Category: Books

The author of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious (as quoted in Newsweek) argues that we make the best decisions by using one good reason instead of weighing all the pros and cons:

In every case, one good reason has proven superior to data-greedy mathematical equations in making the best choices.

The example he gave was a parent whose child wakes up wheezing in the middle of the night.  One doctor they know can come to the house in 20 minutes but he’s not a good listener or they can drive 60 minutes to an unknown doctor who’s known to be a good listener.  Although there are four pieces of information, most parents make their decision based on one piece of information: whether or not the doctor is a good listener.  The author argues that the gut feel decision based one piece of information is better than the decision that could have been made by weighing all four.

The New York Times just came out with their 100 Notable Books of 2007.  (Online a week before it will show up in print!)  Since I haven’t read any of them and I’ve read a lot of good books this year, I will conclude that there are a lot, I mean really a lot, of good books out there!

If you have ever tried to lose weight or just eat healthy, you must read this book, Good Calories, Bad Calories.  This book changed my thinking about food, health, nutrition and exercise.  I didn’t realize how much of what doctors said that I just believed.  I didn’t realize that what they recommend is based on little proven evidence.  Or how much contradictory evidence is just ignored. 

This isn’t a diet book.  It’s a book about the history of nutritional advice.  Our understanding of food and obesity, how it’s come about and how it’s changed over the past century.  I’ll be writing more in future posts but here’s what I’ve definitely taken away:

1. A calorie is not a calorie.  A lot of other factors matter like what kind of calorie, what kind of person, metabolism, exercise, external environmental factors, …
2. Calories in does not always equal calories out.  Or we are not measuring all the calories in and out correctly.
3. Dietary fat does not make you fat.  Fat is not necessarily better or worse than protein or carbs.  It’s not necessarily equal either!
4. Many of our current doctors are 100% convinced of what they know and not really willing to consider radical shifts in thinking.   Like they continue to recommend  eating less calories and exercising to lose weight when it’s obviously not working for many people.  (Do you really lack the will power?)

More to come, but I definitely recommend Good Calories, Bad Calories.  You can read a good excerpt written by the author, Gary Taubes, on ABC News.

Electronic books, books that you can read on your computer, phone or other electronic device, have been around for a while but they haven’t really taken off.  (I read quite a few when I had a PocketPC.)  Amazon’s new device, the Kindle, is trying to change that.  They spent a lot of effort making sure their reader resembles a paperback book in size and weight plus they added features that other electronic readers don’t have.  On the Kindle, you’ll have wireless access to the entire library of Amazon books.  You’ll be able to search for books and download them on the fly.  You’ll also be able to read blogs and use Google to some extent.

I can’t wait to see one!  Although at $399, I might not buy one right away …

Update: The Kindle just came out!

In case you are wondering why I haven’t posted any book reviews lately … it’s because I have been getting so many good books that I’ve started lots of them and not finished any of them.  I’m currently reading:

• The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World  by Alan Greenspan.  I’m currently listening to this one and it’s really interesting but the second half of the book has had a lot of economic and financial concepts in it that are fascinating but sometimes require me to listen twice to actually get what he’s saying.
• Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers’ Guide, Second Edition  I’m learning Ruby, the programming language.  This book is good but not something you read cover to cover in one setting.
• The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life  Very interesting.  The preface starts out explaining why some cities have been more successful than others in the new economy.  Diversity and tolerance correlate very highly with creativity.  Cities that entice high tech workers are also attractive to people with alternative life styles.  Lots to think about.  But not a quick read.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Undead (Rachel Morgan, Book 2)  In my unending search for new good science fiction I stumbled onto the vampire, witch and werewolf subgenre.  I’ve been enjoying them.  (And I haven’t read Book 1 in this series yet as I got this one first through Paperbackswap/Bookmooch.  But Book 2 is good so I will be reading Dead Witch Walking (Rachel Morgan, Book 1))
• Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win  I haven’t officially started this one yet but I just got it in the mail today and it’s sitting on the table next to me, tempting me …

So I’ll let you know how it goes.

The New York Times has an article about book trading sites and I was disappointed to see that they choose BookMooch as the number one site and didn’t even mention PaperBackSwap.  I am a member of BookMooch and PaperBackSwap so I think they are both good, but I far prefer PaperBackSwap for several reasons:

1. First and foremost, they keep the wishlist in an order.  So if I’ve said I’m interested in the latest Harry Potter book, when it becomes available, they will tell me and give me 48 hours to decide if I want it or not.  The next person on the list has to wait for me to decide if I want it or not.  They get the next copy.  BookMooch emails everybody that wants it at the same time, so I’m never, ever going to get a copy of Harry Potter from BookMooch.  Eventually, it’ll be my turn on PaperBackSwap.
2. The PaperBackSwap interface is much easier to understand than BookMooch.
3. PaperBackSwap lets you print postage.

Note that I quit using TitleTrader, one of the other ones mentioned by the article.

Which book trading site is your favorite?

I picked up Learn to Program for two reasons:

• I was curious about a book that could teach you to program.  Where do you start?  Also, I originally learned how to program (in Basic) from a book with no computer.
• I wanted to learn Ruby and that’s the programming language that Learn to Program uses.

I was impressed with the book.  Chris Pine starts out with the very basics – how to set up your computer with Ruby and how to create and run a program and takes you through a few basic programs, algorithms like sort and finally simple interactive games and file manipulation.

If you are looking to learn how to program or how to teach your kid to program, Learn to Program is a good starting point.

Ever wondered what a writers’ office looked like?  You can see pictures of them on the Guardian’s website.  They range from very austere to very cluttered from the New York Public Library to the libraries of other famous authors.  It’s an interesting glimpse into part of the creative process of writing.