Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
Matt Ridley

When I originally read this book more than a decade ago, I really enjoyed it.

But I was disappointed to find that the second read wasn’t as interesting as the first time I read it.

The idea of the book is a great one: take the 23 genes and talk about each one. Now that I have a better background in genomics, I found, in most cases, that the chapters on each gene forced in that very little information was imparted about the genes, leaving the author to have to expand on the subject. And I didn’t find that very interesting.

I will admit that a lot has been discovered since the book was published and my disappointment with the book is more of knowing there is more to be said.

As someone who enjoys the history of medicine, I would totally recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of genomic medicine keeping in mind when the book was published and how much more we know now.

4/5 stars

Book finished on 26 January 2025