Bent Bindings

[review] Predictably Irrational

I’ve talked a couple of times on this site about how I go about picking the next book I’m going to read. The book in this review came to me through a somewhat different route.

I listen to a podcast about technology called This Week In Tech (or TWIT for short). It allows me to keep up on all things tech and is quite entertaining. If you’re like me, and are interested in technology, it’s certainly worth checking out. Not to mention, quite often they talk about books.

In this case, the book was Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, and I’m guessing I would not have picked this book up if not for the discussion on the TWIT podcast. However, I’m very glad I did.

The Blurb on the Back

When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we’re in control. We think we are making smart, rational choices. But are we?

In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.

Not only do we make astonishingly simple mistakes every day, but we make the same types of mistakes, Ariely discovers. We consistently overpay, underestimate and procrastinate. We fail to understand the profound effects of our emotions on what we want, and we overvalue what we already own. Yet this misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They’re systematic and predictable — making us predictably irrational.

Comically Serious

I don’t know that I would have picked this book up under my general meanderings if it wasn’t for TWIT, since books about behavioral science, and more specifically behavioral economic science, really aren’t my usual cup of tea. However, Dan Ariely does a nice job of making behavior economics interesting and entertaining.

One of the most interesting part of this book is the fact that you can very easily see yourself in any of these experiments, and most likely you would respond like the people mentioned in the book. One example of this is an experiment in which the author pretends to be working for a beer company and offers free samples of four different beers to tables of four people at a restaurant. He picks one person at the table and asks which beer he would like to sample, and then goes around asking everyone else. The first person picked the one they wanted the most, but as the author went around the table, the diners inevitably managed to pick all the four types of beer. Now, when the author returned with sheets asking the diners to rate their beers, who do you think liked theirs the best? That’s right, the person who picked first (and got to pick what they really wanted).

Now ask yourself if you’ve ever been at a restaurant and changed what you ordered because the person who ordered before you picked your fist choice. I know I’ve done it, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t as happy with my meal when it finally did show up.

This book is filled with many things like this. One experiments show that we are unwilling to let options disappear, even when we know those options aren’t worth that much. Simply losing the ability to choose something else scares us.

Another experiment shows that if you want to sell something, create something that’s easy for someone to compare it to. The makers of the first bread machine actually created a bigger, more expensive bread machine just to sell the one they really wanted to sell.

Basically Profound

The experiments described in the book are varied and numerous, but the off-the-cuff, “pal sitting next to you” manner in which Dan Ariely writes, makes the book that much more enjoyable. I am the pinnacle of ignorance when it comes to behavior science, so it was nice that Mr. Ariely was able to make the material (which could have been dry) very digestible and entertaining without making me feel like I was being talked down to.

Now, on the other side of that, and my only real complaint about the book, is the fact that in some cases the details of things are glossed over. In certain cases I would have liked to have seen more in-depth discussion of the specific topic being addressed. But that is a small complaint, and an understandable problem with a book such as this.

I enjoyed my walk through the world of the Predictably Irrational, and I thank the folks at TWIT for discussing it and bringing it to my attention.

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Grade: A-
Who would like this book: People even remotely interested in what makes people behave the way they do.
Who would not like this book: People who are already familiar with behavioral science. I imagine this would be a rather rudimentary book for them.

Dr. House and Sherlock Holmes

I know there are bunch of book readers out there who think that television is the root of all evil and the thing that is damning our entire civilization. I’m not one of those people. I enjoy television.

I really enjoy it when I can take a character on television and see his or here roots in literature. Dr. Gregory House from Fox’s “House” is one such character. I believe that he was based on one of the most well known literary detectives of all time — Sherlock Holmes.

Here are some reasons why I think this.

