Saturday, April 28, 2012

May's Mammoth Tome

Well, April is basically done and so is the Steve Jobs biography. I'll write a review soon, but it was a good book and I enjoyed it. Isaacson is an excellent author. We've selected the book for May - The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro. It won a Pulitzer and Francis Parkman prize and is considered a must read. The book is on at least one "One Hundred Best Books of the Century" list. So it comes highly recommended, but whoa! The book's over 1100 pages long excluding the photos and the notes!

Now don't get me wrong. I love a good, big book and we certainly haven't shied away from reading them for the book club, but it's May. May means that the grass has to be cut, bushes have to be pruned, and the battle with the ivy and wisteria has commenced. I guess it's commendable that we make our selection based on the merits of the book, and I didn't pay any attention to the length until I picked up the box from Amazon on my front porch. (This book is definitely not made of lightweight recycled paper.)

Nevertheless, this is our selection. We have been known to extend a book through two months when necessary, but I'm going to give it my best shot. Who knows it may be worth every minute that I spend on it. I'll let you know how it goes. If you're up for the challenge, don't be afraid. Even though Carolyn and I are both former teachers, there are no tests at the end of the month!

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our BrainsThe Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas G. Carr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It includes a little for everyone who enjoys non-fiction. Carr goes into the history of different media and how they changed society, such as the written word, printing press, TV, etc. This sets the stage for how the internet is affecting us.

There is good news and not so good news. It seems that use of the internet is very distracting (as if we needed to be told that.) But it's not just distracting us from the rest of our lives, but distracting us while we are surfing. There are so many links, ads, banners, etc. that we are getting better at multitasking and filtering out what is important. But imagine this - You're sitting in a comfortable chair with a good cup of coffee or tea. It's raining softly, maybe a little chilly, and you're sitting there with a soft afghan and one of your favorite books. You quickly get absorbed into the book. Well apparently frequent surfing on the web can decrease our ability to think deeply about what we are reading.

Carr goes into the science of how our brains work, how memory works, and what it takes to hold knowledge in our working memory. He cites many different studies that show our ability to comprehend information that we read decreases in proportion to the number of links and distractions in our material. But this inability to concentrate carries over to reading off of the internet.

The internet is here to stay and we have to make adjustments. When reading material became easily accessible to the general public, the need to memorize knowledge was lessened. Eventually, educators began requiring less memorization which actually decreased our ability to memorize. Now with information at the touch of our fingertips, we are keeping even less information in our working memories. This is no problem for things that are not required for critical thinking, such as logarithms or functions that a calculator could perform for you. But for example, when evaluating current political events in light of historical events, you need to remember the things you've learned.

It's obviously more complicated that this, so I would recommend reading the book for yourself. It's readable and full of interesting information both historical and scientific, which of course made it perfect for me.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Catching Up - New Books and Such

It's been a busy couple of months with spring and the Lenten/Easter season. Carolyn's yard is beautiful and well manicured. Mine is not, but a wonderful friend from church is helping me get a handle on the ivy and wisteria that have taken control, so I have hopes of being able to keep up this year after it's tamed. We are still reading though, in spite of my neglect of the blog.

For March we read The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough about the building of the Panama Canal. It was a feat that had a huge impact on the world by uniting the 2 great oceans. There was so much more to the story than I knew including scandal, civil and criminal court trials, conquering disease, and of course a lot of political maneuvering behind the scenes. The story spans 50 years and includes the monumental effort of both France and the US, not to mention countless West Indians who gave their back breaking labor and often their lives. McCullough is a master story teller and this book did not disappoint.

For the month of April we are reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I'm about halfway through and enjoying it. Jobs is definitely an interesting person and Isaacson is an wonderful author. The combination makes for an excellent book. I will say this though, I knew very little about Steve Jobs before beginning the book beyond who he was. If you are well versed in his life and career, you may want to read a number of reviews before buying it. I rarely read biographies of contemporary people and it is interesting recalling the "old" days of key punch cards and personal computers with 128k of memory.

We are meeting on April 27 this month, so you still have time to pick up the book and join us if you like. The more the merrier!