QEDcon book swap!
QEDcon is fast approaching (14 days left!) and due to a Facebook friend’s question to attendees about recommending some books, I thought about a QEDcon attendee book swap!
In these cash-strapped times, I thought it might be nice to use QEDcon as a chance to give and receive (or long-term lend) the gift of awesome books.
If you are interested in swapping a book, please either leave a comment here or email me through the contact form. Paris Please indicate whether you want to swap the book permanently or if you’d be willing to post it back!
Here are the books I am willing to permanently swap (I will update the list when others add to the comments below)
Jon Ronson – side of the eye. http://fairchanceproject.com/old/wp-admin/ The Psychopath Test
This is a story about madness. It all starts when journalist Jon Ronson is contacted by a leading neurologist. She and several colleagues have recently received a cryptically puzzling book in the mail, and Jon is challenged to solve the mystery behind it. As he searches for the answer, Jon soon finds himself, unexpectedly, on an utterly compelling and often unbelievable adventure into the world of madness. Jon meets a Broadmoor inmate who swears he faked a mental disorder to get a lighter sentence but is now stuck there, with nobody believing he’s sane. He meets some of the people who catalogue mental illness, and those who vehemently oppose them. He meets the influential psychologist who developed the industry standard Psychopath Test and who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are in fact psychopaths. Jon learns from him how to ferret out these high-flying psychopaths and, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, heads into the corridors of power… Combining Jon’s trademark humour, charm and investigative incision, The Psychopath Test is a deeply honest book unearthing dangerous truths and asking serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges – From Amazon
This work contains a rational explanation of 27 paranormal phenomena – from walking over hot coals to spontaneous combustion – that appear to defy the laws of science. Can a human being really burst spontaneously into flames? Just how deadly is the Bermuda Triangle? And what’s the real story behind all those alien abductions? The answers to these and many more questions are within these covers. Guaranteed to liven up any dinner party, “The Skeptic’s Guide to the Paranormal” offers explanations for many phenomena which appear to defy known science. Speaking directly to the reader, and always with respect for those who believe, Lynne Kelly presents the facts about the paranormal. Lynne Kelly has been teaching science and mathematics for over 30 years. She holds degrees in education and engineering and delights in debunking claims of the paranormal. She also delights in all things arachnid and is famous for her spider jewellery
Stuart Sutherland – Irrationality
This is an iconoclastic volume on the causes and effects of irrational behaviour. Why do doctors, army generals, high-ranking government officials, and other people in positions of power make bad decisions that cause harm to others? On the other hand, why do people insist on sitting through an awful play or film just because the tickets were expensive? Irrational beliefs and behaviour are virtually universal. It is not only gamblers and parapsychologists that fall into simple statistical traps to do with sample sizes or simple assumptions, but experts of all types, selection committees, and everyday people. “Irrationality” is an iconoclastic volume that draws on a mass of intriguing research to examine why we are irrational, the different types of irrationality, the damage it does us, and the possible cures. It also argues that we could significantly reduce irrationality and its effects – but only if we first recognize just how irrational we really are
Please join in if you’d like to share the knowledge! :)
*Please note, I am not affiliated with QEDcon in any way; I am just an attendee!
I’d be happy to lend A.C. Grayling’s “Scepticism and the Possibility of Knowledge” (but I would definitely want it back at some point as it wasn’t cheap). It’s a brilliant book that looks at scepticism (the impossibility of knowledge) and how we can challenge it. It’s hard going but extremely rewarding.
Also, I could lend Bertrand Russell’s “Why I am not a Christian” but again I’d like it back.
If anyone wants to permanently swap something for my hardback copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Journals 1954-1958 then I’m open to offers. Not exactly sKeptical writing, but it’s there. I can’t bring myself to give it to a charity shop, but neither can I read it any more.
I’ve got a couple of popular science books I wouldn’t mind swapping. e.g “Fabric of the Cosmos” as I now have the ebook version.
Do you have a full list? If you could post it, that’d be ace :)
Sure. How about these four:
Fabric of the Cosmos – Brian Greene
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast – Lewis Wolpert
Physics of the Impossible – Michio Kaku
Meta Math (The Quest for Omega) – Gregory Chaitin
Of the ones listed I wouldn’t mind reading Irrationality for a different take on belief to the Wolpert book. Happy to donate / swap the above as I have shelves overly crammed with books.
Martin
Sharing knowledge via books and otherwise is a good thing