Igor, Bring Me A Brain

A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives
Author: Cordelia Fine
Genre: Popular Science

Interesting, well-written and entertaining book about the peculiarities of the brain we walk around with, and how it influences our judgments and our actions.

The Book of Illusions

The Book of Illusions
Author: Paul Auster
Genre: Fiction

I actually don't like Paul Auster's books too much. Acclaimed literary wunderkind or not, I generally find his writing overly artificial (this impression based on having read the New York Trilogy and The Music of Chance, which may be too small a sample to judge him). Frankly speaking, in these books, I feel that he sometimes drops the ball in the quest to produce intellectual writing.

However, I really liked The Book of Illusions, which is both beautifully written and - unlike the above books - actually has a real ending, as Auster tells the story of an author who goes in search of a lost actor from the silent-movie days. He definitely has a way with words, and in this book, his abilities are not hampered by a plot that is too contrived. I'd be happy to hear of other Auster titles in the same vein.

Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Genre: Fiction

A melancholically tinged coming-of-age story with a dark twist, Never Let Me Go tells the story of Kathy, a girl growing up on a bording school where not all is what it seems.

Ishiguro has also written The Remains of the Day, later made into a movie with Anthony Hopkins, and Never Let Me Go is spiced with similar undertones of regret. A captivating and at times chilling read - I flew through it in a few days. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Talking to Your Television

The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places
Authors: Byron Reeves & Clifford Nass
Genre: Academic
Readability: Good

Two researchers, Reeves & Nass, did an interesting thing: they took a number of established theories from the social sciences and tested them on computers. Or rather, they tested them on people who dealt with computers, televisions, and other types of media.

Their finding was consistent: people generally treat media as if they were other people. For instance, they found that people are polite towards their computers.

More generally, The Media Equation explains the many different ways our human nature affects how we deal with new and old media. Interesting book – check it out if you are curious about how we interact with computers, televisions, radios, etc.