Over the last few days, tens of thousands of British people have come together to protest against the Pope and the string of atrocities for which he is responsible. In honour of this movement again Joseph Ratzinger, I have decided to remind the world of the existence of Richard Dawkins’ fantastic book, The God Delusion.

“My earlier books did not set out to convert anyone…this book does” declares Dawkins – and you better believe it’s true. The God Delusion is an attack – an assault on theism in all its forms, in favour of the Darwinist theory of natural selection. Condemning the Bible as “a chaotically cobbled together anthology of disjointed documents”, Dawkins goes on to rip apart a staggering number of the most well-respected arguments for the existence of God, from Aquinas to Unwin, before unloading furiously on the subject of the religious community claiming scientific geniuses as their own. Baffled by how religion continues to survive – indeed, to grow – in modern society, Dawkins compares our tendency towards religion to a moth being attracted to and burnt by a flame.

Of course, some readers may not understand why a difference in belief systems is such a big deal and will consider this book a waste of time. However, in The God Delusion, Dawkins explains exactly why this difference is so important, pointing out the unforgivable ways in which religion continues to impact social policy, adding more fuelling his secularist fire.

Of course, Dawkins is not the only person alarmed by religion, in all its grotesque forms. A mere glance in the news is enough to remind atheists what they are up against; a woman has been stoned to death under Sharia law in Somalia and the UK has just paid £12 million for a visit from a man who, amongst other things, is involved in the institutionalised concealment of child rape. In The God Delusion, Dawkins finally lays down why belief systems that support this type f behaviour simply this cannot be allowed to continue.

Although it’s not technically book-related, I consider any news about Shakespeare to be worthy of reporting. Today, therefore, I am pleased to inform readers that forensic anthropologists have used facial reconstruction technology to create a new picture of Shakespeare, thought to closely resembled how he actually looked in life.

By carrying out analysis on Shakespeare’s death mask, the team from at Dundee University used computer technology to create super-detailed 3D images of the poet’s face. The images have caused something of a stir in Shakespeare-related communities, as his exact resemblance has, up until now, been highly speculated-upon. Stuart Clarke, director of Death Masks, says of the image that “this 3D model may be, in fact, the way Shakespeare looked in life. Breakthroughs in computer imaging mean we may have to rewrite the history books on Shakespeare.”

Of course, this is nonsense; even if it is an exact resemblance on the man, there are no books that will need to be rewritten on account of our now knowing what he looked like. Even so, there is little doubt that thousands will be thrilled to known they can now gaze upon the face of one of the greatest writers ever to have lived.

Tony Blair’s autobiography, A Journey, has started strongly; selling almost 100,000 copies in its first four days on sale, it has become the fastest-selling autobiography since records began. Granted, records only began in 1998, but that’s still some very impressive selling power! What, I wonder, is causing all the fuss?

Many in the industry are accrediting the success of the book to the head of Random House, Gail Rebuck. She, however, maintains that it is Tony himself who is responsible for the success of the book; “He wanted it be human, honest and he wanted people to engage with it in a very different way”. Despite myself, I think she may be onto something. The way I see it, the only thing that could tempt me into buying Tony Blair’s book is the very thing Gail claims he has achieved; an honest and refreshing insight into the world of politics; a world of lies and deceit in which we, the British public, have lost hope.

Despite breaking records, the book still has a very long way to go before it makes back its massive advance. As chief executive of Harper Collins, Victoria Barnsley, says – “They will have to sell an awful lot of copies to cover that advance … It’s got off to a hell of a good start. If it can maintain that start it will be a fantastic success. But that’s a big if.”

A big ‘if’ it might be but, with a tenth of a million sold in a few days, things are looking promising for Blair’s book.

Image from http://www.walesonline.co.uk

Birds of America, by John James Audubon, is the world’s most expensive book and, come December, a copy is to be auctioned at the London Auction House, alongside a First Folio from 1623! Both come from the estate of the late Baron Hesketh, who died in 1955 – aged just 39.

