The Portable Atheist Audiobook By Christopher Hitchens cover art

The Portable Atheist

Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

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The Portable Atheist

By: Christopher Hitchens
Narrated by: Nicholas Ball
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From the number-one New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices past and present that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they're all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens, "political and literary journalist extraordinaire" (Los Angeles Times), can.

Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.

©2007 Christopher Hitchens (P)2007 Phoenix Books, Inc. Agnosticism Atheism Essays & Commentary Literary History & Criticism Philosophy Religious Studies Science & Religion Spirituality Agnostic Morality Nonfiction Middle Ages

Critic reviews

"A fascinating collection of readings from some of the West's greatest thinkers." ( Publishers Weekly)
Comprehensive Anthology • Fascinating Philosophical Writings • Pleasant Voice • Valuable Historical Perspectives
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I liked most parts of this book and am interested in reading more on the subject by this author.

Interesting points....

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After finishing listening to the two part unabridged version as advertised, I was able to compare my Kindle PC text version and my printed book version. I was very disappointed to find out that more than half of the essays were left out. I can understand that it would have made it extremely long to listen to or that some of the essays are extracts of bestselling books. But I think Audible.com should make it clear that it is not an unabridged version as I consider this false advertising. Nevertheless, it is fabulous and eye opening information. It is well read with a clear professional voice. That is my only complaint.

Unabridged is not so

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I also own the hard copy. Over 200 pages from my hard copy are not even read. This was unfortunate.
I am a major Hitchens fan.

Audiobook is incomplete

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The concept is great, and the reader’s voice is pleasant, but I was defeated by too many distracting mispronunciations. “Solipsist” becomes “solipist”, “vinous” beomes “vineous”, etc., etc. It may not matter to some, but it bothers me. I’m reading this one in pixel form.

Had to return this and buy the Kindle version

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Definitely interesting and a good place to see the minds of different free thinkers throughout history.

My one major criticism is that as an audiobook it was hard at times to distinguish the text of the narrator from that of the various authors in the book, especially when returning to a section midway through.

Interesting authors, but not great as an audiobook

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So Hitchens was a genius. His own writings are impressive and trusting him to select the writings of others for you is always going to be a good bet. This brings together a varied selection of essays and tracts from writers over a long period of history with the central theme being the non-existence of any supreme being or supernatural force. 'Nuff said really. If its an area of human experience that interests you, read this.

Some of the older works get a bit difficult to follow in audio format. There are sections that you clearly need to study over several times to get the full flow but audio doesn't lend itself well to this. So I'm glad I listened to this but will also be buying the printed version as well because there are ideas and thoughts in here that deserve to be properly understood.

The narration is ok. Its a great shame that the author/compiler doesn't do the honours himself as one of the few things more enjoyable than reading Hitch is hearing Hitch read Hitch.


Better in print?

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I like it very much. I'm going to by a hard copy. there are a lot of chapters I would like to go over again.

The first I've heard from Christopher Hitchens.

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I really really enjoyed the material however when I followed along in the book there seemed to be some essays that skipped a page or so that the book provided. Also when reading along some essays were completely skipped. I thought I was going crazy till this audio recording concluded on page 207 of 480 of my paperback copy. I may in fact have a earlier edition of the book that lacks the up to date revisions but for certain this audio copy is only half of the book. The content is superb. Would like it in its entirety.

Only half of the book and some out of sync pages

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It is not very hard to accept the reasoning behind Christopher Hitchens' own ideas on religion after you've gone through the parade of fascinating works in this book. Intertwined with very subdued--perhaps an understatement, having his latest works in recent memory--commentaries from Hitchens, you are transported through the ages of reason and unreason, starting with the fascinating thoughts of the Roman philosopher Lucretius (highly influenced by the then "heretically" denounced Epicureans of Greece) around the, said, birth of Jesus of Nazareth, and ending in the 20th century, with Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud among the most notable luminaries.

What is most interesting in the end, however, is perhaps not an obvious conclusion, have you previously been impressed with Cristopher Hitchens' own writings. For, as good a writer as Hitchens truly is, it becomes very palpable how he, along with most authors of the recent past, absolutely pales in comparison to the grandeur of thought, wit, faculties of reason and vivid imagination of these masters of our collective literary heritage.

This book, which is very appropriately named, should be mandatory reading for all humans out there, who are the slightest bit concerned with their own existence, and how they relate to this world and its continuously morphing state of affairs. This world--the only one that exists.

Hitchens' Heroes

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This book is held back by its naration. It is at times very difficult to tell when the author has transitioned from his own input to the quotation of others making the book often hard to follow.

It serves as a good resourse for recommending many writings from past athiests and building upon them somewhat, though Id recommend looking for it in print.

Likely a great book that audio doesnt do justice.

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