From the reviews on the book, I was looking forwards to reading this. I was mildly disappointed. The soft targets of utter nutters was too easy, while the diatribes against others just weren't really as convincing. Similarly, he rails against a number of Pop Thought books, but this is just another one. Admittedly, one of the things he rails against is the post-modern 'all these views are all equally valid' idea, so it's not actually self-contradictory...
The problem, from my point of view, is that it's basically an Arts book, and I'm too used to reading science. He may be defending the world of the rational, but I find it disconcerting having it done through this medium. He slags off self-righteous zealots with a self-righteous zealotry. It feels far too much like reading the Guardian. You get the idea. But it's not actually that bad at all.
Posted 2005-01-25.