Month: July 2011

author: Randy O. Frost
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/06/30
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: ebook, psychology, non-fiction, read-again, favorites
review:
I’ve been done with this for at least a week, maybe two, but I’ve been procrastinating writing my review. (So much so that the book has expired out of Overdrive, which means I lost all my bookmarks. Argh.) In any case, for someone with a family history of hoarding — particularly my paternal grandmother — and a personal tendency that way, this was fascinating, illuminating, and scary. Very compassionate, deals less with the cases that end up on TV than the otherwise normal-seeming people who have houses crammed with things, and the various psychological issues involved. I feel like I need to read it again and make notes. (FWIW, I think I have a lot of digital hoarding issues, too; bookmarks that will never be read, recipes that will never be made, etc., etc.) Very highly recommended.

author: Randy O. Frost
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/06/30
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: ebook, psychology, non-fiction, read-again, favorites
review:
I’ve been done with this for at least a week, maybe two, but I’ve been procrastinating writing my review. (So much so that the book has expired out of Overdrive, which means I lost all my bookmarks. Argh.) In any case, for someone with a family history of hoarding — particularly my paternal grandmother — and a personal tendency that way, this was fascinating, illuminating, and scary. Very compassionate, deals less with the cases that end up on TV than the otherwise normal-seeming people who have houses crammed with things, and the various psychological issues involved. I feel like I need to read it again and make notes. (FWIW, I think I have a lot of digital hoarding issues, too; bookmarks that will never be read, recipes that will never be made, etc., etc.) Very highly recommended.

author: Randy O. Frost
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/06/30
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: ebook, non-fiction, psychology, read-again, wishlist
review:
I’ve been done with this for at least a week, maybe two, but I’ve been procrastinating writing my review. (So much so that the book has expired out of Overdrive, which means I lost all my bookmarks. Argh.) In any case, for someone with a family history of hoarding — particularly my paternal grandmother — and a personal tendency that way, this was fascinating, illuminating, and scary. Very compassionate, deals less with the cases that end up on TV than the otherwise normal-seeming people who have houses crammed with things, and the various psychological issues involved. I feel like I need to read it again and make notes. (FWIW, I think I have a lot of digital hoarding issues, too; bookmarks that will never be read, recipes that will never be made, etc., etc.) Very highly recommended.

author: Bill Bryson
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/07/05
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: ebook, history, non-fiction
review:
I wanted this to be better than it was. Great anecdotes, but essentially all anecdote, and very much fixated on Victorian England. Which I suppose makes sense since he was riffing on an 1851 house, but still somewhat disappointing. Gave it an extra star because it was clever and entertaining.

author: Bill Bryson
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/07/05
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: ebook, history, non-fiction
review:
I wanted this to be better than it was. Great anecdotes, but essentially all anecdote, and very much fixated on Victorian England. Which I suppose makes sense since he was riffing on an 1851 house, but still somewhat disappointing. Gave it an extra star because it was clever and entertaining.

author: Bill Bryson
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/07/05
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: ebook, history, non-fiction
review:
I wanted this to be better than it was. Great anecdotes, but essentially all anecdote, and very much fixated on Victorian England. Which I suppose makes sense since he was riffing on an 1851 house, but still somewhat disappointing. Gave it an extra star because it was clever and entertaining.

author: Bill Bryson
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/07/05
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: ebook, history, non-fiction
review:
I wanted this to be better than it was. Great anecdotes, but essentially all anecdote, and very much fixated on Victorian England. Which I suppose makes sense since he was riffing on an 1851 house, but still somewhat disappointing. Gave it an extra star because it was clever and entertaining.

author: David Berlinski
name: Elaine
average rating: 2.50
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2011/07/03
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: didnt-finish, ebook, history, non-fiction, science
review:
meh. couldn’t get into it.

author: Jonah Lehrer
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2011/06/30
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: art, biography, ebook, history, non-fiction, science
review:
An intriguing collection of essays on 19th & 20th century artists & writers and their connections to (or foreshadowing of) psychology and neuroscience. Fascinating both for the personal histories and for the science. What’s stuck with me is both the weirdness of perception and the malleability of the brain. FWIW, that second bit actually brings me a lot of hope and comfort.

Even as a writer, I got annoyed after a while with the touches of “oh some things can never be explained” (I’m paraphrasing badly) bits. Felt a bit hand-wavey.

Still, quite interesting.