With the 2006 publication of The God Delusion, the name Richard Dawkins became a byword for ruthless skepticism and “brilliant, impassioned, articulate, impolite” debate (San Francisco Chronicle). his first memoir offers a more personal view. In An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins shares a rare view into his early life, his intellectual awakening at Oxford, and his path to writing The Selfish Gene. He paints a vivid picture of his idyllic childhood in colonial Africa, peppered with sketches of his colorful ancestors, charming parents, and the peculiarities of colonial life right after World War II. At boarding school, despite a near-religious encounter with an Elvis record, he began his career as a skeptic by refusing to kneel for prayer in chapel. Despite some inspired teaching throughout primary and secondary school, it was only when he got to Oxford that his intellectual curiosity took full flight.
REVIEW
Dawkins style clear and elegant as usual a personal introduction to an important thinker and populariser of science.  provide[s] a superb background to the academic and social climate of postwar British research. (Financial Times)
The Richard Dawkins that emerges here is a far cry from the strident, abrasive caricature beloved of lazy journalists  There is no score-settling, but a generous appreciation and admiration of the qualities of others, as well as a transparent love of life, literature Рand science. (The Independent)
ÔÇ£[Here] we have the kindling of Mr. DawkinsÔÇÖs curiosity, the basis for his unconventionality.ÔÇØ (A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Know-It-All)
this isnt Dawkinss version of My Family and Other Animals. Its the beauty of ideas that arouses his appetite for wonder: and, more especially, his relentless drive  towards the answer. (The Times (UK))
[An Appetite for Wonder is] a memoir that is funny and modest, absorbing and playful. Dawkins has written a marvelous love letter to science and for this, the book will touch scientists and science-loving persons.  an enchanting memoir to read, one that I recommend highly. (NPR)
charming, boring, brilliant, contradictory, conventional, revolutionary. We leave it perhaps not full of facts or conclusions, but with a feeling of knowing the man. (New York Daily News)
ÔÇ£Richard Dawkins is a hero of mine, so being able to read about how he became the man and the thinker he is, was a particular delight for me. … Some people get their kicks from SupermanÔÇÖs origin story, or BatmanÔÇÖs origin story … But for me, it was Richard Dawkins.ÔÇØ (Bill Maher)
ÔÇ£In An Appetite for Wonder Dawkins turns his critical analysis inward to reveal how his mind works and what personal events and cultural forces most shaped his thinking. Destined to become a classic in the annals of science autobiography.ÔÇØ (Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and author of The Believing Brain and Why Darwin Matters)
ÔÇ£Skepticism and atheism do not arrive from revelation or authority. In our culture itÔÇÖs a slow thoughtful process… For the modern skeptical/atheist movement, in the beginning — there was Dawkins and he was wicked good. Appetite for Wonder shows us this beginning.ÔÇØ (Penn Jillette, author of God No! and Every Day is an Atheist Holiday)
ÔÇ£Told with frankness and eloquence, warmth and humor, this is … a truly entertaining and enlightening read and I recommend it to anyone who wants a better understanding of Dawkins the man and the rightful place of science in our modern world.ÔÇØ (Lawrence Krauss, Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, author of A Universe from Nothing and Physics of Star Trek)
ÔÇ£Enjoyable from start to finish, this exceptionally accessible book will appeal to science lovers, lovers of autobiographies-and, of course, all of DawkinsÔÇÖs fans, atheists and theists alike.ÔÇØ (Library Journal, starred review)
ÔÇ£Well-written, captivating, and filled with fascinating anecdotes.ÔÇØ (Publishers Weekly)
ÔÇ£This memoir is destined to be a historical document that will be ceaselessly quoted.ÔÇØ (The Daily Beast)
This first volume of Dawkinss autobiography  comes to life when describing the competitive collaboration and excitement among the outstanding ethologists and zoologists at Oxford in the Seventies-which stimulated his most famous book, The Selfish Gene. (London Evening Standard)
ÔÇ£Dawkins proves that today he is still an extraordinary thinker, and one who has made an enormous contribution to understanding human nature. This memoir is a fascinating account of one manÔÇÖs attempt to find answers to some of the most difficult questions posed to mankind.ÔÇØ (NPR Books)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Dawkins, voted Prospect magazine’s #1 World Thinker, is the author of the blockbuster bestseller The God Delusion. He was first catapulted to fame with The Selfish Gene, which he followed with The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable,Unweaving the Rainbow, The Ancestor’s Tale, A Devil’s Chaplain, The Greatest Show on Earth, and The Magic of Reality (with Dave McKean). Dawkins is a fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He was the inaugural holder of the Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Royal Society of Literature Award, the Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the Kistler Prize, the Shakespeare Prize, the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing About Science, the Galaxy British Book Awards Author of the Year Award, and the International Cosmos Prize of Japan.