Witty Writeups
I used to read a lot. I grew up reading lots of books from fantasy (all of Harry Potter like many) to cheesy teen romance novels. I even read a book once (okay the entire series) that was written in the style of an IM conversation.
In high school I read the classics - To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, Hamlet, for English, which I liked but only because we had to analyze “deeper meaning” and that was more fun than I knew it could be (but that’s a story for another time).
But not so much recently. I have to read textbooks during the year - so Physical Chemistry, Linear Algebra and Operating Systems when school is in session. But not really during breaks or for fun. I read articles online and magazines on plane and yes, I guess that does count as reading. But there is something about reading good old fashioned book that I just haven’t done in what seems like forever.
Luckily, I got a chance to kickstart the reading habit this summer because of my 40 minute commute (well it’s an hour back in rush hours) by bus. And S let me borrow her old nook. And the library has free e books to rent. Anyways, it came together. And I now remember the only books I can get through anymore fall into 3 categories.
| Category | Notes |
|---|---|
| Cheesy teen romance novels | That’s how I got through the 40 minutes on the light rail to the airport |
| Books about time management, organization | My not so secret obsession |
| Books that fall under the “common misconception” category See below | The last category is interesting because it’s my favorite category. I tell people my favorite book is Catch - 22 which is true but it’s not the type of book I like to read. I like to read books that are stories. Stories about how the way we think is intuitive, which is wrong. These are books that I like to think are born of the Common misconceptions page on Wikipedia. |
Two such series which I have read and loved are Freakanomics (I’m on the third one) and Malcom Galdwell’s books (all of them). I like them because they are good stories. Stories about how looking at things from a different angle often yields an interesting and meaningful response. And stories about how math is important. And data. And the difference between correlation and causation.
17 Jul 2015