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124 reviews for:
Het verhaal van onze voorouders: Een pelgrimstocht naar de oorsprong van het leven.
Richard Dawkins
4.17 AVERAGE
124 reviews for:
Het verhaal van onze voorouders: Een pelgrimstocht naar de oorsprong van het leven.
Richard Dawkins
4.17 AVERAGE
This highly acclaimed book from the world’s best-known evolutionary biologist takes an interesting approach to its narrative. Expressed in a format that is a homage to Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’, there are no chapters but mini stories as we travel on our journey back through time to unite the branches of the evolutionary tree (the Neanderthal’s Tale, The Gibbon’s Tale, The Peacock’s Tale etc) until we reach the dawn of life itself.
Each ‘Tale’ discusses the modern creature in depth and the features of the extinct species from the time when the evidence suggests that species split from all others. It is a sensible way of doing it, especially if he is attempting to appeal to people who know little about evolution but are curious to understand. Recommend this to your creationist friends!
Love him or hate him, it cannot be denied that Dawkins is a superb popular science writer proving that academic writing need not necessarily be heavy and dull, and that a light hearted narrative with an approachable writing style need not lack substance. At over 600 pages it may seem a daunting read at first but the flow blends the Tales seamlessly, meaning that you’ve covered a hundred pages before you know it.
One of Dawkins’ best, right up there with ‘Climbing Mount Improbable’
See more book reviews at my blog
Each ‘Tale’ discusses the modern creature in depth and the features of the extinct species from the time when the evidence suggests that species split from all others. It is a sensible way of doing it, especially if he is attempting to appeal to people who know little about evolution but are curious to understand. Recommend this to your creationist friends!
Love him or hate him, it cannot be denied that Dawkins is a superb popular science writer proving that academic writing need not necessarily be heavy and dull, and that a light hearted narrative with an approachable writing style need not lack substance. At over 600 pages it may seem a daunting read at first but the flow blends the Tales seamlessly, meaning that you’ve covered a hundred pages before you know it.
One of Dawkins’ best, right up there with ‘Climbing Mount Improbable’
See more book reviews at my blog
Excellent! This is deserving of 5 stars but I rarely rate books perfect unless they were 100% enjoyable all the way through. I struggled to understand. Sometimes it was slow-going. He hardly mentions creationism at all which is a positive for me. I loved this book.
Favourite chapter is the one on ctenophores. If only I could be so grossly incandescent.
Not bad
Unhelpful framing devices (pilgrimage, chaucer, tales)
Winced at author's belief that not tracking race on government forms would end racism.
Interesting animal facts, leading up to information on the beginnings of life and what sort of animals are and are not likely to evolve elsewhere.
Could be better, but not bad.
Unhelpful framing devices (pilgrimage, chaucer, tales)
Winced at author's belief that not tracking race on government forms would end racism.
Interesting animal facts, leading up to information on the beginnings of life and what sort of animals are and are not likely to evolve elsewhere.
Could be better, but not bad.
Cool stories, bro.
The frequency of "I won't talk about it here because I wrote about it in detail in another book" is very high. It would be better if it was more like "I'll summarize, but I wrote about it in detail in another book."
The frequency of "I won't talk about it here because I wrote about it in detail in another book" is very high. It would be better if it was more like "I'll summarize, but I wrote about it in detail in another book."
the best scientific literature i’ve ever read. definitely want to reread after taking some more courses; despite the accessibility of the text, some of it went over my head, which is exciting (and scary). reread every year, possibly.
DNF just haven’t been in the mood to pick this up in years so I’m gonna let it go. It was really interesting and I loved it though as a text book
[...] questo Ancestor's Tale mi ha affascinato, mi ha fatto pensare e mi ha arricchito. Ampiamente e calorosamente consigliato.
http://spazlib.blogspot.com/2008/02/bookrece-ancestors-tale.html
http://spazlib.blogspot.com/2008/02/bookrece-ancestors-tale.html
adventurous
informative
Absolutely wonderful. A tour of our evolutionary ancestors back through time with many stops along the way to illuminate various aspects of Darwinism.