Why Does The Word Exist? is more fun than a book this serious has any right to be. Holt has written a metaphysical page-turner and a triumph of intellectual liveliness.
Rebecca Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God There is no more entertaining, sure-footed, and witty guide to the big questions that we must all ponder ... Read morethan Jim Holt. Join him
Daily Beast
Praise for Stop Me If You've Heard This: 'Sweet, witty and intelligent ... I only wish that, unlike a good joke, it was longer.
William Leith
Guardian
If Jim Holt's deft and consuming "Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story" has anything to tell us, it's that such a comment is less about literary riffing than deep philosophy.
LA Times
Holt brings both complexity and clarity to his subject ... it does what real science writing should: It helps us feel the fullness of the problem.
Vulture
There is no more entertaining, sure-footed, and witty guide to the big questions that we must all ponder than Jim Holt. Join him.
The Daily Beast
It's philosophy of a high level, pursued in an unusual and personal manner, and it's a pleasure to follow along with the author as he tells a fascinating and thought-provoking story.
Peter Woit, Department of Mathamatics, Columbia Humorous yet deeply profound
New Scientist
There's no denying the pleasures to be had from tagging along as Holt soars away into the heavens of our cosmic enigmas ... a wonderful book
Daily Express
An elegant and witty writer...I can imagine few more enjoyable ways of thinking than to read this book
Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live What is special about Why Does the World Exist? is that Holt and the experts he talks to apply humour, good sense and a dose of incredulity and wonder to the problem
Independent
An eclectic mix of theology, cutting-edge science (of the cosmological and particle-physics variety) and extremely abstract philosophising, rendered (mostly) accessible by Mr Holt's facility with analogies and clear, witty language
Economist
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