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A review by rodhilton
God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette
3.0
The biggest problem with the book is that it's titled and marketed misleadingly, so let me get this out of the way really quickly: this is not a book about atheism or atheists or skepticism in general. This does not belong on the shelf next to Dennett, Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins. This is simply Penn Jillette's autobiography, nothing more, nothing less.
Once you get past the poor marketing and take the book for what it is, it's quite good. Pinn Jillette is an interesting guy who has lived an incredibly interesting life. He also reads his own audiobook, adding a particular flourish to the text, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Jillette is a strong atheist, and he certainly talks a lot about atheism, nonbelief, skepticism, and so forth. It's important enough to his life that it's mentioned in every single chapter many times, but I still consider this book first and foremost an autobiography.
Jillette talks a lot about his various worldviews. His view on the agnosticism/atheism debate is fantastically well-argued, and I believe convinced me to adopt his stance (agnosticism is bullshit), while his view on Libertarianism is much more of a stretch and very unconvincing (I say this as a Libertarian myself). He talks about his views on global warming, plastic surgery, the entertainment industry, and politics, none of which will come as a surprise to those who have read interviews with him or watched "Bullshit".
He also shares life stories, some of which are extremely personal. He shares stories about fans, including one fan he eventually married. He talks about the deaths of his family members including his much older sister. He discusses the effects his friends and family have had on his life, and even shares a personal story about paying for his father's in-home nursing care that made me shed manly tears of manliness. Some of the stories are there only to be funny, such as the chapter about Kreskin, but even the touching and serious stories have humor throughout.
These stories and worldview chapters would make for an excellent book, but often the book starts meandering pointlessly. Some sections feel like filler to make the book longer, and go on and on for what seems like an eternity. A story he wrote for Penthouse about having sex in scuba gear seems particularly self-indulgent, Jillette clearly aroused by his own storytelling. Another chapter about why his family doesn't do the whole Santa thing is tiresome and bland, with little more than a blog post's worth of something to say. The greatest offender was a short (but still far too long) chapter on Bruce Springsteen which is just pure rambling.
The book is inconsistent in quality overall, and the greatness of the highlights is often mired by the worthlessness of the lowlights. Overall the book is worth a read (as long as the reader knows that the book is just an autobiography written by an atheist, not an atheist book), but feel free to skip chapters that aren't doing anything for you. Very little of the book is built on what preceded it, and entire chapters could easily be dropped or reordered without much effect.
Once you get past the poor marketing and take the book for what it is, it's quite good. Pinn Jillette is an interesting guy who has lived an incredibly interesting life. He also reads his own audiobook, adding a particular flourish to the text, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Jillette is a strong atheist, and he certainly talks a lot about atheism, nonbelief, skepticism, and so forth. It's important enough to his life that it's mentioned in every single chapter many times, but I still consider this book first and foremost an autobiography.
Jillette talks a lot about his various worldviews. His view on the agnosticism/atheism debate is fantastically well-argued, and I believe convinced me to adopt his stance (agnosticism is bullshit), while his view on Libertarianism is much more of a stretch and very unconvincing (I say this as a Libertarian myself). He talks about his views on global warming, plastic surgery, the entertainment industry, and politics, none of which will come as a surprise to those who have read interviews with him or watched "Bullshit".
He also shares life stories, some of which are extremely personal. He shares stories about fans, including one fan he eventually married. He talks about the deaths of his family members including his much older sister. He discusses the effects his friends and family have had on his life, and even shares a personal story about paying for his father's in-home nursing care that made me shed manly tears of manliness. Some of the stories are there only to be funny, such as the chapter about Kreskin, but even the touching and serious stories have humor throughout.
These stories and worldview chapters would make for an excellent book, but often the book starts meandering pointlessly. Some sections feel like filler to make the book longer, and go on and on for what seems like an eternity. A story he wrote for Penthouse about having sex in scuba gear seems particularly self-indulgent, Jillette clearly aroused by his own storytelling. Another chapter about why his family doesn't do the whole Santa thing is tiresome and bland, with little more than a blog post's worth of something to say. The greatest offender was a short (but still far too long) chapter on Bruce Springsteen which is just pure rambling.
The book is inconsistent in quality overall, and the greatness of the highlights is often mired by the worthlessness of the lowlights. Overall the book is worth a read (as long as the reader knows that the book is just an autobiography written by an atheist, not an atheist book), but feel free to skip chapters that aren't doing anything for you. Very little of the book is built on what preceded it, and entire chapters could easily be dropped or reordered without much effect.