer...find out.
24. The illusion of relative movement.
25. The great Isaac Newton. Gravity, lights...we are not worthy.
26. The difference between mass and weight.
27. A great illustration of how far stars are from us.
28. How coal is created.
29. Differences between stars and planets.
30. Energy and the sun.
31. What determines the size of a star? Find out.
32. The epic of Gilgamesh. Interesting.
33. Rainbow as an illusion and how they are formed.
34. Lights as vibrations...I see.
35. Steady state versus the Big Bang theory.
36. How we determine the distance between anything in the universe.
37. How we determine age.
38. Spectral barcoders...neat.
39. Methods for detecting planets.
40. The keys for life on other planets.
41. Plate tectonics illustrated, wonderful.
42. The speed of continents, sea-floor spreading...
43. Myths debunked.
44. Practical explanation for probability.
45. Great examples of evolution...parasites.
46. How the immune system works. Fascinating.
47. Miracles what they are.
48. David Hume's irrefutable logic regarding miracles and many great examples.
49. Absolutely kindles the fire of learning.
50. An excellent gift for all occasions.

Negatives:
1. The book is intended for a younger audience and covers briefly a lot of topics. If you are expecting an in-depth analysis, this is not the book for you.
2. No bibliography.

In summary, a fabulous book for all to enjoy. I usually limit my purchases to Kindle books because of the convenience but I'm glad I was "forced" to buy this book in hardcover binding. It's a beautiful book inside and out. Substance finally matches style and it's a science book for all to enjoy and for years to come. There is a sense of awe, a poetic magic for reality. For all his knowledge, Professor Dawkins is humbled by what little we do know and how much more we need to find out about the world. It's precisely this drive to know more and that hunger for knowledge that I always wanted to convey to my children. Finally, I have a book that expresses my sentiments and I have Richard Dawkins to thank!

We'd all be better off. Unfortunately, the people who most need to read it (creationists, religious fanatics and people who believe the fairy tales in the Bible and other sacred books) probably won't.

Dawkins makes an unassailable case for reason over unreason, faith and dogma, while leaving an important role for love, sympathy, beauty and other things that lift our spirits.

Dawkin's book is more an explanation of the universe and everything in it due to science rather than any attempt to appreciate that not everything could possibly be because of science. A solid read if you believe that everything you're aware of is all because of atoms.

I felt as if Professor Dawkins walked me through each subject personally. An amazing introduction to science, surprisingly I thought I knew a lot about some of the content. I discovered that I could learn a lot more... And from such a small book. It keeps you interested and intrigued throughout, with a perfect blend of humor and seriousness. A new favorite.

the best way to undetstand the state of art of astronomy

if every one understand the content of this book, the mankind will be better
it put us to understand the meaning of the religion : NOTHING !

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True by Richard Dawkins

"The Magic of Reality" is the latest contribution by evolutionary-biologist icon Richard Dawkins. Professor Dawkins is on a mission of education and in this enlightening book he reaches a younger audience by introducing science like only he can. In one of the most beautifully illustrated science books, he takes the reader on a ride on a wide-range of topics of interest that masterfully navigates between myth and what is real. This mesmerizing 272-page book is composed of the following twelve chapters: 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? ,and 12. What is a miracle?

Positives:
1. A wonderful book on science that is accessible to a younger audience without compromising the science lovers in all of us. Bravo!
2. It's a book written by the great Richard Dawkins, so you know the quality goes in before the product goes out.
3. A true labor of love. The educator in Professor Dawkins comes out and now even our children will benefit from his prodigious knowledge.
4. One of the most beautifully illustrated books you will ever find. Great quality binding only matched by its substance.
5. Science knowledge conveyed in a brilliant, lucid manner.
6. Great format. In each chapter, Professor Dawkins illustrates clearly the difference between the wishful and what is "really" real.
7. What a wonderful way to learn about science. Great practical examples throughout this beautiful book. A ride of knowledge, hop on! Readers of all ages will enjoy this great book.
8. Even-handed and pleasant tone throughout.
9. A wide range of fascinating science topics in the hands of the master.
10. Great wisdom throughout, "We should always be open-minded, but the only good reason to believe that something exists is if there is real evidence that it does".
11. The book cleverly goes from myth to reality.
12. The concept of magic in three tiers: supernatural, stage and poetic.
13. Evolution in the hands of the master. Awesome.
14. Was there ever a first person? Insightful indeed. The best illustrated example I've ever read.
15. Great explanation on DNA.
16. Clever examples throughout, one of the many strengths of this book.
17. A wide range of fascinating science topic in the hands of a master.
18. The three common phases of matter.
19. The importance of the scientific method.
20. The concept of empty space...I finally get it.
21. The importance of carbons, organic chemistry.
22. Telling that there are no myths to describe atoms...
23. So what causes the difference between winter and summer...find out.
24. The illusion of relative movement.
25. The great Isaac Newton. Gravity, lights...we are not worthy.
26. The difference between mass and weight.
27. A great illustration of how far stars are from us.
28. How coal is created.
29. Differences between stars and planets.
30. Energy and the sun.
31. What determines the size of a star? Find out.
32. The epic of Gilgamesh. Interesting.
33. Rainbow as an illusion and how they are formed.
34. Lights as vibrations...I see.
35. Steady state versus the Big Bang theory.
36. How we determine the distance between anything in the universe.
37. How we determine age.
38. Spectral barcoders...neat.
39. Methods for detecting planets.
40. The keys for life on other planets.
41. Plate tectonics illustrated, wonderful.
42. The speed of continents, sea-floor spreading...
43. Myths debunked.
44. Practical explanation for probability.
45. Great examples of evolution...parasites.
46. How the immune system works. Fascinating.
47. Miracles what they are.
48. David Hume's irrefutable logic regarding miracles and many great examples.
49. Absolutely kindles the fire of learning.
50. An excellent gift for all occasions.

Negatives:
1. The book is intended for a younger audience and covers briefly a lot of topics. If you are expecting an in-depth analysis, this is not the book for you.
2. No bibliography.

In summary, a fabulous book for all to enjoy. I usually limit my purchases to Kindle books because of the convenience but I'm glad I was "forced" to buy this book in hardcover binding. It's a beautiful book inside and out. Substance finally matches style and it's a science book for all to enjoy and for years to come. There is a sense of awe, a poetic magic for reality. For all his knowledge, Professor Dawkins is humbled by what little we do know and how much more we need to find out about the world. It's precisely this drive to know more and that hunger for knowledge that I always wanted to convey to my children. Finally, I have a book that expresses my sentiments and I have Richard Dawkins to thank!

If you want to learn many things you missed in science class because text books were very boring, this is a wonderful book. Dawkins blends the art of a good novel with the scientific analysis and facts to make for a very enjoyable read.

Well I was pleased with the book. Very well written though a little condescending. Probably aimed at Children over age 8 is my guess. But still well written. Anyway what I did not like was that it was just stuck in a cardboard mailer and arrived damp on my doorstep. It had snowed the day before and so some dampness seeped in. Not badly. So I suggest to the mailer to insert future books into a zip-lock plastic bag of some sort. Most of the other books I've gotten through the store had ben wrapped in some kind of plastic.

Sincerely, Jim Zivic

I'm sorry, but I'm too swamped with other important things to take time to write anything ... except that Dawkins is one of my favorite authors and scientists, and I'm *happy* to have added this book of his to my growing collection.

I love the author and what this book is trying to achieve but it's definitely written for people with very little scientific education. This book is like a high school Bio, Chem, and Physics class review.

This verison of the book is text only. The book that is illustrated by Dave McKean is "The Illustrated Magic of Reality" (http://www.the store.com/Illustrated-Magic-Reality-Whats-Really/dp/1451690215/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461113194&sr=8-1&keywords=the+illustrated+magic+of+reality)

The illustrated version is also available in a hard cover. The text is the same, except that tis version does not have be beautiful illustrations and presentations but Dave McKean.

This should be clearly labeled.

This was my first book and experience with Richard Dawkins. The book was decent but actually kind of short. It had its good moments which were sometimes overshadowed by a semi harsh tone. It felt like the author had a need to be very in your face about his religious views at times. Maybe that was his main reason for even writing the book. I was looking for a book based more on our reality and science vs religion bashing. I see now that perhaps I picked the wrong author.

It does not go too deep into most of the concepts, it is only an overview. I would have liked it to have more parts regarding Dawkins expertise field, but I guess that for that purpose he has many other books.

I bought this book and had really high hopes for it. I have not been disappointed. A quick flick through and the amount of colorful and eye popping illustrations are a wonder. This book is not only beautifully written (I have not completed it yet and made some significant headway and I only got it today) but beautifully and cleverly illustrated too. The harmony between the words and art (and I mean ART) is simply wonderful. It's an easy read, as it should be as it is geared for kids but I must say as an adult it keeps my attention and reminds me of when I was a kid discovering dinosaurs at the library. Oh how I wish I had this book at that time, but better late than never - it is still a joy to read as an adult.

I will be ordering more and giving them as gifts, it will make a great Christmas gift :)

The book is actually a pretty good summary on several levels and types of science. This may be helpful for someone that doesn't have a background in science. I have a degree in a physical science, worked for 40 years in science and have had a lifelong interest in all forms of science. I didn't learn anything new.

I found this to be a very interesting, if somewhat contraversial book. I originally purchased it as a present for my 8 year old grandchild, but feel it is better suited to an older child, perhaps 12 +. It is quite a "heavy" read but really makes you re-think things that have always been taken for granted, such as the bible and creation. (Perhaps would be a problem for someone heavily into religion).

The best way of thinking about this books is as an analogy to Hawking's "Universe in a Nutshell" - with a focus on general science

It is a series of well written vignettes illustrating the wonder of our reality as linked with common observations and questions arising from our real world. In most cases it begins with mythical explanations, followed by a clear, nicely written and illustrated explanations of truth - as best we know it and as revealed by science. The chapters are

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 ?

It is written for older children. The unfortunate reality is that most adults don't know the answers to most, and certainly not all, of these questions either. The result is a bit of a disconnect. The writing style is often as if he was verbally explaining something to a younger child of perhaps 10 or 12 - as he discusses a topic or phenomena of which most adults are sadly ignorant. The result is a text from which most all can benefit - but is not perfectly smooth for many readers.

That quibble aside, this text should be purchased by most everyone. I have the copy on ipad also, and have found the combination very pleasant. The ipad version has added vibrancy and has wonderfully interactive games which have taught my children about stable orbits from Newton's cannon and demonstrated how selection results in adaption among frogs, with the differential effects as they relate to predation. These are only a few examples among many, and I wish I had this book when I was younger. This book wonderfully demonstrates and illustrates the magic of reality, and proves that the rainbows beauty is only enhanced with understanding.

Buy it. Buy two copies and gift it to a local library or school. In so doing, you'll make the world a better place.

First I should say that I never contacted the seller to complain. So, this review is just my experience with things "as is".
The packaging was basically a plastic envelope with no bubble wrap or anything to protect the book I purchased. The spine was damaged upon delivery. I paid a decent amount for a hard cover first edition and it would have been nice to get a book undamaged. Maybe the seller would have helped me out if I complained but I hate to get "homework" after receiving a product that I ordered so I'll never know.
Edit: I thought this was rating the seller, not the book. The book is great.

Okay so I loved 'The Disappearing Spoon' by Sam Kean and have been enchanted by different best sellers about DNA discoveries, flu pandemic research, historical and current, new and exciting food chemistry/diet and health analyses, but frankly I found nothing magical in this latest by Richard Dawkins. It all seemed like a Cliff Notes rehash of subject material I learned in high school and college in the 70's. Each time he hit on something that might be remotely provocative like quantum particles or whatever, he quickly veered away with a smug statement about how he himself could not follow it. Somewhere in the middle of the book I began to feel irritatedly condescended to, like some dumb *#:( who got suckered into forking out for leftover science. Where are the dinosaur feathers? Star nurseries? Stem cells? Spare me your tired old preaching about how smart you are to be an atheist and give me some of the magic you promised!

I found the most interesting chapters were not about biology. The physics of light was truly magical. The author missed the "magic of water". Other than H2O, all liquids, when frozen, contract, becoming denser. The H2O molecule actually expands. Were it not for this fact, life on earth would not be possible. When formed, ice would sink, ultimately covering the earth in a frozen sheath that would not melt.
Decades ago I read a book titled "Science is a Sacred Cow". In it the author pointed out that the goal of science is prediction. If that is the case, it places biology outside of science. As a biologist, the author can describe, describe and classify until the sun goes down, but that does not make him a true scientist.
There are several "miracles of the ordinary" that he missed. No, I would not recommend this book to a friend.

I expected material of substance but what I got was a picture book written at about a 4th grade level. Even worse, Dawkins presents various theories, each of which depends on myriads of assumptions and undefined concepts, as etched in stone fact when this is a terrible misrepresentation of science and the scientific method. For anyone that has even a passing knowledge of probability, don't bother buying this book; you'll find many contradictions in his analysis. It is truly saddening to see this sort of drivel coming from a biologist who is highly regarded as being a scientist and whose fame is very likely to lead to the mis-education of young people.

In 1984's film "Ghostbusters," there's a comical scene in which a man is being interviewed for the role of the newest member of the "ghost busting" team, and his interviewer asks him the question, "Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?" He answers, humorously, "If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say." If you'd asked me the same question at the age of 12 or 13, I would have said "yes" without any hesitation. In fact, I probably would have added some things.

Like most children, I was very curious about how the universe worked and how things had come to be the way they were, and, also like most children, by the time I was in middle school I had outgrown the cute educational kids' shows and picture books about dinosaurs and space. School texts were heavier on bare bones facts than on explaining how scientists knew what they did, and books for adults were dry and simply too difficult to keep up with. (I tried, and abandoned, "The Origin of Species" and "Cosmos" around this time.) Worse yet, I still had the childish tendency to believe most of what adults told me - and to believe virtually all of what I read. In this perfect storm of inquiry and innocence, I was ripe for the plucking for charlatans and pseudo-scientists. And pluck they did! I wasted much of my time during these formative years reading (and believing) that an alien spacecraft crashed in New Mexico in 1947, that populations of plesiosaurs survived in a few scattered lakes around the world (including, of course, Loch Ness), that it was possible to communicate telepathically, that aliens built the pyramids, and so on, and so on... If only there existed some book that could not only explain science at my level, but give me the mental tools to have some sense of what was really science, and what wasn't.