For those who don’t know, Birds of America is a work of natural history; a collection of 435 hand-coloured prints, made from engravings of life-size illustrations that Audubon himself drew. Audubon would famously shoot birds during his travels, then have his wife stuff them so he could draw them to full scale in his book, which he would sell to the exceptionally rich. Although this may seem grotesque to modern, liberal readers, the work was so highly regarded during the 19th century that it is even mentioned in the Origin of Species.

Under 120 copies of Birds of America are known to remain in existence and most of these are kept in museums. It is very rare for a copy to come on sale and, when one does, it’s always a spectacle! One copy sold in 2000 took a record-breaking $8.8 million at a Christie’s auction and this one is expected to sell for up to £6 million!

Tony’s Blair’s autobiography – A Journey – that needs to sell anywhere between 500,000 and a million copies to break even, has shot up the Amazon Bestseller chart after a recent announcement that all proceeds will be donated to the Royal British Legion. Where previously it had been lurking in the depths of the sub-50s, it has now rocketed up the chard to 7th place – no mean feat for a book still a fortnight from publication!

Even so, many industry experts are expecting the American market to make or break the book, which should come as no surprise to anybody who knows their books. Bestsellers in the USA regularly exceed a million sales and the works of politicians can proved especially popular, as was evidenced by Bill Clinton’s My Life, which sold over 400,000 copies within 24 hours! Even the grotesque Sarah Palin managed to sell a cool 300,00 copies of Going Rouge in her first day.

In short, no matter how enthusiastic we British may get about our books, we simply don’t have the manpower to easily make or break a book with an advance of £4.6. It should come as no surprise, therefore, than Tony unleashed a torrent of pro-American schpeal in the introduction to the U.S edition of the book; Clinton is described as a man of “ferocious intellectual capacity”, Obama a “man with steel in every part of him” and even Bush gets away with having a “great intuition”. According to Blair, the American people are respected around the world for their nobility of spirit… A claim I shall leave the rest of the world to consider.

Image from http://forums.airshows.co.uk

As an avid Coheed and Cambria fan, I was beyond-excited to read this 350-page ‘companion piece’ to their latest album, Year of the Black Rainbow. However, what I encountered was a poorly written farce of a novel, which not only couldn’t live up to the majesty and depth of the band’s music, but also couldn’t live up to the ideas it itself contained.

The novel tells the story of the origin of the Amory Wars, the concept that provides the lyrical content for the entirety of Coheed and Cambria’s musical catalogue to date. It is set on a system of planets known as the Keywork in a futuristic universe where inter-planet travel is (apparently) easy, and the guns are “pulsers” (?).

The Keywork is taken over by the evil mage Wilhelm Ryan, who rules with an iron fist, but is also loved. Somehow. After his son dies in riots, a man called Doctor Hohenberger swears revenge on Ryan. With some help from the mystical Prise, he creates a group of IRO-bots (half human, half robots) called Coheed, Cambria, and Inferno. Using their incredible, robotic powers, they start to fight back against Ryan’s troops. However, things start to go awry when Hohenberger’s wife Pearl gets captured.

The complex ideas of Year of the Black Rainbow deserve a trilogy of dense prose, gradually revealing a fantastical world steeped in mystery. What they get is the unsubtle writing of a child who has forgotten about his creative writing homework until the night before it’s due in.

In recent years, autobiographies have exploded as a book genre. Previously, autobiographies were restricted to only the most high profile figures thought to have lived extraordinary lives. Even then, reading non-fictional life stories was thought to be a rather dry undertaking, usually reserved for experts and scholars.

Nowadays, however, even Z-list celebrities who are barely 20 years old manage to sell autobiographies by the thousand. Former glamour model Katie Price has three autobiographies. Three! That seems incredibly rich for someone whose entire life has consisted of 3 good things and 1 bad one: childhood, breast enhancements, nudity, and Peter Andre. From where has this modern fixation arisen?

The responsibility undoubtedly lies with the West’s modern day Weltanschauung: reality TV and tabloid newspapers relentlessly promote the notion that life worth is measured entirely by fame and appearance. The result is a population obsessed with vanity and popularity: self-important, shallow people desperate for 15 minutes in the spotlight.

