The 2013 Book Challenge

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bigdirtyfoot
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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by bigdirtyfoot » 22 Sep 2013 18:36

18. Coming Clean: A Conscious Guide to Food Cleanses, Suzanne Boothby, 198 pg.

A great resource for beginners interested in attempting a cleanse as well as support for those currently involved in cleansing. There are recipes and details about various types of cleanses in the latter half of the book.

Boothby includes her own personal story in this book, complete with a disastrous first cleanse experience and the detection of various food intolerances. This adds a personal touch and I can see how it could offer support for someone going through a rough time with a cleanse.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in their health or the practice of cleansing. It is a fairly short read, well-written, and packed with a lot of good information.
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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 23 Sep 2013 23:07

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp
13. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 424pp
14. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - 320pp
15. Tell-All by Chuck Palahnuik - 174pp
16. The Happiest Baby Guide To Great Sleep by Harvey Karp - 373pp [ebook - google]
17. The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish by Christopher Hitchens - 28pp [ebook - google]
18. Killing us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine by Paul Offit - 182pp [ebook - google]
19. Dodger by Terry Pratchett - 366pp
20. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody - 264pp [ebook - google]
21. The Farseeker by Isobelle Carmody - 359pp [ebook - google]
22. Ashling by Isobelle Carmody - 597pp [ebook - google]
23 The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody - 970pp [ebook - google]
24. The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody - 1098pp [ebook - google]
25. Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by Ben Goldacre - 365pp

Yay, half way there. This is the best and most important book I've read this year. It's a very detailed criticism of management of drugs by doctors, scientific bodies, regulators and pharmaceutical companies. The issue is incredibly complex, and Goldacre does an excellent job running through all the complexities, rather than offering any simplifications. It's also a useful book for understanding the scientific process in a practical sense (as opposed to reading Popper or other scientific philosophers). The positions put forward are very well supported with evidence, and measured. It's not at all a polemic against pharmaceuticals, and many different bodies are responsible for the current situation. It's also not making the fallacious argument that because some drugs are less than ideal, therefore other treatments are better. Both in his last book and this one, Goldacre takes some time to rubbish the faux medicine of supplements, alternative therapies and "super foods" as the dangerous rubbish that they are. There's no doubt that drugs have massively helped the world, and are one of the main reasons people alive today have the highest life expectancies in the history of humanity. At the same time, for a whole range of reasons, not all drugs available actually work, and many drugs are not the best drug for treating a particular disease. Lots of this has come about through innocent mistakes and unconscious bias, but some of it is a consequence of deliberate manipulation. Goldacre sells t-shirts on his website that say "I think it's more complicated than that," and that's certainly a motto for this book too. Highly recommended.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by bigdirtyfoot » 25 Sep 2013 18:32

I have a feeling I should really check out that book, Jeremy. Not sure when I'll get around to it but I'm adding it to my to-read list!

Edit: When I went on Goodreads to add this book, I noticed I already had another book by Goldacre on my to-read list - Bad Science. Must've been from you, Jeremy!
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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 25 Sep 2013 19:24

Yep both books are really good! Bad Science is more general and more about alternative "medicine" while Bad Pharma is more about scientific method and pharmaceutical drugs.

Edit; Bad Science is also much funnier than Bad Pharma. I guess Bad Science is mainly about things people waste their money on, while Bad Pharma is about things that cause many hundreds of thousands of people to unnecessarily die, so it's not surprising that it is a little portentous.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by dp » 27 Sep 2013 09:51

41. A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdı Tanpınar 447pg
42. Subtle Bodies by Norman Rush 236pg

I started studying Turkish this year and so I'll probably be trying to read some Turkish books. A Mind at Peace is about Mumtaz, a man whose love affair with a divorced mother has just ended. Most of the the book is a flashback of how the relationship progressed, but interspersed are long philosophical questions as to Turkey's place in the world, it's position between East and West. Mumtaz's struggle to figure out his own position in life post-relationship, and Nuran's (his beloved) struggle to figure out her own position during the relationship and what events led to the end of it somewhat mirror Turkey's strange position post-Ataturk where they had westernized greatly, but not completely, leaving them hanging between their Eastern past and Western aspirations. This all takes place in Istanbul in 1939, adding to the characters' concerns about the future. Overall a good book, and a good introduction to the the questions facing Turkish nationality.