Fortunately for inquiring young minds of today, Richard Dawkins has written that book. "The Magic of Reality" has been written in such a clear, simple manner as to be both understood and enjoyed by boys and girls of middle school age, "caught in the middle" as I was, but it's not at all written in a manner as simple as to "talk down to" them. Dawkins explains lucidly and eloquently (and often humorously) such concepts as evolution, the rotation of the planets, prisms, rainbows, the light spectrum, and a few other things that tend to confuse. A typical chapter begins by posing a question (such as "Why are there so many types of animals?"), summarizing a couple of ancient myths about the subject (a deity vomited them up for some reason), and then explaining what science actually says about it (variation and natural selection cause life forms to diverge over time). And not only does Dawkins "set the record straight," so to speak, but he also explains both the nature and importance of skeptical inquiry and how to use critical thinking to interpret a strange event. He gives a few examples along the lines of "X [an extraordinary event] happened. There are three possible explanations for X: 1.) It was a miracle; 2.) It was a coincidence; and 3.) It was a hoax. 3 is more likely than 2, and 2 is more likely than 1. So it probably wasn't a miracle."

As I imagine you are fully aware, Dawkins is not one to shy away from controversy. This book is bound to be controversial, for Dawkins doesn't just debunk those silly old myths of every religion that isn't yours. Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge are in there, as is the story of Noah's Ark (though in its original "Epic of Gilgamesh" form), and one of the extraordinary events broken down into possibilities is the story of Jesus allegedly turning water into wine. But while Dawkins may refute claims of the supernatural, he's actually a proponent of magic - that is, the "magic" of what is real and what can be studied using real science. This is perhaps the most important thing about the book; it instills (even in myself, a "grown up" studying science at the university level) a renewed appreciation for science and a sense of wonder about nature. The universe is fascinating and beautiful all by itself, without any help from fairy tales. In this sense, reality truly is magical. And so is "The Magic of Reality."

It's just too simple if you have an engineering or scientific education. I would venture to say even well educated people will find that adds little to their knowledge of our universe. It's Ok for kids 14 - 18 years old and may even turn them into science.

I'm amazed at the glowing reviews which must have been written by adults based on their wishful thinking that children would somehow enjoy this admixture of old man's ponderous philosophical ruminations on the nature of abstract and factual thinking, the difference between religion (disguised as magic in the book) and "soft science" which cohabitates with fantasy. Condescending for smart children if you ask me and doubtful that many of them would bother reading it. This book is probably a passable introduction for children who are just beginning to wonder about the world at large but otherwise it is a book just about everything and about nothing. One learns absolutely nothing new from the book and it provides no insights or even new angles on the topics familiar to children from their regular school books. Some of the chapters and paragraphs were seemingly copied and pasted from the author's other by now way too numerous repetitive writings. If you expect something like really magical read "River Out of Eden" or truly edifying "The Ancestors' Tale" and you will not be disappointed regardless of your age.

I own the hardback version and love it. When I saw the "Bargain Price" paperback, I could not resist getting another copy. What a disappointment. This edition has no illustrations, even though the cover credits David Mckean with the illustrations. There is no mention of the missing illustrations anywhere on the description of the book. It is just a ripoff.

Reading the existing reviews I notice there is often a disagreement between those who are religious and those who are not. I will have nothing to say in that area, and am respectful of what somebody believes or does not believe. My concern is about the science...and how successfully the book describes the scientific method, and what science can say about Dawkins' topic of reality and truth. That is in fact the reason I felt compelled to write this review. I take issue with Dawkins' explanation of the scientific method. In this regard, I urge the reader and parents in particular, in addition to Dawkins' very fine books, to consider the popular works of Richard Feynman. I know of no finer expositor of what science is and does and certainly few have equaled his deep physical understanding. Feynman's " The Character of Physical Law" (available in inexpensive book form on the store, or in a video on the web) -- which is on a level accessible to the general public -- so impressed Bill Gates that when he finally discovered it a few years ago, he purchased the rights to it and made it freely available on the web (project Tuva).

Before getting into the details of the review there is one error that I cannot leave uncorrected. On page 15, Dawkins states that atoms have always existed. While this error is partially corrected later when he discusses the formation of new and heavier elements in stars and supernovae, according to the standard Big Bang model, the very early universe was simply too hot for atoms to form. Therefore, we believe atoms have not always existed - at least according to our current best model. This idea is not difficult and so could be included in the book. Indeed, Weinberg mentioned this last century in his book for the lay public, "The First Three Minutes", which I can speculate explains why Dawkins' book is graced with an unequivocal recommendation from Krauss rather than Weinberg.

The first thing a scientist reading Dawkins might object to is Dawkins' title and the words "really true". Socrates stated the only thing he knew is that he didn't know anything. Einstein stated those who claimed to know the truth are shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. But Dawkins claims to know how to tell what is "really true". In general, Dawkins' statement is not representative of a typical scientific statement. Scientific "truths" are of necessity tentative because they are extrapolated based on our experience (known a posteriori) and the possibility of discovering a new fact tomorrow that overturns today's theories is always present. Dawkins' "really true" does not quite capture this idea.

This tentative nature of science was highlighted recently by the voluntarily resignation of Ivar Giaever, Nobel Laureate physics, from the American Physical Society (APS). The APS had issued a statement on global warming, that "the evidence is incontrovertible", and Glaever objected to the word incontrovertible. Now I am not arguing either for or against global warming. I am stating that the language that a scientist, like Dawkins, uses to communicate with the public needs to accurately reflect what we think we know, and the degree of uncertainty of that knowledge. Personal and political agendas cannot be motivations to overstate a position beyond what the evidence and the associated uncertainty of this evidence allows.

The phrase "Really true" has another problem, as the addition of "really" is, to a logician, meaningless. Dispense with it. Is the negation of something that is "really true" "really false"? Dawkins should model the standard use of scientific language to students, not invent his own.

Moving on from the title, Dawkins begins by defining what he means by "reality" - reality is everything that exists. Dawkins admits that emotions are real, but qualifies this by stating they are contingent on brains. Dawkins arbitrarily omits mathematics in his list of what is real. This is an unfortunate omission, as perhaps the only truths that we know exactly are mathematical truths. They are known a priori, and do not require the existence of brains. It would not matter if sentient life ever existed, that would not alter the fact that 1 + 1 =2. The omission of mathematics is egregious if one realizes that the "magic" Dawkins is talking about is "poetic magic", rather than supernatural magic, because mathematics rates high in "poetic magic". To quote Bertrand Russell: "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty -a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry."

Next, we come to Dawkins' explanation of how we know what is real: `We come to know what is real, then, in one of three ways. We can detect it directly, using our five senses; or indirectly, using our senses aided by special instruments such as telescopes and microscopes; or even more indirectly, by creating models of what might be real and then testing those models to see whether they successfully predict things that we can see (or hear, etc.), with or without the aid of instruments.' - (Dawkins, MOR, page 18)

There are problems caused by Dawkins' definition. The first is minor, but it should be made explicit. There is no reason to believe that humans, as a species, are intelligent enough to discover all that is real, or exists. Our senses are limited, our ability to perform experiments is limited, our mathematical models are idealizations, and our intelligence is finite, and so it is rather anthropic to claim to know what is "really true". Another, and more fundamental problem, is Dawkins' description of models in science. There is, in fact, nothing in the scientific method that says our models have to reflect reality. The main requirement is that the model's predictions agree with experiment. Yes, Dawkins example of the discovery of DNA was a triumph for biology, but to generalize the success of biological models to the atomic and subatomic domain, and indeed to all of science, is not justified. You are allowed to assume anything you want in your models, as long as the predictions agree with experiment, and ideally, your model should predict something new that was previously unknown. As Feynman says in "The Character of Physical Law", you can have as much junk in your model as you like. The idea is to make progress, to advance our knowledge.

The target audience of Dawkins' book is younger readers. Most of the the store reviews have been by adults, but I did read a kids review (age 7) in the January 9, 2012 issue of Chemical & Engineering News that expressed a disinterest in the myths that Dawkins insists on presenting in every chapter. I suspect many kids will likewise be bored by the myths...just show them the science, which after all is the main thing. I own a rather extensive library of books on the physical sciences, but do not own even one book on mythology since to understand science, it is not needed. The inclusion of myths in every chapter by Dawkins is arbitrary. However, if one insists on constantly mentioning myths in every chapter, but one is not willing to discuss the positive benefits of these myths (assuming there are positive benefits) and only ridicules them, then it seems to me you are not showing a scientific objectivity. You are demonstrating a bias. That is not a scientific attitude and it is not one that should be modeled to students. However, it is possible for a scientist to legitimately discuss mythology in his work. A beautiful example is the work of B.F. Skinner in psychology, in his discussion of the causes of human behavior. Skinner noted that progress in physics occurred with the abandonment of the notion, held by the Greeks, that Greek Gods could take possession of an object. When physics began to consider that causes were external to an object, and not internal, such as a Greek God that had temporarily taken up residence inside the object, only then did physics progress. And so, Skinner argued, that one of the reasons progress in understanding human behavior has been difficult is we have models that, analogous to the Greek Gods, attributed causes of human behavior to an internal indwelling agent...such as an ego, superego, and id. And Skinner suggested that psychology should follow the lead of physics, that to understand human behavior, look at the relation between human behaviors and the external environment, rather than internal characteristics like feelings, personality, and states of mind. That to me is an excellent use of mythology in the context of science. To indicate how mythological models have tended to hinder scientific progress, and rather than ridicule a belief in mythology, instead to see if there is anything we may learn, so that maybe the failures can help us progress. But it is a point that only needs to be made once - if it is in fact ever made -- and not repeated in every chapter.

On page 239, Dawkins makes the statement: "People who would laugh at the idea that a pumpkin could turn into a coach, and who know perfectly well that silk handkerchiefs don't really turn into rabbits, are quite happy to believe that a prophet turned water into wine or, as devotees of another religion would have it, flew to heaven on a winged horse." As I said, I have nothing to offer on what religious ideas a person choses to believe or not, only on what science can say. But Dawkins has switched gears here, to the consideration of human beliefs. Dawkins is stating it is silly to believe things that are not true. This is not a scientific attitude. The idea in science is to suspend judgment, to take a look at the idea, in this case, humans holding false beliefs, and test it. When you do that, when you maintain the attitude of a scientist, you discover a surprising thing about humans -- that beliefs that are false can be beneficial. I don't play golf, but my understanding is that a sports psychologist might very well instruct a golfer seeking to improve his game to not only visualize himself shooting a 70, but instruct him to say things that are false, affirmations like "I shoot a 70 golf game". An utterly false statement and belief, yet a very useful tool to have at ones disposal if the goal is to improve one's game. Similarly, one may look at Alcoholics Anonymous use of a "higher power". The question is not is the existence of a higher power true. Human belief can be a tool. You don't ask if your car is true. It is a tool that allows you to travel faster and easier than without it. To ask if a car is true is not a useful question, and so it is with the AA higher power. The question to ask of a tool is does it work, and is it ecological? It is not enough that the belief helps one attain a goal, it should also not have any unwanted consequences. Now I understand this idea of the utility of false beliefs is not news to Dawkins, since it has been studied from an evolutionary view. And it's not news to Doctors who understand the placebo effect. So I think on the topic of belief and truth, which includes religious belief, Dawkins has omitted ideas that could be profitably explained to students.

And finally, we come to Dawkins' actual presentation of science. On the whole, Dawkins' explanations are satisfactory. There are trivial technical issues, but they are not critical.
I might not use the metaphor of "soldiers on parade" to describe crystals. Soldiers on parade march around the field, break off into groups, and do a variety of things not seen in a crystal lattice. Crystals are rigid. The ions are fixed in the lattice, and do not march. I bought Dawkins' book twice. First I bought the kindle version, which has no diagrams. When I read about the "soldiers on parade" I thought he must be trying to describe a primitive cell of the crystal, and so he must have a diagram or something to illustrate this metaphor, so I ordered the book. No, no soldiers on parade illustration in the book either. And there is no mention of quasicrystals, so perhaps a discussion of crystals is really too advanced of a subject for this level. A simple discussion of the three states of matter -- solid, liquids, and gasses -- is perhaps all that is needed.
And if one is going to discuss stars, supernovae, and the mass of atoms, electrons, and protons, then perhaps the equivalence of mass and energy, and E=MC2, could be profitably mentioned. But still, I think Dawkins' has done ok on this part, in his discussion of actual science.

Nevertheless, despite the many fine qualities of the book, such as I just mentioned his actual explanation of a few of our scientific theories, in my opinion the good is overshadowed by the questionable aspects. So I would recommend Feynman first, to lay a proper foundation on the scientific method and then Dawkins as a supplement, particularly for Dawkins' explanation of evolution.

As a huge fan of the Selfish Gene, I was very disappointed in this one. Dawkins offers such a simplified view of life, the universe, and everything that it trivializes the sum of human knowledge. If you have even a rudimentary understanding of science you will find the language to be insulting. On the bright side, I'm thinking about buying a copy for my 10 year-old niece. I think she would benefit from it.

This book is excellent and the iPad version is flat out COOL. I've read many remarks in the comments regarding the book being written for older children and being limited; let's please not forget that 40-60 percent of the United States not only rejects evolution, but doesn't possess the faintest idea of how evolution works. If you have a religious friend that might be curious about science, secular thinking, and even basic reality, or a religious friend that simply can't comprehend how you accept evolution or reject gods and reject myths; then this book might just be the perfect introduction for them.

As an ex-religious, quite content atheist parent, this book is an invaluable tool for my children (to understand the world in which we live) and my religious family that struggles with my secular status. As a layperson, I'm not the most qualified candidate to give a dissertation on natural selection, DNA, and breaking down myth versus reality to an audience that is fully entrenched in particular myths. For me, The Magic Of Reality is a true gift.

Thank you once again, Professor Dawkins.

I picked up this book randomly in a bookstore in Taiwan not having much expectations. having read the "god delusion" and "the selfish gene" I have become a fan of Richard Dawkins work. The magic of reality is by far the easiest book to understand especially for a non native speaker like me. It's perfect as an introduction to young adults who are genuinely interested in the world we live in. It provides very interesting stories and examples of some of the myths and religious beliefs in the beginning of each chapter. And then he would provide even more examples from the scientific point of view. The comparison between the folklores / myths and the rationality of the explanation science provides is really interesting. I genuinely enjoy these various myths and stories as I find these comparisons are far more mellow than what you would see in his other books. It's definitely easier for people to digest, especially for people who are new to science.

