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| By Nathan Chantrell, on December 26th, 2009  I bought this book as a Christmas present to myself, along with a DVD box set of Cosmos. Put together and edited by comedy writer, journalist and creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign, Ariane Sherine, The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas is a collection of stories and tips for enjoying the Christmas season from 42 atheist celebrities, comedians, scientists and writers.
The book is split into six categories: Stories, Science, How To, Philosophy, Arts and Events; It’s a great mix of funny and serious pieces covering everything from the LHC, listening to the big bang on your radio and experiments in Christmasology to why as an atheist you shouldn’t have to reject Christmas and why Christmas is as good a name as any for the winter solstice festival, even for an atheist. It makes great reading and the short, sharp pieces make it the ideal format for dipping in and out of. With an impressive and diverse list of contributors which includes Richard Dawkins, Charlie Brooker, Derren Brown, Ben Goldacre, David Baddiel, Simon Singh, Brian Cox, Richard Herring and Simon Le Bon (no, really) there is something for everyone. The editor and all the contributors have also donated their share of the profits (50% of the books overall profit) to the AIDS charity Terrence Higgins Trust. It really is an excellent book and essential reading for any atheists who have ever felt conflicted about celebrating Christmas. Merry Christmas to all and as Mitch Benn says in the book, may random circumstance and the smooth operation of the laws of the universe bless you! By Nathan Chantrell, on October 24th, 2009  As improbable as it seems, seventeen years after Mostly Harmless and eight years after Douglas Adams’ untimely death, a new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book is upon us once again. Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer bravely steps into a rather large pair of shoes to bring us And Another Thing…, the sixth episode of the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s trilogy. I wasn’t sure about this on several levels, Hitchhiker’s has such a loyal following and had been a huge influence on my life from an early age so for someone else to carry it on seemed a bit like sacrilege and just cashing in on its success. I didn’t think anyone could continue in anything like a similar style either. I’d never heard of Eoin Colfer before but he is obviously a well known and liked author (albeit of children’s books) and Douglas Adams’ widow Jane and his daughter had approved of his continuation of the H2G2 legacy so that was something positive to hang onto.
Having just finished it I am pleased to say that it is a much better than I expected, Douglas Adams it is not but Eoin Colfer has managed to take a lot of his style and successfully make it his own without trying to mimic it completely. The original characters seem authentic and there are lots of references for aficionados to pick up on, even if some seem a little crowbarred in at times, and on the whole the story isn’t bad. My biggest criticism would be that the “guide notes” sometimes seemed awkwardly placed, breaking the flow of the story and often weren’t good enough to justify the interruption. It’s not got the depth of irony or humour that the originals had either but Douglas had a unique writing style and, certainly in the early days, was renowned for his way of rewriting and rewriting, reducing what might have originally been enough for a chapter or more down to a few powerful lines of dialogue. So while it might not be as good as Douglas at his best I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It can’t be easy trying to write in someone else’s style so all credit to Eoin Colfer for what I think is a worthy addition to the world of The Guide, he’s one froody dude and it was great to have the guys back again. All Hitchhiker’s fans should give it a go. By Nathan Chantrell, on July 5th, 2009  I’ve recently been reading Ben Goldacre‘s Bad Science which takes a no nonsense approach to the claptrap the public are often fed about medical science and alternative therapies. It’s an interesting read, dealing with how statistics are misunderstood and manipulated, how research is dumbed down to make good copy and how the media just wants a good scare story. MMR, homeopathy, nutritionists, it’s all here.
Bad Science will make you stop and think about the rubbish presented to us as fact by the media and the charlatans that present themselves as experts. It’s an eye opener, read it. By Nathan Chantrell, on May 18th, 2002 The Salmon Of Doubt arrived this week. Of course I dived straight to page 199 and into the story itself and IMHO it doesn’t suffer from being unfinished at all, just drives it home what a great loss DNA was. I’ll probably get round to reading the rest of the ‘filler’ stuff this weekend. By Nathan Chantrell, on June 10th, 2001 By Nathan Chantrell, on May 12th, 2001 Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy died yesterday at age 49. This is so sad, he was without a doubt, my favourite author, I first heard THHGTG on the radio as a kid and it and the five books in the trilogy have had a huge influence on my life. Only last month I listened to the whole cd set of the radio series and still enjoyed it like the first time. I hope he remembered his towel… By Nathan Chantrell, on March 28th, 2001 There is a transcript of last weeks live chat with douglas adams available. By Nathan Chantrell, on February 14th, 2001 H2G2 is back at last, it’s now part of BBC Online which seems fitting. It seems much faster so far but alas the beeb have buckled under legal worries and introduced moderation. | |
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