Why Doctors Should Read Fiction Students in medical school and nursing traditionally study ethics through the use of case studies, short synopses of situations the students may face later in their careers. This article describes a recent paper from the journal Literature and Medicine that suggests replacing case studies with short stories that present ethical […]
The theory of mind myth Theory of mind is the psychological term for our belief that other people have emotions, beliefs, intentions, logic, and knowledge that may differ from our own. That we have a folk psychology theory of other minds isn’t surprising. By nature, we are character analysts, behavioural policemen, admirers and haters. We
THE BEST BOOK DATABASE YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF Abby Hargreaves talks about Novelist, a database that librarians use to recommend books to patrons. This database, which may be available to you through your local library’s web site, is especially good for finding recommendations on what to read next if you liked a particular book and
Hunter S. Thompson and the Sanity of Writers A short appreciation of writer Hunter S. Thompson, who often claimed to have done much of his writing “half out of his skull,” under the influence of drugs and alcohol. This link is worth clicking just to see the illustrations. THE GENERATION THAT GREW UP ON STEPHEN
I’ve come across lots of interesting stuff lately. When a Stranger Decides to Destroy Your Life I’m including this article on all my blogs this week because it’s important that everyone with any online presence, no matter how small, read it. 50 MUST-READ CONTEMPORARY ESSAY COLLECTIONS From Book Riot’s Liberty Hardy: To prove that there
What I’ve been reading around the web recently. Can Reading Make You Happier? An interesting history of bibliotherapy, or the use of reading to help “people deal with the daily emotional challenges of existence.” For all avid readers who have been self-medicating with great books their entire lives, it comes as no surprise that reading
100 Books to Read Before You Die When you find yourself not knowing what book to pick up next, here’s a list that contains “a mix of modern fiction, true stories, and timeless classics.” The deep roots of writing Was writing invented for accounting and administration or did it evolve from religious movements, sorcery and
John Irving, The Art of Fiction No. 93 I’m not a twentieth-century novelist, I’m not modern, and certainly not postmodern. I follow the form of the nineteenth-century novel; that was the century that produced the models of the form. I’m old-fashioned, a storyteller. I’m not an analyst and I’m not an intellectual. WHICH BOOKS DO
Internet reading that caught my eye over the past week. Megan Abbott’s Bloodthirsty Murderesses The thriller writer probes the psychological underpinnings of female rage. Because, Abbott says, “girls are darker than boys.” New Black Gothic Sheri-Marie Harrison, associate professor of English at the University of Missouri, explains what she calls the new black Gothic in
These are the stories from the internet that piqued my interest over the last week. Why We Don’t Read, Revisited Caleb Crain, in a follow-up to a decade-old report on Americans’ reading habits, reports that the time Americans spend reading continues to decline. “Television, rather than the Internet, likely remains the primary force distracting Americans
