Book Review: Storythinking by Angus Fletcher

The human brain is often equated with a supercomputer. The common understanding is that it is a logical analytical device that interprets data and provides conclusions based on that. But according to Angus Fletcher, our brains are far more than that. In this short volume, he elaborates on the capacity of our brain to storythink—the capacity for narrative building—which is the basis for human innovation and growth.

Angus Fletcher is a professor of story science and an expert in narrative theory. He uses narrative theory and the technologies of neuroscience to probe the human brains of authors and audiences, finding out the effects of stories on their brains. His conclusion is that stories are not just means of communication, as most of us believe. They are powerful tools for creative action, something that logic-based critical thinking is impossible to achieve. Human brains are able to think narratively as well as logically, and each kind of thinking has a different function from the other. While logical thinking was good for answering how, story thinking made it possible to answer why and what if, which resulted in better planning, adaptability, and innovation.

Philosophers, starting with Aristotle, placed logic as the basis of intellect and degraded narratives and stories as lies. Their quest was for eternal truth, so it was natural for them to find narratives, due to their fleeting nature, not worthy of serious consideration. Angus Fletcher wants this book to do what Aristotle did for logical thinking: explain storythinking and devise methods to practise and perfect the habit of using it. He isn't denying the benefits of logical thought and metaphysics, but he advocates incorporating narrative thinking into the process as well. He also convincingly puts forward the argument that AI can never compete with the human brain on radical innovation because AI, however complex the algorithms it may use, still employs the basic logical method developed by Aristotle in its workings.

The book is an easy read where the writer develops his thoughts on storythinking by using narrative theory. He differentiates very clearly between the more prominent logical thought and storythinking and demonstrates why one is never a replacement for the other. He bases his thoughts on history, biology, sociology, philosophy, and science to clearly illustrate the benefits of storythinking and how it can tremendously contribute to personal and societal growth. I would like to read more about the neuro-experiments performed by the author and how the brains of authors and audiences react to narration.

"Storythinking is contemplating why and what if. It’s conjecturing from causes to effects. It’s envisioning the consequences of different rules for action. It’s mentally modelling hypotheticals, possibles, counterfactuals, and other kinds of things that could happen. It’s using our cerebral machinery to stick original characters into never-before-seen story worlds and speculate on what happens next. It’s natural selection, imaginatively accelerated."

This book was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Don't Think of a Blue Ball by Malti Bhojwani

There was a time when I used to read lot of books about personal development- self help literature, as they are generally termed. There are two types of self help books. Some of them tries to teach you techniques that has to be practiced for changing your behavioural patterns. Others teaches you the basic principles to lead a better life. One is a totally practical approach and the other one is more theoretical. There are some books that tread the fine line between them and I always felt that I benefited more from them. When I got a mail asking my willingness to review Don't Think of a Blue Ball by Malti Bhojwani, I was interested to find out in which category I can place it and what will it offer me new.

Malti Bhojwani is a professional Life Coach, NLP practitioner and founder of Multi Coaching International. She was born in Singapore, had lived in Jakarta and Sydney and is now settled in Mumbai. Don't Think of a Blue Ball is her second book and it aims to make the life of the reader more fulfilling. The book is based on the Law of Attraction- what you focus on is what you attract into the life, good or bad. That is, to get favorable results you have to change your focus, your thoughts into that direction. This refocus is what the writer calls Plugging In to the Source. Each chapter is designed to make the reader become familiar with this concept of Plugging In with the Universe and tapping the full potential of themselves and those around them. Malti gives insights on living a harmonious, prosperous life that attracts health, wealth and affection from the Universe. Each chapter ends with simple but powerful exercises and techniques that aids the reader to take the next step.

Don't Think of a Blue Ball is an interesting book. There is nothing new in it, concept wise. But it is written fluently and has the tone of a personal conversation. Malti uses stories and experiences from her personal life to underline the points she want to make. Her sincere retelling of the most personal events in her life- many mistakes she made in past and the things she learned from them, making her what she is now, builts the confident of the reader as we feel she is a person who walks her talk. The exercises in the end of each chapter is simple enough to incorporate into any busy schedule. The writer covers most of the aspects of our daily life were Plugging In with the Universe can be used to enhance our lives by achieving our desires. The book definitely maintain the balance between theory and practice.

One difference between personal conversation and written text is that, it takes lot of motivation to engage a reader than a listener however enticing the writing style is. In case of books dealing with such subjects as personal development, the need of motivating the reader is more because it needs efforts from his side also. So in most of such books you find repeated clear messages throughout the book about the purpose of the book and the tangible benefits to the reader once he incorporate the message of the book into his life. This book lacks it. The writer moves to the heart of the subject right from first chapter, but I feel it would be helpful if the reader is made prepared to take the plunge along.

Don't Think of a Blue Ball is an interesting book on personal development that can help the reader immensely.

"This book review is a part of The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program.
To get free books visit thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com."

Book Review: Teens Talk Growing Up

I had read the first book that started it all, Chicken Soup for the Soul, many years back. The book was an inspiring and entertaining collection of small stories, memoirs, poems and extracts from books. After that came a deluge of Chicken Soup titles that catered to any particular section of readers, like men, women, expecting moms, teens, Indians… When Blogadda suggested this book, Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul: Teens Talk Growing Up for review, I was more interested to find out how the format has evolved through years. 

