Kneading the Brain

Based on a Twitter recommendation by Shawn Elliott, I picked up Brain Christian's "The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What it Means to Be Alive." And so far, it has managed to poke and prod my thinking self into actual thought. And though the writing is "light" and fairly easily digested, I'm finding that some pages I'll get to the bottom of then re-read the section because my brain is churning on a particular concept that's explained on the page or a concept that's put forward that makes me look away from the book and consider what I've just read. It's a departure from my usual reason for having to re-read something: I zoned out.

I've started to think about who I actually am, my perception of the world around me, and some of the rote pitfalls I continue to be faced with.

And more than that, I'm finding that because I'm thinking more about what I'm reading, I'm retaining far more of the information presented in the book and some of the concepts are really sticking with me, like the concept of creativity and the idea of creating a tool then coming up with a use for it.

I'm about halfway through the book so far and I can easily see myself flipping to page one soon after reaching the last page. It's that interesting. Or maybe that's just my perception because I haven't read much in the way of non-fiction for a number of years.