New Book I read
Now as I enter my Errant Knight retirement years, I am looking for non chess related things to do. A few year years ago, I was reading alot of nonchess books and listened to alot of nonchess related books on tapes and I am starting to do that again. With listening to books on tapes from my commute and books I read outright I read apprx 100 books a year .
I enjoyed reading Everything Bad is Good for You recently
The premise is that some of the new trends in pop culture are making us smarter . That popular media Television, Video Games, Movies are becoming increasing more complex and engaging and are improving our analytical skills.
The author keeps this blog
http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/
I enjoyed reading Everything Bad is Good for You recently
The premise is that some of the new trends in pop culture are making us smarter . That popular media Television, Video Games, Movies are becoming increasing more complex and engaging and are improving our analytical skills.
The author keeps this blog
http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/
posted by takchess @ 12:23 PM
3 Comments:
At 7:11 AM,
Anonymous said…
i used to try to read a book a week, 52 a year. best i ever did was 43 a year. now, since i've become serious about chess, i've all but stopped reading non chess books. i kinda miss it...i am now reading "soon i will be invincible" about an evil genius superhero. i've been "reading" it for over a month now, still not done....
this chess thing is evil!
At 10:46 AM,
Anonymous said…
Interesting theory, but doesn't sound logical to me (which is of course just judging by my own thoughts as I haven't read the book). Whatever the topic, a good book about it should (in principle) be able to convey more infos (or state an opinion in a more structured way) than any videogame, movie or documentary. In a book there is always the possibility to reread a sentence without big annoyance, but who uses a VR to rewind simply to hear a sentence again just to be able to think about it once more or more deeply or to analyze e.g. the choice of words (might be actually helpful, especially when seeing the news)? What might well be true on the other hand is that the content of such media is better than before, even though thats also doubtful to me.
I can state with certainty (in the case of germany at least): TV gets dumber by the day. On the other hand, one day a minimum of quality has to be reached, so there will be a time for the positive conclusion: "It's getting better!" There may exist such positive trends that he is mentioning, but I don't see them. The internet is of course quiet another story.
kind regards,
svensp
At 4:24 PM,
takchess said…
CL, I suggest you get a long commute you could do 1-2 books on tape a week.It would bring that total way up. *)
Svensp, if you happen to see this in a library I would check it out. The author makes an interesting case and it is a quick read. First, he is pro-written word and acknowledges a book is the best means to present his prolonged argument. The US has some extremely stupid TV shows and had for years ie:Gilligan Island. There is a trend in some show such as Lost, West Wing, Sopranos,24, Seinfeld toward complexity, things not being totally spelled out, running themes and deeper jokes. Since DVD resales is a much greater money maker than the initial show there is a motive to make shows that reward frequent viewing and community discussion on the web. Also games such as grand theft auto, zelda, sim city are extremely popular and require alot of thought,effort and problem solving skills.
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