Katy's Reviews > The God Delusion

Full disclosure: when I bought this book, I was already an agnostic atheist, although I hadn't been calling myself that for very long. Now that I've finished it, I've been an atheist for four years, so there is really no conversion factor, here.

I have to admit that I struggled through some of the chapters in this book, and it took many hours on a cross-state roadtrip on the back of a motorcycle listening to the audiobook (narrated by Dawkins and his wife, Lalla Ward) for me to finish it. Still, I don't think that means this book is not worth the read.

However, I would probably not recommend this book to just anyone. Some of the science is dense, at least for me; at times Dawkins gets really, really deep into arguments and logic and science, which I fear might turn off the casual reader. The only other major issue I had with this book was its organization. Surely, a book about atheism has a lot to cover and I realize that it's tough to organize such an abstract concept, but there are times when the book jumps from one section to another and I'm not really sure how to follow. There is a table of contents and subsections, but those don't help too much.

Now for what I did enjoy. The chapters I liked most were: Chapter 6 (The Roots of Morality), Chapter 7 (The 'Good' Book), and Chapter 10 (A Much Needed Gap). Parts of this book are delightfully funny. Other parts are extremely moving, hopeful, profound, and all of it is clever. Dawkins has become one of the biggest names in the world of the nonreligious, and it isn't hard to see why with this book behind him.

I would absolutely recommend this book to any nonbeliever, for a multitude of reasons. I would also warmly recommend the book to those who are questioning, searching, or honestly curious about alternative perspectives. In the United States, people like this are hard to come by, but their numbers grow every day. If you are unsure, if you are truly open to differing opinions, if you are struggling with doubt, give this book a chance. It may pleasantly surprise you.