Unweaving the Rainbow – Richard Dawkins

The author’s purpose here is to sing the praises of the wonders of science, and argue that they are as good a subject for poetry as the more traditional themes of love, beauty and all that. Sadly Dawkins does seem to have a cultural tin ear particularly in matters literary, with the exception of the safe-as-houses references to the Romantic poets.

We are of course on safer ground in the scientific realm, such as the fascinating and inspiring explanation of sound and our amazing sense of hearing. Once again though, the book's central argument is undermined when it gets bogged down in technical discussions of evolutionary theory that are of more interest to the writer than the general reader.