I Think You’ll Find It’s a Bit More Complicated Than That Paperback – October 8, 2015

excellent but terrifying how we are manipulated by the media and to a degree by BG. Keep your eyes open!

A collection of mostly fairly short critical and skeptical essays. Most of them have been published on Goldcare’s column on Guardian (apparently the best newspaper in Britain). There were a few pretty random and not so readable or interesting ones (like a foreword to a book about small railroads – what did that have to do with this book?), but most of the essays were very good, even when some of them concerned pretty local details like some intricacies of NHS, while many have wider interest. Especially interesting were a couple articles about the “Medical Hypothesis” journal, the chosen journal where the Finnish scammer, Valkee, publishes its’ “studies” about how an ear light “cures” seasonal fatigue. The quality of that journal seems to be even worse than I imagined. Certainly there would be a dire need for a similar journalist in Finland, who is capable of critique stupid misuses of numbers, statistics and mathematics in journalism and in “public” science reporting which is made government and other official or semi-official organizations. Bad reporting and poor grasp of numbers is truly international. As a whole this is not as good and interesting book as “Bad Science” was, but very interesting one anyway. The book contains exhaustive references, so many them that I was surprised when the actual book ended – as according to the reading app there was still a significant percentage of the book left.

I bought this book thinking I would read an essay now and then, as a change of pace from heavier reading. But it was like potato chips (though healthier). I simply couldn't stop reading. Goldacre is funny, he's on-target, and delves into some topics I'd never have explored otherwise. He has popped a few windbags that will probably manage to re-inflate, but it's nice to see them get popped anyway.

Hmmm - should have paid more attention to some of the less positive reviews. I launched into it full of enthusiasm but have abandoned it partway through. I realised when I purchased that it was short newspaper/journal articles but hadn't counted on how short these would be or thought through how shallow this left the approach to each topic. I also felt slightly annoyed at what seems a bit like smugness in some of the author's comments. Probably wouldn't have minded that if each topic had a bit more depth to it. OK as an introduction and an "alert" to some possibly contentious topics but that's about it.

It is lovely to read this lucid and accessible book. Great research behind this book just like his other. And easy to understand for normal people like me.

Enjoyable book with some excellent writing. But the fact that it's basically a collection of posts from the Guardian - many of them, confusingly, out of chronological order - makes it a bit less satisfactory. It's certainly an easy read, for the most part, because you know your brain isn't going to be frazzled when the piece is only 700 words long. But the fact that the columns haven't been edited in any way is a bit disconcerting: we get the same information several times, and after a while, the way in which Goldacre sallies forth and conquers all bad science with a few well chosen words and a bit of investigation starts to make him sound like a bit of a know-all. Which he probably is, in a nice way.Still, there were a number of things he clarifies, and though good science seems to be almost rare when you look at how much bad science is done, you live in hope - with him - that things will improve. It's horrifying to see the way in which so many newspapers publish absolute junk science (as well as The New Scientist, a magazine I've become increasingly suspicious of over the years) and the way in which good science barely gets a look in on their pages.One good thing about the book: it makes you very wary of believing anything you read in relation to science in the newspapers, or see on TV: Goldacre makes you understand that science has to prove its claims before it can be regarded as having any degree of honour.

What a tome - I finished it after two long distance airplane flights. It is a real good primer on learning to look at the evidence behind the evidence and avoiding BS - Bad Science, and silly dim uninformed reporters.

By turns amusing, alarming and frequently both, this well-written collection of newspaper articles is provocative, instructive and entertaining. As these are all set in Britain, sometimes more than a decade ago, at times I felt disconnected from some of the pieces. This detracted only slightly from the overall impact.