I had a very enjoyable time reading this book. It was quite interesting and was a nice read that wasn’t too difficult to understand. I was pleased to find out that this book was not geared towards an audience educated in biology. It was reader-friendly to the common people of this world. I thoroughly enjoyed that he used a relatively informal voice and tone in his writing. While reading this book, I felt as though Dr. Moalem was actually talking to me. Also, it didn’t seem like a boring lecture. He kept things interesting by incorporating sarcasm, humor, and questions that made you think. Even though this may sound weird, sometimes I felt like I was actually having a conversation with him. We would pose questions to the reader, I would stop and answer them in my head, and then when I kept reading, he had already anticipated my thought and came back with a rebuttal. He also was very good at explaining really “science-y” things in laymen’s terms. He knew his audience might not know or remember how a process worked so he “dumbed it down” effectively. I never felt too lost while reading his book, which is a huge success on his part. Plus, there was a certain personal effect added in for me because I was studying evolution in class while reading this book. I learned things in class and then read about them a few days later in the book. This made me feel very smart.
Even though this book was relatively small, it took me a long time to read. Being a teenager, I found a few parts of this book quite boring and so sometimes I just couldn’t read and retain the information so I had to reread parts. His organization was also a bit annoying sometimes. He would start talking about one thing and then pose a question, but the he would start a new paragraph like, “But before we can answer that question, let’s take a look back…” and would start talking about something completely different which seemed quite irrelevant. I think this was part of the reason it took me so long to read this book. Because he jumped around, I lost interest and didn’t feel like reading. Certain parts that seemed irrelevant like the part about the Ice Age took me forever to read because they seemed really far out there and boring. It wasn’t until he tied all the aspect of his argument together that I couldn’t put the book down. Once he started to actually explain the “why,” I couldn’t stop reading until I knew the whole story.
Moalem also did a good job on explaining all viewpoints. I believe he successfully avoided offending his readers. I was not offended at all by his theories and opinions. When I realized this book centered around evolution, I was a little afraid that he would some how offend me by slashing my religion, because this has happened before by other authors. Moalem was very polite in his writing. He was not afraid to share his thoughts, but the was also careful to share the opposing viewpoint. He made it clear that there is much we don’t know about genetics and evolution so he made it known that neither viewpoint was right or wrong; they were simply opposing.
I had a pleasant time reading this book and would recommend it to just about anyone. It is a very good source of fun facts like: most Asians get intoxicated faster than Europeans. It is also a very good source of explanations. It gets you hooked on a fact but then explains the history and evolution behind it. This book is extremely educational, but fun at the same time. It is very hard to come across a book with such balance so I suggest that anyone who can reads this.(647 words)
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