3 Books of note

I like to mention books that have mattered to me, hoping that they may matter for somebody else.  I send these posts to about 100 people but 2 or 3 times as many people look at the blog’s web page or get it from a friend or contact.

Two books that come to mind as influential in my own thinking are “Incognito” by D. Eagleman and “The 10,000 Year Explosion” by Cochran and Harpending.  Incognito is often used to mean “in disguise” but in this book, it means the unconscious powers of our brains and nervous systems.  The 10,000 Year Explosion is about what is sometimes called the human diaspora, the time of humans spreading around the planet.  I recommend them both.

A third book at least as valuable as those two is “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks.  The book is a bit mis-titled in my opinion.  The man in question is reported to have touched his wife’s HAND and attempted to drape that on his head.  He mistook her HAND, not her whole body.  This Oliver Sacks book is a challenge to read, at least for me because it is about such odd mental worlds that can develop.