Shelf Control #24 – 25/09/2020
Happy Friday everyone! Welcome to my first Shelf Control post in a little while. It’s actually my first post of this type in over a month! Since I have been taking part in blog tours this regular feature post was temporarily put on hold – but we’re back!
In case you haven’t read one of these posts before, Shelf Control is a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up!
For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out Lisa’s introductory post.
Today’s featured book is part of a genre that I don’t read all that often. I really should make more of an effort to read it because I really enjoy it when I do! I like the sound of this book in particular as I think it includes a lot of humour.
Shall we check out today’s featured book?
You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself – David McRaney
Goodreads – You Are Not So Smart
An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise.
Whether you’re deciding which smart phone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic, but here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us–but that’s okay, because being deluded is part of being human.
Growing out of David McRaney’s popular blog, You Are Not So Smart reveals that every decision we make, every thought we contemplate, and every emotion we feel comes with a story we tell ourselves to explain them, but often these stories aren’t true. Each short chapter–covering topics such as Learned Helplessness, Selling Out, and the Illusion of Transparency–is like a psychology course with all the boring parts taken out.
Bringing together popular science and psychology with humor and wit, You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of our irrational, thoroughly human behavior.
My Thoughts…
Psychology is the main non-fiction topic that I’ll read, but picking up a non-fiction book in itself is rare for me. More often than not I read to escape reality, and so I find myself reading more fiction. I do want to make more of an effort to read different things though and I think You Are Not So Smart will be a perfect read for me. I like the psychology element, but also the humour and wit implied in the synopsis.
Have you read You Are Not So Smart? Is it as good as it sounds? Let me know in the comments!
