How the mind works

From KoboBooks

Oh, how very many ways I am anxious to tie in the title of this post. It turns out that exactly three years ago today, I wrote a post I called "Being in my right mind." (I had just finished reading an interesting book about a woman who had survived a stroke, Jill Bolte Taylor, called "My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.") And now I'm reading that book over there on the right by Steven Pinker, called "How the Mind Works." Three years later and I'm still trying to find out the basics of why I do what I do, why I think what I think.

My sister Norma Jean is reading another book by Pinker, and we bounce off of each other, talking about we're reading, etc. I looked on line to see if I could find a copy at the library, but it's not available. Apparently Pinker has just written another book that is causing his earlier books to be in high demand. I looked for the new one, called "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined." With a provocative title like that, I can see why it is being looked at. I even think I've seen a couple of articles based on this premise.

This Sunday, Easter, begins National Library Week for 2012. The way libraries are being used these days is in flux, since many of us are moving toward purchasing electronic copies, and my local library also has many of them available to be lent out. Norma Jean has also helped to change the way I am using libraries. She has been borrowing electronically from her local library for awhile now, and I was feeling quite out of the loop. In the process of signing myself up for electronic books, I was required to go in to ask for some help. I checked out a few books, and since my library uses the Dewey Decimal System, I had to reacquaint myself with it. Years ago I was prolific at using it, but like anything else you don't use, it now feels a bit cumbersome. I need to exercise those library muscles.

I read all three of "The Hunger Games" books online, having purchased the first one for $5 and received the second one from my niece for free. (Amazon allows you to "loan" a copy of some books to another person for two weeks, so that cost me nothing.) But then if I wanted to read the third book in the series, I had to buy it from Amazon for $8. I did enjoy the books and really wanted to find out what happened to Katniss, but I don't think I'll buy many more electronic novels. It's much more realistic to check it out from the library, either electronic or hard copy -- because I most likely won't be reading it again.

It was fairly easy to read the books on my iPad (using the Kindle for iPad app). I now have four different readers downloaded, since my local independent bookstore requires one, the library requires another, and iTunes yet another. I have found the Kindle app the most user-friendly, by far. My biggest problem with using my iPad for reading is the problem of growing sleepy: the iPad is much heavier than a book, and when I nodded off the other day, it banged my nose rather noticeably. Woke me right up.

I missed writing a new post yesterday, as my iMac decided to crash unexpectedly. Somehow it seems to have healed itself up, but I'm wary about it happening again. I will be going on another hike with the Trailblazers tomorrow, so this post will not be in the queue for long before being replaced by another. In previous years, I didn't mind writing a post a day, but it's sometimes difficult to find blog fodder than isn't getting stale. It seems that many of my readers would like something other than my old standby of hiking and exercise. The photo safaris have gotten me interested in taking pictures with a different focus. Stay tuned!
:-)