All About Books discussion

Our theme for October and November will be Psychology.

The nomination round will run for a maximum of 7 days or until 7 poll-contestants are chosen. In order to move into poll a book needs to receive a second vote. So second if you are not nominating!

Please stick to one nomination OR one second vote per person.

Should you have a question, feel free to ask in this thread!

I'd like to nominate a contemporary book, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine.

It is available in paperback and on kindle (where it's only 99p at the moment, if you want to read it anyway!)

Jean wrote: "I'd like to nominate a contemporary book, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine.

It is available in paper..."

Seconded.

Ooo good, that was quick! Thanks Alannah :)

No problem, looks like a really interesting book to discuss.

Jean wrote: "I'd like to nominate a contemporary book, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine.

It is available in paper..."

Great choice, I really liked this book a lot Jean.

ooh this is an interesting topic. I nominate How the mind works by Steven Pinker.

I have you down as my "recommender" Pink :)

Something tells me we're going to have a lot of interesting books suggested in this thread.

Jean wrote: "I have you down as my "recommender" Pink :)

Something tells me we're going to have a lot of interesting books suggested in this thread."

Looking forward to seeing them.

I nominate Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience byMihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I'd like to nominate Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are.

My mother-in-law, who is an avid reader of brain psychology literature, gave me a copy of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains with a strong recommendation for it. Since we're all on the Internet, and some of us on it quite a lot, it might be interesting to find out a bit more about what it's doing to our brains. And it's available in paperback, even though it's a fairly recent book (copyright 2010).

I nominate Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche. I've never read anything by the author, but the mixing of mythology and pschology appeals to me, and the book sounds intriguing.

My first impulse was to nominate a book I'd read & loved (Dreams), but the writing is pretty dense, and I've read it more than once. So instead I decided to nominate something new.

I wish this thread was set up before I read Freud alone. But I'm incredibly fascinated with psychology so will be happy to read more books on the subject.

I nominate Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. I've read it before, and I fancy reading it again.

Charbel wrote: "I nominate Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. I've read it before, and I fancy reading it again."

I second it!

I'm not sure if it qualifies, but can I nominate The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature by Steven Pinker

Paul wrote: "I'm not sure if it qualifies, but can I nominate The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature by Steven Pinker"

Wow, that looks good. That I will vote for!

Paul wrote: "I'm not sure if it qualifies, but can I nominate The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature by Steven Pinker"

It should do.

Charbel, what did you read by Freud? I've read several by him and Jung. What did you think of it?

Alright, so far we have 9 nominations of which 5 are seconded to move into poll:

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine (seconded)
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (seconded)
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker (seconded)
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr (seconded)
How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker (seconded)
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are by Frans de Waal
Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche by Robert A. Johnson
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

I'm going to second The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains because I think Nicholas Carr and I might be on the same wavelength. I am teetering toward Luddite-ism personally.

Greg wrote: "Charbel, what did you read by Freud? I've read several by him and Jung. What did you think of it?"

I read The Interpretation of Dreams. I thought it was good, though I don't agree with everything he said. Haven't read anything by Jung yet.

Oh man... There are SO MANY good-sounding books here... I have a big fascination with the psych field. I'd love to read all of these but since I can only second one, I second Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works because, well, I coincidentally just bought it, so that helps narrow things down a bit. ;)

Update: Oh oops, didn't see that it was already seconded!

I'd also like to add that Outliers: The Story of Success is a really interesting book. If that one doesn't win, I'd recommend still reading it anyway.

@Charbel, you'd probably like Jung a bit better; he's more nuanced than Freud. Both are more of a historical interest and yet still fascinating!

Great psych books that I've read, though I'm relatively inexperienced in the field, include:
Neuropsychoanalysis in Practice: Brain, Self and Objects by Georg Northoff
Les prodigieuses victoires de la psychologie by Pierre Daco couldn't find an English edition
The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime by Adrian Raine
And The interpretation of dreams By Feud.
Hoping to take a psych course soon, actually.

I am a bit late to the party but I thought I'd give it a try nevertheless: I'd like to nominate Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

The poll is up! Go here it vote: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

We have a winner: How the Mind Works will be our next group read, and the thread for it will be set up shortly. Since Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference lost by only one vote, I'd suggest that we take it through to the next poll for December/January, since it will be a 'carte blanche' - round again, meaning any type of non-fiction can be nominated. Would that be alright with you guys? And
Jean, when the time comes, will you remind me should my poor mind be unable to hold on to the thought? ;)

Fine by me Jenny, though I'm not sure you should have quite so much confidence in my memory...

But perhaps once we understand the book's premise, we will be able to control what we know! ;)