I never say one should not read Darwin. Without getting into a debate, all I want to say is my suggestion for Dawkins was to provide a modern view of things. One can always read Darwin, but all books as you would agree I believe need to be read in the context of the times and beliefs.
Just today I was listening to a podcast about arguably the first thinker in Western Philosophy (the first of the pre-Socratic era)... can't remember his name. He proposed that magnets had life, that doesn't make him an idiot because he was trying to interpret his world based on what he knew from available literature (mostly religious myth). He didn't agree with religious explanations of gods causing everything. His explanations were often wrong, but he was right on many things, for example, he figured out the relationship of good rains with a good harvest and made a lot of money using his understanding.