This was not what I expected and would not read any of his other works. It should have been advertised for what it is which is a detailed argument for atheism. I did appreciate learning more about science even though I do not agree with all of his conclusions.

This is a fun book with great photos, science facts, and humor. I especially enjoyed the explanation and photos about our ancestors. Makes much more sense now. However, I did find it limiting in many areas. For instance, Dawkins gives way too much credibility to our 5 senses in his answers about reality, although maybe that's all we really know. And way too much credit using anthropomorphism in describing any creature that is not human. We cannot in any way know what other creatures think, how they process information, or what they sense. In making those kinds of decisions for the creatures, we are truly ignorant and should admit so. Another item that wasn't addressed was the energy between people. Light waves, sound waves, and such were explained but nothing about waves of energy from and between people. One other comment is that I get that our sun will burn out in, say, a billion years or whatever. However, nothing was stated about our potential evolution in that time. Given his information about our 185-millionth grandfather (with 10,000-year hops in between), I would think he'd be able to come to some conjecture about our continuous evolution and adjustment to whatever occurs in our universe. Evidently he came to conclusions with various target points of our past, potential projections should be able to be made with our future. Another item was not mentioned but I may have missed it -- our definition of life. That should be stated as such "the human definition of human life is . . ." water and oxygen. Oh how egotistical we humans can be! Life, possibly defined as being self-generated animation, may be quite different on other planets -- maybe so different that our little brains can't imagine it. Yet, it's not reality, is it? As always, with everything -- even science -- it's purely guess based on our limited senses, brain, and knowledge and then created as fiction. The reality is we don't know what reality is.

I listened to this book in the car then bought it for my 12 year old. At first I thought she would be put off by some of the content (mainly that we evolved from....fish!), but she found that concept very intriguing and enjoyed the rest of the book as well. I particularly enjoyed looking at the illustrations after having listened to the book. To get the full effect, be sure you are buying the illustrated version--there is a non-illustrated version although just as good, but perhaps, not as fun.

Speaking of the author narrated audiobook, it is very good too. One part in particular I found entertaining was when he was calculating the odds of all players at a card game being dealt the exact same hand a second time, the number was so huge that in the book he wrote something like "I'm not even sure how to say that number", but in the audiobook, he actually says the number--and it was quite a mouthful.

The Magic of Reality is a quick, enjoyable read that covers a lot of topics, beginning most chapters with myths that have been used to "explain" a phenomenon before moving to an overview of the scientific understanding of that phenomenon. It is geared towards younger readers, but is also good for older readers who don't know much about science or need a refresher. If you have a solid background in science, you won't find much new here (although you might learn a thing or two, as I did). But you will probably find some clever ways of explaining some scientific concepts or findings to your friends, family members, students, and others. The book is effective in what it aims to do: provide a broad introduction to science and scientific thinking to young readers. And since it's written by Richard Dawkins, it is well written and conveys a sense of wonder and appreciation of science.

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True Richard Dawkins

Instead of attacking religious or non science beliefs Dawkins starts each chapter with myths and then shows his insights into the area with help from the illustrator Dave McKean.

Starting with the magic of evolution you are asked to imagine your ancestors, going back 1000-greats-grandfather showing a edge on line of pictures. Then pull out a picture of your 4,000 -greats-grandfather, looks more like an ape. For your 50,000 -greats-grandfather you see Homo erectus- what a great way to picture the slow changes of evolution.

Dawkins goes on to explain how fossils are formed. An animal is caught in mud, the mud becomes sedimentary rock and the body rots away you have a hollow imprint. Sometimes new sediments can enter and form a replica of the animal. A third type is where molecules of the animal are replaced with minerals permanently recording even tiny details of the entire animal.

Atoms and molecules are explained historically, explaining everyday solids in terms of the forces holding the nuclei together, and liquids as having nuclei less strongly held. Solids and liquids can't pass through each other, but photons can in a transparent object.

The illustrations throughout the book make for much clearer explanations. For instance the actual reason it is warmer during the summer is due to the tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation. This tilt presents the portion of the Earth experiencing summer to receive more heat and light during the longer summer days and the rays are more direct, less filtered by the atmosphere since they pass through less atmosphere. They also are more concentrated i.e., hit a smaller area since they are directly overhead.

Rainbows are caused when the sun rays from behind us enter spherical raindrops in front of us. The light is refracted, blue light is bent and separated from red which is bent the least. The light is reflected off the far surface of the drop, returns and is refracted again enhancing the rainbow we see. The color we see from each droplet changes as it falls and is replaced by other droplets.

You can also take the light from a distant star or galaxy and separate its light into a rainbow using a spectroscope, called a spectra. There are two types: emission which are bright colored lines on a black background, and absorption which are black lines on a rainbow background. Both occur at the same color or wavelength. They are used to identify elements since each element has its own set of lines. So you can identify elements in distant stars or galaxies. I was somewhat surprised that he didn't explain that absorption occurs when electrons absorb a given color(energy) and jump from a lower to a higher energy level in an atom of a specific element. Emission occurs when the electron jumps back to the same energy level it started from.

He shows how the spectra for a given element shift toward the red end when the object is moving away from us. This is an example of the Doppler shift. A useful application is when a star has a large planet revolving it. The planet has to be large so it perturbs the orbit of its sun enough so our instruments can detect the small Doppler shift it causes. One can also detect regular changes in the stars light as a planet moves between us and the star.

He continues with discussions of the probability of life on other worlds and logically reasons and shows with the huge number of stars and possibly large number of planets some type of life is highly probable.
Using the same type of reasoning he develops a logical framework based on Hume's philosophy to test reported happenings or miracles to test how likely they are. Or from a different point of view what is the best explanation for the happening.

Dawkins presents a very satisfying book filled with very interesting explanations of phenomena around us. The addition of very clear and in many cases innovative artwork is a real plus. Frequently he will discuss something that is well know like evolution, and give a very clear new way of looking at it. This book is an excellent read.

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Thank you Professor Dawkins for explaining to me the Magic of Reality.... everyone should go out and get this book. If the United States replaced their science textbooks with the Magic of Reality, more people would accept science as factual. The problem with science in America (whether true or not), the science classes are flat out boring and the textbooks are even more boring. This is most likely why Theists in America accept faith over science... it's an easier way to explain the origins of our universe. All I can say is if I had this book back in 2005 - 2007, I probably wouldn't have been a Christian at the time.

In his book, Dawkins goes beyond his evolutionary field and explains to us what a sun is, what a rainbow is, what an earthquake is, where does the sun go at night and why do bad things happen... or better why does anything happen as Dawkins puts it. Each chapter begins with a myth, anywhere from the Greek myth to the Christian myth (and I admit, they are quite fun to read)... but Dawkins ends each chapter explaining the science behind the questions and more importantly, how the science is much more interesting than the myths.

The illustrations are quite beautiful. Dave McKean being my favorite comic book artists, illustrates how weird these myths are and then goes on to illustrate how even more weird the science is. Dawkins couldn't have picked a better illustrator in my opinion for The Magic of Reality. I met Dawkins in a book signing for this book and he was quite nice and autographed my book. I admit, I didn't ask him anything because I was nervous. I only wish Dave McKean was there as well.

Go out and get this book, and make it your goal to explain to children the science behind this world and do so the way this book does it. Science is dropping down in the United States and we need people like Dawkins to stand up and help it so it doesn't crumble.

First audio book ever. As a Richard Dawkins fan, this review is heavily biased. As an avid reader, it was a joy listening to this as Dawkins & Co. narrated this book. It was almost like I was reading it. The pace was perfect for comprehension and imagination. I did not find my thoughts drifting during this read.

The concepts of this book are easy to understand, almost too easy. It seems like some of the concepts are dumbed down which is good if you're unfamiliar with the topics but if you have a modicum of foreknowledge, this book might seem redundant to his other works. Nevertheless, a good listen.

I should preface this with the fact that I don't have any personal beliefs that conflict with what Dawkins says, and I'm not an academic in the conventional sense. I'm also in my 30's, so I'm a bit out of the target audience; but I still love this book.

This is an explanation of various facets of what Science has to say about Evolution, Earth, The universe, The nature of light and sound and other things that I never spent much time thinking about. Reading this, I feel like someone showed me the "trick" to this stuff and made it seem magical for me. Dawkins writing style is accessible, and makes the mind boggling seem beautiful and fun. I'm inspired to learn more about how "everything" works and am only hope that I can find other authors that can explain these things as charmingly as Dawkins does.

Some of the criticisms that I have read of this book state that Dawkins has a hidden agenda of putting down religion and making it seem silly to believe in those kinds of things and I think that he does make it very very clear that he views things of this nature purely as myth, not to be taken very seriously as evidence that you can build beliefs on. The agenda really isn't that hidden. Like I said, this doesn't bug me a bit, but I can see some people being bothered by this and one should keep that in mind if you are deciding whether or not to read this book.

Overall I thought this book was really good, It didn't lack information, but the paperback does NOT have pictures, like the hardcover. Otherwise, you can get it on the IPad, which is the best option in my opinion. It has not only moving illustrations, but also games to help remember the chapter better.

Maybe the best thing about the book was all of the myths Dawkins offers as ancient explanations as to such things as earthquakes, change of seasons, species changes, etc. It is a book that debunks myths, later to become religions and shows that science can explain the how and why things happen in nature. To top off this excellent explanation of sciences, Dave McKean finely illustrates some of the more complex ideas into an understandable visual manner. In case you have never seen McKean’s work before, this is good, but not the best stuff he has done. For McKean’s better work take a look at “MirrorMask” written by Neil Gaiman. Back to “The Magic,” the book demonstrates, evolution, the cosmos, atoms, light, vision and the best parts of science, in a concise manner that any one can follow. Little time and space is devoted to showing how ridiculous religion can be and how science better explains the planet we live on, but Dawkins does discredit plenty of religious notions. This is the kind of book, a parent might get for a junior or high- schooler to help them better understand science. Great look from McKean and outstanding writing by Dawkins.

Thanks to Richard Dawkins, I no longer confused incubus with succubus. They are night demons that paralyse you when you're asleep, in order to have sex with you -- incubus with females and succubus with males. (Succubus are supposed to be very beautiful but most horny males won't have any luck meeting them, sorry, this isn't part of the book text!)

Too bad, sexy night demons don't exist; your sense of being paralysed in your sleep is caused by sleep paralysis, says Dawkins. He also explains alien abductions are most likely caused by false memories. People's descriptions of what the aliens look like and the experiements performed, usually followed closely what appeared on television.

Essentially, this is a book on basic science facts covering everything that can be explained by a well-articulated science teacher, but written in Dawkins's lucid, conversational style.

So, if you've forgotten your biology, physics and chemistry stuff that you learnt in secondary school, this book is a handy volume to refresh your knowledge.

I give it four stars simply because I dislike untidy caricature drawings that seem to dominate every page. These illustrations look goofy and do not convey the sense of drama that Dawkins tries hard to depict.

Caricatures are more suited to books on messy politics or economics.

Anyway enjoy the three pictures I've selected which don't look that messy. Note that the page numbers followed the UK edition which has a different cover picture from what is shown in this the store offering.

I got the audio version of the book. I have never listened to an audio book in my life. Why? I prefer Text based reading. That said, my review will reflect my bias but with room to reflect where I feel the Text based book might flourish.

The book is chocked filled with excellent information, giving someone the rudiments of a vast vary of Scientific topics. Regardless of which version you buy, you are at the very least getting the facts from a top notch source.

Sadly, you can tell that it is written for children. I am unsure if the tone is present in the book but I definitely felt talked down to in the audio version. I looked into the book with the store's preview of it and it seems to be present there was well. Although it just might be me inferring it from the audio.

Too much time is spent on mythology and I think we could of had a better book without these added in. Granted, they do a good job of bridging into the various topics of how various cultures over time have looked at what Science has given us answers to.

I was dismayed at the information that was omitted from the book. Not because Richard Dawkins doesn't think you are unable to understand it but because he himself doesn't understand it.

Also could of done without the interjected opinions on "Inferior" Pink Panther films.

Not bad though. Worth picking up a copy of, regardless of how you prefer your books. Also look into A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition

Personally, I'd rather just read the pertinent text to each of the Sciences that he discusses. Such as The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition for an understanding of Evolution.

That's just me,though. *shrugs*

Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, needs little introduction; and neither does illustrator Dave McKean, who has worked with a number of well-known authors, including Neil Gaiman, and was the creator behind the movie MirrorMask. Now the two have joined together to bring you a unique book of science and evolution called The Magic of Reality.

In the first chapter of The Magic of Reality, Richard Dawkins sets the stage with an important explanation of the differences between reality and how incredible it can be, and the impressiveness of magic and miracles and how they are just illusions and not real. The book explores a number of astonishing things about our world and universe, and how we have come to know it, such as: who the first person was, what things are made of, what is the sun, what is a rainbow, and what is an earthquake, to name a few. The last two chapters are perhaps the most important, as Dawkins talks about why bad things happen to people, and what exactly a miracle is.

The Magic of Reality is an important read for anyone who is uncertain about the world we live and how it came to be the way it is. Dawkins puts thoughts and sayings, extreme coincidences, good and bad luck in perspective, saying you may think it an incredible series of incidents to lead to a specific point that it may seem like there is some power or force behind it, but when you study each of those incidents on a scientific level, it all makes perfect sense to be just that: an incredible coincidence. Coupled with Dave McKean's captivating and mind-blowing illustrations to help illustrate points and reveal the complexity of seemingly ordinary things, The Magic of Reality is an important book to have, whether you're looking to help an adult make up their minds about something, or constructively and efficiently educating a youngster who is learning about science and the way of life.

Originally written on November 20, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

For more reviews and exclusive interviews, go to BookBanter: [...].

First off, I'm reviewing the illustrated edition.

Although this book was written with young adults in mind, I'm 50 and really liked it. There are 12 chapters -- all interesting -- and everything is clearly explained. There are some digs at religion, but it's not a diatribe against religion. The book includes chapters on the possibility of life in outer space, when and how did everything begin, alleged miracles, who was the first person and what is the sun. I'm not sure what minimum age is best to read this book. On average, if I had to guess, I'd say it's good for age 12 and up.

"The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True" by Richard Dawkins, Free Press (Simon & Shuster, Inc.), NY. ISBN-978-1-4391-9281, HC 271 Pgs. in 10" x 7 ¾"" format that includes 12 Pg. Table of Contents and a 4 Pg. Index. Inveiglements include invaluable coloured illustrations by Dave McKean on every page.

