Weekly Non-Fiction Reading List 2.19.24
We have a nice range of books this week. The first book discusses the ethics around people “controlling” our thoughts from one of my fav authors. We then have a book about how unlikeable female characters are written in film and TV as well as a book that I’ve read four times now. Enjoy!
Also, don’t forget to become a paid subscriber for the low low price of $5/month if you want to get my monthly curated lists of my favorite books. I’ll also be adding more curated lists throughout the year!
Each of the links to the books are affiliate links, so if you use my link to purchase any of these books, some comes back to support what I do (and it also helps fund my reading habit).
Freethinking: Protecting Freedom of Thought Amidst the New Battle for the Mind by Simon McCarthy-Jones
I absolutely loved Simon’s previous book Spite. I’ve read it three or four times and will most likely read it again. As soon as I heard he had a new book, I immediately grabbed a copy. While it’s nowhere near as good as Spite, in my opinion, it’s still a pretty solid book. For the most part, his main argument is that we should really be regulating how governments and companies “control” our thinking.
Now, what does he mean by “control”? Well, it’s pretty much everything I wish everyone understood about social media and anything else that may be addictive. For decades now, Psychology has been studying how to get people to behave in different ways. These are sometimes called “nudges”, but then there’s also the psychology of behaviorism, which preys on our reward system.
For example, countries that have an opt-out option for organ donation rather than opt-in have many more organ donors. Should that be legal?
Simon doesn’t only discuss behaviorism, he also discusses what the future may hold when it comes to how or minds work and what people can do with our thoughts. It’s pretty interesting and a bit philosophical. If you’ve read a bunch of books on these topics before, this takes a slightly new angle, but a lot is repeat information. If you’re unaware of the ways various entities are trying to control our behaviors, you should definitely check this book out.
Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe by Hugo Mercier
This is another one of those books that I read once a year because I love it so much. I’m a highly skeptical person who also has trust issues, and I just can’t figure out why so many people are gullible and fall for ridiculous scams and misinformation. Well, Mercier argues that humans aren’t actually gullible. Each time I read this book, I think I’m going to be able to refute his arguments, but they’re solid every time.
Mercier has solid arguments and research to back up the fact that humans are actually pretty skeptical and untrusting. He explains how we typically have some pretty good reasons for trusting certain people, but it’s just bad people who take advantage of that once they gain our trust.
I read this book again because I was thinking about reading it with my son because he wants to learn about why people believe weird things. Although I love this book, and my son is an extremely bright 15-year-old, I don’t think I’ll have him read this until he knocks out some other books in the realm. Mercier writes in a less academic way that makes it so anyone can understand this book without being a psychologist, but there are some higher-level ideas in here that I don’t think my son would understand just yet.
Unlikeable Female Characters: The Women Pop Culture Wants You to Hate by Anna Bogutskaya
This is a fantastic book, and I’m starting with that because I have a minor criticism a bit later. I’ve always wondered why so many people hate female characters, and Bogutskaya nailed it with this book. Basically, it’s a lot of misogynistic, sexist nonsense. In the book she dedicates a chapter to various “unlikeable” female archetypes such as the angry woman, the trainwreck, the shrew, the weirdo, the slut, and more. She uses examples from different films and TV shows to discuss the characters, how it portrays women, and the real world effects of these portrayals.
I’ve been super interested in movie and film analysis recently, so I jumped at the chance to read this book. The author does a really good job going over reach archetype and analyzing why women are written a certain way, how women aren’t given the same passes as men, and how it’s good that different types of women have good representation (sometimes) in film and TV.
My only criticism is that in chapters like “The Psycho”, it seems like the authors think it’s wrong that we don’t like certain villains. I may have misinterpreted what she was arguing, but some villains are meant to be disliked. I absolutely understand that we need to empathize with people, and I feel like I do that more than most. I love Roy F. Baumeister’s idea of “the myth of pure evil” because he explains how most “evil” people think they’re doing the right thing. They often just go about it in an awful way.
A great example of this is Killmonger in Black Panther. I don’t think many people would argue that Killmonger has a very justifiable reason to be angry, but he wanted to kill an insane amount of people.
At one point in this book, Bogutskaya seems like she wants us to have more empathy for Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction. I’ve never seen the movie, and I definitely understand that it’s ridiculous that the male character basically has no repercussions for his infidelity. But I don’t know how much I can empathize with a character who boiled a child’s rabbit and tries to kill the guy’s wife. Yes, she’s clearly a troubled woman, but if she’s not bad, nobody’s bad in film or TV. We could argue they all had traumatic, terrible childhoods that led them to this path, that free will doesn’t exist, and then they all get a pass.
Sorry, that’s my one issue with the book, but overall, I think it’s a must-read. The author actually sold me on the fact that Skylar White wasn’t that bad in Breaking Bad, and I’m definitely going to watch movies and shows in a much different way now that I’ve read this book.
Subscribe to the reading list! It’s free! Although I’ve been publishing this weekly reading list for free for multiple years, consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5 to help me pay for new books and keep this list free for everyone. And we have brand new curated reading lists for paid subscribers.
If you enjoyed this post, it’d mean a lot to me if you shared it. Forward it in an email, share it on social media, or whatever suits your fancy.
To stay updated follow me on Twitter and Instagram @TheRewiredSoul and subscribe to the Substack.