book

Rated Klara and the Sun 4/10

Wants to read Snow Crash

Rated Love, Pamela: A Moving Celebrity Memoir about Reclaiming Your Narrative 6/10

Rated Piranesi 10/10

Rated The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life 8/10

Rated Spare 4/10

Rated The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind 6/10

Rated The Shards 10/10

Rated Split Tooth 10/10

Rated Hugs and Cuddles 8/10

Rated I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression 10/10

Rated Lucky Jim 6/10

Rated The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self 10/10

Rated The Light Princess 10/10

Rated I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 10/10

I usually go through and "highlight" my favorite lines, passages, and exchanges. I found myself holding my breath because of being enraptured at the depth of the prose. When I'd breathe out, I'd realize the long moment was still going. I'd have to highlight the entire book to capture everything. <br/><br/>I read this book many years ago. This was a re-read. I've always loved the way she looked at the world. Even more so now. What a gift to have her words, and to be able to pick them up at any time. <br/><br/>

Rated The Art of Memoir 10/10

Rated My Year of Rest and Relaxation 10/10

it's like if a long exasperated sigh was a book

Rated Fairy Tale 8/10

Wants to read The Kite Runner

Wants to read Tremor

Wants to read Crying in the Bathroom

Rated Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline 8/10

Rated Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness 8/10

Rated This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking 6/10

Editor John Brockman posed the question "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?" Leading scientists, psychologists, writers and general advanced "thinkers" responded with the short answers that make up <i>This Will Make You Smarter</i>, and the result is indeed thought-provoking, but not always interesting.<br><br>However, the most interesting portion, to me, is that this was published before the self-plagiarizing/Bob Dylan quote fabrication scandal of Jonah Lehrer. Lehrer's contribution to this book, "Control Your Spotlight," has to do with a study conducted with small children. The children were in a room with a bowl of marshmallows and told that if they could wait a short period of time alone, they could have more than one to eat. The study looked at impulse control, mainly, and the children who were better able to resist taking a marshmallow early were the ones who put their attention elsewhere. Some kids sang songs, others covered their eyes, etc. But what I find rather amusing is this bit from Lehrer:<br><br><blockquote>Willpower is really about properly diverting the spotlight of attention, learning how to control that short list of thoughts in working memory. It's about realizing that if we're thinking about the marshmallow, we're going to eat it, which is why we need to look away.</blockquote><br><br>So, am I to understand that he gambled on the working memory of Bob Dylan fans, and hoped that they were looking at other things when he made up those quotes? That's a pretty big gamble, that spotlight "control." He didn't have the smarts suggested in David G. Myers' contributing essay, "Self-Serving Bias:"<br><br><blockquote>Being mindful of self-serving bias beckons us not to false modesty but to a humility that affirms our genuine talents and virtues and likewise those of others.</blockquote><br><br>In other words, work with what you've got, and work it well. Don't be a self-serving jerk who tries to make his book better with fake quotes. Also, never underestimate a music super-fan’s skills.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/09/this-will-make-you-smarter-edited-by.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)<br>

Wants to read Uncommon Type