Author Dawkins, FRS and FRSL is a prolific author with 10 or more prior books. He is an ethnologist & evolutionary biologist holding a Chair on Public Understanding of Science at Oxford and an acknowledged agnostic/atheist. Writing easily read prose, this book "Magic of Reality" is aimed at explaining science, mystery, illusion, supernormal/natural and miracles to a younger mind-set to provoke challenging thinking by it's readers. His writer interaction prose yields a brisk understanding of his informational-educational materials, loaded with questions and being significantly crisp when evolution/science is discussed to yield a despicable barrage of dissent, harassment, and unkind (if not despicable) disagreements by clergy, religious zealots and a brand of writer hooligans who discovered Dawkins, the scientist and writer and admitted atheist, is not adept at open forum debate. If you disagree with Dawkins, that is one thing, but to take part in character assassination is a different ballgame. And, something I find personally grievous as the Creationist Movement is forcing the removal of both books and teaching of evolution from the classrooms in more states - I hesitate to say any more.

"This current begins with the discussion of what is reality and covers in scientific terms the answers to who was the first person, why so many animals exist, then delves into the composition of matter, the reason for seasons, the sun, rainbows and concludes with a discussion of when everything started, the origin of life and matter ~ as currently understood ~ and concludes on why things happen, how change, fiction, hoax and miracles can be explained without resorting to "supernatural" forces, something he'd prefer we admit is yet to be explained.

In this book emphasis is firmly placed on belief in the essential concept that evolution occurs during accumulation of "small changes" in conjunction with the importance of speciation (breed restrictions).

Candidly, I believe that one professing to be knowledgeable in evolution should read "The Blind Watchmaker", but for the younger set of readers, illustrated "The Magic of Reality" is a wonderful starting point. Then, and only then, can we truly appreciate the logical genius of Charles Darwin in his 1859 publication: "On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection."

finis

He Doesn't Go Far Enough

Richard Dawkins problem with reaity is that he does not go far enough.

He can reason teleologically in Biology, Physics, and a dozen other Sciences, but he cannot reason teleologically in Cosmology. Why the limitation on his reasoning powers here?

Because, of course, it leads to a First Cause to explain the data.

His Atheism is an obex to reaching a reasoned conclusion.

What conclusion?

"There is one First Being, possessing the full perfection of all being, Who of the abundance bestows being on all that exists,so that He is not only the first of Beings,but also the beginning of all"

The evidence for God's existence is reached by reason, not by the senses.

His Atheism is an obex, not a conclusion.

His intellectual obex is called "Psycho-infantilism". The inability to reason beyond the senses.

He cannot use his reason beyond what he can see, feel, touch and smell, so his mind is closed to the whole of reality.

He has closed his mind to its ultimate goal: "This is the earthly goal of man: to evolve his intellectual powers to their fullest - ,to arrive at the maximum of conscioisness; to open the deyes of his understanding upon all thinga, so that upon the tablet of his mind, the order of the whole universe and all its parts may be enrolled."

He is imprisoned in his own psyche - that is the very nature of Atheism - complete subjectivity.

He is not as scientific as he pretends, because he cannot go where the senses leave off , and reason takes over.

"Our intellect in knowing is extended to infinity. This ordering of the intellect to infinity would be vain and senseless, if there were no infinite object of knowledge." - Thomas Aquinas.

Father Clifford Stevens

I've always been a huge Richard Dawkins fan: The Selfish Gene, The River Out of Eden, The Ancestor's Tale, and on, and on, and on.

This is a guy whose produced one incredibly thought provoking book after another.

But here, writing for younger readers, Dawkins is perhaps at his best, breaking down difficult scientific concepts for a younger audience.

In this wonderful little book, you'll learn about everything from where life came from to what rainbows are really made of.

In a breezy almost stream of thought sort of way, Dawkins moves easily from one topic to another, always staying long enough to tell the story of what myth has had to say on the subject juxtaposed with what science now tells us.

In this way, readers not only learn (in plain, simple English) what science does have to say as to these issues but also the important lesson that -- whatever our ancestor's ancestor's believed -- we now have the technology and the power to find out the real answers about why things are the way they are.

For parents interested in helping nudge their kids in the direction of healthy -- non myth based -- understanding of the world around them I would happily recommend this book along with J. Richard Gott's equally wonderful Sizing up the Universe and a subscription to Jr. Skeptic as well.

For the good or bad of it, the quality of life our kids will have is all too directly connected with the type of questions they themselves are willing to ask of themselves, others, and nature itself.

I am very sorry to say that The Magic of Reality was a disappointment. I was looking forward to it because the idea is a good one and I wanted to share it with some of my young students.

To be a children's author and a children's book illustrator is a great skill. You have to put far more effort into getting it right - your readership is going to be far more critical.

If this is going to be a book about the magic of reality I would expect to see a lot of magical reality inside. Looking at the dust cover (the US edition) I was anticipating lots of the visual treats we have come to expect nowadays: stunning images from NASA, biological micrographs, geographical landscapes, MRI scans, pictures of museum dinosaurs and so on. I would also expect to see some images from myth and traditional stories to contrast with reality. The images should be clear, coherent and complete, introduced systematically and discussed. Instead what we get is a visual mess - David McKean over-egging the pudding to try to show off his "artistry". Dawkins' text overlays the illustrations, something which from the start makes it difficult to read. The one image - the only one - that has any sense of wonder in it is the one on the dust cover and pages 22 an 23 of the hardback US edition.

My general impression is that this is a book written and compiled in a hurry. It is cramped and done "on the cheap". Not enough critical thought has gone into it. Even the serif font seems dissonant. It certainly lacks the critical eye of a children's book publisher.

It seems that people rather like the audio book version and perhaps it should have been left at that.

This is a first edition and perhaps I should not have raised my hopes to high. A book like this IS needed but I would suggest it be bigger, more coherent and meet the expectations of a modern young readership. It should not be done by one author but should be a compilation of different specialists - including fiction writers like Salman Rushdie to help illustrate the difference between the world of the imagination and the world of science. It should be a grand project and not just another title to add to the oeuvre of an already best-selling author and public personality. Richard Dawkins is too busy to attempt something of the proportion demanded by this task on his own. Mr McKean should have no part to play in any future edition or similar work.

This review will be short and sweet, because I don't really feel the need to convince you to get this book due to the reviews that it already has. However, I was so moved by this book that I feel a need to share a few details about my experience with it... This book takes ithe subject matter to a level that even the layperson or young adult can enjoy. My daughter is 6 months old, and my niece is three years old, and I cannot wait until they each turn 10-12 years old, because they will receive this book (or most likely an updated edition by then) for a gift. But don't get me wrong: This book is a treat for adults as well...I'm 41 years old, and this book gave me some great new insights on history/evolution and mthology/religion.

'Forty-four per cent of Americans [Thirty-nine per cent of British] deny evolution totally, whether it is guided by God or not, and the implication is that they believe the entire world is no more than 10 000 years old. As I have pointed out before, given that the true age of the world is 4.6 billion years, this is equivalent to believing that the width of North America is less than 10 yards… [Nineteen per cent of people in the United Kingdom] believe it takes one month for the Earth to go around the Sun... What, I wonder, do they think a year is?'

Professor Richard Dawkins left us to ponder these, and many more, disturbing statistics at the end of his previous book The Greatest Show on Earth. They depict the knowledge gap between the scientific facts that enable our modern Western society, and the 75% (in some cases) of the population who are either ignorant of these facts or deny them as fiction. This wide-spread ignorance and denial is obvious when you look at the online conversations on news web sites and social media, where people regularly rant about how all science is nonsense — ironically delivered via their computers and internet, neither of which would exist without our scientific understanding of reality.

Professor Dawkins, who is renowned for his work on evolutionary biology and his unflinching promotion of atheism, sets out to redress this disjunction in his 11th book The Magic of Reality: How we know what’s really true. In The Magic of Reality Dawkins not only educates, but entices the reader to appreciate the true wonder of the universe that scientific knowledge and understanding brings.

Most chapters begin with brief accounts of myths that relate to the topic of the chapter, which he then debunks as he explains the reality of our universe using reason and scientific evidence. Myths and stories might be fun or entertaining, he tells us, but they are no substitute for the truth. ‘The magic of reality is neither supernatural nor a trick, but — quite simply —wonderful. Wonderful, and real. Wonderful because real.’

His prose is eloquent and easily understood, making even the most complex concepts accessible to the reader, while introducing us to some of history’s greatest scientific minds and covering a wide array of topics, including the scientific method; evolution and the origins of humans; atoms; what the Sun and other stars are made of; what causes rainbows; the big bang; natural disasters; miracles; why we have seasons and years; the possibility of alien life; supernovas; selective breeding; and DNA. Dawkins demonstrates that the world, when understood through scientific knowledge, is far more amazing, inspirational and ‘magical’ than any archaic myth could be.

'Your family tree includes not just the obvious cousins like chimpanzees and monkeys but also mice, buffaloes, iguanas, wallabies, snails, dandelions, golden eagles, mushrooms, whales, wombats and bacteria. All are our cousins. Every last one of them… And the most wonderful thing of all is that we know for certain it is literally true.'

Dawkins effectively uses a number of interesting, relevant analogies and thought experiments throughout the book to help us understand. There is, however, one exception to this. In the chapter ‘Are We Alone?’ he uses coal as an example of a ‘lighter’ substance in the discussion about how the mass of a planet’s constituents would affect its gravitational pull. The problem with this example arises because coal is formed from organic plant-matter, yet the chapter is about the possibilities of life on planets in different solar systems. This example therefore becomes confusing because of the context of the chapter, and should really have been swapped for another example, or excluded altogether.

The Magic of Reality is primarily aimed at teenagers and adults without a formal science education. Most of what Dawkins discusses is taught in decent high-school science curriculums in Western nations, however statistics like those Dawkins presented in his previous book indicate that our education systems are failing. In Western countries most science in high schools is optional, and/or is increasingly polluted by religious indoctrination such as creationism. This book is therefore important; to educate, and to open people’s minds to the beautiful and intriguing nature of the universe. It also demonstrates to the scientific community how to communicate the nature of reality to others in an interesting and easily digestible manner.

In response to the book’s release, Deepak Chopra — a promoter of alternative medicine and religious pseudoscience, who is well known for his nonsensical references to quantum theory — wrote a scathing diatribe attacking Dawkins in the Huffington Post. In it he accused Dawkins of producing ‘shameless propaganda’, and of trying to create ‘atheist youth’. Chopra, and those like him, appear to be too obsessed with attacking anyone who disagree with them to consider or comprehend the concepts and evidence being presented, even when it is that evidence that enables all the benefits of the modern world. These types of attacks from the religious-right further demonstrate the very real need for more books like The Magic of Reality: How we know what’s really true.

When I woke this morning, it was to a light fluttering of snow, gently settling on the branches of the trees outside my bedroom window. Now that I am up the rate of snowfall has increased and larger, fluffy-white flakes are starting to come down in greater number. The ground is starting to get a nice coating of white and a quietness has settled over the surrounding countryside. In days of yore this may have been viewed as the action of some all-seeing sky-daddy (or mom). It may even have been ascribed to the fact that we had displeased said deity in some way or another, perhaps I would have linked it as a punishment evoked on my family for my having a heated argument with my daughter yesterday evening, after all it wasn't snowing then!
However, as Humanity's questioning, testing and understanding of the world has increased over the centuries, we now know that this is a complex natural phenomenon involving a precipitation pattern associated with seasonal temperature changes, weather fronts and local geographies. We were even able to know in advance and tell people that this was coming.We are even able to predict, with a reasonable amount of accuracy, the duration of this activity.

There is no godly intervention or explanation required.

And that is the subject of Richard Dawkins' wonderful book, The Magic of Reality, which I was sent for xmas, and have just gotten around to reading.

This book is a truly inspirational piece of writing by Richard Dawkins

In The Magic of Reality, Dawkins covers a huge tract of human knowledge in a logical fashion from the physical, chemical and biological sciences. Generally each chapter starts out with some mythical background, based on many world religions views from modern xtianity through to ancient Greek, Indian, Chinese, South American and Australasian aboriginal myths, to illustrate the point that is being explained. Then, in a non-confrontational way Dawkins peels away the myths and exposes what we truly know based on our current understanding through scientific analysis.
The breadth of subjects covered is inspiring, and I would assume that is the whole point of the book, to open our minds and inspire further investigation. How different from any religious mumbo-jumbo that is force-fed to the youth in their religious proselytizing, where Our Book must not be interpreted, and any logical questions must be dismissed with dogma!

The take home message from The Magic of Reality is that the universe is a wonderfully complex entity about which we know a lot, but clearly not everything. Scientific thinking and theories continue to evolve but the scientific rigor for unrelenting questioning, testing and further examination leading to an understanding is key to Humankind's advancement. It is time to leave the unhelpful dogma and myths behind.

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True is beautifully illustrated and I shall be passing my copy around the family to see how my children take to this logical book.

This should be a core publication in every school library and available for all children to read.

I was referred to Dawkins as a clear writer about evolution but find this book condescending. Is it a childrens book? If so it should be shelved in the "Culture Wars" section next to more open-minded, less polemical books. Magic seems like an exciting way of imagining the world but actually the idea is at first described negatively. Magic is portrayed as fraudulent or at best manipulative -- yet certainly better than mythology and fairies, religion, Jesus, and Michael Jackson appearances! Then the word magic is used to whip up excitement about the myth-buster of evolutionary science. The tedious emphasis on myth-busting and religion-slaying distracts and weighs down any content. Disappointing.

My 3.5 year old grandson selects the iPad version of this book again and again, without any prompting, despite many other "age appropriate" apps that he could select. He is mesmerized by the interactive features and the artwork that moves, and asks many, many questions. Even though he probably does not fully understand the material, he is fully engaged in thinking about it, and it gives us an opportunity to learn along with him. A wonderful concept! We are extremely pleased with this eBook.

I agree with Dawkins' point of view. I agree with his arguments.

I had two basic problems with the book, so lowered my rating:

- The author uses tiresome examples like "imagine each year is one sheet of paper".
- The science he discusses is pretty basic, I found it kind of boring.

For those who choose to believe in "magic" (translate as religion), and are interested in seeing the world in a more realistic, equally magical way, this book may be worth reading.

