Other Non Fiction Books
- Scared to Death by Booker and North
A must read book that explores various public scare stories promulgated by the media, politicians and those with a vested interest - usually underpinned with some extremely bad science. Salmonella in eggs, BSE, Speed cameras, asbestos to name a few. As well as thorough researching of facts - all backed up with the original sources - the book attempts to define what makes a scare story become such. It also explores one example of a story which perhaps should have been a scandal but that was successfully suppressed.
-
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen
A truly inspirational book. This is the story of Greg Mortensen, who got lost on the way down from K2 and stumbled into a remote village in Pakistan. The villagers gave him food and shelter - and as a mark of his gratitude he committed to build them a school. Returning to the USA with practically no money he set about raising the sum of $12000 - a tough task against a background of public disinterest. Having come up with the funds thanks to a particular benefactor he returned to Pakistan, bought the materials, transported them to the remote region ready to start work, only to be told that the village had decided that they needed a bridge before they could build a school.
Once again Mortensen returned to the USA, raised the necessary funds and returned to build the bridge. Since then the charity he has since created, the Central Asia Institute, has built more than 40 such schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan with a strong focus on educating girls.
This of course is only a very brief synopsis of what he went through - facing kidnapping and extortion, not to mention the challenges of village politics. There are two related websites - Three Cups of Tea and The Central Asia Institute - which are both worth visiting.
- Stones into Schools by Greg Mortensen - his new book now available in the UK
- The Art of Cold Reading by Ian Rowland
This book can only be bought from Ian's website. It's a guide to the trickery the fake mediums and so called psychics employ to hoodwink their often vulnerable victims. It's fascinating stuff - and I'd have to say would require considerable practise and skill to get as good as some of the exponents. The book is referenced and endorsed by Derren Brown - who is pretty darned good at this stuff himself.
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Zurich Axioms by Max Gunther
- How to Develop a Super Power Memory by Harry Lorrayne
- The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
- Flat Earth News by Nick Davies
- Risk by Dan Gardner
So you want to get rich by playing the stock market? This book will show you how to do it - or not do it - depending on your perspective. A very interesting book, well worth reading if you have any designs on being a stockbroker!
A slim volume that shows you how to develop simple techniques for remembering long lists of things, the order of cards in a pack, faces and so on. With a bit of practice anyone can do it. Be the next Derren Brown!
A very poignant bitter sweet book by a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. An upbeat kind of guy he wrote this little book full of his own philosophies of life which lead up to him delivering his last lecture to an invited audience. Plenty of humour in it as well - I named one of my projects after one of his fun student awards - "First Penguin." It seemed quite appropriate at the time.
A real eye opener about how the world of news is now controlled and manipulated.
Links