The Atheist's Guide to Christmas cover art

The Atheist's Guide to Christmas

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The Atheist's Guide to Christmas

By: Richard Dawkins, Simon Le Bon, Ariane Sherine - editor
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Simon Le Bon
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About this listen

Read by Simon Le Bon, Derren Brown, Charlie Brooker, Richard Dawkins, Ben Goldacre, Mitch Benn and more!
In this download there are 38 atheist celebrities, comedians, scientists and writers give their funny and serious tips for enjoying the Christmas season.

When the Atheist Bus Campaign was first launched, over £150,000, was raised in four days – enough to place the advert 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life' on 800 UK buses in January 2009. Now dozens of atheist writers, comedians and scientists are joining together to raise money for a very different cause.

The Atheist's Guide to Christmas is a funny, thoughtful handbook all about enjoying Christmas, from 42 of the world's most entertaining atheists. It features everything from an atheist Christmas miracle to a guide to the best Christmas pop hits, and contributors include Richard Dawkins, Charlie Brooker, Derren Brown, Ben Goldacre, Jenny Colgan, David Baddiel, Simon Singh, AC Grayling, Brian Cox and Richard Herring.

©2009 HarperCollins Publishers (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

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All stars
Most relevant  
First things first: I am an atheist, so what I thought of the book is not because I am a religious zealot of sorts.
Anyway. Some parts are pretty pointless but reliably funny, like Brooker's. Most are witty yet provocative; others are trying way too hard, like Dawkins with his Wodehouse-esque pathhos. A couple of folks take themselves so seriously it makes you suspect they're not for real: my favorite was that Green whipping herself into such a tree-hugging frenzy about an organic Xmas (seriously), I thought she might end up having an or... organic something or other.
So, it is a hit and miss thing. Well worth the money, I suppose, and it's for a good cause, but don't torture yourself when you hit the chapter with an old woman telling you to invite for Xmas those you can't stand (she hasn't met my aunt Sally, obviously) and to finish all alcohol in the house before going to bed so that your kids don't do it for you (she must've grown up in an interesting household), or a Bulgarian-born Kiwi enthusiastically missing the point of writing for an atheist book.
Just skip them and go to the good ones, there are a few of those.

Hit and miss

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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book is okay, some of the essays didn't disappoint, some of them were quite boring, not very entertaining or even witty and some quite pointless.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I liked some essays and hated the others.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Richard Dawkins and Simon Le Bon ?

Oh, the recording was quite dreadful. I believe they must have asked each contributor to the book to record themselves narrating their book, which is fine and I understand not all of them had professional equipment at hand. But boy, it shows. Some of the recording quality was so poor and the echo so bad Ifelt the speaker was sitting in a huge bucket whilst recording. It spoiled quite a number of essays for me and one was so bad that I wanted to throw away mi iPod alltogether. Not professional at all and a rip-off if you're buying the audiobook for the convenience as you haven't read the book before and not for the reason to hear the essays narrated by their authors.

Any additional comments?

Please try and reach better quality next time someone makes another compilation audibook. This one was not good enough.

Overall hit and miss, very bad recording quality

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This was a lot of fun. I had the hardback but had never got that far in (always too much to do at Christmas!). Each section is enthusiastically read by the author and there are one or two readings with a bit extra (try the intro to the David Baddiel chapter!). The individual chapters range from the scientific to anecdotal to (slight) rant. But all very entertaining and particularly good because you can listen in bitesize chunks - perfect for a shorter commute.

Extra fun when read by the authors.

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Some good stories and interesting facts all put across in the varying styles and characters of the writers. Sound could be a bit better though; quite echo-ie. all for a good cause though as the money goes to charity

Funny

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Very enjoyable collection of short contributions written and read by various non-Christian folk. Got through the entire book Christmas eve whilst wrapping gifts and preparing the turkey. The book offers a warm atmosphere and is a perfect substitute to the traditional carols at the local church. The stories are humorous and sometimes informative, which leaves the listener with plenty of Christmas facts to share around the dinner table. The only downside would be the quality of some recordings but all in all, a worthy four star listen.

Jolly good

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I'm an Atheist and wanted something to listen to to get me in the mood for Christmas. I enjoyed this, there are some better chapters than others (I suppose this is to tailor to everyone's tastes and interests)

It goes through the points of view from different people like a Jew, Christian, someone that has the same birthday as Jesus, and general festive thoughts and rituals etc. Can be quite funny in parts, interesting in others, and not that noticeable in the rest but I generally would recommend listening to it, especially around Xmas time.

I'm quite new to audio books but if I would recommend 1 improvement though, it would be that some of the voice overs aren't that clear (especially if you are listening in hard to hear areas like on trains). Some sound professionally recorded and others sound like it's them recording themselves talking in their bathroom on a Dictaphone. (Don't let this put you off too much though)

Enjoy :-)

Not bad, enjoyed.

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A collection of essay on nearly anything not all about religion etc. Good listen and well read

Festive fun

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I love Christmas. Great time for family and friends. I am also an atheist. This is a great listen unless you are a Christian like the Yawner! Some of the short essays are better than others but thats down to personal interpretation of course. However overall a delightful listen with some genuinely hilarious laugh out aloud moments -if you are an atheist and you 'get it' of course. My christmas has been made all the better for listening to this annually. Absolutly Recommended.

No Yawn Needed!!!

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This is great fun - and the ideal gift to give to any of your friends who, like me, figure christmas to be strictly for children but not to be taken seriously. Derren Brown's take on the spirit of christmas sums it up best of all. He agrees with Richard Dawkins when he says it just doesn't need to involve god or any other spooks. Which rather resonates with my feeling that god is just Santa Clause for grown-ups and about half as credible. A host of very funny authors, all reading their own work... highly recommended. You'll love it! Unless of course you're a believer.. in god (or Santa Clause)

Note: spelling god with a small g is entirely deliberate.

Scrooge said it all... Humbug!

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I read this at Christmas, which is obviously the best time to read it. I'd recently realised I was an atheist and was thinking about what that meant for Christmas and whether I was still entitled to put up a tree and have an advent calendar. I came across this by accident whilst buying the God Delusion. I read it before the God Delusion and it was a very good introduction to atheism and it was nice to have lots of people's points of view about how they celebrate Christmas and what it means to them. Some reviews have said some of the stories are worth skipping but I didn't skip any and didn't find any of them boring or without some value or insight into how they choose to live. This book won't change your life but its like having a good chat to lots of people about what they think Christmas means to them which helps you to decide what Christmas means to you. It certainly helped me get in to the festive spirit.

An introduction to Atheism

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