I very much enjoyed reading this book, very eye opening to well, the magic of reality. I took off a star because I was slightly confused by his wording at times but other than that this is a wonderful book. I'd recommend this for the aspiring scientist in your life, or even if you just want a good non fiction book to read. Wonderfully written, a great book for anyone interested in science or reality.

Dawkins makes sure we don't take the wonders of the universe for granted. Inspires us to stay curious and scrutinize everything and remain ever diligent against a world that would have us live in ignorance under superstitious religious dogma.

It isn't a pure children's science book, rather it's sort of an illustrated children/adolescent version of Sagan's "Demon Haunted World" organized around scientific topics.

Each chapter starts with a question any inquisitive child will inevitably encounter, ie "Chapter 5: Why do we have Night and Day, Winter and Summer?" Dawkins then spends a few pages reviewing cultural/religious/mythical explanations that people relied on in pre-scientific times (whether from the classic polytheistic religions, the modern monotheistic religions, or from the many other religions which still exist today in various parts of the world).

Dawkins then typically goes for 10-20 pages explaining all of the fascinating science that contributes to our modern understanding of the topic, followed by a few pages recapping how and why our scientific answer is better than mythical answers from the start of the chapter. This is repeated for a dozen questions, with varying amounts of confrontation against the 'traditional answer' depending on the chapter. He doesn't mock the religious answers (as he often does in his other works), rather he just poses each set of answers as "here's what people used to think before they knew much, and here's what informed people now know to be true."

Unlike the organization of a typical science book, the topics in Magic of Reality are split up according to their pertinence to classic questions posed by every civilization in history (How did we get here? How did it all begin? Why do bad things happen? Why do different languages/races exist? etc).

Dawkins' geneticist background really shines through in the evolution chapter - it's one of the best explanations for children/young adolescents I've come across so far. In my opinion it provides some of the clearest, easiest to understand introductions I've seen across a range of key science topics, and does so while promoting an inquisitive, skeptical mental framework to encourage more learning. It's probably ideal for kids in the 8-15 range, depending on their aptitude for science. I'm 25 and have spent most of my life in the sciences, and I still found the book fascinating, the illustrations beautiful, and the writing flawless.

America is (sadly) enduring a period when radio hosts, news anchors, pundits and talking heads in the American mainstream media are attacking science (especially evolution, embryonic stem cell research and the findings about global warming).

This is especially demoralizing when one considers the fact that America has fallen behind Europe and Japan in the field of science and attacking biologists, immunologists, geneticists and climate scientists will just make it harder to get America's youth enthused about learning science.

That is why I am so appreciative of Richard Dawkins for writing this book.

Dawkins takes complex issues such as DNA, evolution, atoms and molecules in such a way that pre-teen children could begin to get a grasp on them and by the time they get into high school they would be better situated for further scientific education.

And while radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh will go on the radio and denounce scientific models as "fairy tales" or "cons" to confuse and deceive the public, Richard Dawkins explains how they really work. Here's an excerpt from page 83:

"Although we can't see an atom, and although we can't split it without turning it into something else, that doesn't mean that we can't work out what it is like inside. As I explained in Chapter 1, when scientists can't see something directly, they propose a `model' of what it might be like, and then they test that model. A scientific model can seem like a flight of fancy, but it is not just a flight of fancy. Scientists don't stop at proposing a model: they then go on to test it. They say, `If this model that I am imagining were true, we would expect to see such-and-such in the real world.' They predict what you'll find if you do a certain experiment and make certain measurements. A successful model is one whose predictions come out right, especially if they survive the test experiment. And if the predictions come out right, we hope it means the model probably represents the truth, or at least a part of the truth.

Sometimes the predictions don't come out right, and so scientists go back and adjust the model, or think up a new one and then go on to test that. Either way this process of proposing a model and testing it - what we call the `scientific method' - has a much better chance of getting at the way things really are than even the most imaginative and beautiful myth invented to explain what people didn't - and often, at the time, couldn't - understand."

A book like this is needed at a time when science is under attack, and I am very grateful to Professor Dawkins for writing this and I highly recommend this book as an introductory science book for any student of any age.

the book is really aimed at someone in high-school, perhaps slightly beyond. The structure utilized is very logical and smooth - eg. addressing the question of 'Who was the first person?' and then explaining there was no such individual. The first humans slowly evolved from other life. Then it's on to "Why are there so many kinds of animals?" etc.

The 'bad news' is that many parents may not appreciate Dawkins' anti-religious tone throughout the material. (Others would see this as a positive.)

Richard Dawkins always brings a great fresh perception to our world. This is book makes you see our world through a "different set of eyes"

Warning though: as you learn more and view life for the depth it has you can never go back to shallow thinking

I highly recommend this, especially for anyone who needs a gift for an inquisitive preteen. If you're buying for that age group, you definitely should get the illustrated hardcover edition (paperback and kindle editions lack illustrations).

Although this book is clearly aimed at young readers, it contains some truly elegant explanations for scientific concepts that most adults never fully grasp. Many adult readers will get a lot out of it. My favorite, by far, was Dawkins' explanation of evolution and how new species arise (Chapter 2, "Who was the first person?"). He asks you to imagine a stack of photographs of your ancestors, arranged in order from most recent to most distant, one photograph per generation. In this thought experiment, the stack goes back in time far beyond the origin of photography. At no point in this stack will you find two adjacent photos that are significantly different -- certainly not different enough to constitute different species. Individuals from any two generations 10,000 years apart or less are always capable of interbreeding. But if you go far enough back into this stack of photographs, say 185 million generations, you find that your ancestor from that generation was a fish. This chapter is probably the best explanation of evolution I have read, and the book as a whole is a lucid introduction to critical thinking and the scientific approach to understanding reality.

Today I finished reading a book for children, or so it is styled: Richard Dawkins's "The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True." In it, Dawkins quickly runs the gamut of much of what science "knows" by way of exploring how it is possible to know anything, and what are the limits of what we presently know. I went into the book expecting more focus on the subject of epistemology itself, but found a heavier dose of scientific knowledge. That was fine, as it turned out, and the book does make for a good refresher course in the scope of knowledge about nature, physics, chemistry, biology, and probability. Dawkins's essential strategy is to make each chapter, e.g., "What is the Sun?" a dual essay. First, the author presents a number of myths that purport to answer the question. Then he presents the consensus of scientific knowledge that answers the same question. He does so to illustrate the insufficiency of myth and the strength of the scientific method. He acknowledges that many questions have not yet been answered by science, but argues that the lack of a scientific answer does not mean we should accept the mythological answer, but keep studying the problem until we have the scientific answer.

Many readers who rely upon myth (i.e., religion) for answers will find the book offensive, especially because Dawkins targets children, and because he steadfastly denies the acceptability of "mythological" (read "religious") answers. But on the other side of the argument lie plausible claims that religious indoctrination of children is nothing short of child abuse. Therefore, the sort of child that might ideally read this book would be one who is just reaching, or who has reached what is often called "the age of reason"--the point in biological development where the brain begins to work in rational terms and can distinguish between myth and reality. For the rest of us, reading such a children's book can help us catch up on all the science that has happened since we were in school, and also help remind us that reason is not an easy path, but the only path that can lay claim to empirical truths.

I for one continue to agree with J.B.S. Haldane, who said he believed the universe was "not only queerer than we think, but queerer than we are capable of thinking." Science as we know it is still in its infancy, and many things we believe science tells us will seem childishly inadequate if and when we can keep from extinguishing ourselves and the planet long enough to learn and evolve to a state where we actually get it.

The book starts out explaining what science is and several of the pitfalls of understanding into which people fall. Illustrations by Dave McKean are interesting and colorful to say the least. I loved seeing his renditions of James The Amazing Randi, Penn & Teller, Richard Dawkins, Hume, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the wide variety of mythical figures and real cosmic objects and other items of nature.

Dawkins does a great job of pointing out the arbitrary and silly aspects of world myths that have been repeated so often that they are so imbedded in the cultural psyche as to be respected if not fully believed. Myths from various world religions were used to contrast how people once answered questions in comparison to how they are answered today, with science.

It is arguable that the first and last chapters are the best parts of the book. Dawkins explains what science is and what he and others mean by magic in the first chapter. In the last chapter, Dawkins ends his with Hume's take on miracles. He doesn't say that miracles do not occur, he simply points out that it is more productive to question claims of miracles and judge their probability rather than accept them without question. He points out that there are more options than many people take into consideration when a story is told. The story could have been true, the people in the story could have been wrong or deceitful or the entire story may be fictional or terribly exaggerated.

That is not to say that the rest of the book doesn't have important material. The best science chapter in the book is on who the first people were and an explanation of our ancestry. It was a colorful and clear explanation of the times involved and the way inheritance works over long time periods. Of course, this is part of Dawkins' specialty. There are parts explaining rainbows and seasons and a variety of other scientific concepts that are a good reminder for those who haven't had a science class in a long time, and the section on why bad things happen was a very important one, which I would recommend to anyone.

I was a bit surprised that illusion artists, such as Sandro del Prete or authors on illusions such as Al Seckel weren't mentioned in the section on why people see images that they expect to see in odd places, and Michael Shermer has written on many of the topics that Dawkins brought up, but his is also absent from the discussion and illustrations.

The book is not without its faults, however. Dawkins factually, it is quite accurate. I must note that there is an illustration describing antibodies, yet erroneously referring to them as T-cells. Dawkins explained that his favorite meaning of magic is the poetic one in which it is anything that causes awe, hence the title of the book. However, the book was so short and directed toward such a young audience that I'm not sure that it will cause much awe at the wonder of what is truly real. I have been awestruck by the anatomic details outlining our evolutionary heritage, math that can unite and explain rainbows and how to track an elephant as well as discussions of the mating strategies of wasps, all from Dawkins' books. Perhaps having learned the science in "The Magic of Reality" so long ago is what has jaded me to this. I do hope young children will find this book engaging, but it certainly could have used more humor and perhaps a bit more of the style of David Macaulay's "The Way Things Work" or Larry Gonick's "Cartoon History of the Universe".

When I first heard about it, I wondered--Richard Dawkins writing in his field, this could be INteresting. It is and was. A wonderful Christmas, Chanukah or birthday gift for any one who can read and see the illustrations. Absolutely stunning, artistically done and not off-putting for the science-phobic. Delightful. Good for adults too.

I've been a fan of Richard Dawkins ever since a co-worker handed me a copy of Climbing Mount Improbable 10 years ago. Not only does he appeal to one's sense of logic and reason, but he has a unique writing style that combines humor and sustains reader interest. Dawkins does a brilliant job of carrying the torch of reason and skepticism carried by other great writers like Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer and James Randi. The following distinguishes this book from the other Dawkins books:

1. It is written in a style that would appeal to both adults and teens.
2. The color illustrations by Dave McKean are superb! This is one gorgeous book.
3. Summarizing the ideas presented in various other Dawkins books, this book would serve as a great "Intro to Dawkins".

I feel that the following paragraph from The Magic of Reality summarizes the spirit of the book:

"... I want to show you that the real world, as understood scientifically, has magic of its own- the kind I call poetic magic: an inspiring beauty which is all the more magical because it is real and because we can understand how it works. Next to the true beauty and magic of the real world, supernatural spells and stage tricks seem cheap and tawdry by comparison. The magic of reality is neither supernatural nor a trick, but- quite simply - wonderful. Wonderful, and real. Wonderful because real."

This book is for curious children of all ages (including some adults).

Just the first chapter is worth reading (less than 20 pages of double-spaced text) - even if you don't get to read the whole book. His explanation of what reality is, and the true magic of reality that is visible only to a mind equipped with the glasses of scientific reasoning to appreciate it - the lucid articulation is poetic.

The magic of reality is palpable in his writing- and so real. So real.

I was inspired by this book to create and animation to explain what is the exact reason for why we have winter and summer. Dawkins explains explains it in such a lucid manner. I gave his explanation an animated representation. Just Google "hoxya summer" to see my interactive animation.

This is a phenomenal book about science, and the magic behind it. I consider myself a rational man who is in tune with reality, however reading this book has refined my reality even more. This book has rejuvenated my love for science and how we are able to know what really is true, and what is not. I have been guilty of falling for some of the myths laid out in the book at some point in my life, if only I had read a book like this when I was growing up. I am already introducing my little siblings to the book so that they don't end falling for myths and pseudo-science like most of the world has. This book should be required reading for anyone that whats to know how science works, and wants it told to him in a simple manner.

Richard Dawkins is one of the world's best known evolutionary biologists. He is also one of the great popularizers of science, especially biology, and has made an international reputation as a tireless advocate of evolution and atheism. It's safe to say he is a creationist's nightmare: intelligent, informed and articulate, and a fearsome debater. Those same skills have made him controversial and, as is demonstrated by the reviews and comments here, too often it's Dawkins that gets reviewed instead of the books he writes.

But in The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True Dawkins strikes a more conciliatory note, only indirectly confronting religion. Instead, Dawkins describes a series of myths from a wide array of cultures, and then offers the scientific explanation as a counterpoint. Dave McKean's illustrations are always insightful in support of Dawkins' writing, and sometimes simply brilliant. An example is the discussion of earthquakes. Dawkins discusses the myths - including the Biblical claim that trumpets shook down the walls of Jericho - about the origins of earthquakes. The Japanese thought that the world wrote on the back of a gigantic catfish called Namazu, and when Namazu flipped his tail, there were earthquakes. The Maoris thought the earth was pregnant, and earthquakes were her the baby's kicking. Dawkins then talks about what earthquakes really are, discussing plate tectonics and why plate movement causes 'quakes. Dawkins marshals the scientific evidence. The contrast between the silly myths and the logical science is strong, effective and persuasive.

Using the same technique, Dawkins demolishes myths that purport to explain the diversity of life, the sun, rainbows, origin of species and miracles. McKean's drawings, especially his drawings to illustrate the myths, are spot-on and add a lot to the pleasure of the book. It's a nice collaboration.

One of Dawkins' key points, made very effectively, is that we used myths to explain things we didn't understand; when we have a real explanation, we no longer need the myth. The implications for the Biblical myths cherished by a significant percentage of Western culture, are obvious. As I said earlier, it's a less direct attack on religion. It's no less magical, but it is real instead of mythical. It's a point Dawkins made earlier in Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder. A rainbow is no less wonderful or beautiful because we know what causes them. And it's not a rainbow-colored snake drinking water.