Subtle Bodies just came out and I was eagerly awaiting it. I read Mating by Norman Rush in the spring and absolutely loved it, and recently gave Mating as a gift to a friend whose about to read it, and I decided to read Subtle Bodies before I reread Mating (which I'm about to do). Subtle Bodies was good, but disappointingly short and lacking a lot of the philosophical tangents Rush's books tend to take (which I really like, but many people complain about).
Danny P.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 27 Sep 2013 17:28

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp
13. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 424pp
14. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - 320pp
15. Tell-All by Chuck Palahnuik - 174pp
16. The Happiest Baby Guide To Great Sleep by Harvey Karp - 373pp [ebook - google]
17. The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish by Christopher Hitchens - 28pp [ebook - google]
18. Killing us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine by Paul Offit - 182pp [ebook - google]
19. Dodger by Terry Pratchett - 366pp
20. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody - 264pp [ebook - google]
21. The Farseeker by Isobelle Carmody - 359pp [ebook - google]
22. Ashling by Isobelle Carmody - 597pp [ebook - google]
23 The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody - 970pp [ebook - google]
24. The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody - 1098pp [ebook - google]
25. Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by Ben Goldacre - 365pp
26. The Sending by Isobelle Carmody - 704pp [ebook - google]

I think this series is like the inverse of the Star Trek movies - in this case only the even numbered books are any good. Even though it's significantly shorter than the last couple, it was still very long, but also the least amount of stuff happened of any of the books. It mainly consists of the important information from previous books being recounted, and a relatively short journey explained in exquisite detail with almost no plot developments that are meaningful in the context of the series. Also every time she changes underwear or washes her self or her clothes is described. This book could have been reduced to a single chapter without having to cut any of the plot. Also there's an interview with Isobelle Carmody at the end and she says that even though her books are long, she has to "cut and cut and cut" after the first draft. Anyway, only awaiting the final book later this year to finish the series.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by bigdirtyfoot » 01 Oct 2013 13:25

19. Catch As Catch Can: The Collected Stories and Other Writings, Joseph Heller, 333 pg.

Finally - another decent Heller book. I finished reading all of Heller's novels over the course of the past year and a half and wanted to finish his collection with this one, and I'm glad I did. I realize there are autobiographies, plays, and screenplays I could read that he wrote, but after completing his novels and short stories, I feel like I've had enough Heller.

Catch-22, Heller's first novel, was really great. I enjoyed the zaniness of it, the wacky characters, the brutal honesty about wartime, etc. The rest of his novels were not so great. They take too long to start and don't really go anywhere.

And that's why I was pleasantly surprised - almost blown away - by the quality of Heller's short stories. I'm wondering if he should've just stuck to the short format, because he did a really great job with them. He wrote about things he experienced or knew about and it makes for a great collection of stories. There are also some non-fiction pieces that aren't too shabby either. If you liked Catch-22 and are interested in more Heller, I'd check out this book rather than wade through his novels.
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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 08 Oct 2013 16:30

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp
13. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 424pp
14. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - 320pp
15. Tell-All by Chuck Palahnuik - 174pp
16. The Happiest Baby Guide To Great Sleep by Harvey Karp - 373pp [ebook - google]
17. The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish by Christopher Hitchens - 28pp [ebook - google]
18. Killing us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine by Paul Offit - 182pp [ebook - google]
19. Dodger by Terry Pratchett - 366pp
20. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody - 264pp [ebook - google]
21. The Farseeker by Isobelle Carmody - 359pp [ebook - google]
22. Ashling by Isobelle Carmody - 597pp [ebook - google]
23 The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody - 970pp [ebook - google]
24. The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody - 1098pp [ebook - google]
25. Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by Ben Goldacre - 365pp
26. The Sending by Isobelle Carmody - 704pp [ebook - google]
27. The Lost World (3D Cover, Glasses included!) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - 300pp

