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juushikaNonfiction collection with otherwise no connection except maybe how out of place A Skeptic's Guide is in this company. Where is the Olson fandom at that no one else has gone the extra mile to read this trash book and then review it, eh?
Title: A Grief Observed
Author: C.S. Lewis
Published: Harper One, 2015 (1961)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 90
Total Page Count: 412,935
Text Number: 1554
Read Because: these quotes popped up on Tumblr and resonated with me; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: C.S. Lewis's diaries kept after his wife died from cancer. I find Lewis's religious anxiety intellectually interesting but emotionally unaffecting, and honestly I appreciate the distance that this allows; it was good to have some space to catch my breath because, while the source of our bereavement differs significantly, Lewis gives a voice to grief—its scale and shape, its selfishness and the anxiety of selfishness—that echoes my own experience. This isn't life-changing, but it's also a slight read, one framework for a single grief in a limited period, and it doesn't need to comprehensive to be productive.
Title: A Skeptic's Guide to Hypnosis
Author: Brad Default aka Dan Olson
Published: 2022
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 451,625
Text Number: 1579
Read Because: morbid curiosity after watching Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins video, available free on the Internet Archive
Review: I read this because I'm the person that watches the special features (and I made a GoodReads page for it because, uh ... got me there). You probably shouldn't, for obvious reasons: it's not good. But for what it is (a non-fiction book written in a month for the purposes of a YouTube video) neither is it bad. The IDGAF attitude makes for a breezy readability and gently inappropriate sense of humor. The content is competent, mostly because the history of hypnotism ties nicely to a metanarrative about the grift ecosystem.
Title: The Body Keeps the Score
Author: Bessel van der Kolk
Narrator: Sean Pratt
Published: Books on Tape, 2021 (2014)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 465
Total Page Count: 457,625
Text Number: 1596
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is a thorough and wide-reaching overview of the mind/body link in trauma: the way brains are wired and rewired by trauma, and how fundamentally it informs how and why survivors operate. Its breadth consequently makes some parts insubstantial; the lackluster allusions to DID ping as "wait, what?" for me, and make me wonder what other parts suffer from similar oversights. Nonetheless, the confidence with which it asserts some pretty damn important, controversial, and largely ignored truths about developmental trauma and C-PTSD has inherent value. Substantial, thoughtful, productive, nuanced, holistic - if flawed, either in the work or in the author.
Title: A Grief Observed
Author: C.S. Lewis
Published: Harper One, 2015 (1961)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 90
Total Page Count: 412,935
Text Number: 1554
Read Because: these quotes popped up on Tumblr and resonated with me; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: C.S. Lewis's diaries kept after his wife died from cancer. I find Lewis's religious anxiety intellectually interesting but emotionally unaffecting, and honestly I appreciate the distance that this allows; it was good to have some space to catch my breath because, while the source of our bereavement differs significantly, Lewis gives a voice to grief—its scale and shape, its selfishness and the anxiety of selfishness—that echoes my own experience. This isn't life-changing, but it's also a slight read, one framework for a single grief in a limited period, and it doesn't need to comprehensive to be productive.
Title: A Skeptic's Guide to Hypnosis
Author: Brad Default aka Dan Olson
Published: 2022
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 451,625
Text Number: 1579
Read Because: morbid curiosity after watching Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins video, available free on the Internet Archive
Review: I read this because I'm the person that watches the special features (and I made a GoodReads page for it because, uh ... got me there). You probably shouldn't, for obvious reasons: it's not good. But for what it is (a non-fiction book written in a month for the purposes of a YouTube video) neither is it bad. The IDGAF attitude makes for a breezy readability and gently inappropriate sense of humor. The content is competent, mostly because the history of hypnotism ties nicely to a metanarrative about the grift ecosystem.
Title: The Body Keeps the Score
Author: Bessel van der Kolk
Narrator: Sean Pratt
Published: Books on Tape, 2021 (2014)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 465
Total Page Count: 457,625
Text Number: 1596
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is a thorough and wide-reaching overview of the mind/body link in trauma: the way brains are wired and rewired by trauma, and how fundamentally it informs how and why survivors operate. Its breadth consequently makes some parts insubstantial; the lackluster allusions to DID ping as "wait, what?" for me, and make me wonder what other parts suffer from similar oversights. Nonetheless, the confidence with which it asserts some pretty damn important, controversial, and largely ignored truths about developmental trauma and C-PTSD has inherent value. Substantial, thoughtful, productive, nuanced, holistic - if flawed, either in the work or in the author.