My only criticism of the book is to ask, who is the intended audience? It's not precisely a children's book, although a bright kid would appreciate it. It's not really aimed at adults, although the concepts are challenging enough. It doesn't seem likely to change anyone's mind, except in the unlikely event they approach the book with an open mind. But as a tool for contrasting the supernatural magic of mythology with the magical delight of discovery, the book is unsurpassed.

Recommended.

America is (sadly) enduring a period when radio hosts, news anchors, pundits and talking heads in the American mainstream media are attacking science (especially evolution, embryonic stem cell research and the findings about global warming).

This is especially demoralizing when one considers the fact that America has fallen behind Europe and Japan in the field of science and attacking biologists, immunologists, geneticists and climate scientists will just make it harder to get America's youth enthused about learning science.

That is why I am so appreciative of Richard Dawkins for writing this book.

Dawkins takes complex issues such as DNA, evolution, atoms and molecules in such a way that pre-teen children could begin to get a grasp on them and by the time they get into high school they would be better situated for further scientific education.

And while radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh will go on the radio and denounce scientific models as "fairy tales" or "cons" to confuse and deceive the public, Richard Dawkins explains how they really work. Here's an excerpt from page 83:

"Although we can't see an atom, and although we can't split it without turning it into something else, that doesn't mean that we can't work out what it is like inside. As I explained in Chapter 1, when scientists can't see something directly, they propose a `model' of what it might be like, and then they test that model. A scientific model can seem like a flight of fancy, but it is not just a flight of fancy. Scientists don't stop at proposing a model: they then go on to test it. They say, `If this model that I am imagining were true, we would expect to see such-and-such in the real world.' They predict what you'll find if you do a certain experiment and make certain measurements. A successful model is one whose predictions come out right, especially if they survive the test experiment. And if the predictions come out right, we hope it means the model probably represents the truth, or at least a part of the truth.

Sometimes the predictions don't come out right, and so scientists go back and adjust the model, or think up a new one and then go on to test that. Either way this process of proposing a model and testing it - what we call the `scientific method' - has a much better chance of getting at the way things really are than even the most imaginative and beautiful myth invented to explain what people didn't - and often, at the time, couldn't - understand."

A book like this is needed at a time when science is under attack, and I am very grateful to Professor Dawkins for writing this and I highly recommend this book as an introductory science book for any student of any age.

the book is really aimed at someone in high-school, perhaps slightly beyond. The structure utilized is very logical and smooth - eg. addressing the question of 'Who was the first person?' and then explaining there was no such individual. The first humans slowly evolved from other life. Then it's on to "Why are there so many kinds of animals?" etc.

The 'bad news' is that many parents may not appreciate Dawkins' anti-religious tone throughout the material. (Others would see this as a positive.)

Richard Dawkins always brings a great fresh perception to our world. This is book makes you see our world through a "different set of eyes"

Warning though: as you learn more and view life for the depth it has you can never go back to shallow thinking

I highly recommend this, especially for anyone who needs a gift for an inquisitive preteen. If you're buying for that age group, you definitely should get the illustrated hardcover edition (paperback and kindle editions lack illustrations).

Although this book is clearly aimed at young readers, it contains some truly elegant explanations for scientific concepts that most adults never fully grasp. Many adult readers will get a lot out of it. My favorite, by far, was Dawkins' explanation of evolution and how new species arise (Chapter 2, "Who was the first person?"). He asks you to imagine a stack of photographs of your ancestors, arranged in order from most recent to most distant, one photograph per generation. In this thought experiment, the stack goes back in time far beyond the origin of photography. At no point in this stack will you find two adjacent photos that are significantly different -- certainly not different enough to constitute different species. Individuals from any two generations 10,000 years apart or less are always capable of interbreeding. But if you go far enough back into this stack of photographs, say 185 million generations, you find that your ancestor from that generation was a fish. This chapter is probably the best explanation of evolution I have read, and the book as a whole is a lucid introduction to critical thinking and the scientific approach to understanding reality.

Today I finished reading a book for children, or so it is styled: Richard Dawkins's "The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True." In it, Dawkins quickly runs the gamut of much of what science "knows" by way of exploring how it is possible to know anything, and what are the limits of what we presently know. I went into the book expecting more focus on the subject of epistemology itself, but found a heavier dose of scientific knowledge. That was fine, as it turned out, and the book does make for a good refresher course in the scope of knowledge about nature, physics, chemistry, biology, and probability. Dawkins's essential strategy is to make each chapter, e.g., "What is the Sun?" a dual essay. First, the author presents a number of myths that purport to answer the question. Then he presents the consensus of scientific knowledge that answers the same question. He does so to illustrate the insufficiency of myth and the strength of the scientific method. He acknowledges that many questions have not yet been answered by science, but argues that the lack of a scientific answer does not mean we should accept the mythological answer, but keep studying the problem until we have the scientific answer.

Many readers who rely upon myth (i.e., religion) for answers will find the book offensive, especially because Dawkins targets children, and because he steadfastly denies the acceptability of "mythological" (read "religious") answers. But on the other side of the argument lie plausible claims that religious indoctrination of children is nothing short of child abuse. Therefore, the sort of child that might ideally read this book would be one who is just reaching, or who has reached what is often called "the age of reason"--the point in biological development where the brain begins to work in rational terms and can distinguish between myth and reality. For the rest of us, reading such a children's book can help us catch up on all the science that has happened since we were in school, and also help remind us that reason is not an easy path, but the only path that can lay claim to empirical truths.

I for one continue to agree with J.B.S. Haldane, who said he believed the universe was "not only queerer than we think, but queerer than we are capable of thinking." Science as we know it is still in its infancy, and many things we believe science tells us will seem childishly inadequate if and when we can keep from extinguishing ourselves and the planet long enough to learn and evolve to a state where we actually get it.

The book starts out explaining what science is and several of the pitfalls of understanding into which people fall. Illustrations by Dave McKean are interesting and colorful to say the least. I loved seeing his renditions of James The Amazing Randi, Penn & Teller, Richard Dawkins, Hume, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the wide variety of mythical figures and real cosmic objects and other items of nature.

Dawkins does a great job of pointing out the arbitrary and silly aspects of world myths that have been repeated so often that they are so imbedded in the cultural psyche as to be respected if not fully believed. Myths from various world religions were used to contrast how people once answered questions in comparison to how they are answered today, with science.

It is arguable that the first and last chapters are the best parts of the book. Dawkins explains what science is and what he and others mean by magic in the first chapter. In the last chapter, Dawkins ends his with Hume's take on miracles. He doesn't say that miracles do not occur, he simply points out that it is more productive to question claims of miracles and judge their probability rather than accept them without question. He points out that there are more options than many people take into consideration when a story is told. The story could have been true, the people in the story could have been wrong or deceitful or the entire story may be fictional or terribly exaggerated.

That is not to say that the rest of the book doesn't have important material. The best science chapter in the book is on who the first people were and an explanation of our ancestry. It was a colorful and clear explanation of the times involved and the way inheritance works over long time periods. Of course, this is part of Dawkins' specialty. There are parts explaining rainbows and seasons and a variety of other scientific concepts that are a good reminder for those who haven't had a science class in a long time, and the section on why bad things happen was a very important one, which I would recommend to anyone.

I was a bit surprised that illusion artists, such as Sandro del Prete or authors on illusions such as Al Seckel weren't mentioned in the section on why people see images that they expect to see in odd places, and Michael Shermer has written on many of the topics that Dawkins brought up, but his is also absent from the discussion and illustrations.

The book is not without its faults, however. Dawkins factually, it is quite accurate. I must note that there is an illustration describing antibodies, yet erroneously referring to them as T-cells. Dawkins explained that his favorite meaning of magic is the poetic one in which it is anything that causes awe, hence the title of the book. However, the book was so short and directed toward such a young audience that I'm not sure that it will cause much awe at the wonder of what is truly real. I have been awestruck by the anatomic details outlining our evolutionary heritage, math that can unite and explain rainbows and how to track an elephant as well as discussions of the mating strategies of wasps, all from Dawkins' books. Perhaps having learned the science in "The Magic of Reality" so long ago is what has jaded me to this. I do hope young children will find this book engaging, but it certainly could have used more humor and perhaps a bit more of the style of David Macaulay's "The Way Things Work" or Larry Gonick's "Cartoon History of the Universe".

When I first heard about it, I wondered--Richard Dawkins writing in his field, this could be INteresting. It is and was. A wonderful Christmas, Chanukah or birthday gift for any one who can read and see the illustrations. Absolutely stunning, artistically done and not off-putting for the science-phobic. Delightful. Good for adults too.

I've been a fan of Richard Dawkins ever since a co-worker handed me a copy of Climbing Mount Improbable 10 years ago. Not only does he appeal to one's sense of logic and reason, but he has a unique writing style that combines humor and sustains reader interest. Dawkins does a brilliant job of carrying the torch of reason and skepticism carried by other great writers like Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer and James Randi. The following distinguishes this book from the other Dawkins books:

1. It is written in a style that would appeal to both adults and teens.
2. The color illustrations by Dave McKean are superb! This is one gorgeous book.
3. Summarizing the ideas presented in various other Dawkins books, this book would serve as a great "Intro to Dawkins".

I feel that the following paragraph from The Magic of Reality summarizes the spirit of the book:

"... I want to show you that the real world, as understood scientifically, has magic of its own- the kind I call poetic magic: an inspiring beauty which is all the more magical because it is real and because we can understand how it works. Next to the true beauty and magic of the real world, supernatural spells and stage tricks seem cheap and tawdry by comparison. The magic of reality is neither supernatural nor a trick, but- quite simply - wonderful. Wonderful, and real. Wonderful because real."

This book is for curious children of all ages (including some adults).

Just the first chapter is worth reading (less than 20 pages of double-spaced text) - even if you don't get to read the whole book. His explanation of what reality is, and the true magic of reality that is visible only to a mind equipped with the glasses of scientific reasoning to appreciate it - the lucid articulation is poetic.

The magic of reality is palpable in his writing- and so real. So real.

I was inspired by this book to create and animation to explain what is the exact reason for why we have winter and summer. Dawkins explains explains it in such a lucid manner. I gave his explanation an animated representation. Just Google "hoxya summer" to see my interactive animation.

This is a phenomenal book about science, and the magic behind it. I consider myself a rational man who is in tune with reality, however reading this book has refined my reality even more. This book has rejuvenated my love for science and how we are able to know what really is true, and what is not. I have been guilty of falling for some of the myths laid out in the book at some point in my life, if only I had read a book like this when I was growing up. I am already introducing my little siblings to the book so that they don't end falling for myths and pseudo-science like most of the world has. This book should be required reading for anyone that whats to know how science works, and wants it told to him in a simple manner.

Richard Dawkins is one of the world's best known evolutionary biologists. He is also one of the great popularizers of science, especially biology, and has made an international reputation as a tireless advocate of evolution and atheism. It's safe to say he is a creationist's nightmare: intelligent, informed and articulate, and a fearsome debater. Those same skills have made him controversial and, as is demonstrated by the reviews and comments here, too often it's Dawkins that gets reviewed instead of the books he writes.

But in The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True Dawkins strikes a more conciliatory note, only indirectly confronting religion. Instead, Dawkins describes a series of myths from a wide array of cultures, and then offers the scientific explanation as a counterpoint. Dave McKean's illustrations are always insightful in support of Dawkins' writing, and sometimes simply brilliant. An example is the discussion of earthquakes. Dawkins discusses the myths - including the Biblical claim that trumpets shook down the walls of Jericho - about the origins of earthquakes. The Japanese thought that the world wrote on the back of a gigantic catfish called Namazu, and when Namazu flipped his tail, there were earthquakes. The Maoris thought the earth was pregnant, and earthquakes were her the baby's kicking. Dawkins then talks about what earthquakes really are, discussing plate tectonics and why plate movement causes 'quakes. Dawkins marshals the scientific evidence. The contrast between the silly myths and the logical science is strong, effective and persuasive.

Using the same technique, Dawkins demolishes myths that purport to explain the diversity of life, the sun, rainbows, origin of species and miracles. McKean's drawings, especially his drawings to illustrate the myths, are spot-on and add a lot to the pleasure of the book. It's a nice collaboration.

One of Dawkins' key points, made very effectively, is that we used myths to explain things we didn't understand; when we have a real explanation, we no longer need the myth. The implications for the Biblical myths cherished by a significant percentage of Western culture, are obvious. As I said earlier, it's a less direct attack on religion. It's no less magical, but it is real instead of mythical. It's a point Dawkins made earlier in Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder. A rainbow is no less wonderful or beautiful because we know what causes them. And it's not a rainbow-colored snake drinking water.

My only criticism of the book is to ask, who is the intended audience? It's not precisely a children's book, although a bright kid would appreciate it. It's not really aimed at adults, although the concepts are challenging enough. It doesn't seem likely to change anyone's mind, except in the unlikely event they approach the book with an open mind. But as a tool for contrasting the supernatural magic of mythology with the magical delight of discovery, the book is unsurpassed.

Recommended.

This is familiar terrain for Richard Dawkins: the crisp, rational science master patiently unmasking the silly myths and smoke and mirrors of the Religious Studies teachers. This book is an excellent introduction to science. A little dry and stuffy with its own sense of rightness in places, but the various chapters do an excellent job of deconstructing some well known (and some lesser known) myths about how the universe is constructed, and laying out the scientific reasons for how it all comes together in crisp, clear prose.

Some of his theories regarding genes came across as slightly socially Darwinist, but this is a long running theme of his work going back to the Selfish Gene. Also, he is prepared to allow for the limitations of science so long as they don't run the risk of undermining some of his cherished anti-religion ideas. For example, in the chapter on the possibility of extra-terrestrial life he concludes that, whether it is uncovered or not, there is absolutely no chance that a creator will be revealed. Ah - there are more things in heaven and earth Horatio...

Well worth buying for children as an introduction to science, and scientific method.

Richard Dawkins and David McKean have made my holiday shopping this year easy. Indeed, if I could pick but one book as required reading for every adolescent and adult in the world, it would be The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True.

Why am I so evangelistic about this book? Because it expands and deepens the powerful open letter that Richard wrote in the mid 1990s to his (at the time) ten-year-old daughter Juliet, "Good and Bad Reasons for Believing" (which is the last chapter in A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love). Now, just about anyone on the cusp of puberty and beyond can learn about their deep ancestry, why there are so many animals, what causes earthquakes, what powers the sun and the stars, why rainstorms sometimes produce rainbows, and even "why bad things happen." Who can read this book and fail to see science as one of humanity's shining achievements!