I really enjoyed this book. It's very fun. The characters are great. Perhaps a little "strong" (which seems to me to be a polite way of saying "shallow" and "stereotyped"). The scientists are especially amusing. Like with a number of the other classics I've read over the last few years, I thought I knew the plot from cultural references and movies, but there was a significant amount of the plot that was entirely new to me. I get the impression that it's very scientifically accurate for the time (obviously with a fictional element), but I was unconvinced that so many different species of large predators could exist on a relatively small piece of land (for example Tasmania was only capable of sustaining 8 predators of cat to dog size, prior to human settlement, while this is a piece of land that can be circumnavigated in a single day on foot through thick undergrowth and swamp). I was also doubtful of the notion of a large number of Jurassic living fossils, since that period ended 145 million years ago, and I'd expect some degree of evolution (especially Foster's Rule and other island biogeography "rules") over such a long period of time. Anyway, these are pretty academic issues. It is a great book, and I definitely recommend it :)

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by dp » 13 Oct 2013 14:25

43. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk 417pg
44. Our Man in Iraq by Robert Perišić 202pg
45. Under a Cruel Star by Heda Margolius Kovaly 192pg
46. Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner 181pg

Continuing with the Turkish theme, I read this Orhan Pamuk book. It's the second Pamuk book I've read and I'm pretty sure I won't read any more of his. He kinda sucks. Sadly, Turkey has almost no tradition of novels, so novels are not going to be an effective way of learning about Turkey unless I find books other people wrote taking place in Turkey perhaps. I believe Pushkin wrote a travel account of going through Turkey? Maybe I'll start looking in that sort of direction.

Our Man in Iraq, or, originally, Naš Čovjek na Terenu, is a Croatian book I bought in Croatia this summer. I got the English translation from the library and read it, and now I'm working on reading the Croatian version with the English translation at my side. It's slow going, but it's a lot of fun and it's the first time I've compared a translation to the original and it's very cool to see what decisions the translator has to make. The book itself is enjoyable, and very beautifully captures the feeling of the environment in today's Croatia, as far as I can tell.

A holocaust/oppression-of-communism memoir I had to read for a class of 20th Century Eastern European History. Not very good or enlightening, the author paints things in a light that makes me not trust her very much.

I read Leaving the Atocha Station earlier this year, and once the year before. I'm not sure what's driven me to read it this 3rd time. I've written about it before (I think) so I don't feel like doing it again now. However, apparently Ben Lerner is writing another novel and I'm very excited for it.
Danny P.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 13 Oct 2013 16:47

Goodreads is good for book ideas;

https://www.goodreads.com/places/49-turkey

I haven't read any of those books, but Robert Fisk's Great War for Civilisation has a chapter or two on Turkey, especially about the Armenian Genocide, and maybe that book will slow you down a little ;). Hitchens wrote a lot about Turkey too, although that work is spread out across his compilation of article books. I recommend both if you want some political non-fiction.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Zac Miley » 18 Oct 2013 18:28

1. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, John Perry
2. Steppenwolf, Herman Hesse
3. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
6. The Fold/Leibniz and the Baroque, Gilles Deleuze
7. Diaries 1914-1923, Franz Kafka
8. Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu
9. Richard Serra: Line Drawings, Gagosian gallery
10. Richard Serra: Drawings Zeichnungen 1969-1990, several contributors
11. Unknown Terrain: The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth, several contributors
12. Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges
13. Animal Farm, George Orwell
14. Candide, Voltaire
15. The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty, Dave Hickey
16. The Prince, Machiavelli
17. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
18. The World as I Found It, Bruce Duffy
19. The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
20. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
21. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
22. Dubliners, James Joyce
23. The Trial, Franz Kafka
24. Glory, Vladimir Nabokov
25. Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
26. Wittgenstein, P.M.S. Hacker
27. On Certainty, Ludwig Wittgenstein
28. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
29. Futility, William Gerhardie
30. Harry Potter #6, JK Rowling
31. Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
32. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
33. The Portable DH Lawrence, Some Lady
34. The Louvre: All the Paintings

Both of those took forever - the second deservingly, seeing as it is monstrous. DH Lawrence read pretty fast, I just didn't really have any time the past few weeks.

Toulmins or Borges next I think.
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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 20 Oct 2013 19:28

DH Lawrence is on my list of authors to read in the near future.

