Welcome to part 33 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that this was just a place to put these reviews, but now I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore. This instalment we have popular psychology, linotype machines and reality TV.
All books were provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Turn skeptics into fans and fans into scholars with this smart, entertaining guide to 20 influential reality shows, from The Real World to The Traitors.
Much like reality itself, reality TV has one main There’s just too much of it. Whether you’re a devoted fan who wants to share your passion, a specialist who doesn’t have time to watch every show, or a skeptic who still wants to understand all the references, you’re going to need a guide.
Great Reality TV for Snobs offers explanation and analysis of 20 influential shows. Learn
The massive cultural impact of The BachelorThe ultimate fate of all those top models from America’s Next Top ModelThe genesis of that Real Housewives meme you keep seeingWhat really happened on the set of SurvivorAnd many more secrets, facts, and insights!
This is the second installment in the Outsider’s Guide series, which offers highly readable crash courses in major cultural phenomena, so you can catch the references and understand the big deal. Join the conversation—or convince your favorite snob to join it with you!
One of the faults in this book is it's myopic Americanism.When she talks about The traitors she seems to think the American version was the first version. She doesn't set Big Brother in it's international context either. It's like America originated everything.
This book isn't for 'snobs'. It's too busy listing things - characters, episodes you should watch, the best seasons, favourite episodes. It takes reality TV at a very surface level. There is no discussion about the broader context, producer manipulation or gender or race issues.Ii gave up completely at this sentence "Throughout this guide I have been highlighting the impact, the influence and the benefit of watching reality TV for us snobs. i have been helping you look smart and engaged when you chat at a cocktail party". No, you have done none of those things and if people want to talk about reality TV at a party I'm happy to go find the book conversation somewhere else. I don't know if Ali know what a snob is, but I do, and this isn't a book to convert anyone to reality TV, it's a celebration of what Ali loves.
Hot Type: The Magnificent Machine that Gave Birth to Mass Media and Drove Mark Twain Mad by Jeff Jarvis
Hot Type is the epic story of the magnificent 19th-century machine that rendered Gutenberg’s movable type obsolete and opened the portal to the long century of mass media. The Linotype mechanized the 400-year-old process of setting type one laborious letter at a time, and thus ignited an explosion of newspaper, book, and magazine empires.
This is a tale populated with wondrous characters: tragic inventors, malign media moguls, hand-typesetters called the Swifts who turned their craft into a spectator sport, and authors and journalists who chronicled the turmoil of their time, their every word molded into metal type by what some viewed as a thinking machine. This revolution in media technology helped to propel Mark Twain into literary celebrity, but it also cost him his fortune – as well as his sense of humor and optimism.
The era of the Linotype was a bridge between Twain’s Gilded Age with its tycoons of steam, steel, and wire and today’s Gilded Age with its barons of bits and AI. Its history provides an opportunity to reflect on how technology changes culture just as new technologies – the internet and artificial intelligence –manufacture their endless streams of words today.
I'm not sure why I requested this book. It must have sounded interesting to me at the time, but I certainly don't have any special concern with linotype machines or with Mark twain, or even with America in the late 1800's. So I found this book quite heavy going. There are a lot of men mentioned, and a lot of dense type. There are no pictures or illustrations, we must rely on descriptions of the machines. I did manage to get half way through, and realised I wasn't retaining any of the information at all. I think this book was well written, and would be enjoyed by someone who already know what a linotype machine is and wants a very deep dive into the history. After abandoning this book I read the (illustrated) Wikipedia article about the linotype, where I gained all the understanding I need. I'm the problem, not this book!
When Studies Become Stories: 89 Popular Psychology Ideas Examined and Explained by Nina Mack
Every day, you hear claims about how your mind works.It takes 21 days to form a habit. You have a love language. Power poses can change your hormones. Your attachment style shapes your relationships. Dopamine is your brain's pleasure chemical.
Some of these ideas are supported by evidence. Some are partly true. Some were never backed by strong research at all.
The problem is, they all sound convincing.
When Studies Become Stories examines 89 of the most widely shared ideas in popular psychology and gives each one a clear Has Evidence Overstated Oversimplified No Evidence. Covering topics including relationships, memory, learning, personality, motivation, trauma, emotions, decision-making, and the brain, the book explains what the studies actually found, where the popular version went wrong, and what a more accurate understanding looks like.
This book covers a lot of ground. It's not an in-depth analysis and it doesn't (usually) call out specific books or authors, but talks about many popular science theories. The format is: Broader topic - Verdict - What the Studies show - How To use It. How To Use It is particularly funny when the verdict is "no evidence".
I listen to the podcast "If Books Could Kill" and this had the same vibes, except where the podcast goes deep, this goes broad. I was familiar with most of the theories addressed here, but I was certainly misguided and miseducated about some of them. This is a fun, accessible popular science book that reminds us to always check the source material.
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