Regular readers know that I love using my brain to make
connections between books … so I am excited to share ideas about several books
which deal with our minds and how they impact our feelings and reactions.
One title is Your Mind is what your Brain Does for a
Living, published earlier this month by Greenleaf and written by
Steven Jay Fogel. He is a self-made millionaire, CEO of Westwood
Financial, and affiliated with UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate. I liked the
book’s emphasis on the importance of being self-aware, but felt that it seemed
to have somewhat of a “preachy,” condescending tone.
The premise is intriguing and there were numerous promotional “blurbs” from medical doctors and celebrities, but overall the execution is disappointing. For example, some of Fogel’s sources were books from 5 or
even 20 years ago. More recent
citations came from articles in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Smithsonian
Magazine.
Contrast that with The Future of the Mind by Michio
Kaku, theoretical physicist, City College of New York professor and New York
Times best-selling author. No lack of references and experts here – in fact,
the acknowledgments include over a half dozen pages of scientists and Nobel laureates.
Kaku takes a futuristic look at complex ideas and offers explanations to make
them understandable. Kaku calls his book “a high tech look at the nature of
thought” and he discusses the potential for implanting artificial memories,
robotics, and the use of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), plus other neuroscience
advances. Being speculative in nature, The Future of the Mind is
also not without controversy, but as this New York Times review
suggests, “Keeping these questions in mind … only enhances the enjoyment of
this wide-ranging book.”
What aspects of the mind/brain topic interest YOU? If your bent is more towards the “business” of
thinking consider reading Mobile Mind Shift (to be published in June), Big Data or Contagious. If, as suggested
in Fogel’s sub-title, you are looking to “create a happier life,” then you
might also check-out some recent titles such as
- Happiness Project (2009) by Gretchen Rubin
- 10% Happier (2014) by Dan Harris or
- Biology of Belief (2005) by Lipton and highly recommended by our parent community
In addition, the following recommended titles are filled with case study examples and
offer suggestions for ways to “stretch” your own thinking. They make for fascinating reads (and re-reads):
- Thinking in Pictures (2006) by Temple Grandin
- A Whole New Mind (2005) by Daniel H. Pink
- Switch (2010) or Decisive (2013) by Chip and Dan Heath
I worked earlier this year with a group of students who were
very interested in “brain research,” learning about topics ranging from
concussions, to the impact of strokes and Alzheimer’s and the benefits of sleep,
especially for adolescent brains. There are numerous resources from which to
choose and this posting merely highlights a few which we have considered for
our collection. If you have a title to
recommend, please add it below.
