There were a few books in this book and I only enjoyed one of them. Unfortunately for me, most of the content was repeat information from things I've read/heard before. The first sections dealing with the biology of the brain were interesting.

So much of the book (a book in itself) was spent refuting things that don't exist (UFOs, ghosts, god, 9/11 conspiracies, etc.) it was tiresome. I know they don't, I don't need it explained why. This continued on for a long, long time. I almost gave up on the book.

I appreciated his honesty, his disclosure of his own background since part of the premise of the book is that belief is formed through brain chemistry that is affected and effected by many variables. There were a few points that were frustrating, like when he obviously misunderstood the Lakoff/Westin books that in my mind agree entirely with his position that belief comes from chemical reactions in the brain and that feelings are integral to forming beliefs (Shermer probably wouldn't like the "fuzzy" term "feelings," I suppose).

Anyway, it got long-winded as it was so full of disputing theories and disputing false notions. The section on ways we delude ourselves (delude is my word choice) was also too long. He gave labels to about 20 different kinds of reasons people hold faulty beliefs. The labels seemed unnecessary to me, though the anecdotal descriptions were interesting (too many repeated from earlier books, as I mentioned).

So, it was so-so.