I have about 3000 Kindle books. Many of them were bought on the spur of the moment and put aside to be read when I get a round tuit.
I actually have several round tuits but I haven't used them for reading. I try to hold down the cost of getting books immediately, and I mean right away, now. So, just what it was that persuaded me to spend more than my usual price for Michael Gazzaniga's book "The Mind's Past", I am not sure. I looked up the neuroscientist and found he is a month younger than me. So, he is old but not too old.
I am not always able to pin down just what it is about a book, an idea or the timing of my hearing about it or what that gets me interested. Being interested, as in a piece of music, a movie or a tv show is only the first step. Next step is beginning to read or watch or listen. Sometimes, the work is inviting or even gripping. Other times, I am determined to slog through so I can tell myself I slogged. It may have been the title. Neuroscientists like Gazzaniga use the words "mind" and "brain" carefully and distinctly. "Mind" is what I use consciously to decide what to cook for dinner and whether I spot an error in my arithmetic. "Brain" produces "mind" and many other things, like reading.
It may have been the accident of buying a smartphone. I had assumed that I would not read on a phone, it being so small and all. I was on a short errand with Lynn and she got into details with another Q Gallery artist so I thought Gazzaniga was interesting a few minutes ago, got my new phone with me, I think I will open to that book. I did and was reading along happily for ten or fifteen minutes. Quite pleasant.
"Incognito" says I don't know what is up with my brain and I will never be able to do so fully. Socrates says "Know thyself". Who's right? Are both right in different ways? Along comes Gazzaniga with comments like this:
Biography is fiction. Autobiography is hopelessly inventive.
Michael S. Gazzaniga. The Mind's Past (Kindle Location 57). Kindle Edition.
I am not putting Socrates, Eagleman or Gazzaniga away. I am too interested in what the outcome of my explorations will be.