• They are both socially awkward. Both Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes disregard social norms when dealing with others. Dr. House does so in a much more intentional way, while Sherlock Holmes just really doesn’t care about social norms. For both of them, the standard things that people do to get along are boring and cumbersome.
• They are both addicted to drugs. Gregory House is addicted to pain killers to keep his mind from noticing the pain in his leg. Sherlock Holmes was addicted to cocaine in order to activate his mind when nothing interesting was challenging him.
• They both have a friend who helps them in the world. For Sherlock Holmes, of course, this was Dr. Watson. For Gregory House, this is the somewhat similarly named Dr. Wilson. Both of these people help the main character deal with society. Dr. Watson is much more hands on — he’s generally the guy who brings the gun or gets into the fight with the killer when it’s necessary. Dr. Wilson does things in a more subtle way, either bringing Dr. House back to reality or picking up after the mess that he leaves. Both Dr. Wilson and Dr. Watson were also roommates of the main characters at some time during the stories, and both help them interact with “normal” people.
• They both live for the challenge. Both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. House come alive when confronted with a challenging mystery. Dr. House, for all his disregard of people, loves the challenge of figuring out what’s wrong with them. He only cares about those cases, and gets bored with the others. Sherlock Holmes was much the same way. He was only excited about life when the “chase was afoot” and he was working on a challenging case. When Watson tried to keep him from going back to cocaine, it was by making sure he had a challenging mystery to solve. When he didn’t, he would go into a slump.

I’m not saying Dr. House is going to start smoking a pipe or wearing a dearhunter cap anytime soon, just that the similarities are there. What other characters in television do you see based on characters from literature? Let us know in the comments.

[Review] The Silent Man by Alex Berenson

My friends and I enjoy going to movies quite a bit. I’ve always been a big fan of them, and always made friends with people who like movies. We see them, we talk about them, we quote them incessantly to the annoyance of our girlfriends and wives.

One of the terms that we use, and I’m sure it’s not unique to us, is the term “Popcorn Movie.” A Popcorn Movie is a movie that isn’t going to change your life or have you walking out of the theater a different person. A Popcorn Movie is an enjoyable action movie. It’s high on special effects, but it’s got enough plot and dialogue that you don’t feel like you’re watching a series of explosions tied together with nothing. Popcorn Movies are good movies, and ones that are worth seeing at the theater so you take advantage of all the sound and spectacle that they carry with them.

Alex Berenson’s The Silent Man is the book equivalent of a Popcorn Movie. It’s not going to redefine a genre or change the way you think about the world, but it will take you on an enjoyable, fast-paced ride through international intrigue.

The Blurb from the Back

CIA agent John Wells thought he’d reached his limits when he nearly died while stopping a plot that could have drawn the United States and China into war. Wells is exhausted and his nights are filled with disturbing dreams, but he knows he must gather his strength. He has made many enemies, and the world won’t stay quiet for long.

Nevertheless, he is not prepared for what is about to happen. Wells and his colleague — and fiancee — Jennifer Exley are on their way to work at Langley when traffic comes to a standstill. An accident has blocked the bridge ahead. Wells begins to get a bad feeling, a feeling that gets worse when he spots the motorcycle zooming up between cars toward him. Within a few minutes, several people will be dead or severely injured. Exley among them, and Wells will be a man possessed.

Wells believes he knows who is behind the attack. He wants revenge for himself, despite the pleas of his bosses at the CIA, and even of Exley, that he wait. But as he tracks his adversaries to Russia, and then Europe, he will find much more than he expects. An Islamic terrorist plan of unimaginable consequences is in motion. As he tries to stop it, Wells will have to decide how much his honor is worth — and whether he can face losing the woman he loves.

Bad Guys and Good Guys

As I said in the introduction, The Silent Man is the book equivalent of a summer blockbuster. I don’t know that there’s really anything new in the story, which mainly comes down to stopping a terrorist plan to set off a nuclear device within the United States. It does carry you through that story, though, and at a pretty quick pace.

The moments of suspense are scattered throughout, though occasionally they come to a very quick end via the brash, off-the-cuff actions of the main character. He’s not what you would call a cerebral agent, he’s more the beat people up, ask questions after (if you can) kind of agent.

