IS GOD A DELUSION? Named Outstanding Academic Title for 2009

In today’s post, I’d like to take a break from my usual efforts in philosophical theology to…well, toot my own horn. This morning I received an e-mail from OSU’s Associate Dean of Research and Instructional Services congratulating me on having my book, Is God a Delusion? named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2009 by Choice Reviews.

This was the first I’d heard of it—although several months back my editor at Wiley-Blackwell forwarded me a strong review that had been published in Choice—a magazine widely used by academic librarians throughout the US for collection development (touted on its website as “the premier source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education”).

The reviewer said that “Reitan’s execution is truly remarkable” and then listed the book as “highly recommended”—apparently something that is relatively infrequent in Choice, so my editor was pleased (as was I). But I wasn’t sure what it meant to be named an Outstanding Academic Title, so I went to the magazine’s website to find out.

Here’s what it said: “Every year in the January issue, Choice publishes a list of Outstanding Academic Titles that were reviewed during the previous calendar year. This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community.”

In short, academic librarians of the world love me. I guess they can tell I’m a fellow introvert.