I don't know if the constant excursions, metaphors, quirky comparisons, and asides were supposed to make the book more engaging to read, but they reallly muddy the waters and make it incredibly frustrating to understand what he is trying to say. This already annoyed me when I read Darwin's Dangerous Idea, but it was much worse here. There is no way to tell what is important and what isn't - you can't skip the annoying "here is a cool comparison from my favourite fiction book" paragraphs because in them might hide the next important point Dennett is trying to make.

It's a shame because a lot of what Dennett is saying is really good and very important - the book just needed some serious editing. You probably could have gotten it down to 100 pages and made it much clearer as well.