Month: November 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’d Recommend to my Dad

Posted November 19, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 10 Comments

It’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in of this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Books I’d Recommend to X Person. I decided to pick my dad as he’s the biggest reader in my family (apart from me) and he is the only person I get an opportunity to buy books for as presents. I normally buy him a book that I love but I’m not sure if he reads them; he normally reads old classics. So here are some great books a little out of his comfort zone (but not too much, just enough to broaden his horizon’s) but still brilliant reads.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (actually a default recommendation for everyone)
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us by Jesse Bering

Posted November 17, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Non-Fiction / 2 Comments

Title: Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us (Goodreads)
, 2013
Pages: 288
Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Jesse Bering, award-winning columnist and psychologist, wants to talk about perversions. We are deviants in one form or another; we may not be paedophiles, or into voyeurism and exhibitionism but there maybe something in our past we rather not discuss. In Perv, Jesse Bering looks at the psychology of having a fetish outside the norm and compares it to the difficulties he faced growing up in the 70s and 80s as a gay man.

This is an interesting book; it doesn’t condone sexual abuse or committing a sex crime. This rather looks at the psychology of paraphilia’s and makes the reader think about it in a different light. Just because someone has a fetish for something unusual doesn’t make them any less human. Bering looks at cultural thought, imprinting, conditioning and compares them to his own struggles as a homosexual.

While he looks at things like zoophiles, paedophiles and bestiality, he also looks at other perversions. Cross dressing, bondage, sadism and tries to get the reader to accept people as human. Just because they have this desire doesn’t mean they are committing crimes, these people are struggling and dealing with the guilt. As Bering states, sometimes they often feel like they have three options in life; depressive sleep, being institutionalised or suicide. Neither of these solutions seems effective at solving the problem.

I thought I had a decent understanding of the GSM (Gender and/or sexual minority or LGBT if you prefer) lifestyle but this just throws so many questions. I’m not comparing GSM with paedophilia, I’m just saying that the psychology of sex is so complicated and how can you treat people with paraphilia without a decent grasp on it. Especially a paraphilia that was so rare that no one bothered to find the Greek name for it.

There wasn’t much about paraphilia’s as I wanted; I was hoping to learn more about these ‘out of the norm’ sexual preferences. Not because I want to make fun of them, the whole thing is just fascinating. My favourite paraphilia discovered from this book is auto-plushophilia (look it up). I think this book looked at paraphilia’s in a new light, I hope this will help me understand them a little better and make it easier to accept them. I now think the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders approach to paraphilia’s are very dated and destructive. If psychologists don’t approach the treatment of these people struggling in a more accepting and human way then these people will never get the help they are seeking.

Book Buzz or Manipulation?

Posted November 16, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 8 Comments

Recently I found myself reading, and discussing on twitter, a particular piece found on the NetGalley tumblr page. This article is a typical puff piece about how great NetGalley is and what they can do to create book buzz and make a book popular. It was transcript of a speech Lindsey Rudnickas (NetGalley’s Digital Marketing Manager) gave on ‘“Book Buzz & Discoverability in the Future of Storytelling’. Basically she was saying, give NetGalley your business and we can make your upcoming book a hit.

Sure, this was a typical marketing pitch but it left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt more like a tool (the literal meaning of tool) rather than a book blogger. I use NetGalley and have enjoyed the benefits of getting to read a book before it’s released from publishers as well. I just wondered are we just tools used to manipulate people into buying the books they want to promote.

This is a little cynical but it was worth taking the time to think about. I have the opportunity to be in direct contact with some people who work marketing for a publisher. Most of them are friendly and supportive of book bloggers. We just have to remember this whole thing is a win-win situation for both the blogger and the publisher.

I know most people know this but this article made me feel more manipulated that I wanted. Should I feel manipulated? Out of the 272 reviews post so far (as of the 4^th of November) 64% of the books are book I own, 19% are provided by a publisher, NetGalley or a similar service and 17% are library books. This is nothing to be ashamed of; I think if I read what I want to read then I shouldn’t feel this way.

It was just something to think about; I’ve often said these publicists could save money by being selective with what books they send to the bloggers. I know some of them will be more selective or communicate with the blogger before sending out books. This whole strategy of sending every blogger the same book may seem weird but reading this article I can see what they want to achieve. If there are a heap of reviews on the one book (positive or negative) the book will be recognised, talked about and there we have buzz.

