(k) The 12 books I read in 2015 :) - a photo on Flickriver

(k) The 12 books I read in 2015 :)

Only counting books I read (or soon-ish will have read) in their entirety…
Faves: 7.
Best: Better never to have been: The harm of coming into existence by David Benatar! :D
Below are starting dates, titles, authors, and some quotes / comments that I could think of. :p Hopefully I have not typo-ed up the quotes too badly.

27-Feb-2015: 1. Better never to have been: The harm of coming into existence by David Benatar
Fave! Why yes, I have become an antinatalist lately. Read the book, for it will refute your knee-jerk counterarguments and clear up your extremely common misconceptions. :D

"… [T]here is nothing in my view that suggests we should not 'count our blessings' if by this one means that one should be pleased that one's life is not still worse than it is. A few of us are very lucky relative to much of the species. There is no harm – and there may be benefits – in recognizing this. But the injunction to count one's blessings is much less compelling when it entails deceiving oneself into thinking that one was actually lucky to have come into existence. It is like being grateful that one is in a first-class cabin on the Titanic as one awaits descent to one's watery grave. It may be better to die in first-class than in steerage, but not so much better as to count oneself very lucky. Nor does my view preclude our making the most of life or taking pleasure whenever we can (within the constraints of morality). I have argued that our lives are very bad. There is no reason why we should not try to make them less so, on condition that we do not spread the suffering (including the harm of existence)."

Moar! "Whenever humanity comes to an end, there will be serious costs for the last people. Either they will be killed or they will languish from the consequences of dwindling population and the collapse of social infrastructure. All things being equal, nothing is gained if this happens later. The same suffering occurs. But there is a cost that does not have to be paid if extinction occurs earlier – the cost to the intervening new generations, those that exist between the present generation and final one. The case for earlier extinction is thus strong."

One of the chapters is titled "Abortion: The pro-death view". Ratexla approves of this. %D

13-Mar-2015: 2. Denna dagen, ett liv: En biografi över Astrid Lindgren by Jens Andersen
Astrid Lindgren bio. She was rather fab and had DARKNESS. My fave Astrid stories are "Ronia the robber's daughter" and "The brothers Lionheart". :)

23-Mar-2015: 3. Ultralight backpackin' tips: 153 amazing & inexpensive tips for extremely lightweight camping by Mike Clelland
Fave! Not that I take photo-hikes or sleep outdoors (OR, YOU KNOW, LEAVE THE HOUSE) as often as I should. :| But I've got vague plans! OH YEAH! Anyway. The book includes extremely energy-dense recipes that sound pretty tasty. :D (The author is a vegetarian and the vast majority of said recipes are either vegan or easily veganized.) It is almost a pity that I wouldn't bother to bring a camping kitchen on my epic hikes (since, uh, they weigh a few grams and they're scary and I've never used one on my own), but I might try to make one of his oil-spice-mixes for home use. :)

Yes, the book does instruct readers in the noble art of taking a shit in the woods, which I have never actually done, which is a source of great shame. D: *fails hardcore outdoorsiness academy*

1-Apr-2015: 4. William Shakespeare: The complete plays in one sitting by Joelle Herr
The book is adorably tiny.

5-Apr-2015: 5. A universe from nothing: Why there is something rather than nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss
Many interesting bits, although I comprehended far from everything... o_O

6-May-2015: 6. Minding animals: Awareness, emotions, and heart by Marc Bekoff
A gift from a friend, so I read it even though the number of hippie bits, while not extreme, was too high. :s

9-May-2015: 7. The moral landscape: How science can determine human values by Sam Harris
Fave!

"I wonder if there is anyone on earth who would be tempted to attack the philosophical underpinnings of medicine with questions like: 'What about all the people who don't share your goal of avoiding disease and early death? Who is to say that living a long life free of pain and debilitating illness is "healthy"? What makes you think that you could convince a person suffering from fatal gangrene that he is not as healthy as you are?' And yet these are precisely the kinds of objections I face when I speak about morality in terms of human and animal well-being. Is it possible to voice such doubts in human speech? Yes. But that doesn't mean we should take them seriously."

