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Bookworm

I’ve been reading quite a lot lately. Last weekend, I read Shadow of the Hegemon and Blink.

Both were outstanding books, Orson Scott Card, the author of Shadow of the Hegemon has been one that I have been reading since I was in the third grade, and only now have I been able to read the rest of his Ender Wiggin Saga. I have also just finished his other book, Shadow Puppets. It’s very interesting to read these two books because they aren’t just works of fiction, they’re an interesting read on geopolitics. They are books written about leadership in a fashion, on what draws people to leaders and about the leaders themselves.

Blink, however, is a different kind of book. It’s a book that is about how we come to make decisions based on our subconscious knowledge. It documents a variety of scientific studies that prove that our subconscious mind is aware of a whole lot more than our conscious mind will realize.

I’ll give you an example, some researchers experimented with subjects. In this experiment, the subjects had to choose cards between a red deck and a blue deck. The cards in the blue deck in general gave the subject points, while cards in the red deck in general took away points. They determined that it took the subject 80 or so cards to realize consciously that the red cards were bad for them. However, through sensors attached to the subjects’ hands, they found that right before they chose a red card, their hands would be sweatier, than if they were choosing a blue card. The most remarkable thing about this, is that the hands started to sweat when choosing a red card only after ten cards, not the eighty that it took for the conscious mind to realize what was going on. It’s definitely a worthwhile read.

The last book that I have just finished is Diary by Chuck Palahniuk, of Fight Club fame. It’s a very interesting book about a woman whos husband attempted suicide and and now she’s given up her life as an artist in an attempt to survive. There are some very interesting twists and turns in the book. I have to admit I didn’t like it much at first, but once you got some hints as to where it was going, it became a lot more enjoyable. There’s a good plot twist in there, and I won’t spoil it.

Next up on my reading list is Solipsist by Henry Rollins, which comes to me highly recommended by Meri. Honestly I am struggling with it because it doesn’t flow the way I expect to. I guess it’s time for me to change my preconceptions and try to read it. What I have read, I found interesting.

Also up on my reading list is Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I’ll let you know how they turn out to be sure.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2005 at 2:13 pm and is filed under general, books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.