Being You, Anil Seth

 

Being You:  A new science of consciousness by Anil Seth

Started: December 2, 2023
Completed: August 17, 2026
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Anil Seth at a lecture he gave

Review:

It took me a long time to read this book.  That was true for two reasons:  1) I often read to escape and this book is no escape and 2) the material required thought.  The basic argument is that living and consciousness are linked (the need to protect one's life is a significant part of consciousness).  "Living" does not rule out computer based life, but it would have to have a threat to its existence which required maintenance and occasional careful consideration.  I found the argument broadly compelling.

Frames of Mind, Howard Gardner

 

Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner

Started: July 10, 2025
Completed: July 19, 2025
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

oeuvre -- the sum of the lifework of an artist, writer, or composer

Review:

This book is dated.  I knew that when I selected it, but I was still surprised at how dated it was.  The concepts behind multiple intelligences were all new to me, so it was not dated in that sense.  It was dated in how it referred to society and computers in particular.  I don't find fault with this (it was written quite some time ago), but it did surprise me.  In any case, I thought it was great to see the story behind the concepts of multiple intelligences and how the research sort of began.

Stronger Than the Dark, Cory Reese

 

Stronger Than the Dark:  Exploring the intimate relationship between running and depression by Cory Reese

Started: November 9, 2024
Completed: November 20, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My coworker Catherine

Review:

This is a physical book I am reading and as I started to read it, I noticed that there was a sticker on the spine that caught my hand.  That is both the problem and the promise of a physical book.  It has a tactile quality that an audio book and an ebook lack.  In this case, that sticky area was both annoying and distracting.  I peeled the sticker off and it left goo behind.  I removed the goo with an orange based cleaner (that works great on goo) and it took a little while to get it all gone without ruining the finish on the book at the same time (Apply cleaner, remove cleaner quickly, find that not all the goo is gone and it is now smeared.  Iterate as necessary.)  I picked up the book, when complete from a new angle and noticed more goo on the back (not the spine this time).  Back to the citrus cleaner and removing that goo.  Now I checked the whole book and made sure that I'd gotten the last of it and realized that where I had removed the goo on the back cover, it seems like it was the finish that had become goo, so now there was a spot on the back cover that just felt different then the rest of the book.  So, yes, this is sounding like OCD, but I've had tacky stuff on book covers before and just ignored it.  Maybe, the deal here is the subject matter of the book which is kind of making me uncomfortably aware of how I feel.  Maybe.  It would be nice if that was the explanation and I wasn't just a mess.  So, I'm going with the subject matter and my goo obsession, because, well, otherwise....  

I put a large sticker on the back of my Kobo a few weeks ago (the sticker is an old NASA sticker I had lying around, well, not lying around, it was in a fire proof box--because, that, I guess is where stickers go.  right?) and I am now concerned that this sticker is going to start bugging me when I'm reading the ebook instead of serving its purpose and helping me distinguish an all black Kobo from the surrounding black at night.  Probably not going to be a problem, though, right?  On to page 1.  I did read the introduction, but those are all Roman numerals.  So it is both page 1 and "on to" at the same time.  In case anyone is wondering, this is all Catherine's fault, because, like I said, I've ignored stickiness on the back of books before.  Additionally, that is not displacement.  That is just pointing out a random fact which conveniently shifts responsibility.  It is really just shifty.

Also, I do realize that this review is already longer than most of my other reviews and I haven't started page 1.  Probably the coffee.  Or, am I just being shifty again?  (Yes, I get that pun.)

This book is a relatively quick read.  It is a look at a much larger problem--depression, within the context of a runner's world.  I anticipated that this would use the metaphor of running within the context of running away from one's problems.  That is not what this book does.  Instead, the author talks about freeing himself to look closely at his problems and to ask for help from those around him.  The running metaphor is more one of life being difficult (like a loooong, 340 mile run).  The metaphor sort of breaks down around the finish line, but it generally holds up.  The fundamental concept is that of a "pain cave" where the runner is simply exhausted but opts to continue on and finds resources (other runners, internal strength, and even "road angels") that enable the runner to find a way to continue moving forward.  This carries over into everyday life in the form of family, finding reasons not to succomb to suicide, and professional help.  It is, in many ways an apt metaphor and the author presents the analysis using a conversational manner that makes it much less of a lecture and much more of a journey.

The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

 

The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

Started: 4/20/2023
Completed: 7/12/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My uncle, Russ

Review:

This is a very interesting book.  The thesis is that the hero story is fairly consistent across all forms of human history.  There is a good reason to believe that this is true.  There are a ton of hero stories that follow the same general path across social group after social group.  I also learned a fair amount about myths with which I only had a passing aquaintance.

Hidden Valley Road, Robert Kolker

 

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the mind of an American family by Robert Kolker was recommended by my parents.  It is a story of a mental health problem that runs through a large family.

Started: 5/25/2021
Completed: 5/28/2021
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: My parents

Words for which I sought help:

aphasia -- loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage

funicular -- a cable railroad, especially one on a mountainside, in which ascending and descending cars are counterbalanced

obstreperous -- noisy and difficult to control

Review:

I really did not want to read this book.  Who wants to read about the horror of a bunch of schizophrenic children?  In general, I'm not thrilled about large families either.  My parents, however, insisted that this was an important book to read.  So, I read it.

Make sure that your prenatal vitamin has lots of choline.

All of the children in this family suffered.  They suffered because of mental illness and an inability to provide help (in part because the family was too large for a single income).  The healthy children suffered from physical abuse (both received and doled out) as well as the anxiety and other traumas that comes with living among the mentally ill.  The family was too large for the parents to provide the intense and personalized support that normal children need, forget the support that mentally ill children require.  It is clear that even with time and resources, these parents had some serious problems themselves that would have prevented them from providing the kind of loving environment the children needed.

It is amazing that science can study a family like this.  It is not amazing that such a family exists.  I just don't know what to say.  This book is absolutely worth a read.  It is worth suffering through the appropriately described trauma.

Tribe, Sebastian Junger

Tribe:  On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger is a book I saw reviewed in The Washington Post.  Sebastian Junger is probably best known for The Perfect Storm.

Started:  2/16/2017

Completed: 2/20/2017

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By:  The Washington Post

Review:

This book is small and it would appear from the introduction that it is almost instantly confrontational.  It is worth noting that the author finds some serious fault with current society (and offers a potential remedy) while acknowledging how cool things are in our society.  It is my feeling that discussions of war, soldiers, and PTSD are a foil for the larger issue of some of the benefits of tribal society.  Do we really care for each other?  Do we help each other?  Sometimes it seems like we do not and we certainly don't show the cohesiveness of a war band.  Do soldiers have a place in society?  Sometimes it appears that we do not and hollow thank-yous are an inadequate substitute for an actual job.

In the end, are we willing to band together and support one another?  This is a tribal quality that is missing in our large, complex, luxurious, and very modern society.  Whether this quality can be included in our society or not is a serious question and whether we, culturally, are actually willing to welcome such a thing is something else as well.

This book is long on questions and short on answers (which is just fine).  It is worth noting that many of the issues this book addresses are things that we all need to be able to handle as a society.  Not knowing of any reasonable answer is a little disconcerting, but the author does give us one suggestion that we can all pursue--hold a veterans day where veterans can come in and just speak their minds with other people listening.  This is a way to truly thank veterans for their service.  How many other professions/tasks are going unrecognized and leading to difficult situations?