Books You Can't Shut Up About

[thesummerqueen]

Thanks for the unsolicited and overly assumptive advice - I spend quite a good bit of my spare time reading. It's just that people keep writing things.

[Clueless Morgan]

This is just a suggestion, but maybe some of you should spend less time compiling lists and more time reading.

It takes about 20 seconds to add a book to my amazon wishlist and a helluva lot longer than that to read the book. It's not like if I stopped looking for new books to read I could read everything on my list in the time I'm saving.

[thesummerqueen]

Let's not forget that in one good non-fiction book, there could be at least a dozen titles listed as sources in the back which you might then want to peruse. That immediately adds more books to your list, but not necessarily the time to read them all.

[Pyrrho]

This is just a suggestion, but maybe some of you should spend less time compiling lists and more time reading.

It takes about 20 seconds to add a book to my amazon wishlist and a helluva lot longer than that to read the book. It's not like if I stopped looking for new books to read I could read everything on my list in the time I'm saving.

I would reply with, you could be twenty seconds into a book... but unfortunately, tone of voice, facial expression, and body language, all are important parts of communication that are lost in online threads. I realize that there are smilies that people use, but they are a poor substitute for reality, and they also tend to give the game away immediately, as they are noticed before the text is read, even if they appear at the end (with the exception of really long posts, but even then, they are noticed long before the end of reading the text). And without these extra parts, very often people take the bare words in the worst possible way. It is one of the causes of online misunderstandings and disputes, though obviously not the only cause of such things.

[Angrboda]

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts


Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain

[Clueless Morgan]

It takes about 20 seconds to add a book to my amazon wishlist and a helluva lot longer than that to read the book. It's not like if I stopped looking for new books to read I could read everything on my list in the time I'm saving.

I would reply with, you could be twenty seconds into a book...

You're a smart ass :p

The additions to my wishlist mostly happen when I'm at work listening to a podcast, audiobook, documentary on youtube or something that recommends an author or book that sounds interesting so my attention isn't available for most in-depth, engrossing books. I can usually only listen to material I don't care whether I recall later on.

Let's not forget that in one good non-fiction book, there could be at least a dozen titles listed as sources in the back which you might then want to peruse.

I've got a couple books that give the reference material at the end of each chapter, and some chapters have two or three pages of cited works.

Bibliographies are gold mines. I try to forget they're there.

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Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

I think this is one on my wishlist...

[Brakeman]

It takes about 20 seconds to add a book to my amazon wishlist and a helluva lot longer than that to read the book. It's not like if I stopped looking for new books to read I could read everything on my list in the time I'm saving.

I would reply with, you could be twenty seconds into a book...

He's right Clueless, Christians could read five bibles in that 20 seconds and believe every word!

[Clueless Morgan]

He's right Clueless, Christians could read five bibles in that 20 seconds and believe every word!

That's about how far into the bible as I get before I hurl it across the room

[Thumpalumpacus]

Collapse, by Jared Diamond is probably the best book I've ever read. Jared Diamond is a genius in a way that very few people are.

I see your Diamond and raise you a Boorstin.

Oh yeah. The Discoverers is a great book. The Creators, as well, though I prefer the former.

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He's right Clueless, Christians could read five bibles in that 20 seconds and believe every word!

That's about how far into the bible as I get before I hurl.

Edited to reflect my personal experience.

[Crossless2.0]

Collapse, by Jared Diamond is probably the best book I've ever read. Jared Diamond is a genius in a way that very few people are.

I see your Diamond and raise you a Boorstin.

*Realizes that CapnAwesome and Cato are holding strong hands. Looks at cards, draws a deep breath, and tosses his books into the pot*

I call: Barbara Tuchman.