A quick list of recent reading
Sep. 4th, 2008 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabRehearsals have started up again for the fall this week, so less reading now than in the summer; here's the last of the summer's reading:
FMy Big Fat Supernatural Wedding edited by PN Elrod - most of the stories in here are part of each author's series, and several are not understandable if you haven't been following the series. Oddly enough, the Jim Butcher is the opposite - the story features Harry Dresden, but it works as a standalone, BUT - if you read Small Favor and wondered where the heck Sigrun Gard the Valkyrie came from - why Harry seemed to know her - well, the short story in this book is where he first meets her.
FUndead and Unworthy - MJ Davidson - latest in her Betsy the Vampire Queen series. Wedded bliss does not automatically bring peace and calm to Betsy's life, especially since she's being haunted by the ghost of her late stepmother The Ant.
FThe Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog by Nancy Ellis-Bell - actually a macaw, not a parrot, and it's one of those problematic tales by someone who goes too far in turning over the running of their life to their pets rather than the humans being in control. I love animals too, but hey, the person who buys and pays for the house is supposed to be the boss over the little under-20-pound critters who share it.
FOn Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not Robert Burton MD. Wow, this one definitely is food for thought. What he discusses is the "feeling of knowing" that we have, and where in the brain it arises, and why. To give an example, we probably all at one time or another have been quite sure we put our keys in a particular place, and when they are not there, we get quite upset, perhaps even going so far as to accuse someone else in the household of moving them, because we KNOW where we put them down - we even remember the action of doing it. And then, later, when we find them in our jacket pocket, we suddenly remember oh yeah, we did change them - but that realization doesn't change the fact that before that, we KNEW, with the same certainty, something which wasn't actually the factual case. (This is where having pets comes in handy: when stuff isn't where you remember putting it, you automatically blame it on the cat, rather than on the significant other; this spares you the anger of the other person for being blamed, and spares you the humiliation of having to apologize to them later when you do find the keys. Every couple should have a pet to blame memory lapses on.) So Burton points out, that same feeling of KNOWING is involved in everything from religious belief, to political opinions, to writing history. The fact that we have a feeling of certainty that we're right does not actually have very much to do with whether we are right or not, and we would all do well to remember that any time we start trying to demand that other people change to do things our way because our way is right.
FThe Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less - Barry Schwartz - slightly older book (2004) but quite relevant; the consumer society of too many options causes less freedom and more depression than societies with fewer choices experience.
FThen She Found Me - Elinor Lipman - mildly humorous romance, one of the recommendations from 1001 Books for every Mood mentioned a couple posts back.
FHere Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations - Clay Shirky - less naively enthused about kids than Negroponte; includes both anecdotes about internet organizing and some sociological research on how the availability of social tools is changing how we each present ourselves, who we choose to associate with, and what social/political positions we're willing to stand up for.
FMy Big Fat Supernatural Wedding edited by PN Elrod - most of the stories in here are part of each author's series, and several are not understandable if you haven't been following the series. Oddly enough, the Jim Butcher is the opposite - the story features Harry Dresden, but it works as a standalone, BUT - if you read Small Favor and wondered where the heck Sigrun Gard the Valkyrie came from - why Harry seemed to know her - well, the short story in this book is where he first meets her.
FUndead and Unworthy - MJ Davidson - latest in her Betsy the Vampire Queen series. Wedded bliss does not automatically bring peace and calm to Betsy's life, especially since she's being haunted by the ghost of her late stepmother The Ant.
FThe Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog by Nancy Ellis-Bell - actually a macaw, not a parrot, and it's one of those problematic tales by someone who goes too far in turning over the running of their life to their pets rather than the humans being in control. I love animals too, but hey, the person who buys and pays for the house is supposed to be the boss over the little under-20-pound critters who share it.
FOn Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not Robert Burton MD. Wow, this one definitely is food for thought. What he discusses is the "feeling of knowing" that we have, and where in the brain it arises, and why. To give an example, we probably all at one time or another have been quite sure we put our keys in a particular place, and when they are not there, we get quite upset, perhaps even going so far as to accuse someone else in the household of moving them, because we KNOW where we put them down - we even remember the action of doing it. And then, later, when we find them in our jacket pocket, we suddenly remember oh yeah, we did change them - but that realization doesn't change the fact that before that, we KNEW, with the same certainty, something which wasn't actually the factual case. (This is where having pets comes in handy: when stuff isn't where you remember putting it, you automatically blame it on the cat, rather than on the significant other; this spares you the anger of the other person for being blamed, and spares you the humiliation of having to apologize to them later when you do find the keys. Every couple should have a pet to blame memory lapses on.) So Burton points out, that same feeling of KNOWING is involved in everything from religious belief, to political opinions, to writing history. The fact that we have a feeling of certainty that we're right does not actually have very much to do with whether we are right or not, and we would all do well to remember that any time we start trying to demand that other people change to do things our way because our way is right.
FThe Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less - Barry Schwartz - slightly older book (2004) but quite relevant; the consumer society of too many options causes less freedom and more depression than societies with fewer choices experience.
FThen She Found Me - Elinor Lipman - mildly humorous romance, one of the recommendations from 1001 Books for every Mood mentioned a couple posts back.
FHere Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations - Clay Shirky - less naively enthused about kids than Negroponte; includes both anecdotes about internet organizing and some sociological research on how the availability of social tools is changing how we each present ourselves, who we choose to associate with, and what social/political positions we're willing to stand up for.