So how do you feel about ARCs or Galleys? Do they over take your life? As a blogger do you think you have a healthy balance between what you want to read and what has been sent to you? Do you feel manipulated? Let me know in the comments; maybe I’m one of the few but at least it was something to think about.

Guest Review: Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures

Posted November 14, 2013 by jus_de_fruit in Guest Posts, Historical Fiction / 2 Comments

Title: Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures (Goodreads)
Author: Emma Straub
Published: Pan Macmillan, 2012
Pages: 256
Genres: Historical Fiction
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I haven’t found much time to read in recent times. This book has been with me for a while, but I’ve now finished reading it. I never felt like this book was a compulsive page-turner, but it was something enjoyable and familiar that I could easily pick up and return to in the rare times of quiet that I can spend reading.

I don’t feel this book ever had any form of climax; as the title suggests, this book is about life. Laura Lamont, originally Elsa Emerson, grows up in Wisconsin, but eventually finds her way to Hollywood and becomes an actress, wins an Oscar, falls in love, has some children. It could be the story of any woman, although most of us probably lack an Oscar. Beyond the backdrop of Hollywood, this story is pretty ordinary. I found it easily to relate to Laura at different stages in her life.

I think this story is really about the roles we play in our lives. Daughter, Sister, Friend, Lover, Wife, Mother, Grandmother. Life constantly changes us. I think that the acting aspects may have just highlighted these changes more. Laura becomes quite famous, and struggles when she starts to disappear from the public eye. We are constantly changing, becoming different versions of ourselves, to fit the life that happens around us. Sometimes we yearn for the past, other times we look to the future, and there are even moments of contentment where we are happy just where we are in this moment.

I imagine this book would make a great holiday read, or like me, something that is easy to return to when other things are overtaking your life.

This is a guest post by Mary; not only is she my wonderful wife, she is also my editor and helps moderate the Literary Exploration group on Goodreads. Big thanks to her for this post and everything she does to help me with this blog.

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

Posted November 13, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Non-Fiction / 2 Comments

Title: You Are Not So Smart (Goodreads)
Author: David McRaney
Narrator: Don Hagen
Published: Gotham, 2011
Pages: 301
Genres: Non-Fiction
My Copy: Audiobook

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

We all believe we are rational and logical beings but just how accurate is that? You Are Not So Smart explores a range of different psychological and sociological ideas to show how much we don’t know. From cognitive biases, confirmation biases to the spotlight effect this book explores many ideas in a light hearted and accessible way.

I don’t know much about psychology but this book really gave me an interesting insight into cognitive biases. This is what I would call pop psychology; little pieces of information to think about without going into great detail. I never read the You Are Not So Smart blog but this book seemed interesting and I was curious about how the mind works.

Now that I’ve read this book, I have started listening to the You Are Not So Smart podcast, but haven’t read much of the blog. From what I can see, every chapter is a blog post, same format, same style and word for word. Makes it easy to write a book and if you are passionate about a topic it seems to work well.

The book started off really bland for me, I thought I would struggle to get through the book but then I became accustomed to the style. Then I was fascinated and couldn’t stop talking and thinking about what I learnt. As many people know, I have this blog to blog about my autodidactic adventures. It is weird; I thought going to university would give me more to blog about but it didn’t. This book has given me some good posts, and an interest in psychology.

I’m beginning to see the appeal to non-fiction, if it is fascinating, gets me thinking and gives me more blog posts from Knowledge Lost, then I’m happy. I’m going to try to read more non-fiction and I’m hoping to learn more about psychology. Yet another category to add to the blog that has been neglected for far too long.

This is easy to read and, as I said, took me a little while to get use to but I’m a fan. I’ll even read his next book; even if it is the same. I’ve been listening to the podcast and it has given me a few other books to read. Including the book I’ll be reviewing next, Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us (review in a few days). Pop psychology, told in an easy and sometimes humorous way, but then again isn’t that what pop psychology is meant to be?

