Thanks for the gift Griffin! ( )

Superbly written memoir by a great scientist. Dawkins has gotten a bit of a reputation as a jerk in the last few years. But this book tells a wonderful story of his life, from birth in colonial Africa until his middle age and the publication of his book "The Selfish Gene" and far from being the work of a nasty person it is generous and funny and not at all self-aggrandizing. ( )

As volume 1 of Richard Dawkins' 2 volume autobiography, "An Appetite for Wonder" focuses on the author's childhood, adolescence, and early scientific career, through the publication of his famous "The Selfish Gene". While described as an "intimate" biography, it leaves out personal details in favor of aspects of his intellectual growth.

While I enjoyed listening to the audio version of this memoir, I found his early life only mildly interesting, and was less than impressed at Dawkins' early scientific research. His experimental work on "animal decision making" [sic] comes across as unremarkable, no more significant than research that was being done at many labs around the world. However, having studied under Niko Tinbergen certainly boosted his fortunes, Most significant to his career was his recognition of the implications of work by William Hamilton, Robert Trivers, and John Maynard Smith. He popularized this work in the 1976 "The Selfish Gene". From there, his career was made -- as a science writer, rather than an empirical scientist. That is where volume 2 picks up, a work that I found much more interesting than volume 1. ( )

Being an amazing writer on religion led me to reading everything Dawkins has written. This biography details his life and inspiration that drove him towards a life in science. Interesting subject, but reading about years in boarding school and all about academia wasn't that interesting to me. His background in coding was the most interesting part, but covered quickly. ( )

The title changed from what is written above to what is shown on the book jacket.

A different kind of autobiography. For one, it is intended to be just part 1. Part 2 is to come out in a couple of years, if all goes well. Part 1 takes us from childhood through the publication of Dawkins' first book, The Selfish Gene, in 1976. Although called "an intimate memoir" on the book jacket, the book skirts a lot of what I'd call "intimate". For example, his marriages are mentioned in passing, with no information about how Dawkins met the women, what led up to the weddings, anything about their lives together.

Similarly, we learn about previous generations of his family, about elementary school and something about the way Dawkins' parents raised Richard, and we learn that the family moved from Africa to England and why, and which schools Richard attended, but really very little about day-to-day life. Instead, we learn how Richard felt about different things that happened in his life, some of which he regretted or could not understand, while others led to his future thinking on evolution.

Really, it's a book about how Dawkins came to think as he does, and why he thinks Charles Darwin is really the father of science as we now know it, and certainly why Darwin is Dawkins' hero. The title is revealing in this way. The book explains how Dawkins developed and maintained his appetite for wonder.

For those who have not read his other books, this one provides an introduction to The Selfish Gene, offering a brief explanation of the theme of that book. It also lays the foundation of Dawkins' atheism. ( )