The Magic of Reality
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Narrated by:
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Richard Dawkins
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Lalla Ward
About this listen
What are things made of? What is the sun? Why is there night and day, winter and summer? Why do bad things happen? Are we alone?
Throughout history people all over the world have invented stories to answer profound questions such as these. Have you heard the tale of how the sun hatched out of an emu’s egg? Or what about the great catfish that carries the world on its back? Has anyone ever told you that earthquakes are caused by a sneezing giant? These fantastical myths are fun – but what is the real answer to such questions?
The Magic of Reality, with its explanations of space, time, evolution and more, will inspire and amaze readers of all ages - young adults, adults, children, octogenarians. Teaming up with the renowned illustrator Dave McKean, Richard Dawkins answers all these questions and many more. In stunning words and pictures this book presents the real story of the world around us, taking us on an enthralling journey through scientific reality, and showing that it has an awe-inspiring beauty and thrilling magic which far exceed those of the ancient myths. We encounter rainbows, earthquakes, tsunamis, shooting stars, plants, animals, and an intriguing cast of characters in this extraordinary scientific voyage of discovery. Richard Dawkins and Dave McKean have created a dazzling celebration of our planet that will entertain and inform for years to come.
©2011 Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward (P)2011 Random House AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
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Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
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A Most Improbable Journey
- A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves
- By: Walter Alvarez
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Big History, the field that studies the entire known past of our universe to give context to human existence, has so far been the domain of historians. Geologist Walter Alvarez - best known for his Impact Theory explaining dinosaur extinction - makes a compelling case for a new, science-first approach to Big History.
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Learned so much
- By Niki on 12-09-18
By: Walter Alvarez
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The Varieties of Scientific Experience
- A Personal View of the Search for God
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan - editor
- Narrated by: Adrienne C. Moore, Ann Druyan
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design.
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Sagan's lectures about the possibility of God
- By David T. on 11-13-17
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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Exoplanets
- Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System
- By: Michael Summers
- Narrated by: Jon Bennett
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its 2009 launch, the Kepler satellite has discovered more than 2,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. More exoplanets are being discovered all the time, remarkable in their variety. Astronomer Michael Summers and physicist James Trefil explore these remarkable recent discoveries: planets revolving around pulsars, planets made of diamond, planets that are mostly water, and numerous rogue planets wandering through the emptiness of space.
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FINALLY, an Attention-Grabbing Planet Book!
- By aaron on 05-11-17
By: Michael Summers
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The Complete Cosmicomics
- Translated by Martin McLaughlin, Tim Parks, & William Weaver
- By: Italo Calvino, Martin McLaughlin - translator, Tim Parks - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Italo Calvino's beloved cosmicomics cross planets and traverse galaxies, speed up time or slow it down to the particles of an instant. Through the eyes of an ageless guide named Qfwfq, Calvino explores natural phenomena and tells the story of the origins of the universe. Poignant, fantastical, and wise, these 34 dazzling stories - collected here in one definitive anthology - relate complex scientific and mathematical concepts to our everyday world.
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Moments of Greatness = Worth the Read
- By Amazon Customer on 08-06-18
By: Italo Calvino, and others
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When They Severed Earth from Sky
- How the Human Mind Shapes Myth
- By: Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Paul T. Barber
- Narrated by: Beth Richmond
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Why were Prometheus and Loki envisioned as chained to rocks? What was the Golden Calf? Why are mirrors believed to carry bad luck? How could anyone think that mortals like Perseus, Beowulf, and St. George actually fought dragons, since dragons don't exist? Strange though they sound, however, these "myths" did not begin as fiction.
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The Volcano Book
- By Stanley on 02-05-11
By: Elizabeth Wayland Barber, and others
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Space Chronicles
- Facing the Ultimate Frontier
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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With his signature wit and thought-provoking insights, Neil deGrasse Tyson - one of our foremost thinkers on all things space - illuminates the past, present, and future of space exploration and brilliantly reminds us why NASA matters now as much as ever. As Tyson reveals, exploring the space frontier can profoundly enrich many aspects of our daily lives, from education systems and the economy to national security and morale.
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The least helpful review of Space Chronicles.
- By Joshua Kring on 06-17-15
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The Universe in the Rearview Mirror
- How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality
- By: Dave Goldberg
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A physicist speeds across space, time, and everything in between showing that our elegant universe from the Higgs boson to antimatter to the most massive group of galaxies is shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven all our recent discoveries about the universe and all the ones to come. Why is the sky dark at night? Is it possible to build a shrink-ray gun? If there is antimatter, can there be antipeople? Why are past, present, and future our only options? Are time and space like a butterfly's wings? No one but Dave Goldberg, the coolest nerd physicist on the planet, could give a hyper-drive tour of the universe like this one.
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Good, but for whom?
- By Michael on 08-31-13
By: Dave Goldberg
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The Disappearing Spoon
- And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before. Not only is it one of man's crowning scientific achievements, it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
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Great Book, Great Narration, But...
- By Henny Button on 09-18-10
By: Sam Kean
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At the Edge of Uncertainty
- 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise
- By: Michael Brooks
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The atom, the big bang, DNA, natural selection - all are ideas that have revolutionized science; and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, best-selling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.
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All smoke, no fire
- By Kenton on 07-25-15
By: Michael Brooks
What listeners say about The Magic of Reality
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- sioux
- 03-19-12
Magical Listen for all ages
The Magic of Reality is positioned as a book for children and teens, and compared to the complex biology of most of Dawkins' other books and the vehement arguments of The God Delusion, this is certainly his most accessible of books. But it would be a mistake to think this book is only for younger listeners. It is certainly accessible to them and includes a number of delightful anecdotes and analogies that take complicated ideas from the world of science and make them intelligible to all. But is remains entirely true to the complex laws of the natural world it is concerned with and thus is fascinating listening for all ages. I loved the way each chapter, which centres around a central question or concern, begins by looking at how humans in different eras and on different continents have tried to make sense of this issue. What is the sun? How has the sun been understood through the ages? What do we, with the benefit of modern science, understand the sun to be now? The scientific process is also masterfully explained. The narration is clear and enticing. This makes for a wonderful present for children and teens and, indeed, for adults.
