Category: READING

The premise of psychologist Richard Wiseman‘s book “:59 seconds” is that he sets out to review published (scientific) literature on a range of topics that are normally the fare of self-help books in the hope that he can reveal what has been proven to be correct and then distill this down into a few very quick actions that people can take. I’ve been reading it on and off for a few months now and, finding myself in between books, I’ve just polished off the last few sections (decision making, parenting, personality). I found the book a bit frustrating – it’s like a quick glimpse at topics which might be more interesting if looked at in a bit more detail – but some of the material covered is quite neat and some of the findings a little surprising given conventional wisdom (e.g. group brainstorming does not produce a bigger range of ideas). Wiseman finishes the book by presenting 10 quick pieces of “advice” all of which are pretty obvious but there’s no harm in being reminded of them – time to get a pot plant for my office I think.

Years ago I read James Gleick‘s first and most famous book “Chaos” which is the classic outcount of the discovery of the concept of Chaos is science. More recently, in his third book “Faster” (which I picked up in the local Oxfam shop), Gleick has turned his hand to an exploration of time and, in particular, how our concepts of time have changed in the modern age with everything becoming faster, more hurried, more vital and more rushed. This book is written in quite short sections, each one an essay on some aspect of our perception or interaction with time. I enjoyed reading this book, especially as many of Gleick’s ideas chime with thoughts I have myself about how complexity, choice and urgency are together disrupting our lives and creating an unnecessarily rushed world. The chapter on waiting (or not waiting) for lifts was particularly challenging to me, partly because it came early in the book and partly because it provided me with an immediate opportuity to challenge my behaviour and slow down (while waiting for lifts at work). So, all in all, I enjoyed this book and got something out of reading it – a desire to slow down and a sense of purpose to do so.

No, this isnt an entry to report that I have been hearing strange voices in my head… rather it’s an entry to record that I recently completed the third novel by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason which is titled “Voices”. Indridason’s novels are what are called “police procedurals” in that they basically follow in a fair amount of detail the police process of investigating a murder from the point of the discovery of the body to the final resolution of the case. In Indridason’s books the main character is a detective called Erlendur who has a failed marriage, two drug addict children and a whole host of personal pyschological difficulties. This particular novel follows a murder commited in a tourist hotel just before the busy Christmas period and I found the whole set-up and the plot to be rather grim and populated by rather sordid characters. Erlendur doesn’t really do that much and he doesn’t have any great flashes of inspiration to unlock a startling twist in the plot but the story gradually unfolds and Erlendur gets the job done. I really liked the first of Indridason’s novels (“Tainted Blood”) but although I enjoyed reading this one I’m not convinced that this series is quite as good as the general acclaim it seems to get.

One of the best books I have read in recent year’s was Atul Gawande’s “Better” – a book which I found both useful and inspiring. Consequently, as soon as I saw that Gawande had written a new book “The Checklist Manifesto” I rushed to get hold of a copy and moved it up to the top of pile of books to read – I wasn’t disappointed. In this book Gawande recounts his investigations into how the use of simple checklists can be used to minimise errors in surgery in hospitals all around the world (part of a World Health Organization initiative). Gawande explores the use of checklists by pilots in both routine and emergency situations and within huge construction projects and describes his attempts to design simple checklists for use before and after surgery and the difficulties of persuading surgical teams that their use was worthwhile (it most certainly was). One of the more interesting facets uncovered by Gawande is that the best checklists don’t simply list tasks that have to be done (they can do this) but they also incorporate checkpoints that require people to share certain information or discuss situations and produce agreed decisions.

As a surgeon, Gawande writes openly about surgical procedures and at times you need to have a pretty strong stomach to take in what is being written (at one point he describes accidentally cutting a patient’s vena cava and the resulting blood loss as “terrifying”).

So, another great read from an inspiring author. More please.

I’m a very ordered person and a bit of a collector so when I read a particular author’s novels I like to do so in the correct sequence. Consequently, I was mortified (well perhaps that’s a bit of an overstatement) when I discovered recently that my gradual sequential reading of Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels was not quite as sequential as I thought it was. It turned out that four or five Rebus novels ago I missed a chunk of the series out – I don’t know why or how, but now I have to fill in that gap, and that meant going back to Mortal Causes. It was classic Rebus, centred on the sectarian issues that divide Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland cropping up in the context of Scottish Nationalism. So there is a gruesome punishment killing at the start and then a series of bomb threats relating to Edinburgh Festival venues, a particularly nasty villain and the usual mix of curious characters. Was it good? Well it’s Ian Rankin and Rebus so, of course, the answer is yes although I wouldn’t class it as one of the more gripping or intriguing stories in the series.