Early in chapter 1, which is titled "What Is Reality? What Is Magic?," Dawkins lays out in a few simple paragraphs a key distinction: "Magic is a slippery word: It is commonly used in three different ways... I'll call the first one `supernatural magic,' the second one `stage magic,' and the third one (which is my favorite meaning, and the one I intend in my title) `poetic magic'."

Crucially, perhaps because youth are his intended audience, Dawkins maintains a tone throughout that is in no way derisive of anyone's mythic story -- including the mythic story that has been deployed for far too long in Western culture to prevent school children from learning that all creatures are their cousins and that it is a fact of chemistry that they are made of star stuff.

I do believe that, if read far and wide, this book could go a long way toward curing our species of its current collective insanity. Consider this recent statement by my fellow religious naturalist and noted philosopher of religion, Loyal Rue:

"The most profound insight in the history of humankind is that we should seek to live in accord with reality. Indeed, living in harmony with reality may be accepted as a formal definition of wisdom. If we live at odds with reality (foolishly), then we will be doomed. But if we live in proper relationship with reality (wisely), we shall be saved. Humans everywhere, and at all times, have had at least a tacit understanding of this fundamental principle. What we are less in agreement about is how we should think about reality and what we should do to bring ourselves into harmony with it."

The Magic of Reality is a stunning example of our best collective intelligence about the nature of reality and how we've come to know (rather than merely believe) that science provides a more accurate map of "what's real" and "what's important" (or, how things are and which things matter) than ancient mythic maps could hope to achieve. I would argue that nothing is more necessary at this time in history than for people of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs to grasp the importance of distinguishing mythic and meaningful stories of reality from the measurable and meaningful truth of reality.

After all, isn't the ability to distinguish one's inner, subjective world from the outer, objective world pretty much the defining mark of sanity? When a person cannot consistently do this, we say that he or she has become a danger to self and others. When a large and media savvy segment of an entire culture insists on selectively using (and selectively ignoring) the discoveries of science, the danger is vastly compounded.

Clearly and compellingly helping readers draw a distinction between myth and reality (while valuing both) is what The Magic of Reality does so brilliantly--and beautifully! Richard Dawkins' steady prose and helpful metaphors combine with Dave McKean's stunning illustrations to make this volume a feast for head and heart.

As I've written and spoken about many times during the past two years (for example, see my "Thank God for the New Atheists" sermon that was simultaneously published in Skeptic magazine and Australasian Science), I consider Richard Dawkins and many of his New Atheist colleagues to be modern-day prophets. Traditionally, prophets were not so much foreseers or foretellers. They were men and women who spoke boldly and unflinchingly on behalf of reality. Their message (couched in religious terms, of course) was essentially this: "Here's what's real, folks--and here's what's emerging. We need to get right with reality, or perish."

In the same way that the writings of Martin Luther and John Calvin helped spark the Protestant Reformation five centuries ago, I see Richard Dawkins' and David McKean's book helping 21st century religious folk to break free of idolatry of the written word and thereby spark an Evidential Reformation.

It is on this point that I depart from Dawkins. I truly do wish for reform of all the world's religious heritages--not annihilation. And I wish for reform not just because reform is a more practical and realistic approach for smoothing out the harsh edges of literalistic religious zealotry. Rather, I work for reform because religions, historically, have had an important cultural evolutionary role to play.

Following evolutionist David Sloan Wilson (author of Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society and Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives, I understand that religions evolved, in part, to make possible vastly larger scales of cooperation than kin selection and reciprocal altruism tend to produce on their own. More, religions that could evoke individual sacrifice in the interest of shared goals were those that helped their societies defend territory, conquer the less fortunate, and adequately provision generations to come.

Thus, in a heretical way perhaps, I regard Richard Dawkins as not only a gift to our species but as the boot in the butt my own Christian heritage requires to stay relevant--and to have anything useful at all to pass on to the young people who increasingly listen, globally, more to each other than to their immediate elders.

It is now up to those very same young people to make The Magic of Reality go viral!

[To see a richly illustrated video commentary "an inside look at The Magic of Reality" that my wife Connie Barlow just posted on YouTube, put into google "youtube dawkins barlow".]

I have been reading reviews of this book and am shocked at the amount of reviewers who seem completely clueless to the fact this book was written for a juvenile audience! How stupid can you get? One person complained it was good for 14-15 year olds but not adult academics! It wasn't supposed to be! Another complained that it was too simplistic. Another complained that it seemed to be written for a Jr. High School audience. Well, yeah it was! Were you not aware of this before you purchased and read this book? I'm embarrassed for you. This book is excellent at what it set out to do. It also can be enjoyed by adults who have forgot most of the science they learned in school or slept through class! For those of you who were unaware this book was written for a younger readership; that is your own fault. II is unfair to criticize and give less stars for this book because you stupidly thought it was written for the same audience who've read his other books!

The best part of this book is the different myths and legends (used to explain why things happen in this world) that Dawkin's introduces to the reader.  

This book is five star for young readers for it will challenge the way they look at the world.  For someone with a more general education in science and liberal arts the book is too basic but still well written enough to make it worth reading when one is not in the mood to tackle on more complicated concepts and theories like string theory or mitochondrial DNA.

The tone is slightly anti-religious so that may be off putting for some readers.

My parents were conservative Lutherans who refused to accept evolution primarily due to the fact that they possessed no scientific education whatsoever, and their church told them not to (you do not need to give up your belief in God to accept the evidence of Darwin's Theory). While reading chapter #1 of this unexpected gem, I kept thinking "I wish my parents were still alive so they could read this lucid explanation of evolution". Although not a book targeted toward young adults, I would have no problem gifting this book to pre-teenagers about to enter secondary school. What an unexpected surprise.

Really good if you never learned basic science and it's explained so you can understand it, with some humor involved. Gave it tot my bf who recently became an atheïst and it helped a lot to help him understand how science and nature works and why and when to trust what is fact and reality from lies and deceit. After this book I recommend reading The God Delusion it's a more advanced and detailed version of this one.

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.

My children are fascinated by this book and it looks set to remain a favorite for the forseeable future.

The basic concept of presenting real 'magic' with vivid prose and illustrations is great, and generally the book succeeds.

For me, its main flaw is that of being too dismissive of mythology. I believe neither in religion nor in any other supernatural ideas, however I believe myths to be fascinating, wonderful and a hugely important part of human history and culture. The smug attitude of "oh isn't it silly that people believed that!" is disingenuous and adds nothing to the work.

My other small criticism is that the topics selected seem to be somewhat random, with no logical progression; it does read a little like the author has pulled out some favorite articles and pasted them together to make the book.

Nevertheless, the style is mostly very engaging, the subject matter interesting for my elementary school kids, and the pictures are beautiful. Well worth buying for anyone with children, or adults who didn't learn much science as a kid.

NOTE - I HAVE STUPIDLY POSTED ON THE WRONG EDITION - I bought both one hardcover version and one paperback, and the paperback didn't have the color illustrations. If you're going to buy it, especially if you have kids, please consider getting the hardcover one as the pictures really do add a lot to it.

If one accepts one's sense experience and ability to think rationally, then this is a straightforward book of the usual simplistic views of religion in favour of atheism. The problem is that it isn't possible to prove one's own sanity any book that has 'reality' as it's primary focus has to solve that problem.

Even Dawkins admits that we can't trust our reasoning powers to be giving us the truth, since ther eis no way of verifying the axoims (asusmptions) from which all reasoning derives. This is obviously not a problem for the religious.

Read this book and then gave it to my little brother. This is a great introductory book to science. Dawkins really shows how wonderful and enjoying science and reality can be. Growing up in a religious household I felt my brother really did need some reality. My mother is a fundamentalist and believes every word of the bible. Needless to say, this creates a very anti-intellectual atmosphere in our household(of which I moved out). This book is what every child and young teenager should read. Highly recommended.

After finishing this book, I told my wife we're finally ready to have kids, now that this book is around.

Written at a junior high level, this was Richard Dawkins' attempt to write a book of general science that answers a lot of common questions from kids. Questions like "How do we know how far away things are in space?" or "Where did the dinosaurs go?"

Love him or hate him, there's no denying that Professor Dawkins is a master of explaining difficult-to-grasp scientific concepts. Though I felt like I understood everything in the book pretty well before going through it, his explanations were all very easy to understand and well-argued.

Each chapter of this book begins with some sort of mythology story, from all over the world. Dawkins focuses on how different peoples and different religions answer questions in various supernatural ways, and how now science can give us the answers that people have been searching for all this time.

This book is not an attack on religion, like his most famous work: The God Delusion. Rather, it's like his less famous, but overall much better The Selfish Gene, or The Greatest Show on Earth.

I recommend this book to everyone over the age of 10. At the VERY LEAST, it will make you think. And you will likely end up with a deeper understanding of fundamental scientific concepts.

I think that The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins is a very good book. It was very interesting and well written. I liked how he told a couple myths at the beginning of each chapter to illustrate what past civilizations thought was true or what happened with the topics that he is going to address in the chapter. I also liked how he had many pictures in his book to give the readers a better idea of what is really going on.

Although I liked the book there were some things that maybe could have been changed. I think that he should have taken out chapter 11 "Why do bad things happen" because the book is about reality and because so many things are real you have to stick to more relative topics like the ones discussed in 1 "What is reality, what is magic", chapter 4 "What are things made of", chapter 8 "When and how did everything begin?" and chapter 12 'What is a miracle".

Overall though, I think Richard Dawkins did a very good job in writing The Magic of Reality and it is a very enjoyable book. I highly recommend this book to younger readers interested in science.

I read this book with my ten year old. It is a beautiful book with a wonderful message. I think this helped my son understand the nature of the universe and taught me some things too. I cannot recommend this book enough. Lovely to look at, fascinating to read. A true masterpiece.

Sadly, myths and magic still hold sway with a majority of the earth's population who have no grasp on REALITY. Even in "advanced" countries, common knowledge of basic science is woefully low.

While I can't say I learned anything new reading Dawkins' book (other than a few interesting myths), his approach to the topic made this an entertaining read.

I love Richard Dawkins but I can't tell if this is a children's book or he is just being condescending. Lots of great reminders of basic science and some good insights on things like sleep paralysis. I didn't stop reading it but found myself scratching my head at whether he is reaching the audience who would benefit most from this book.

Using simple and clear language (often in a playful way) and creative illustrations, Dawkins' words and McKean's art work contrast the simple and elegant beauty of what science has to say about natural phenomena with the murk and confusion of invoking the supernatural.

Adults with a solid science education will not find much new in The Magic of Reality. I didn't. But what I can say with complete candor is that had I read this in middle school or high school, it would have chopped a good fifteen years off of the confusion I endured while trying to mesh my religious faith with my hunger for scientific explanations of natural phenomena. My wife is a middle school teacher, and she covers much of the ground in this book with her sixth graders. For young men and women who lack, as did I, school teachers as science oriented as my wife, this book offers a whoppingly good shortcut to achieving a science-based world view.

As one would expect from a scientist of Dawkin's stature, the information presented is impeccably vetted. But is it readable? Is it fun? Brief story that gives a hint of an answer: Noticing that I had my ADHD nose buried in this book for an uncharacteristically long time, my wife asked to see what I was reading. When I tilted the book toward her to show it, she was intrigued by the illustrations, and took it from me. She wouldn't give it back. I had to choose between marital accord and other reading material. I picked up my April issue of Scientific American. The next morning, before she was awake, I reclaimed my prize.

The Magic of Reality is a serious and solid attempt to show that elegant scientific explanations of the phenomena that we experience every day are more beautiful, and more awe-inspiring, than the legends, myths, and religious explanations that are often substituted for more rational explanations. Dawkins is a better scientist than he is a writer, and his prose lacks the dazzling punch of the selected articles in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011. Nevertheless, the finished product is a wonderful accomplishment and a marvelous gift to young minds, or to older minds that retain a strong spark of youthful curiosity and a persistent bent toward inquiry. Would that I could have read this when I was sixteen, instead of sixty!

This book should be required reading for everyone, especially middle shool kids. Richard Dawkins does a good job of breaking down myths and superstitions. It is truly astonishing to read how he breaks down that there never really was a "first person." Dawkins explanation of how gravity works was never explained to me that way on school, just a wonderful interepatation of science! Get the book!

This book is a real 'page turner' for readers of all ages. Each of the 12 chapters of this roughly 250-page book (large print with many illustrations) covers an aspect of the real world. The chapters begin with the folklore or religious explanations, and then presents the reality of the situation, as uncovered by the cumulative application of the scientific method.

The 'magic' as Richard Dawkins puts it, is the fascinating reality that underlies the phenomena discussed. Professor Dawkins is a master teacher!

Would that every curious person read this book; they would be well rewarded.

Richard Dawkins captures complex ideas and breaks them down into coherent relative analogies digestive by both the young and the young at heart. Dark myths and superstition used throughout mankind's infancy to explain natural phenomenon are utterly swept away in the light of reason. Dawkins supplements these myths, legends and tall tales through the use of known, tested, peer-reviewed and rigidly skeptical world of science. This reading will inspire not only a junior reader but will flesh-out details that will make adults smile with a fuller understanding of natural phenomenon. Think you know how a rainbow works? Dawkins will leave you smiling with a new understanding. A great read!

This is how a modern e-book should be conceived. Amazing images, animations, audio, video and even games will allow you to deeply interact and better understand the high quality content with "top" English writing by Richard Dawkins (the full text from the hardback book is there).

I suggest you to read it together with your family (kids, wife and pets too), a unique experience that the typical book cannot give you.

One small annoyance is, in my opinion, the lack of a dictionary or at least an easy way to access it.

In simple words: "I am in love with it!"

NOTE: this is the iPad version review

Good book, I read it for school. He formats the book by asking a question and then answering it. I like the way he questions the limitations of using religion rather than science to understand our world but I think he is not completely openminded about things we don't fully understand yet, either.

Even if you haven't read any of Richard Dawkins's books, you can guess by their titles or by its reviews what he's all about. The Magic of Reality is Dawkins in a nutshell. You get evolutionary biology, the scientific method, chance and random events analysis, a little bit of molecular biology, some astronomy, earth evolution history (with earthquakes), and a mini "God Delusion". The book is written in an easy language and not condescending, although some reviewers complain about that. So far so good.