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers I Wish Could Be Redesigned

Posted November 12, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 8 Comments

Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams – it’s tacky and doesn’t seem to match book 1 in the series.
Fadeout by Joseph Hansen – great novel; very boring and unappealing cover.
The Last Whisper in the Dark by Tom Piccirilli – when you compare it to the first book, it just doesn’t stand out as much.
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan – not a bad cover, I just think it could use with a makeover.
Perchance to Dream by Robert B. Parker – even though it was a terrible book, the cover doesn’t seem to match the Philip Marlowe series.
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell – the original cover is catchy but I don’t feel like it really says anything about the novel.
Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz – dull and unimpressive.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke – just feels really plain.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – that face is just too much.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz – while not so bad, it could be improved.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Posted November 11, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 4 Comments

Title: High Fidelity (Goodreads)
Author: Nick Hornby
Published: Penguin, 1995
Pages: 245
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Rob Fleming is a thirty something London record store owner who has just lost his girlfriend Laura. Rob recalls his five most memorable break ups and then proceeds to get in touch with these girls in order to find out why they all ended up leaving him. Over at Championship Vinyl, Rob and his employees Dick and Barry spend their time demonstrating their vast music knowledge and constructing top five lists for every situation imaginable.

I really loved the movie High Fidelity, one of my favourites for a long time. So I’ve always meant to read the book and I finally got myself a copy. I devoured the book, faster than I expected. The book and the movie are very similar with not many noticeable differences, I was really happy about that. Problem with seeing the movie first is the fact that I keep picturing John Cusack, Iben Hjejle and every character. The only character I couldn’t remember was Ian and I imagined Peter Serafinowicz instead of Tim Robbins.

The only Nick Hornby movie I’ve read prior to High Fidelity was Juliet, Naked and I really didn’t get on to well with it. I was worried that I might have similar problems with this novel. Likely everything think I loved about the movie, comes from the book. The quirky nature, the themes and all those top five lists. Makes me want to watch the movie all over again. Weird but I prefer the movie, John Cusack is a great actor and I think it works better with the aid of audio and visual stimulation.

The thing I loved High Fidelity is the whole self-discovery plot. Rob Fleming begins the novel telling us about his top five breakups and how Laura didn’t hurt him as much as the others. This leads him to contact these five women and find out why everyone leaves him. What he discovered was the opposite and he learns more about himself than expected. The novel ends with not happiness but a deeper understanding of himself and what he must do to achieve a better life.

His love is so centred around his passion for music; he has to learn how to balance his life better. For music lovers, especially those who have an understanding in 80’s and 90’s music should appreciate this novel. For a romantic comedy, Hornby has this unique way of taking the genre that’s demographic is women and writing it with the male reader in mind.

If you liked the movie, then I’m not sure you really need to read the book. If you loved it, like I did then why not experience it in its original format (it’s like the Vinyl vs. CD debate). While it is very similar to the movie it was an enjoyable experience, one I would repeat sometime. It is a short novel so there is no real reason not to read it, except the movie is less time consuming.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Posted November 10, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary, Magical Realism / 7 Comments

Title: A Tale for the Time Being (Goodreads)
Author: Ruth Ozeki
Published: Text, 2013
Pages: 422
Genres: Contemporary, Magical Realism
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Sixteen year old Nao lives in Tokyo and has decided to take her own life. Her life isn’t great, being bullied in school, her parents are depressed but before she ends her misery she has one task to complete. She wants to document the life of her great-grandmother Jiko. She writes a diary to tell the story of her life. On the Pacific coast of Canada, a few months after the tsunami that hits Japan, Ruth finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox on the beach, inside there was a diary.

Starting with the story of Nao, A Tale for the Time Being was a fascinating look at the Japanese modern culture with references to pop-culture. It made me want to read more books like this; the Japanese culture, while similar is very different and unusual. The only problem with Nao was the fact I didn’t believe she was a struggling teenage girl, all references to being bullied or having a hard life seem to come across as non-issues. I think if someone is struggling to the point of suicide then these issues would be a major focus and never downplayed. This really became the underlining issue with this novel.

I expected this to be brutal and dark but it felt like it wasn’t taken seriously in the effort to make the book light hearted and humorous. The writing was beautiful but I felt it was too flowery and at times preachy. Ruth Ozeki is not just a novelist; she is also a Zen Buddhist priest. Now I have nothing against Buddhism and I think we need religious equality for all people but for some reason this felt heavy. I like books that teach me something I don’t know and A Tale for the Time Being does just that but I felt like it overdid this. I get that Ozeki is passionate about Zen Buddhism, it really showed, there is nothing wrong with that, just a little priggish.