Authored by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor and Aarti Katoch Pathak, this book as the name suggests, caters to Indian Teens. Teen age is an intermediate period. Teen agers are part child, part adult. They do not have the emotional maturity of adults, nor are their mind free of worry like kids. They start feeling the burden of responsibilities, they does not want parental discipline, they are anxious of getting judged by friends on beauty, brains and riches. And they are always with a point to prove to the world, their peers, teachers and parents which makes at least some them termed rebellious. There is a story in the book were the metamorphosis of an ugly caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly is compared to the blooming of adolescence to youth through teens. I think that metaphor sums it up aptly.

This book is a collection of 101 stories, each about the experiences of teen life, about the angst and troubles faced while growing up, penned by people from all the walks of life. Among the contributors there are movie actors (Sushmita Sen, Amrita Rao), sport stars (Geet Sethi, Sushil Kumar), Fashion designers (Neeta Lulla), movie directors (Tarun Mansukhani), writers (Harsh Snehanshu), Army men, home makers and many teen agers themselves writing about their bitter-sweet experiences of teen age. All the stories are exceptionally well written in a language easily appealing to youngsters, even to preteens who want to have a preview of what lays ahead.

The book is divided into 7 parts. The first part, Facing the Challenges, deals with the many challenges thrown at the teens by the world. Success in exams and sports and challenges in choosing a suitable career path is highlighted in these stories. Second segment Family Ties is about the value of the support system provided by parents and relatives while tackling the teen life. Many lives are turned for better when a father or mother or both stood for what is right for their kids and saw that they achieved it. In the third segment named Going Beyond Prejudice, the stories deal with several prejudices teenagers faces from their peers and even teachers, like that of color, race and economic situation. The fourth segment, In a Lighter Vein has stories that are humorous in content. 

Life is a Teacher is the segment that deals with the bitter lessons that life teaches in the cross roads of life and how it can be turned to the advantage. The penultimate segment called On Dreams and Passions, points out the value of having dreams, making these dreams our goals and achieving them by working towards it. The final segment called Teens today has stories that come straight from the hearts of teenagers. 

All 101 stories, as I had told before, are motivating reads. But on the flip side, one thing that this book lacks is variety. Most of the stories targets on effective usage of teen age to build a good career, academic or in sports. Topping the chart and winning the competition is seen as the most important goal in teen age. But I feel that though it is important to be topper, equal emphasis should be made in other areas of life. For example, it is in teenage that may important developments of sexual changes in body and mind happens, which does not find much scope in this book. Another point is that almost all the stories belong to upper middle class kids residing in urban areas. What about lower middle class and poor ones, and those living in villages? No attempt is made to represent them here.  Even with these shortcomings, I feel this serving of Chicken Soup is quite good for consumption. 

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Book Review: The Habit of Winning

There was a time when I used to read a lot of self help literature. Almost for a couple of years they acquired a major part of my reading list. That was the time of self doubt, fear about future and the time to built up that much required confidence among chaos. And they served the purpose. At least some of them did. But then I grew tired of them, they all sound the same. Most of them lay out a program to create the path to success. Lot of theoretical statements, step by step procedures, complicated exercises, personality development techniques to built up an artificial surge of confidence... Once I had a discussion with a good friend about the use of such books and finally we arrived at the conclusion that, though we never tried to follow any of those success formulas they offered, we still had imbibed some of their positive advises which has helped us tremendously.

All these thoughts were running in my mind while I received the mail to review Prakash Iyer’s book The Habit of Winning for Blogadda’s book review program. Also to speak frankly, the terms Habit and Winning on the title was a big turnoff. There are scores of books with similar titles, many of which I had started and discarded even before completing a dozen pages. But then what captured my attention was the tagline “stories to inspire, motivate and unleash the winner within”. The word stories became the deciding factor and I put down my name also for consideration.

Now, after reading the book, in less than a day, with just two sittings, 150 pages yesterday and another 100 today, I feel I did the right thing. The book is much different from hundreds of similar self help titles inhabiting the shelves of book stores and libraries. It reminded me of the first self help book that I read- Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. What made him different from other motivational writers is his emphasis on the principles. His argument was that unless we have a character built on strong principles there is no everlasting success. Prakash Iyer also gives emphasis on making the foundation right through building up of solid principles to make the way forward.    

Another strong point of this book is that unlike other titles, instead of making a course program with one step following another, the author tries to make the readers themselves to chart their journey to be a winner. I feel this is much effective than providing an instant formula for success, because here the reader will be able to think for themselves and individually apply different thoughts presented in the book to their lives using their own reason. Another benefit is that the commitment of reader will be for themselves. It will not get faltered as the reader himself try to find the way using the principles outlined as told by Mr R Gopalakrishnan in the foreword.

The book consists of eleven sections consisting of small chapters, nothing more than 5 pages. Each section deals with different steps that are required to live a healthy and successful life in harmony with surroundings. Chapters consist of stories and tidbits of wisdom that drives home the point to the reader. The stories, some of them taken from real life with real heroes in them and some from old parables are much effective in illustrating the point writer is trying to make. Prakash Iyer uses his experience of decades in sales to charter a motivating and enlightening journey for the reader.    

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!