Books

Ajit Singh - Top-10 Picks for The Best Books of 2013:
Part III

AJIT SINGH

PART III

SCIENCE (Continued from Monday, Dec 30)

9   Richard Dawkins, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, Ecco, 2013.

Richard Dawkins needs no introduction. I have covered four of his dozen-plus books - The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion, and The Greatest Show on Earth - in the past.

This book is an autobiography – the first ever in my Top-10 (outside of Isabel Allende’s memoir, The Sum of Our Days). I have included it mostly because it is a story of the forming and maturing of Dawkins’ mind, starting with his childhood in Nairobi, through his time at UC Berkeley, to Oxford.

If you have read and have liked any of his writings, the autobiography is a must read.


MATHEMATICS

10  Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets, Bloomsbury, 2013.

I must confess that I had not watched a single episode of The Simpsons until I read this book. I got turned off by a diatribe delivered by Bart Simpson in the first 30 seconds of an episode sometime in the early 90’s, and I announced a moratorium against watching it. How silly of me to have dismissed an entire chapter in the American popular culture and social evolution – not because of lack of time but by jumping to a (judgmental) conclusion too quickly. (For the record, I do watch South Park.)

I got introduced to Simon Singh’s writings through Fermat’s Engima, and I find his style and depth an absolute treat. I read The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets in one single long plane ride.

To draw you in, here is a factoid. The writers who weave in math into The Simpsons scripts have the following credentials: Stewart Burns, B.S. in Mathematics from Harvard, M.S. in Mathematics from UC Berkeley; David Cohen, B.S. in Physics from Harvard, M.S. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley; Al Jean, B.S. in Mathematics from Harvard; Ken Keeler, B.S., Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard; Jeff Westbrook, B.S. in Physics from Harvard, Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton.

If you are a Simpsons watcher, you probably know all of the mathematical undercurrents anyway.

If you are like me, it would be a good time to watch a few episodes. In either case, the book is a work of sheer brilliance.


GUEST APPEARANCE: GUNITA SINGH

11  Melanie Joy, Why we Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An introduction to Carnism, Conari Press, 2010

I personally think this is a must-read for anyone interested in psychology, the nature of human decision-making, and the sheer complexities of the human mind. This book is groundbreaking in its bluntness, and while it certainly may provoke the reader for a number of reasons, I encourage everyone to read it with an open mind and a reflective, analytical attitude.

Not only is it extremely well-written, but it is a relatively short read.

Joy cogently describes how the animal agriculture industry requires members of society to remain unaware of the realities of industrialized factory farming. Many of us have had pets or have experienced a bond with an animal, whether a cat, dog, or another creature. We understand that animals have emotions, desires, and complex volitional capacities.

Joy explores how agribusiness perpetuates key myths (e.g.: eating meat is natural, normal, and necessary) in order to generate complacency for the rampant abuses taking place against animals behind closed doors. Her argument is simple: we are compassionate people. All of us are capable of feeling tremendous empathy, and fundamentally, none of us want animals to suffer because - if given the choice - we would choose not to subscribe to the violent ideology of animal exploitation.

This is why agribusiness aims to take our choice away by hiding the truth as effectively as possible, whether with claims of custom, nutrition, etc. This book sheds much needed light on the dismal experience of farm animals (10 billion land animals per year are slaughtered in the United States), but it also explores human psychology and the "psychological acrobatics" in which we often participate to rationalize certain decisions.

We are all imperfect, yet our innate drive toward goodness lends us tremendous potential to make this world a better, safer place.

I am a very passionate animal advocate and going vegan 18 months ago was one of the best decisions I ever made. I seek not to promote a specific agenda by including this book in my father's book-list; rather, my goal is to encourage us all to understand the magnitude of the choices we make as consumers.

For a full-lecture version of the book, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vWbV9FPo_Q.


CONCLUDED

January 1, 2014
 

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