The book received a variety of reviews. The book was well covered in
The New York Times and given a warm reception on
The Colbert Report. Genevieve Fox wrote in
The Telegraph, "If the humanists are in the ascendant, then Grayling's self-help book for the spiritually rudderless will be snapped up", while
Christopher Hart, reviewing it in the
Sunday Times, concluded that: "Compared to the original, it's a molehill at the foot of Everest". Reviews in
The Observer and
Private Eye satirised the book for its arbitrary rejection of religious content and the proselytising of the author. It received a positive review in the
Sunday Express, where
Terry Waite praised it "as a source for inspiration and wisdom". A review in the
Irish Independent concluded that "to try to compose a secular bible is itself a well-intentioned undertaking. But can it ever have anything like the influence of the Bible...no." In the religious journal
First Things, R. J. Snell writes: "While the marketing presents the author as provocateur, one finds instead the reflections of a decent, middle-aged man with a thorough education, now thinking about his loves and aspirations in light of the erosive power of time. Grayling ignores religion more than he attacks it." In an
Evening Standard article celebrating the
King James Version of the Bible, David Sexton attacks several books by atheist authors and describes
The Good Book as "unreadable, not merely just because it is boring but because it is nauseating". Grayling discussed
The Good Book with the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Rowan Williams, before a large audience on London's South Bank, and with
Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, at the 2011
Edinburgh Book Festival. In a YouTube video at the
Sydney Writers Festival, Grayling responded to criticisms of
The Good Book, stating: "some of the reviews have been hysterically hostile". ==Editions==