Reviews - Non-Fiction 1

There's a great courtroom scene in Woody Allen's Bananas, in which Miss America testifies, "Differences of opinion should be tolerated, but not when they're too different."

The premise of A Perfect Mess is that most of us were taught to think: "Messiness should be tolerated, but not when it's too messy." But the facts point to a different verdict. The authors spend most of the book's 300+ pages building their case with an impressive array of evidence. The time, effort, and expense required to make the world neat, tidy, and fastidiously organized just isn't worth the end results.

Think about that stack of papers with action items, reminders, and important information on your desk. The time it takes to file them all in an orderly manner has a high likelihood of resulting in: 1) you'll never look at them again and 2) you'll forget about them entirely and never follow-up.

In contrast, the messy stack will be sorted through multiple times, keeping numerous factoids and actions items top-of-mind until they are either resolved or you make a conscious decision to de-prioritze them into the shredder. Plus, you'll actually be able to find what you're looking for relatively fast.

Another key benefit of mess is the happy accident. The opportunity to associate seemingly unrelated things, data, or ideas. Many of the world's greatest discoveries were happy accidents—the result of mess.

It's human nature to put things into categories to organize our thoughts. So maybe it's okay to be neat, as long as we're not too neat.

Mapping Inner Space
by Nancy Margulies, M.A.

I first read about mind mapping on the web, which led to a list of books. This one was recommended because it's easy to read and includes lots of examples. In fact, every two-page spread throughout the book provides a page of text on the left and a full page example mind map on the right.

Mind mapping is a simple, yet powerful concept invented by Tony Buzan. On a large sheet of paper, draw or write a topic or central idea in the center. From there you simply branch out in any direction and add related ideas. Use lines, arrows, and arcs to connect ideas. Anything goes. Mind maps are intended to be a bit messy. The idea is to get lots of thoughts down on paper quickly. Since they rely heavily on doodles, icons, and single words rather than sentences or even phrases, you can record ideas nearly as quickly as they form in your mind. When one idea leads to another, go with the flow.

One of the applications of mind maps is note taking. The marks or words on the paper are meant to be the essence of ideas and concepts. This makes it easier to take notes and frees more of your attention for the speaker or for reading. Later when you refer back to your mind map, Margulies says it's a more effective method to jog your memory, making your notes more useful.

Other applications for mind mapping include outlines, goals, planning, and things you want to do. Of course, it's great for brainstorming too.

The first chapter of the book provides the main concepts of mind mapping. Then Margulies adds one on icons and symbols with lots of examples. She even provides a sort of starter set of words for something she calls wordsigns; which is basically a stick figure-style, drawn language. Each wordsign represents a thing like a person, a door, or a cup; or a concept like past or future; or an action like see or meet.

The rest of the book is meant for teachers, with each successive chapter advising how best to teach mind mapping to various age groups of students. How to engage them and get them thinking about icons, symbols, brainstorming, and trusting their intuition.

Read the book or just jump in and try mind mapping for yourself. You just might find it useful. Top

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

The Pareto principle is more commonly known as the 80-20 rule. Its been applied to many situations but perhaps most often to wealth or sales. 80% of a company's sales are generated by 20% of its customers.

In his groundbreaking book, Anderson describes how the Web changed the game and the rules. Brick-and-mortar stores can only offer a small collection of products due the limitations of physical display space. But an online merchant can offer a vastly deeper selection. And when they do, the long tail emerges. Namely, the sum of the total sales of the lower-selling 80% of the inventory exceeds the sales of the higher-selling 20%.

The Long Tail is one of the key concepts behind the success of eBay, Amazon, Netflix, and many other eTailers. The concept can also be applied to other realms such as web search, television programing, news, and the list goes on. Anderson provides interesting details and loads of examples to illustrate his concepts and expand on his research. A fascinating study of new economics. Top

A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson

One of bestselling author Bill Bryson's many talents is to take complex subjects and describe them in a way that non-experts can actually understand. And in spite of this volume's rather ambitious title, he does a very good job of fulfilling its promise. The book is foremost a wonderful primer on science, discovery, and invention; but it's also entertaining, insightful, and at times sobering. We are very lucky to be here—as it turns out, for quite a number of reasons. This is an edifying read and a humbling reminder that we don't own the place, we're just fortunate enough to be living here. Top

