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It's laid out like a series of magazine articles, there are lots of photos. It's fun! But the writing is not dumbed down, it tells it like it is. Bubblegum music was right on the edge because every time it mentioned sugar, you know it was really about sex.

Also, if you are a late boomer or an early gen-Xer, you remember how smug your big brother or your uncle was about bloated wanky crap like Yes and Grand Funk Railroad. The summer of love had disappeared up its own arse like a cocaine suppository. "Whole Lotta Love" and "Sugar Sugar" both came out in 1969. I love Led Zep as much as the next rock n roll tragic, but somehow there is a perfection about the Archies/Ron Dante's smash hit, the national anthem of Bubblestan. Play it loud and get you revenge on your dopey, clueless older siblings, who will be driven insane. Even more insane than they already are.

I sent an email to Kim Cooper to tell her how much I like her writing and she sent me a lovely reply. I also sent one to Sandra Dedrick, the lead singer of The Free Design, who are the subject of a chapter in this book, she also wrote back to me. I feel absolute solid gold love for those people!

I ordered this book from Redeye records in Sydney and when it arrived the staff member was surprised by its bulk. "Wow, it's a TOME!", he said. (tome: A book, especially a large or scholarly one).

So, yes, it is long and detailed, maybe too detailed for some. I love the band enough, and I had the appetite for it. The preface is fantastic. It explains how the author, growing up in the midst of Beatlemania, became a Byrds fanatic, living in a part of London where houses were unchanged since the 1940s, while a few blocks away the Fabs, the Stones and Donovan were grooving at the Speakeasy. By the end, decades later Rogan is close enough to the band to counted as a friend, but he resists entering their social circle to remain an outsider, because this book is like his life's work and he feels it would be damaged if he crossed that line.

Of course you get a great and detailed account of how a bunch of LA folkies invented folk rock and were at the vanguard of a cultural explosion in the 1960s. And at the end you learn of Crosby's drug hell, Hillman's tea party conservatism, McGuinn's bible-obsessed Christianity. It's a long and weird journey. If it's disturbing or depressing, just put "Younger Than Yesterday" on, turn it up to 11, and it all dissolves in an instant.

It turns out Julian Cope's writing skills are on a par with his musical abilities.

I was there on March 21st, 1982 at the Paddington Town Hall. Troy Tate's amp wasn't working and he threw his guitar at it and stormed off stage. Julian picked up his 12 string and finished the set without his star ring-in. When "Peggy Suicide" came out, it was a sort of emergence from the chrysalis, from pure pop to universal cosmic rock. I stayed with him then, too.

In this book you get the whole life story, including the episode where he steals his father's car even though he has no licence - "I'm driving and I can't even drive", as he sang in "No Hard Shoulder to Cry On". Look from the outside at his piano-surfing Top of the Pops performance on (redacted online video platform), then FEEL the same experience from the LSD-soaked interior of Julian's consciousness. Understand his Detroit-inspired road to Damascus moment, when he travels via megalithic monuments to a realisation that rock and roll is the true calling. Word!

Everything that has fascinated me about Einstein is here. Above all it's the wonder of his two breakthroughs on relativity. Stephen Hawking set me up nicely to enjoy Walter Isaacson's elegant summaries for the lay person. Relativity is for everyone!

Next, the philosophy and science issue. Isaacson doesn't pass definitive judgement, but he lays it out. Einstein's rejection of aspects of quantum theory was a flaw. It seemed to stem from his belief in "Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists". That's OK, but when confronted with the evidence supporting quantum theory, Einstein's strict adherence to this pantheist position became like a dogma. It takes a strong, clear argument to make a convincing critique of Albert fucking Einstein, but Isaacson does it.

I only take off half a star because early on Isaacson declares that Einstein "believed in god". You can't say it so baldly, it's not that simple and it's unseemly when believers and atheists alike try to claim Einstein for their own. There's always an asterisk. Later in the book Isaacson does lay out the nuance in Einstein's position on god. I think Richard Dawkins did a better job, when he referred to pantheism as "sexed up atheism", while claiming Einstein for our team.

My admiration for Einstein grows when I read about his flexibility in other areas. He was a pacifist after the First World War, but he changed his position when the horror of Nazism became clear to him. Hitler forced that change. It was no longer a choice, the Nazis had to be stopped. This in turn led to him supporting the US nuclear weapons program, to counter the possibility of Hitler getting there first. When nuclear proliferation grew into the nightmare of mutually assured destruction, Einstein joined those warning about the suicidal threat nuclear weapons pose to human civilization.

It is not a given that moral clarity will follow scientific brilliance. Einstein was not perfect, but this biography shows he shone brilliantly in both magisteria.

Cordwainer Smith (real name Paul Linebarger) visited Australia and was quite taken with the place. It was the inspiration for Norstrilia, the planet of the far future where giant alien sheep are farmed, not for mutton, but to produce the life-extending drug stroon. Norstrilia is the only place where this substance exists, so the planet is immensely powerful and wealthy. This concept pre-dates the Spice from Frank Herbet's Dune by several years.

Considering the vast canvas this novel covers, the Australian inspiration is a small element. It persists through the protagonist Rod McBan, who embarks on a mythic quest to old earth, where he joins the underpeople, an oppressed class of human-animal hybrids. There's a risk that when a foreigner tries to depict a country they have only briefly experienced, it comes across badly. But this is not a depiction of Australia, it's a phantasmagorical SF story. The inspiration seems to be imbued with a lot of affection for our wide brown land, and I love the book all the more for this. I also like the references to civil rights and disability - or perhaps neuro-diversity. I hope I'm not drawing too long a bow by using those modern words to describe Rod's impairment compared to his fellow Norstrilians.

I would be tempted to take half a star off because the story lacks logic and coherence. A lot of things seem to happen as a result of the forces of destiny, which mystical sages can understand, but Rod McBan, and indeed the reader, must simply accept. But I've read enough fantasy and mythology to recognise that this can be a strength, rather than a weakness, if you don't mind a bit of softness in your SF. A Ray Bradbury fan might know what I mean.

As a teenage atheist in Catholic school, I would rebelliously read "Why I Am Not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell. "The God Delusion" is like a modern version of that book. It's a neat summary of atheistic ideas to help people clarify their own non-belief and shake off any childhood brainwashing.

It's also a book to cherish. Simply having it in your possession could be a good way to "come out" to religious people who might resent your right to believe or not. But be careful! A teenager in Kurdistan who was caught championing the book was reported by his father to the police, who detained him for days and subjected the lad to torture.

Dawkins' arguments remain strong. The book was written when the memory of the religiously-inspired 9/11 attacks was still raw. In the years since, we have seen the rise of the terrorist threat of Christian extremists. Some atheist commentators have not adapted to this reality, and occasionally Dawkins has struck a discordant note in recent years. As a "cultural Christian" he needs to ensure he remains just as much an atheist about Allah as he is about Yahweh or the heavenly father of Jesus as he is about Allah.

I don't think that bias is present in "The God Delusion", so I don't mark it down for that. I fault Dawkins for another, minor mistake. He includes an anecdote, that US President George HW Bush said "atheists can't be citizens, this is one nation under god". Fact-checking has cast serious doubt about whether Bush the elder ever said that. Despite that, atheists and other non-Christians in places like the USA face a growing threat from theocracy and dominionism.