With regards to autobiographies, this has caused two key things. First, people elevated to the vacuous pedestal of ‘celebrity’ genuinely think that they have done something worthwhile and interesting, and are self-obsessed enough to not even hesitate in thinking that people would want to read about their mundane, empty lives.

Secondly, our society means that your average person is unrelentingly pelted with the idea that Talentless Uglyman from Big Brother has actually done something worth reading about, and so unquestioningly accepts the presence of his autobiography on their book shelf.

In November 2006, O.J. Simpson attempted to release ‘If I Did It’ – a book in which he details a purportedly hypothetical account of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman.

In reality, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders, despite seemingly overwhelming evidence to the contrary (a notion which is supported by the fact that Simpson was later found ‘financially liable’ for the deaths in a civil trial); popular opinion is certainly that the acquittal was mistaken, and as such it is largely felt that the account is a true to life depiction of the actual murders.

What is it about this that outrages our moral conscience? Obviously, the idea that someone could financially benefit from a terrible crime is a serious contender. Furthermore, the fact that an extremely rich Simpson would so unflinchingly stab away at an old wound for the sake a few more pounds is almost sickening: even if he was innocent this would be an awful thing to do – let’s not forget that Simpson has two children by Nicole.

However, the original release of the book was cancelled, and it was later released with all proceeds going to Nicole and Ronald’s families, and yet something about it seems ‘not right’. Why?

My feeling is that we unconsciously recognise the conditions that must be present for something like this to occur: not only a market of morbidly curious people, but an institution of people willing to participate and make it happen. Surely this realisation about Joe Average is more unsettling than anything a monstrous anomaly would do.

Melvin Burgess paints an epic picture of a dystopian future which fuses elements of fantasy and science fiction in a dark and visceral tale of war and betrayal.

The story is based in a run-down and broken version of London: the city was abandoned by the government years before when gangster influence became too much to contain. Despairing of the situation, the government simply moved out, and now London is isolated from the rest of the country, contained by a surrounding army of ‘halfmen’ – ferocious creatures created using the DNA of humans mixed with that of animals.

Inside the city, London is ruled by two warring families: the Volsons and the Conors. The story begins with Val, leader of the Volsons, giving his only daughter Signy to Conor, his opposite number, in marriage in order to secure a treaty that will unite London. Brutal betrayal follows, destroying all trace of the Volsons and leaving every member of the family dead.

Every member, that is, except for Conor’s imprisoned bride Signy and her twin brother Siggy, who, unbeknownst to Conor, escapes with his life mutilated and broken. What follows is a sinister tale of revenge, as Signy is slowly driven insane by her isolation and the war between love and hate inside her.

And all is not as it seems as the Norse gods start pulling the strings…

Burgess’ book is a triumphant re-imagining of the Icelandic Volsunga saga that will tear you apart with its violence and brutality.

e-Books are truly remarkable things, storing thousands of books in one small device. However, many of us are saddened by the very real possibility of paper books becoming a thing of the past. Is this attachment purely one of romantic loyalty to something that’s becoming rapidly redundant?

One obvious advantage of e-books is that thousands can be carried around at once, something that was previously impossible without a huge quantity of camels. However, it is arguable that this is also largely pointless: I am yet to meet the man who can read more than one book at once. Still, choice and variety are both good things.

So, what makes paper books so good? Well, you can make notes on them for one thing. But then you can also make notes on e-books. And, one better, you can easily remove notes from e-books.

Paper books pages can have their corners folded, whether it’s to find your place for when you next pick it up, or to mark a particularly good passage. Then again, pages can become unfolded and if you forget to mark a page, or don’t remember exactly where something is said or happens in a book, you can search for it in an e-book. For those of us who don’t enjoy the physical motion of corner-folding, e-books are missing nothing.

Ultimately, regardless of rational calculation, paper books will always hold a special place in the majority of our hearts. But then, maybe we are the 21st century equivalent of old men clutching to stone tablets whilst the youngsters are getting excited about papyrus.

Image from typedesk.com