Speaking of which, I was thinking that a cool idea, that I once tried to introduce to Modified in the past, would be a book club or something along those lines. Perhaps we could start it at the beginning of next year. I know there are only a few regular participants in this, but for the 4 of us who have stuck with this over the years it might be fun :P.

I think because we have different reading paces although mainly comparable tastes, my idea is that next year each of the people who are participating at the start of the year would nominate one book, and then all of would have to try to read that in the year. It would be completely up to the nominator what book they choose, but ideally it would be something they haven't read that they think would appeal to the whole group. Obviously nobody has to read the books chosen, but I think it would be nice to generate more discussion between us on the same book and maybe encourage us to read books that we wouldn't otherwise have read. I guess we should restrict the nominations to fiction, and ideally less than ~500 pages. Perhaps we could have a separate topic for discussing those books as you read them too.

Next year I plan on listing a few books I aim to read for the year as goals at the start, and aiming to knock over some big books instead of getting to 50 too (but I won't nominate Remembrance of Things Past for the "book club").

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Zac Miley » 22 Oct 2013 16:16

I'm down, Jeremy. I don't think it should be restricted to fiction, as long as it isn't thoroughly dull/expository. That's just my opinion, though. I'm sure I would pick fiction either way.

I have a nagging feeling that you will hate DH Lawrence's ideals, but I'm not sure. His thoughts on male-female relations are very interesting.
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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 22 Oct 2013 18:23

Yeah I guess if people are free not to read the suggested book, it would be fine to suggest non-fiction. People should just be aware that they're possibly wasting their choice. I guess ease of access to the book is also something to consider. At the same time, I hope that other people choose books that I probably wouldn't have otherwise read.

I've noticed a lot of authors I really like are influenced by DH Lawrence, or really like his work, so that's my main reason for wanting to read it. I think though it's entirely possible to not agree with somebody and still appreciate their writing.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 25 Oct 2013 17:34

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp
13. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 424pp
14. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - 320pp
15. Tell-All by Chuck Palahnuik - 174pp
16. The Happiest Baby Guide To Great Sleep by Harvey Karp - 373pp [ebook - google]
17. The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish by Christopher Hitchens - 28pp [ebook - google]
18. Killing us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine by Paul Offit - 182pp [ebook - google]
19. Dodger by Terry Pratchett - 366pp
20. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody - 264pp [ebook - google]
21. The Farseeker by Isobelle Carmody - 359pp [ebook - google]
22. Ashling by Isobelle Carmody - 597pp [ebook - google]
23 The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody - 970pp [ebook - google]
24. The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody - 1098pp [ebook - google]
25. Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by Ben Goldacre - 365pp
26. The Sending by Isobelle Carmody - 704pp [ebook - google]
27. The Lost World (3D Cover, Glasses included!) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - 300pp
28. Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan - 48pp
29. Paleofantasy: What evolution really tells us about sex, diet, and how we live by Marlene Zuc - 277pp [ebook]

Rules of Summer
A children's picture book, with probably less than 50 words in total. I'm a big fan of Tan's illustrations though, and especially in this book, where they have a dystopian steampunk feel. The book is quite dark, but funny. Obviously our baby is too young to understand what's going on, but we figure it's better to get into the habit of reading to her often, rather than wait until we know she can understand what's going on. Also it's fun reading to babies, even when they're only 5 weeks old.

Paleofantasy
I really enjoyed this, although for the content more than the debunking. I think it should be pretty obvious that the "paleo" diet is unhealthy, and an example of a naturalistic fallacy, so it didn't need debunking for me, but the book is mainly about evolution, and especially recent evolution, and I found that part fascinating. I think it was particularly good at describing the complexity of evolution; things like linkage, competing selection processes, and uncertainties in our evolutionary history. This is done mainly through describing results from various studies, so it's really building practical knowledge as well as theoretical knowledge. A lot of these are things that were covered in my undergraduate degree, but not in as much detail or in relation to human evolution, so I felt like I was still learning a lot.

