What I'm Reading Now -- The Drunkard's Walk

Mom lent me this book a while back, probably almost a year ago. I'm finally getting around to reading it! The problem I have with books like this is not that they aren't interesting. On the contrary, they're usually fascinating. But the problem is this: every time I read some fascinating study or fact in one of these types of books, I want to read it to someone else too.

I had this problem with Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, which I read when I lived in DC. I would read it at my desk during my lunch break. Every time I read something interesting, I would stand up, look over the wall of my cube into BK's cube, and read it to him.

This is not a bad thing (unless it annoys the person I keep reading to). It just means that it takes twice as long to get through the book, because I read the interesting parts twice. For example, did you know that Dr. Seuss's first book was rejected by 26 publishers before it was finally accepted for publication? Also, did you know that there is a certain type of post-surgical brain impairment which prevents the left and right hemispheres of some people's brains from communicating? These people are interesting to study, apparently, because they don't have that battle of reason versus emotion that normally happens between the two hemispheres. By instructing them to use only their left eye and left hand, you can essentially perform an experiment only on the right side of the brain, and vice versa. How cool is that? Know what we learned from these people? That the emotional sides of our brains allow us to be outperformed in lab tests by a rat. Sad, but fascinating. Also, did you know....