I mention this specifically because the publishers seem to have gone out of thier way to make it appear as though it will be. I think they were did this to give the book a broader appeal- someone who would be unlikely to pick up this book would be more likely to pick up a comedy book- which makes sense in terms of sales, but I'll bet a lot of people didn't quite know what they were getting themselves into.
I don't know where they got all these dust-jacket quotes from. Apparently Jeremy Paxman found it 'Hilarious'. Jesus Jeremy, go and read some Dave Gorman if you want hilarious. Do you find yourself giggling nonstop whilst reading the Guardian's commentary pages? Then you may find this hilarious. But if you're looking for a laugh-a-minute, prepare for disappointment. There are, of course, humourous moments, but no more than you'd find in any other book of a similar ilk*.
However, with that disclaimer in mind, it's actually a very enjoyable read if you take it on its own terms, which are: A series of essays on rationalism and recent history's apparently divergent course from it. The overall thesis is that, during the Enlightenment, the thinking world abandoned such silly notions as religion and slavery and embraced the rational. We didn't need a God to tell us the rules, we could logically and sensibly come up with them ourselves. Recently, however, almost everywhere the author looks, he sees people abandoning rationalism to embrace cults, money, emotionalism, religion and (worst of all!) conservatism.
The first half of the book is a good read, particularly if you're a rationalist leftie like me. But as the book progresses, you realize that the author seems to find almost everything irrational and consequently, much like the sane man in an asylum, starts to come off as a little irrational himself.
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*The biggest laugh, for me, wasn't even written by the author, but was a quote from another work: Apparently 2% of Americans claim to have been abducted by aliens, some of them on multiple occasions. "That's an air traffic control nightmare." Tee hee.
This is a 