When I go on trips is when I usually get reading done. Yay Kindle?
recently or not so recently finishedMichael Cooper.
Help! My Facebook Ads Suck!This was recommended by
helen_keeble. I have never run a FB ad and never intend to since I'm not really in self-pub [1], but I have friends who are in that business and I was curious about the terminology and methodologies involved. This is clearly written and really interesting, and I've heard people vouch for it, although I can't vouch for it myself from experience.
[1] I have a self-published
collection of flash fairy tales but it just sort of sits there on Amazon and maaaaaaybe once in a while someone buys a copy. If you're going to self-pub flash fairy tales, go Patreon, not Amazon. :p
- JoAnneh Nagler.
How to Be an Artist Without Losing Your Mind, Your Shirt, or Your Creative Compass.
I read this a while back and forgot to report on it (one of the problems with my Kindle is I keep losing it around the house). The gist of this is "don't quit your day job before you're bringing in enough income with your creative job." It's pretty pragmatic and I generally agree with it. There's really not much else to say about it.
in progress- Anne McCaffrey.
To Ride Pegasus.
This is a nostalgia reread for me, and this is one of those fix-up novels made of short stories in a sequence as far as I can tell--I think this and its sequels are precursors to
The Rowan and
Damia, etc. I really enjoy reading about the early era of psionics in this setting, although I have to *facepalm* some at parts of "A Womanly Talent."
( spoiler )- Tim Harford.
The Undercover Economist Strikes Back.
It would probably have made more sense to read the first in the series (?) first, but this one was on sale and the others weren't, so I picked it up. I'm about a third of the way through and really enjoying it. This volume is on macroeconomics and has given me the first explanation that made
any sense as to why money works. (I tend to get stuck on the fact that money is a mass delusion and stutter to a halt.) Of course, this is me, so econ explanations don't
stick in my head, but now I know where I can look.
- Penelope Bloom.
His Banana.
This self-published romance has a
killer blurb (formatting aside) but I'm only about 10% in and not sure yet whether the book itself is my kind of thing.
My new boss likes rules, but there's one nobody dares to break...
No touching his banana.
Seriously. The guy is like a potassium addict.
Of course, I touched it.
If you want to get technical, I actually put it in my mouth.
I chewed it up, too... I even swallowed.
I know. Bad, bad, girl.
Then I saw him, and believe it or not, choking on a guy's banana does not make the best first impression. [etc.]
- Paul Bloom.
Against Empathy.
Bloom appears to have some kind of argument against
emotional empathy (Where you feel what you think someone else is feeling) as opposed to cognitive empathy (cognitive ability to anticipate/predict other's emotional states). As an example of the kind of argument he makes, he points out that because empathy (emotional empathy) is innumerate, people will make knee-jerk judgments based on a single shocking case where statistically the other decision would be of benefit to more people. Color me extremely curious--I'm doubly curious because I have weak to nonexistent emotional empathy when dealing with people face to face. (I can't even figure out why you would
want it. When Joe is really upset about something that's gone wrong, my getting upset
as well is rarely if ever going to help me do something rationally useful about the situation? On the other hand, I know cognitively he's upset and wants X done for reassurance, so I can make whatever soothing noises are required, or whatever.) ANYWAY. I'm kind of skeptical but willing to read the book to find out. (Could have been useful Kujen research if I'd found the book earlier, ahahahaha.)