As for the other major character (Ruth), which I couldn’t see as anything else but the author was rather dull in caparison. Nao’s story was fascinating, learning about Jiko was interesting but Ruth felt full of self-pity and two dimensional. I found myself wanting to skip over her story and return to Nao. Personally I think the Ruth character played no real part in the novel and cutting her chapters out completely would have worked just as well.

While the Zen Buddhist element did feel preachy the major downfalls were the believability of Nao’s struggle and Ruth. This is just too light and whimsical for me this really became a distraction from the themes and ideas the novel was trying to achieve. There was so much going for this but the negatives started to outweigh the positives. I must be one of the few that thought this novel wasn’t amazing.

Holiday Reading

Posted November 9, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 12 Comments

When you think about the holidays, you tend to associate memories to those locations; the foods you ate, the sights you saw, the moments in your life that are special. I’m not sure if I’m a little different or if there are others but I also associate a book or two with the holidays. Now I was away in Adelaide recently and I got to thinking about this and wondered which books I might associate with this trip.

It is not just the books I’ve read while on holidays, it could all include the books I might have bought while there. It is weird; I associate my honeymoon with Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, while that is nowhere near romantic it was what my new wife was reading when we first got into America. If I actually want to break up my honeymoon a little further so the whole thing is not associated with Vonnegut, I could say I associate Los Angeles with Breakfast of Champions, A Study in Scarlet for Las Vegas (I believe I was reading that at the time) and San Francisco is associated with poems by John Keats, which is more romantic, we saw a movie called Bright Star while in San Fran and I brought a collection of romantic poems from City Lights.

It is not just my Honeymoon; Spain reminds me of The Long Goodbye, driving to Paris reminds me of the God-awful Nowhere Man and Paris itself reminds me of Red Harvest. Two trips to New Zealand included Blood Meridian the first time and The 5th Wave the second (with TransAtlantic the perfect book for the flight). Then there was a recent trip to Melbourne that reminds me of Burial Rites but the lonely trip home reminds me of The People of Forever Are Not Afraid and the list goes on. It is interesting how I associate these experiences with books and wonder if people do this with holidays or other moments in your life?

I wonder what my recent trip to Adelaide will be associated with; could it be Barracuda, Solo, Paddle Your Own Canoe or even High Fidelity? Let me know in the comments if you do something similar? I have to think about some key moments in my recent life and see if they are associated with books. I’m not too sure, I do associate one wedding anniversary with a beautiful copy of Frankenstein; I wonder if all those weird books I associate with my marriage says something about me or my marriage?

Ask.FM and The Spotlight Effect

Posted November 8, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Psychology / 0 Comments

If you follow me on twitter you might of seen me tweet;

Ask me a question http://t.co/Kbcw6XiOdD

— Michael Kitto (@knowledgelost) November 8, 2013

Ask.FM is a social network where people can ask each other questions. To feed everyone’s nasicism and give people a chance to talk about one of their favourite subjects, themselves. I joined because I thought it would be a good chance for people to get to know me better and well, it also looked fun. Deep down I thought it would be a place where people can get to know me better, ask questions and I would answer honestly. If I think about it the majority of the questions I’ve answered came from my wife (who already knows the answer), myself or just by rolling the dice and getting a random question. If I really think about it there is a small percentage of my twitter followers who might read those answers (probably a smaller percentage that I expect) and I doubt anyone reads those tweets and clicks on the link.

This is an Internet form of The Spotlight Effect; which is a psychological theory that theorises that people tend to overestimate the extent on which others notice. Like when you go out in public and think everyone is looking at you, or becoming self conscious about the way you’ve dressed or your hair. But in actual fact the amount of people that have noticed you or what is happening in your life is very little. Most people are too focused on their own world and you are just part of the backdrop. If you asked a stranger what you wore last time they saw you, they are unlikely to remember.

There are dozens of experiments to support the Spotlight Effect; we are the centre of our own universes and naturally think others are paying attention but in reality they are thinking the same thing. People don’t often think of themselves as biased but when it comes to ourselves and the Spotlight Effect we can’t help to have a blind spot. Even if we overestimate the amount of attention we receive, is there a way to condition ourselves to not be so self-conscious?