In terms of the "paleofantasy", she does a good job destroying the "paleo diet", demonstrating that it's unhealthy, doesn't reflect our paleolithic diet, that we've evolved since then, and that it's logical to think that what we ate in the past is better for us than what we eat now anyway. However on a number of the other "paleo" directions for life I found it a lot less convincing. Exercise was the example that stood out most, where I don't think she even reached a conclusion about what we should do, which is fine, since there is so much conflicting evidence, but doesn't really fit with the stated purpose of the book. I also thought it was a bit uncool to quote random internet comments as examples of the paleo-movement, since I'm sure you can find people saying stupid things who support any movement. It would have been better to at least quote published books on the topics, or people who are considered "authorities" in the paleo-movement.

Anyway this is a really interesting book about recent evolution, both in humans and through experimental evolutionary biology. The criticisms of the paleo movement were less interesting, but if you believe any of that rubbish, or know people who do, it's probably a good book to read, or if you're interested in human evolution or recent evolution.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by dp » 26 Oct 2013 07:23

First of all: Baby! That's fantastic. I didn't know it was out and about in the world already!

Second, what leads you to say you think paleo is so obviously unhealthy? I don't really know too much about it, but it has always seemed reasonable to me. My understanding was it was basically: most of the volume of your food should be vegetables, some fruits are good, get a bunch of your calories from meat, don't eat processed stuff.

Also, the book club idea sounds great to me.
Danny P.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 26 Oct 2013 13:32

Cheers, it's a girl and we named her Sophie :)

It's worth noting that there are ranges of paleo diets. Also for some people it may well be healthier than their normal diet (without being healthy). Eating more vegetables and less processed food is generally good, however the Paleo diet is clearly unbalanced. If you look at a food pyramid, which aren't particularly accurate but a reasonable guideline, the Paleo cuts out the entire base group that you're supposed to be eating the most of (rice, bread and pasta) and on the third level it cuts out beans and dairy, leaving just meat (I don't remember if you can eat eggs or not). It also recommends increasing the portion of meat you eat. So most of your protein comes from one source, you get a lot less carbs and you eat more meat. The evidence for the diet comes from a study where the people on this diet lost weight rapidly, but the problem was that had healthy weights prior to the change in diet. Not being overweight and then changing diet so you lose weight quickly is a clear sign that something is unhealthy. If anything, the growing evidence suggests we eat too much meat, and would be healthier eating less.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by bigdirtyfoot » 26 Oct 2013 16:59

20. Virtual Light, William Gibson, 350 pg.

Another enjoyable Gibson book. Virtual Light is the first book in The Bridge trilogy. It takes place in a dystopian California, in a postmodern time (2005). The state has been divided into two parts - NoCal and SoCal. Virtual Light (VL) is a form of instrumentation that produces optical sensations directly in the eye without the use of photons.

Berry Rydell, a former cop who has recently become a bounty hunter, is searching for a pair of stolen VL glasses that contain secret plans to redesign San Francisco. They are not only expensive, but coveted by their powerful owners, who are determined to get them back. Chevette Washington is a bike messenger who has obtained these glasses and is unaware of their incredible value. Rydell and Chevette meet in an unlikely way, and together they dodge danger from both left and right.

There is a lot of class disparity in the world that these characters live in. There are a select few who are rich, and the remaining masses are poor. There is no middle class. This sounds eerily familiar to the way things are headed in our world right now.

This certainly wasn't my favorite Gibson book, but it is still a great book, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of The Bridge trilogy.

-----

Jeremy, I would definitely be interested in doing a modified book club next year! Maybe we should get a list of people that are interested and divide up the year according to the amount of interested people? For example, if four people are interested, then we read one book every three months? Anyways, I'd be interested for sure!
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Jeremy
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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Jeremy » 31 Oct 2013 16:17

Good idea about setting dates for each person Dave. Also I really enjoyed Virtual Light. It was the first WG I read, although I haven't read the others in that series. I think I'm going to read some of his non-sci-fi work soon though, since I've heard a lot of good things about it.

1. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson - 390pp
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 272pp [ebook - google]
3. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy by W. Allan Walker - 241pp [ebook pdf]
4. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier - 192pp
5. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - 288pp [ebook - google]
6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 437pp
7. Extinct Boids by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy - 240pp
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 384pp [ebook - google]
9. The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570pp
10. Sideshow; Dumbing down democracy by Lindsay Tanner - 202pp
11. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 345pp [ebook - google]
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - 96pp
13. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - 424pp
14. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - 320pp
15. Tell-All by Chuck Palahnuik - 174pp
16. The Happiest Baby Guide To Great Sleep by Harvey Karp - 373pp [ebook - google]
17. The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish by Christopher Hitchens - 28pp [ebook - google]
18. Killing us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine by Paul Offit - 182pp [ebook - google]
19. Dodger by Terry Pratchett - 366pp
20. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody - 264pp [ebook - google]
21. The Farseeker by Isobelle Carmody - 359pp [ebook - google]
22. Ashling by Isobelle Carmody - 597pp [ebook - google]
23 The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody - 970pp [ebook - google]
24. The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody - 1098pp [ebook - google]
25. Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by Ben Goldacre - 365pp
26. The Sending by Isobelle Carmody - 704pp [ebook - google]
27. The Lost World (3D Cover, Glasses included!) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - 300pp
28. Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan - 48pp
29. Paleofantasy: What evolution really tells us about sex, diet, and how we live by Marlene Zuc - 277pp [ebook]
30. How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain De Botton - 208pp

This book was interesting, but also a bit frustrating. I've been meaning to read some De Botton and also Proust (next year), so it was a good starter :P. This was reasonably funny, especially because Proust was such a strange person. He reminded me a lot of Ignatius Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces. He'd only eat one meal a day, write huge letters complaining about trivial things, was a hypochondriac, always wore a fur coat, lived with his mum. It did make me wonder whether Ignatius is supposed to be a parody of him. Anyway that aspect was the main thing I enjoyed about the book. The lessons to learn from Proust were mainly unconvincing, and although I agreed with some, no effort was made to convince the reader of their veracity. The book was also (probably deliberately) contradicting. Many of the lessons are contradicted by later lessons, and indeed it makes the point that Proust didn't follow the lessons very well either, although some are derived by his life (rather than his books).

I guess I'd classify this book as fun and thought provoking, but light and not very useful.

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Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Post by Pasquar » 04 Nov 2013 08:03

1) The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West 203 pg.
2) Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez 346 pg.
3) Whole Self/Whole World: Quality of Life in the 21st Century by Eric Gerinke 119 pg.
4) Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West 219 pg.
5) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman 245 pg.
6) The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson 189 pg.
7) The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in America by Winthrop Jordan 229 pg.
8 ) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass 99pg
9) La Raza: The Mexican Americans by Stan Steiner 392 pg
10) Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters 256 pg.
11) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig 406pg.
12) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins 265pg.
13) Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 371pg.
14) Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin 125 pg.
15) The Underdogs (Los de abajo) by Mariano Azuela 150 pg.
16) The Huey P. Newton Reader by Huey P. Newton with David Hilliard and Donald Weise 360 pg.
17) You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation by Deborah Tannen 298 pg.
18 ) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 396 pg.
19) Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley 142 pg.
20) The Other America: Poverty in the United States by Michael Harrington 186 pg.
21) Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill Mckibben 272 pg.

Finished this a little bit ago. Definitely dragging my feet on reading more recently since I stopped reading during work :wink:

This book was good, it basically outlines the issues we have with what we define as the "economy" and how things start to turn south when it becomes too big (think globalization). When we live in a world that is so focused on "growth" measured in Gross National Product (GNP), our priorities including the realities of living in a world with limited natural resources are really skewed. Bill McKibben is a well-known environmentalist and founder of the national organization "350.org", so he's really serious about global warming and all that. Beyond the realities of climate change though, he argues that the best thing we can do is to drastically scale back into small communities where people can have local and sustainable energy and food resources as opposed to the highly subsidized and centralized systems we have in place now and something closer to resembling actual democracy can flourish.

It's a very easy read and he uses a lot of research, but it's not overly-heady. I do think he pays less than lip service to (global) capitalism's role in this and in the same vain dismisses socialism/communism without much backing, even though what he describes to me sounds like a form of anarchism, so I think McKibben has a bit of an identity crisis he's still dealing with :lol:
Nick Pasquarello


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