I’ve just completed the third novel, Seaflower, in Julian Stockwin‘s Kydd series. This one is set in the Caribbean and involves Kydd leading a band of sailors on a land-based assault through a sugar plantation, spending time working ashore in a dockyard and then taking on gradually more and more responsibility on the cutter Seaflower until being shipwrecked on a remote island. Kydd’s increasingly visible leadership qualities eventually get him the responsibility of taking an important diplomatic figure off the island on long-boat – thereby consolidating his growing reputation and, presumably, leading to further advancement in the next book.

These books are pretty light reading and whilst they attempt to give lots of detail on the seamanship involved, in this respect they are not a patch on Patrick O’Brian’s Captain Aubrey series. That’s not to say that the book wasn’t an enjoyable read – sometimes it’s good just to read a story without too much complication around the edges.

Earlier in the year I read and thoroughly enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” so as a follow up I have just read Gladwell’s first book “The Tipping Point“. This explores the way in which ideas and products sometimes spread in the same way as epidemics and why many ideas and products don’t catch on. According to Gladwell’s hypothesis there are three “laws” that are critical to such an epidemic spread and can lead to a tipping point being reached – the involvement of various key types of people (Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen), the stickiness of the idea/product and the context in which the idea/product is spread.

I enjoyed the book but I didn’t find the case that Gladwell makes particularly novel or convincing although this could partly be because the book is now 10 years old and so I have picked up on some of the ideas in other books etc. (they’ve already tipped!). It has had may consider how I go about trying to put across ideas and I suspect that some of the thinking will stay with me in the future.

My Christmas/New Year reading this year was Bernard Cornwell’s “Azincourt” – a typical Cornwell historical novel set in Henry V’s military campaign in northern France which culminated in the famous battle of Agincourt (Azincourt in French and in Cornwell’s title). The battle itself is a relatively small part of the book which focusses on the siege of Harfleur (modern day Le Harve) and the English (and Welsh) army’s subsequent march across France towards Calais. As usual, Cornwell tells the story through a rather heroic regular soldier (this time an archer called Nicholas Hook) who, of course, rescues and becomes romantically involved with a young woman and faces great danger from within his own ranks (an old family feud) but everything works out well in the end. Cornwell’s attention to historical detail is always excellent and he does write a good battle.

I’ve just read Martin Lindstrom’s book on branding “Buy-ology”. I had picked is up in the local Oxfam shop and thought it looked like it might be interesting (along the lines of Freakonomics) and the title triggered a vague memory that I had read a good review of it somewhere. Anyway, I have to say that I found it to be poorly structured and not particularly interesting. Lindstrom claims to have applied science to marketing/branding and cites various studies which have used various brain scanning and imaging techniques to show which parts of the brain light up when we are exposed to different kinds of marketing images, sounds and smells. It claims to reveal fresh secrets about how we are persuaded to part with our money but pretty much everything that he said seemed like common sense to me, even the revelations about how things like Nokia’s ring-tone actually damage the Nokia brand. So, all in all, this was a bit of an irritating book – you can get an idea of this irritation from Martin Lindstrom‘s website – fire it up and then wait for the annoying little videos of Lindstrom dispensing branding advice to pop-up…

I just finished reading another of my bargain basement charity shop book purchases – A Brief History of The Circumnavigators by Derek Wilson. As the name suggests, the book tells the tale of the various mariners who led the most historically important ocean voyages around the globe (plus a few other less important but dor other reasons distinctive voyages). It begins with Magellan, or more correctly Sebastian D’El Cano because Magellan died part way round so contrary to popular opinion he was most certainly not the first person to circumnavigate the globe. Other notable mariners covered include Drake, Bouganville, Cavendish, Cook and, more recently, Chichester.

I’m not really sure why, but I have always enjoyed reading about marine history and the great voyages of exploration. My interest probably comes from my father who, if he had had more time would certainly have been quite obsessed by them, but I’m not aware of any reason why he had such an interest. Perhaps some research on his family tree might discovery an interesting maritime link.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would – I had put off starting it a few times because the text looked perhaps a little dense, but it was actually an easy read packed full of quirky incident and interesting personalities.