Don't Know Much About Mythology
by Kenneth C. Davis

Following on the success of his popular Don't Know Much About History, Davis brings us a great primer on mythology. He covers every continent and several ages. Many of the stories here may be familiar, but Davis successfully introduces us to new characters and lesser known versions of popular myths. I found his exploration of African mythology particularly interesting, having read Neil Gaiman's wonderful Anansi Boys last year. If you've ever thrilled to Harryhausen's best, Lee and Kirby's god of thunder, or those goofy Hercules "classics", you'll enjoy unearthing the ancient artifacts in this treasure tome. Top

Dry book cover

Dry by Augusten Burroughs

The main thread throughout this intimate memoir is drying out from alcohol, although Burroughs also dabbles in other drugs like pot and crack. He is a wonderful writer. In fact, he was employed as an advertising copywriter at a big agency during the time period this memoir takes place. At times, his ad background brings the concept of truthiness to mind in this tight, nearly perfect true-life narrative. Nonetheless, he pulls no punches, baring his soul and sharing his innermost thoughts and feelings. He delves deeply into the worlds of addiction, drinking buddies, rehab, AA meetings, relationships, HIV, AIDS, advertising, office politics, drying out, and hitting the bottom with humor and frankness that won't let go. It's an enlightening, sobering narrative of one man's struggle through his modern day life in the big city. Top

The Great Bridge book cover

The Great Bridge by David McCullough

This is the fascinating story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. The challenges to get the project started were nearly as difficult as the design hurtles the bridge engineers had to overcome to build it. Political boss William Tweed was a powerful member of the Bridge Company who helped ensure the project's completion. The original designer/engineer of the bridge was John Roebling, who died before construction began. After much debate, his son Washington, was made Chief Engineer and work finally began in 1869. The most critical structures of what was at the time the world's largest suspension bridge, were the caissons. Huge pneumatic foundations the caissons were designed to eventually support the massive towers, which in turn would support the steel suspension cables. The caissons were submerged into the river and workmen inside pressurized chambers excavated the river bed below to painstakingly lower the structure inch by inch to the proper depth. The pressure inside the caissons increased the deeper they went and eventually many of the workers experienced varying degrees of the bends. Washington, who frequently went down himself was stricken with the condition, which ruined his health for the remainder of his long life. When the caissons were finally in place he retreated to his sickbed and home. His wife Emily became his liaison with the outside world for the remainder of the project. The bridge was completed in 1883. Wonderfully researched, this book is highly recommended for fans of history and engineering marvels. Top

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Here it is: everything you wanted to know about the fast food industry. This book covers the history of several well-known fast food chains and their founders and leaders. Schlosser explores the impact of corporate buying power on farmers, ranchers, slaughterhouses, processors, and the rest of the fast food supply chain. If you've ever wondered about the people who work behind the counter or at the businesses that support the store fronts - it's all here. How to keep wages minimal, why employee turnover is good, how to avoid employee health insurance, minimize plant safety investment, and more. What about lobbying efforts to reduce the quality of health inspections and quality certifications? How about the workers who carelessly or deliberately contaminate food? After this book, you'll think twice about ever eating fast food again. Top

Dreamweaver 8 book cover

Dreamweaver 8
by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith

Dreamweaver is powerful software application with lots of features and capabilities. It takes time and experience to learn how to use it efficiently to design and produce a website.
This manual, from the Visual Quickstart Guide series, does a good job of dividing the material into manageable pieces. The book is loaded with screen shots that help speed learning and add clarity to the instructions. And when you're finished with this manual, there's an appendix of the authors' favorite books and websites. This manual is recommended for beginning and intermediate webheads. Top

Flow by MihalyCsikszentmihalyi

Subtitled "The Psychology of Optimal Experience", Csikszentmihalyi's book explores what makes us experience deep enjoyment or fulfillment. We feel anxious when we're dealing with too many challenges and boredom when we have too few.
Flow is the place in between. The place of optimal experience where we're challenged enough to stretch and grow but not so much as to be overwhelmed. Although written for a layman, the book demands more concentration than a novel. Highly recommended for introspective creatives. Top

More Reviews

Pulp Fiction

Science Fiction

Illustrated Fiction

Reviews - Non-Fiction 1

Browse by page:

Direct link by author:

A Perfect Mess by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman

Mapping Inner Space by Nancy Margulies, M.A.