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- Kerrie Fuller
- 09-12-17
FANTASTIC!!
Absolutely loved this book. Richard has a way of explaining things in great detail without it be boring. Didn't want the book to end.
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- Sivashankaran
- 01-02-13
Splendid and good for the brain
Compared to the Selfish Gene, this was much easier to understand and many simple examples are cite. Overall, this is a good book that in classic Dawkin's style raises some logical questions that anyone with a sense of logic and science would appreciate.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Stephane Janson
- 02-27-19
Great for people w/o a science background
This book mostly covers high school science. Great if you need a refresher, or if you'd like to revisit the basics with a new appreciation. I was personally hoping for a little more in terms of depth, and the wonder invoked.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Catfish
- 09-10-12
Fun listen
What did you love best about The Magic of Reality?
Was a great laugh listening to Dawkins dryly explaining why fairy tales like "a pumpkin turning into a stage coach" cannot actually happen. But still had me thinking about some of these topics a bit more than I had to date.
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- Matthew
- 12-04-12
Instructive, but not condescending
Would you consider the audio edition of The Magic of Reality to be better than the print version?
I have not yet read the print version, so it's hard to say. I really enjoyed the narration by Dawkins and Ward, but I also feel that it would be good to own a copy of this book, given that it contains many illustrations that may help clarify some of the concepts.
What did you like best about this story?
Dawkins' 'thought experiments' (you'll see/hear!).
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It did what it set out to do, which was to make me feel astonished about "everyday events", such as rainbows, without attributing the phenomena to any kinds of supernatural causes.
Any additional comments?
If you're looking to learn more about the basic principles/explanations underlying the natural world, then this is a good place to start. Dawkins has a great ability to explain a concept so that the reader/listener can sufficiently understand it without him resorting to being condescending. Also, whenever he goes outside of his area of expertise, evolutionary biology, he emphasises this, thus the listener is assured that they are not being misled.
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- richard
- 05-22-12
Another wonderful book from Richard Dawkins
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would whole heartedly recommend this book and especially this audio version narrated by Richard and his wife, Lala.
I am a biomedical scientist by profession so I thought the content, aimed as it is at 12 yr. olds and up, would be a bit basic. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how much I learnt. Richard's beautiful prose style makes any book written by him a pleasure to read, but this book is especially charming and it keeps your attention eagerly fixed, as Richard and Lala demystify topic after topic with a sweeping coverage of the basics of science.
Having listened now to several audio books I can honestly say that the effortless way that Richard and Lala read to you is a welcome exception to the rule, and leaves you wishing that they would read aloud all of the books in your audio library.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
The alternating voices of Richard and Lala worked very well and enabled me to listen for much longer in one session than I would normally.
Which scene was your favorite?
I thought that the way that Dawkins introduced each myth with its corollary explanation in several major religious texts, will do a lot to dispel the notion in children's heads that the Christian myths are in any way special or unique.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The insistence on following evidence to where it leads whether you like the result or not I thought was a truly important message for our children in these times of conspiracy theories and religious obscurantism.
Any additional comments?
Read it and then get your children to read it and maybe there will a future for us all.
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- Mark
- 11-12-17
Dawkins for Teens
This is a children’s book I guess, probably aimed at educated youngsters in their mid-teens, but I still found it very informative and enjoyable in my mid-50s. I’ve read so many Dawkins books now that it felt like a déjà vu jigsaw puzzle of little pieces from his other works, but I didn’t mind because I’m sort of addicted to his brilliant powers of reason and explanation, and I like the fact that he always narrates his own audiobooks.
This book is a very brief attempt at explaining life, the universe and everything; a concise version of Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly Everything, but with a definite Dawkinsian agenda and edge to it.
One, relatively innocent, aim of this book is to teach people the value of science and the use of reasoning to determine what is true, or real, and what is not. The other aim of this book is a bit more unusual; it is to emphasize that in all societies throughout human history people have created myths to explain natural phenomena such as the sun, earthquakes, rainbows, animals and humans. Nowadays, however, we have science to explain all this. Dawkins debunks a whole swath of creation myths from obscure tribes from around the World, knowing that his audience will have no problem in seeing that they are obviously just made-up nonsense - and then, without skipping a beat, he nonchalantly dismisses the central tenets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as if they, too, are just far-fetched, fanciful fairy stories.
I’m perfectly happy with this, as I’m comfortable with the fact that there was no Adam and Eve, that God didn’t create the world in seven days, that Jesus wasn’t born of a Virgin, didn’t perform miracles, and may not have even existed. But there are lots of people who would find this book to be highly offensive atheist propaganda, an attempt to contaminate vulnerable young minds with heretical beliefs.
I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing this book in the school libraries of the Bible Belt any day soon, but, if you’re comfortable with religious skepticism, you’ll find it an enjoyable book.
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- Trevor
- 01-31-12
I can't say enough good things about this book.
The topic is close to my heart. The authors are favourites of mine. With the book being audible we were treated to hearing their own emotional attachment to the subject. I couldn't get enough and will be giving it a second run through very shortly. Highly recommended for anyone who loves reality and reason.
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- Ivan
- 12-11-17
nurtures your curiosity!
I like the style of this book, the story telling and myth buster style helps put the science behind reality into the context of our daily lives and break those silly asumptions we make about the nature of reality when we don't know better.
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