Recent books read
I haven't been writing up the books I've read recently. So here we go.
50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior by Scott O. Lilienfeld (2009) -- I loved this, and I learned a lot. There was some stuff I already knew, but some of the myths were very surprising. Like, did you know that criminal profiling actually doesn't work? There have been several studies done, and profilers did no better than college students at profiling criminals. It's a great read.
59 Seconds: How Psychology Can Improve Your Life in Less Than a Minute by Richard Wiseman (2010) -- an absolutely wonderful self-help book for people who like their advice to come from science and not woo.
When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That by Martin Gardner (2009) -- a collection of essays. I like Gardner. He wrote this book last year, at the age of 93. Damn. I admit to skipping the sections on math and logic puzzles, though. Not a big fan of those.
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky (1998) -- this was nowhere near as good as his book on salt. Actually, nothing I've read by him has been as good as Salt. But this was still an interesting (and depressing) read, which is mostly about how the seas are being overfished. I'd love to see a follow-up to this, since it's eleven years later. I'll have to do some research myself.
And there you have it. Off to study for my ASL midterm...
50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior by Scott O. Lilienfeld (2009) -- I loved this, and I learned a lot. There was some stuff I already knew, but some of the myths were very surprising. Like, did you know that criminal profiling actually doesn't work? There have been several studies done, and profilers did no better than college students at profiling criminals. It's a great read.
59 Seconds: How Psychology Can Improve Your Life in Less Than a Minute by Richard Wiseman (2010) -- an absolutely wonderful self-help book for people who like their advice to come from science and not woo.
When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That by Martin Gardner (2009) -- a collection of essays. I like Gardner. He wrote this book last year, at the age of 93. Damn. I admit to skipping the sections on math and logic puzzles, though. Not a big fan of those.
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky (1998) -- this was nowhere near as good as his book on salt. Actually, nothing I've read by him has been as good as Salt. But this was still an interesting (and depressing) read, which is mostly about how the seas are being overfished. I'd love to see a follow-up to this, since it's eleven years later. I'll have to do some research myself.
And there you have it. Off to study for my ASL midterm...