28-Jun-2015: 8. A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion by Randy Thornhill & Craig T. Palmer
Fave!

"Perhaps the most common misunderstanding of evolutionary theory, and the one most destructive to knowledge, is the naturalistic fallacy: the view that what ought to be is defined by what is, and especially by what is natural (Moore 1903). The flaw in this view seems obvious when one considers such natural phenomena as diseases, floods, and tornadoes. Nonetheless, many of sociobiology's early critics urged its rejection on the unsupportable ground that sociobiological explanations for undesirable traits excused the perpetrators because they were only doing what was natural (Sahlins 1976; Gould and Lewontin 1979).

"Even though the naturalistic fallacy has been painstakingly explained in nearly every major work of the past 25 years in which modern evolutionary theory has been applied to human behavior (see, e.g., Alexander 1979, 1987; Symons 1979; Wright 1994), this fallacy continues to be committed by many opponents of the modern evolutionary approach to human nature. For example, Tang-Martinez (1997, p. 117) states that many branches of feminism contend that human sociobiology 'serves only to justify and promote the oppression of women by perpetuating the notion that male dominance and female oppression are natural outcomes of human evolutionary history.'" (For the record, I am a feminist! OF COURSE! But not one of the hippie brand!)

Fun (AND USEFUL) random fact: "… [I]n anonymous reports ... about one-third of men say that they would coerce a woman into sexual acts if they could be assured that they would not suffer any negative consequences (Malamuth 1989; Young and Thiessen 1991)."

Other fun random fact: "According to Kinsey et al. (1948), about 20 percent of men reared in rural settings admitted to a sexual encounter with a farm animal."

I feel as if this book + Steven Pinker taught me 95 % of what I know about the average man. D:

24-Sep-2015: 9. The Great Ape Project: Equality beyond humanity - edited by Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer
Fave! A collection of essays by various people – for example Richard Dawkins, Jane Goodall, and Jared Diamond – demanding "the extension of the community of equals to include all great apes: human beings, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans."

Here is a quote from one Steve F. Sapontzis: "… [T]he answer to whether nonhuman great apes should be extended the same basic moral and legal rights as humans depends in part on whether these basic rights are being formulated in a general or specific manner. In developing moral and legal codes which people would be supposed to follow and to which they could be held accountable, specific formulations would have to be employed. Consequently, at this level the answer must be 'no': even in thoroughly non-speciesist, animal-respecting moral and legal codes, nonhuman great apes need not have the same basic moral and legal rights as humans.

"And vice versa, let us not forget. There is a tendency to think that if we conclude that nonhuman animals are not to enjoy all the rights of humans, it is because they are entitled only to a few of those rights. However, basing moral and legal protections on specific interests can also lead to the conclusion that nonhuman animals should have rights that humans do not need. So, specific nonhuman and human rights can be different without the former being merely a subgroup of the latter, and, consequently, without suggesting that the nonhumans are morally or legally less worthy beings."

4-Nov-2015: 10. General pathology for veterinary nurses by Harriet Brooks
A textbook I happened to read in its entirety because it was wee! :)

20-Dec-2015: 11. Brief candle in the dark: My life in science by Richard Dawkins
Fave! Even though I haven't finished it yet. :D

"... and if you don't like digressive anecdotes you might find you're reading the wrong book." ^_^

24-Dec-2015: 12. Icarus at the edge of time by Brian Greene
Fave! It's a book for kids. And others. A short sci-fi story about general relativity. 34 big cardboard pages on which are printed amazeballs Hubble photos. And a black hole.

---------------------------------------------
Vegan FAQ! :)

The Web Site the Meat Industry Doesn't Want You to See.

Please watch Earthlings.

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Taken in: Sverige / Uppsala Län / Uppsala (show map)

Taken on: December 31, 2015

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