This does present one of the aspects of the book that I didn’t really like. It’s not just this book that has done it, but it’s a trend I’m noticing in quite a few books like it. It essentially comes down to the fact that the characters of the “Bad Guys” were actually more sympathetic than the character of the “Good Guy.”

Early on in the book, part of the action follows the bad guys as they attempt to steal the nuclear device from it’s storage facility in Russia. It’s a delicate balancing act at this point, because it was done in a way where you were really rooting for the guys to actually get away with it. It’s a strange feeling, because I really shouldn’t be hoping for that.

That comes through in other parts of the novel as well, especially since the character of Wells is very brash and almost irresponsible in regards to the people around him. So not only did I find myself sympathizing with the bad guys, I found myself not really liking the good guy. As I say, it’s a balancing act, because you need to set up suspense on both sides of the fence, but in a book such as this, the lines almost need to be more defined between good and bad.

With that said, in the end, The Silent Man delivers an enjoyable experience and doesn’t try to be what it’s not. Just make sure to have your popcorn handy.

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Grade: B
Who would like this book: Any fans of the spy thriller genre, or those looking for a good adventure story.
Who would not like this book: People who don’t like “Popcorn Movies.”

Note: This book was sent to me as a review copy. While I try not to let this alter my review, I feel that it is only fair, in the interest of full disclosure, to let you know.

[Review] The Tale of Desperaux

I may have said it before in earlier articles, but one of the challenges of reading to a child frequently is finding books that are entertaining to you as well was your child. It’s similar to what makes the Pixar movies so popular; movies like Cars or Toy Story. On one level, they are fantastic for kids and are great adventure stories, but on another level they are great for the parents, too.

The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo is one such book. It had me encouraging my daughter to pick it for the read of the night, just so I could find out what happened next.

The Story

As the subtitle of the book states: “Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread.” The Tale of Desperaux is a story of a mouse and princess. As with any great love story, they meet at the beginning of the book, are separated, and must find one another once again. Along the way our brave mouse faces dangers, including rats, dungeons and a cook. To find out the rest, you’ll have to read it yourself.

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Moby Dick - The “Tell, Don’t Show” Section

Whenever I’ve taken creative writing courses, the rule that always comes out is “Show, don’t tell.” It’s the number one rule to remember when writing fiction. You don’t tell the audience that a character is ruthless, you set up scenes that demonstrate the character’s ruthlessness. You don’t tell the audience that it is a dark and stormy night, you create the feeling with direct facts of trees blowing around and references to the darkness itself.

I’m now on chapter fifty-two of Moby Dick, and the section I just finished violates the “Show, don’t tell” rule throughout. I’m guessing that when people try and read this book, it’s this section that makes them quit.

What started as a good adventure story has taken a little pause in order to fill in the reader on all kinds of factual things about whaling. While I understand the potential importance of this, entire chapters have read more like a text book than a work of fiction. Chapter thirty-two for example is a complete description of all the different varieties of whale and how one goes about classifying the different types. Not the kind of thing that keeps you riveted to the book.

It’s also interesting to note that during this very chapter, the author mentions “God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught — nay, but the draught of a draught.” There are quite a few places during this section that feel like they were added after the story was created, and just thrown in willy-nilly, without much thought as to how it might affect the pacing. The chapters that push the story forward feel like they aren’t aware of these long chapters of exposition.

Other Characters

During this stage, a few characters have been introduced to us, and we’ve been given glimpses of Ahab and his own character. It’s interesting that I made the last note as pre-ahab, because the introduction of Ahab himself was done with quite a bit of buildup and suspense. He lived down in his cabin until the ship was out to sea, and when he finally really came alive and talked to the crew, it was to get them to commit their souls to hunting down the white whale.

