Book Club: How We Know What Isn’t So
I rarely do book reviews on the ol’ blog. Not sure why. Might be because a high percentage of the books I read are either sports- or stock market-related (i.e. for work purposes, or at least tangentially so), so I never think to review them. Of course that’s a lame excuse anyway–there are plenty of people who, y’know, are actually interested in sports and the stock market.
Consider this, then, the first installment of the JonahKeri.com Book Club.
Just started reading Thomas Gilovich’s book How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
Just getting going on it, already enjoying it. It’s long been on the wife’s bookshelf and was widely read in Baseball Prospectus circles by folks with an interest in learning how the human mind operates and how fallacies come into play. A bit of a Gladwell edge to it, I’d say, and definitely makes you think. Long flight to LA this weekend, so I should plow through a good chunk of it. When I’m done I’ll share my thoughts.
Oh and if anyone’s read a particularly great book lately, feel free to share in the comments section. Bonus points if it’s not about sports or the stock market.
A Taste of Metal: A Deserter’s Story by Jack Todd. (Does it count that he’s a Montreal Gazette sports columnist?)
Also, a couple other Canadian picks: A Week Of This (a first novel by Nathan Whitlock) and The Ravine by Paul Quarrington.
Jonah, are you required to plug Chuck Klosterman since you each write for the WWL?
Thanks Neate, I’ll check those out.
Neither Klosterman nor myself are actually ESPN employees. AFAIK there’s no gun to anybody’s head to plug each other’s work even if we were, though. His books are on my list, might give ‘em a whirl.
Maybe they can package “How We Know” with Rob Neyer’s book on baseball myths.