On a rainy day like this, there isn't much to do after every show on Tivo has been watched and re-watched (e.g. Dog Whisperer, Top Design, Campus Ladies, Real Housewives of Orange County, etc, reviews forthcoming). So I headed out to Barnes and Noble and went book-binging.
Those of you who've known me for a while know that I'm notorious for sending people books that I love then proceed to asking them every other day "have you read it yet?/which chapter are you on?/don't you just love xyz character..." And now with advancement in technology (or my knowledge of it), I feel that I can just put my book recs on the blog, let you choose what you want to read, and spare you of my incessant interrogation.
Well, for this blog, I actually can't recommend any of these books yet coz I just bought them in the last 24 hours. But I'll share more as I go beyond the cover and the pictures and the precious little I know about them/the author.
The first one is Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation.
I admit it, I bought it hoping that reading it will help me read Bryson's doggie mind (remembering the Bleeding Paw incidence). I've never heard of this author before, and apparently she is quite well known, being recently interviewed by Rosie O'Donnell on the View. The premise is interesting and simple. The author asserts that the minds of autistic people and animals are quite similar (remarkably she's autistic herself), in that they both rely on their "basic brain" to connect with the world, noticing details/facts rather than big, generalized patterns, like we overdeveloped/cerebral non-autistic humans do. One example she gave involves an experiment where only 50% of people studied noticed a person in a gorilla costume walking into a prominent spot amidst a basketball game they were watching on video. People only see what they expect to see, animals see what they actually see.
It reminds me of a psych class I attended as a college freshman- the professor read off a list of about 20 words, "pillow, bed, dream, pajamas, night, ....", then ask the room of 300+ students who heard the word "sleep". About half of us raised our hands, including me, feeling proud of our astute memory. To our astonishment, the word "sleep" was in fact never read. The point she was trying to make was that as we were generating patterns with what we heard to help us remember the words, our minds played trick on us and made us believe in hearing words that were never uttered. Needless to say it made me feel like a total moron, but it left me with an indelible and fascinating wonderment on the subject. And I'm glad to have stumbled on this book so I can learn more about this incredible stuff that is our mind.
When I'm finished with this I'll be reading Mitch Albom's For One More Day.
I'm sure you have all read/heard of his other books like Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I meant to read this book when it first came out but as my mind lately was a bit preoccupied by all things canine, I've put it off till now. I was so impressed with Morrie and Five People that I have very high hopes on this one. In fact, I'm so hopeful that I refuse to read any reviews on it before I dig in, fearing preconceived notions (again, trying to read it for what it is instead of what I think it will be). If you've read it, please don't tell me what it's about. You could tell me if you like it or not though, but please spare the details.
And when this one's done, I'll be reading Iris Chang's The Chinese in America (if I don't get distracted by anything else doggie-related first).
You may know Iris Chang as the author of the acclaimed title The Rape of Nanking who committed suicide in the Bay Area in 2004. As a relatively recent transplant to America, I have to admit that I'm not exactly aware of the history of Chinese in this country. I mean I know about the gold-rushers and the railroad laborers, but beyond that, my knowledge is scant at best. In fact I didn't even know about the Exclusion Act that banned all Chinese from immigrating to America until a visit a few years back with my parents to China Camp, now a state park that preserves the history of a Chinese shrimping village in the Bay Area. And now being involved in my company's diversity council, I often find myself acting as "the voice for the Asian-American", but the more I hear myself talk, the more I realize I have a very narrow perspective on what it's like being Chinese in America. I don't understand why the "Chinatown Chinese" are so wary of Americans, I don't know half the political battles Chinese-Americans had to go through to preserve their rights, and I don't appreciate what goes behind all the scientific and technological achievements accomplished by Chinese Americans apparently left and right these days. I just feel that in order to accurately represent the minority I belong to, I need to do some more homework. And I hope I learn something interesting along the way.
That's all, folks. Got some reading to do.