We’ve also had small glimpses into the officers of the ship and the other harpooners (other than Queequeg). We haven’t learned much about their characters yet, other than Starbuck looks to be the most level headed of the group, and the one who will most likely challenge Ahab directly.

I hope that the next section of the book builds more on these characters and moves away from the textbook style of the last section. Then maybe I’ll get the next posting about this one up a bit quicker (it’s been a challenge to force myself through this last section).

New Questions

A couple new questions. With the textbook chapters, only so much of the story has progressed, so I don’t have too many new ones.

• How will the oath that the sailors took play into the story? How much of the influence of putting ones soul on the line will impact people’s actions?
• Ahab is intent on the White Whale, but will we get to see the crew in action taking on other whales as well? We’ve seen the start of one so far, but they got turned back by weather. I’m still curious about what the crew does when it actually catches a whale.
• The introduction of the stowaways that man Ahab’s boat was interesting and somewhat unexpected. How will these new characters influence the story and the crew? They were not part of the crew’s oath to Ahab, will that play into things?

[Review] Ralphina the Roly-Poly

I’ll start this review with a bit of a disclaimer. Ralphina, the Roly-poly by Claudia Chandler is the first real children’s book that I’ve reviewed, so it will probably take a bit of a different approach as intricate discussions of the plot line and character development won’t really come into play.

Also, I must disclose that this review, while not being written by her, was heavily influenced by the reactions of my 5-1/2 year old daughter, Amanda. She has helped out by giving me full access to her own critical reactions to the work.

So we’ll start with overall critical reaction: “I really liked it, Daddy.” › Continue reading

Moby Dick - Pre-Ahab

Okay, so I’ve read through the first part of the book. The boys are on the boat, but they haven’t yet met the elusive Captain Ahab. At this point, I thought I’d jot down some first impressions.

First off, I have to say I’m enjoying the story quite a bit. The narrator has a unique way of putting his own flavor on everything, but seems to be a level-headed guy. Queequeg is an incredibly entertaining and curious character, and the initial meeting between Queequeg and Ishmael had me laughing to myself.

Secondly, there’s quite a bit of build-up in this first section. Almost too much, in my opinion. There are portents and prophecies and allusions to the dark, dangerous trip our narrator is about the embark on. It’s good, that it sets the mood, but I’m starting to think it’s a bit much. At some of the points, I found myself saying, “Okay, we get it, these guys are probably not making the best decision. Enough, let’s get on with it.”

There was also an interesting line in chapter 11 that keeps coming back to me as the book progresses. It’s when Ishmael is laying in bed, and he’s commenting on how the only way to really enjoy your body is being warm is when there’s a bit of it that is cold. The part that stands out is this:

… for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.

This leads me to think that the book itself will present us with quite a few points of contrast. We already have one going between the educated and Presbyterian Ishmael and the uneducated “savage” heathen that is Queequeg. I’m curious to see if we might see more contrasts such as this present themselves throughout the work.

Overall, though, a pretty encouraging start to the book.

Questions/Comments

• So far the narrator has made some decisions. The most important one being the boat that he and Queequeg got on. However, he also got pushed into making a decision by Queequeg and his idol. Will he continue to be a factor in the direction of the book or more of an observer?
• It looks like Ahab has already had his run-in with the whale before we met him. It’s been mentioned that he’s “sick”, is this sickness his need for vengeance or something else?
• I’m curious to see what the first meeting of Ahab and Queequeg is like. We know something of the character of Queequeg, will Ahab’s reaction to him tell us something about Ahab’s character?

[Review] Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is one of those authors that has made enough of a name for himself that he scares people away. I’ve encountered many people who have never read Vonnegut because they thought he was too “heavy” and “literary” to read.

The funny thing about this, is that Vonnegut generally writes books that are very readable. Granted, there is a depth to his work and usually some kind of humanitarian message, but it’s usually presented in a very readable, and oftentimes humorous, fashion.

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut is one of those eminently readable books, and in my opinion, one of the best of Vonnegut’s works.

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