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A review of my species book

David Morrison, editor at Systematic Biology, has given me a very nice and well informed and researched review for my book Species: A history of the idea. He even likes the cover. I have had some good and mixed reviews, but this one took time and effort, and he gets it right. I particular liked being called “the most readable philosopher that I have ever come across, as I hardly ever needed to use a dictionary to understand his words.” This might go against me in the next Philosopher’s Guild meeting, though…

22 Comments

  1. Gonna go pick it up from the library now!

    • Mitchell Coffey Mitchell Coffey

      Hey!, cheapskate, buy it! It’s got interesting & attractive cover art by Ernst Haeckel ; as such it impresses friends who see it on your coffee table, especially when you tell them you know the guy (not Haeckel).

  2. Why shouldn’t it get a good review it’s an excellent book.

  3. Ian H Spedding FCD Ian H Spedding FCD

    Maybe you should send a copy to your former employers.

    • Mitchell Coffey Mitchell Coffey

      I doubt they could read it.

  4. jeff jeff

    There could be a knighthood in this for you. Sir John Wilkins sounds pretty good.

    • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

      From Sweden? Morrison works there. I would love a Swedish knighthood. If it was good enough for Linne, it’s good enough for me…

  5. Congratualti0ns, John. Also, don’t worry. You future books might be completely unreadable.:)

    • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

      My conversation is increasingly incoherent, so I hold out high hopes…

      • Perhaps you should try holding the conversations before the second bottle of whisky.

        • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

          Why? I’m sorry, but I don’t understand…

      • Incoherence is directly proportional to alcohol consume

      • Brian Brian

        I see your familiar with my posting MO then. Where’s that beer?

      • Well, I suppose that the Philosopher’s Guild seeks a coherent unreadableness, which I’m fully confident that you’ll one day achieve because I’ve seen you do it in the past.:)

        Anyway, John, Merry Christmas.:)

  6. Deanne Deanne

    I’ll be buying that book!

  7. Chris' Wills Chris' Wills

    It really is an excellent coffee table book

    • ckc (not kc) ckc (not kc)

      …sarcasm? irony? ESL?

      • Chris' Wills Chris' Wills

        Could be ESL, I don’t know what that is, but neither of the other two.

        People visit, see it, pick it up from the coffee table and then actually start reading it.

      • Brian Brian

        ESL = English as a Second Language I believe.

  8. ckc (not kc) ckc (not kc)

    …which is completely the reverse of what I would consider a coffee table book – hence the snark – kind of like “inflammable”

    • Chris' Wills Chris' Wills

      All books on my coffee table are, by my definition, coffee table books :o)

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