Short Take: A Woman's Remarkable Memory

Rachel has completed a few books in the last couple of days, including 'The Woman Who Can't Forget' by Jill Price, which she gave a 5/5. Here's Rachel's take:

"Amazing... This woman has a brain that is like the opposite of amnesia. She can remember everything she has done since she was eight. When she remembers it it is like it is actually happening. If you give her a date she remembers everything that happened that day and what day of the week the date happened on. It's a memoir where she's explaining how this has affected her life. It was a really fast read as well. Very readable and interesting."

She read this book after 'The Drunkard's Walk', which we talked about in a previous post as the densest read so far. Switching from 'The Drunkard's Walk' to 'The Woman Who Can't Forget' was a different experiences that Rachel describes as "like when you swing a heavy baseball pat and then the lighter bat is really light."

The other book was 'The Leap' by Rick Smith, which she gave a 4/5. Rachel's quick take: "A different way of looking at possibilities."

Short Take: An Olympian Drunkard's Usless Info

Here is Rachel's brief take on the last 5 books she's read.

'What Type Am I?' by Renee Baron. 3/5 -- Easy to understand Myers-Briggs

'The Last Olympian' by Rick Riordan. 5/5 -- Excellent series finale

'The Book of Useless Information' by Natalie Bontam. 1/5 -- Not for reading all the way through

'Small and Simple Things' by Marjorie P. Hinkley. 5/5 -- Renewing, uplifting, clever

'The Drunkard's Walk' by Leonard Mlodinow. 5/5 -- Challenging, enjoyable, thought provoking

Math, Mythology and Useless Information

When Stephen Hawking says something is an easy read, it's probably best to steer clear.

That's what he said about one of Rachel's latest conquests, 'The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Live' by Leonard Mlodinow. But Rachel loved the book and it continued to build on her fascination with math.

Here's how Hawking describes the book on Amazon.com:

"In The Drunkard’s Walk Leonard Mlodinow provides readers with a wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives. With insight he shows how the hallmarks of chance are apparent in the course of events all around us. The understanding of randomness has brought about profound changes in the way we view our surroundings, and our universe. I am pleased that Leonard has skillfully explained this important branch of mathematics."

Though she loved the book, because of its dense content, Rachel spent more time per page than any of the other books she's read so far.

She also completed 'The Last Olympian' by Rick Riordan, the 5th book in the 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' series. The Percy Jackson books are some of the few fiction works that have made the list so far.

And finally, in the last post we talked about Rachel's most annoying book, 'The Book of Useless Information.' Despite it's title and general uselessness, these 'facts' keep clogging her mind and her conversations. For example, did you know:

• You are more likely to be killed by a cow than a shark. (I never trusted cows.)
• That the average American spends 12 minutes in the shower.

Doesn't seem so useless to me. I think the best way to avoid death by cow is to spend a little more time in the shower.

The most annoying book

So far, Rachel's most annoying book (and one she hasn't finished yet) is 'The Book of Useless Information' by Noel Botham. Here's how the book is summarized at Amazon.com:

"One person's useless information could prove invaluable to someone else. Then again, maybe not. But to The Useless Information Society, any fact that passes its gasp-inducing, 'not-a-lot-of-people-know- that' test merits inclusion in this fascinating but ultimately useless book."

This is how Rachel summarizes her experience reading it:

"I feel like every time I read it, I'm actually further behind. I can't wait to be done with it. I would quite on it, but it seems to be playing mind games with me."

Useless information has a way of doing that to you.

Finding time to read

One of the top questions Rachel is asked about her quest (besides if she's lost her mind) is how she finds time to read so many books. These are some of her methods:

• Reading while watching TV. This is in direct conflict with AJ Jacobs experiment in 'The Guinea Pig Diaries' where he starts unitasking (in place of multitasking)
• Read at work during breaks
• Always have a book handy in case time becomes available
• Read shorter books like collections of poems or essays. (Rachel is not counting short children's books during her quest.)
• Make reading a social occasion -- do it with others
• Read for 20 minutes before going to bed
• Read while excercising (be careful)

Though Rachel doesn't technically speed read, all of this reading has made her much faster. She reads more than one word at a time, and skims uninteresting paragraphs. She doesn't skip parts of books, but if she's uninterested in the book, she'll put it down a book quickly if she doesn't like it. There are too many good books to read really bad ones.

Rachel's Top 10

Top 10 Books So Far

1. My Stoke of Insight
2. The Big Moo
3. The Art of Learning
4. Made to Stick
5. Happier
6. A Whole New Mind
7. When You Can't Do It Alone
8. The Guinea Pig Diaries
9. Freakonomics
10. Think Big

Update: Day 74

March 15, 2010 Update

Rachel has completed 72 books through 74 days. "Stay on target; stay on target."

She currently has started (but not completed) 11 different books, and she's committed to finish those 11 before moving on to any new ones. So if you've sent Rachel a suggestion, don't be insulted if she doesn't get to it for a week or two.

When you're basically reading a book a day, it warps your sense of time and money. So instead of thinking how much money something costs, she thinks of it in terms of book. When she goes out to eat, she's thinking, "That just cost me four books." And if a meeting gets canceled, she's gained like 80 pages. Her whole life is now framed in terms of reading and books.