Where the book really shines though, is in the illustrations. Davis McKean does a fantastic job not only in illustrating the text, but he actually enhances it. Evolution is illustrated with a bookshelf of ancestors' photographs and trees, the periodic table is brought to life with colors and also detailed electrons drawings, seasons and rainbows are explained with geometric diagrams. All the drawings are extremely well crafted and almost never redundant.

So even if you don't care for Dawkins, or if you know everything that's in the book (I think most people will still find a couple of things they didn't know, or at least illuminating ways of explaining them), the illustrations are what really make the book a great and fun read. Skip the audiobook version.

Very disappointing. I am a Christian and a scientist. I bought this book for scientific information on how things work and why natural phenomena happen.

However, it seems to be an explanation of why we should not believe in God. Sure, many of the stories in the Bible may be folk tales. But why does that, or the subject of miracles, even have to be discussed in a book that explains why volcanoes form or what causes earthquakes?
What does the concept of original sin have to do with natural phenomena?

Also, if the reader has any basic scientific knowledge, the book is rather boring. Without the unecessary derogatory references to a belief in God, this would be a great book for elementary school. As is, I will not donate this book to our local library. I will discard it.

A well-written book but too basic and too short.

This book is a kind of "Cliff Notes" on most elementary, and important, scientific topics like natural evolution, Newtonian/Copernicus astronomy, the nature of atoms etc. There is not much to be learnt for anyone who has gone through the high school science courses without sleeping.

The author's objectives are different (or same if you have read him before): to debunk the non-scientific, particularly religious notions of how we came in to being. So while the book brings little that would be new to seasoned readers (of almost any kind), the way the book is put together makes it an easy read with many interesting myths, anecdotes and language twists to describe some scientific concepts.

The book is more useful for teens and/or people at impressionable ages.

(disclaimer: I have scanned through this book and read a couple of chapters. So this won't be a direct review of the chapters of this book, rather it is about the impact it could have.)

There are so many schools of theology and debate which mould young minds to argue against reason "intelligently". These include tactics of sneaky diversion from the topic in question (usually about evidence) AND ontological arguments that are more easily absorbed by children than some of the sciences. They also learn to demonize any hope of themselves becoming free/rational thinkers. (I've had firsthand experience).

These schools/environments have produced people like William Lane Craig and Zakir Naik (who I believe are the most dangerous weapons against civilization).

I find it analogous to - the difference in mentality between people who are well-read and travelled versus small-town folk who aren't/haven't. They are usually genuinely honest and nice people, but differ from the fortunately educated. It shows in their ignorance about a lot of things like race, religion. (I have noticed this in every country I've been to).

However the isolation from rational thinking happens even in the most educated of environments. Because children are brought up by parents following religious traditions, they soak in anything and the grown-up religious community make them believe this nonsense (as opposed to other fairy-tales) even when they reach adolescence. And the cycle continues with every generation..

Beyond a certain age, it is very difficult to undo certain ingrained ideas/concepts. The concept of rational inquiry is the key to living a civilized life. For instance, not supporting a presidential candidate because of the God he/she believes in. Or not wasting your money with priests/evangelicals. Or not being gullible for recruitment by a radical leader because of the pleasures of the afterlife.

This book could make a more inquiring next generation, who give more importance to things like climate change, rather than destroying the forces of "evil" on earth.

At the very least, if you don't want your children to sound like the one/two star reviewers of this book, I urge you to save a child and buy this book.

- MJ

I have never written a review for the many books I have bought on the store but I felt compelled to write one for this book. I just finished "Magic of Reality" and it was really inspiring and opened my mind up, not to mention it was a fun read! I know some people complain its a book for kids but trust me, its for all ages. I would say from 12-80. I just graduated college and thoroughly enjoyed the reading level it was at. Richard Dawkins writes everything so you can understand it and so it isnt so complex, not to mention the art work is great! I have always wanted to learn more bout science and htis book hits the nail on the head on most of the important subjects. Not to mention the myths are fun to read at the beginning of each chapter followed by what REALLY happened or what it REALLY is, based on factual science and research. The material I learned really opened my eyes to the REAL world and made me more excited that a lot of my questions have been answered. I look at the world in a different way now. A great book to learn facts when you get in a debate with a stubborn religious person. Pick this book up! You wont regret it...

This book is very well written. From the first page it caught my attention, and it didn't let up until i finished it. I Didn't consider myself an avid reader in the past, but recently my mindset has changed, and now I find that I can't put some books down. This was one of those books. I am a better, more informed person for having purchased and read "The Magic of Reality".

I bought this for my granddaughters who hear all sorts of nonsense from their friends at school. I offered them a prize for reading it, then asked them questions about it. You do what you have to in order to combat the memes in this world.

Wonderful!!! Providing knowledge in the most pleasant way. Showing that science is not dry or annoying, but thrilling and fascinating. Hope it will help to lead thousands of young people to the joys of reason and understanding. Thanks, Richard, for another fantastic read.

Book, regretably,was written for middle schoolers. If not, it insults the intellience of teenagers and adults. Book talks down to the reader, fills its pages with "interesting"(that's sarcasm) metaphors to cute things, and take 3-4 times as many pages to explain something as necessay. I would say poor editing but it seems to be the style of the writer. He could use a review of the old Carl Sagan shows to learn how to instruct and entertain without being patronizing.

I am a skeptic, atheist, rational humanist, etc. and I am thoroughly on board with Richard Dawkins. Having said that, this book is clearly not meant for me. I am currently somewhere in the middle and so far it has been business as usual. He's preaching to the choir. With the exception of some fascinating tidbits of etymology, I already know everything he is telling me.

"The Magic of Reality" is clearly aimed at the ignorant masses... and some say, even children (which is fantastic). This is a bold move by Dawkins. It shows that he is willing to accept the inevitable attack as the masses fret about the loss of their magic and deities. Most skeptical writers write to a skeptical audience, thus avoiding the ire of millions who avoid reading difficult books.

This is a simple book. It leads the reader gently by the hand through rudimentary, foundational science that is absolutely vital in understanding how the world really works. For someone well versed in the subject, and science in general, there are no jaw-dropping eye openers, no amazing connections are revealed. And that's fine. I am happy to not really enjoy this book if it serves to open the eyes of countless others.

This book is spectacular. If you think it is only for a younger audience, think again. I have the hardcover edition and I highly recommend it. The illustrations throughout the book are amazing and the message is, well, its just the message. Highly recommended.

This book is both written and illustrated brilliantly. The author would satisfy any interest a child or adult might have in the basics of science. It gives you a respect for science and a love for the beauty that reality has. This book should be on the bookshelf of every home and library. A child should be exposed to the right ideas. It is imperative that a child be exposed to these explanations early on so that it can pique his curiosity while giving him a love for learning about the world.

The book is very big. It is in full color and at a very good price compared to other books.

Somebody needs to tell the store that this book does not really belong in the category of "folklore and mythology," despite the fact that it has the word "magic" in its title. That's "magic," not "magick."

This is a wonderful book, written with Dawkins's characteristic clarity and elegance. About the contents, just read any of the other reviews. My advice: if you can, get the iPad version of the book. Just terrific. The first ebook I've seen really getting the most from the possibilities ebooks may offer.

I think this book is amazing, all the things I should have learned in science but didn't. Its illustrated very well and explains concepts nicely. I would recommend this to anybody who may have not gotten the best education in science..... or simply as a refresher. Really great book.

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True might be more precisely subtitled: What I Believe to be Really True. Dawkins version of what is really `true' leads to a dead end science because he adopts an exclusively metaphysical materialistic view. He fails to stimulate the intellect by his superficial treatment of the topics discussed. His defense of science and scientific method are marred by his disdain of the fundamental role played by mysticism and perceptibly transcendent human consciousness. Dawkins' simplistic view ignores the many different kinds of reality that cannot be known through the materialistic methods alone. Karl Popper observed that "science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths," Myths graduate to science when they are open to being tested; indeed, science rests on a bedrock of mythology. Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Kurt Gödel, Immanuel Kant, and many others were mystics before they were philosophers, physicists, or mathematicians. I fear that Dawkins' book may be unsafe for the children to whom it is apparently addressed.

Put aside notions of spirit, soul, God as perhaps useful albeit unprovable, unreal. Put aside all religious dogmas, theologies, philosophies, metaphysics, history, and everyday experience. Even under sensory deprivation conditions what remains is the sensation and immediacy of consciousness. Patently, consciousness exists, because we experience it. The recently-published book My Universe - A Transcendent Reality explores human consciousness with the presumption that it is more than mere self-awareness and that it transcends its physical-neurological manifestation. The book elaborates the notion that we progress in three stages, bringing order out of the cosmos and chaos that confronts us: poesy - philosophy - physics. Each stage follows from the previous, sometimes immediately, sometimes in halting succession, stretched out over time, often spanning generations. The `order from chaos' process is cyclic. Poesy may be an a priori concept, out of the blue, or poesy may be a posteriori, if a tangible physical reality is its inspiration. Philosophy is the intermediate rational phase by which a concept is expressed in a logically malleable form. Physics is the material product of the sequence. The sequence may be recast as: inspiration, formulation, realization, a process to bring order out of chaos. (page 67, My Universe - A Transcendent Reality)

I loved this book; Dawkins is writing for the lay person and clearly and thoroughly describes why and how things happen in the natural world. I especially enjoyed the section on rainbows and would (and do) highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
I would also recommend the books of Victor J Stenger and everything written by Richard Dawkins.

We have a house full of books, we encourage our kids to read whatever they want. This book went in the pile and my eldest (11) just loved it. A million follow on questions arose, which I think is a success for any kids book.

Mr Dawkins, well done, and we would love a follow up.

Dawkins does an amazing job of showing how reality is MUCH more magical and amazing than fiction. I learned a lot from this book and lost a lot of sleep. It's a shame that so many angry Christians have to spam all his wonderful books with fallacious 1-star reviews...

I absolutely love this book. My kids are happy to sit and let me read it to them. They understand it and it has definitely allowed them to understand the "poetic magic" of the world around them. It also has given them the understanding of how the world works and how we learn about it. I love Richard Dawkins!

My advice is to forget any controversy about Dawkins' attitude towards religious believers (your kid doesn't care) and buy this book for your young scientist! What a treasure Dawkins has created here together with illustrator Dave McKean: an accessible, brilliantly explained introduction to the deepest secrets of human existence. I read this to my precocious six-year old over three months, and can't count the number of times her eyes grew wide with excitement at new discoveries about our place in the universe. Among many highlights are the "photograph" of our 185-million greats grandfather (hint:gills) on page 40, and the step-by-step introduction to optics culminating in how a rainbow is formed. (I am 35 and never fully understood how light interacts with falling water droplets to create the rainbow. I do now.) Without dumbing down any explanations, Dawkins nevertheless makes complicated subjects understandable and relate-able to young readers.

This is a book to be shared between parent and child, and then re-devoured over a lifetime by the child as they grow older and savvier. More than simply a book of science topics, this is a love letter to our world as we actually understand it, and the many people who worked to bring us the knowledge of what is real and true.

a real contribution for public understanding of science,in spite of keeping the image of a radical antireligious atheist of the author.his attractive ideas(memes according to his terminology)spread smoothly,whether deep(extended phenotype) or not(selfish gene),rogue(god delusion)or not very much(present book).this ability is of utmost importance for works promoting science literacy.critical reading will be enjoyable for all ,even religious ppl.no fear of "memastasis"(instead of metastasis)of his ideas,just enjoy interesting stories and know solid facts.let us ask him to write more of this genre,and-if possible-to be more modest towards ppl with other attitudes.no one has the absolute truth,or he has?

This work is intended for young readers. In it Dawkins presents his view that the way we know about Reality is primarily through the scientific method. This is a simplistic view as there are many different kinds of reality and much of reality cannot be known through the scientific method.Consider the whole world of Kierkegaardean inwardness, or the varied worlds of individual literary consciousnesses. These are not subsumable to or understandable by scientific method. In however understanding the Natural world and teaching us how to transform it the Scientific method in operation for the past four- hundred and fifty years has proven more powerful than anything before known. Dawkins is an excellent expositor of scientific knowledge. He addresses some of the major questions humans have asked ourselves, such as the question of the origin of Mankind, the possible communication with intelligences in other worlds, the fate of our earth and our sun. As a major contributor to evolutionary thought he naturally is excellent in explaining Darwinian natural selection, and the process of the development of life on earth. Dawkins perhaps the world's most well- known atheist does however use one or two small dirty tricks in his presentation. He refuses to use the proper spelling for 'God' and even when talking about the Biblical God uses a small case letter 'god'. He deliberately compares the complex Biblical myths with far more simplistic and less known primitive creation stories. He makes a kind of simplistic literal reading of Biblical texts which no true student of this literature could reasonably countenance. He would have in my opinion done better simply expositing the scientific material in relation to those areas where it has relevance.

It should be noted more clearly in the description that this book is written for children. It was somewhat interesting but the almost condescending writing style made me unconsciously start to speed-read thru the book. I'd like to read one or two of his other books, but I may look for them in a store and scan a little before buying.

They say that truth is stranger than fiction. It's certainly more fascinating. Dawkins' book points out that behind many things we call mundane are some incredible discoveries waiting to be made, and thanks to science, they can be just as exciting and beautiful as any fairytale, with the added benefit that you'll never grow up to find it was all make believe.

Small in size, wide in scope, a most enjoyable read. Dawkins doesn't dumb it down but he's not stuffy or pretentious. A bright young student will find him accessible while we old-timers won't be disappointed either.

My reading copy is the hardback edition.
This book is astounding. Even though it's written with children in mind even adults will find this an inspiring and education read. Dawkins puts the poetry into science and makes you feel glad to be alive. The book itself is beautiful, well illustrated and an object to enjoy. Awesome.

We have all heard it before from Dawkins, but it is a pleasure to read it again since he is a master story teller and a major intellect. This is a book for young people who want to learn something about reality. It is better than having a course in physics, chemistry and biology.

The Magic of Reality pleasantly surprised me; in so far as it covers, in easily readable prose, areas of science I have often found daunting or intractable. To an extent, it offers a kind of FAQ of the universe and man's place in it, from early superstition to the sophistication of modern science.

The illustrations greatly enhanced both the clarity and the sense of wonder which is engendered. Myth and magic, perhaps often regarded as in conflict with empirical or experimental science, are revealed as having a deep significance of their own in the development of our early ancestors and inevitably awaken a deeper awareness of our own significance, despite our individuality.

No dry academia here. Rather, I think, an author whose fascination with his own life's work is certainly infectious.

Raymond Nickford

A Child from the Wishing Well