BOOK 175: CARSICK: JOHN WATERS HITCHHIKES ACROSS AMERICA: JOHN WATERS

John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin mustache, and a cardboard sign that reads "I'm Not Psycho," he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. But who should we be more worried about, the delicate film director with genteel manners or the unsuspecting travelers transporting the Pope of Trash?

Before he leaves for this bizarre adventure, Waters fantasizes about the best and worst possible scenarios: a friendly drug dealer hands over piles of cash to finance films with no questions asked, a demolition-derby driver makes a filthy sexual request in the middle of a race, a gun-toting drunk terrorizes and holds him hostage, and a Kansas vice squad entraps and throws him in jail. So what really happens when this cult legend sticks out his thumb and faces the open road? His real-life rides include a gentle eighty-one-year-old farmer who is convinced Waters is a hobo, an indie band on tour, and the perverse filmmaker's unexpected hero: a young, sandy-haired Republican in a Corvette.

Laced with subversive humor and warm intelligence, Carsick is an unforgettable vacation with a wickedly funny companion--and a celebration of America's weird, astonishing, and generous citizenry.

MY VERDICT: I am a big fan of John Waters, but I am afraid I was a little disappointed by this book.  I heard about it when he was interviewed for a radio show. He promoted it well and it instantly went on my ‘to read list’. The concept of a modern hitchhiking trip fascinated me. Unfortunately it wasn’t as interesting as it could have been and John knew it – which is why he filled a third of the book with a fictional account of the trip (twice). He wrote a short novella of the best possible thing that could happen on his trip and a novella of the worst. The concept is an interesting one and as a former art student I can say it has been blagged in the best possible way but from reading it you can clearly see he panicked that the book would not be long enough and added filler. The filler is well written and entertaining but it’s not what I signed up for and from reading other reviews I can tell other readers felt a little cheated too.

BOOK 143: QUIET: THE POWER OF INTROVERTS IN A WORLD THAT CAN'T STOP TALKING: SUSAN CAIN

Cain argues that modern Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people, leading to "a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness."

Notable individuals described by Cain as introverts, or whose notability is based on introverted personality characteristics:

Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Marcel Proust, Frédéric Chopin, Charles Darwin, Steve Wozniak, Mother Teresa, Gandhi

Steven Spielberg, J.K. Rowling, Charles Schulz, Bill Gates

Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul

Dale Carnegie, Albert Einstein, Dr. Seuss

Warren Buffett, Al Gore, Larry Page

Charles Schwab

David Letterman, Barbara Walters

Isaac Newton

Pablo Picasso ("Without great solitude, no serious work is possible”)

W. B. Yeats, J. M. Barrie, George Orwell

"Seekers"—Moses, Jesus, Buddha

Johnny Carson, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin

The Wall Street Journal's Philip Delves Broughton reviewed Quiet as "an earnest and enlightening 300-page inquiry into introversion and its uses," described examples of the research and investigations Cain undertook, and closed by stating "Ms. Cain's rich, intelligent book will probably have broad appeal."

BOOK 139: SUPERSENSE: FROM SUPERSTITION TO RELIGION - THE BRAIN SCIENCE OF BELIEF: BRUCE HOOD

Why is it that Tony Blair always wore the same pair of shoes when answering Prime Minister's Questions? That John McEnroe notoriously refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points? And that President-elect Barack Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary, and continued the tradition the day of every following primary? Superstitious habits are common. Do you ever cross your fingers, knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, or step around black cats? Sentimental value often supersedes material worth. If someone offered to replace your childhood teddy bear or wedding ring with a brand new, exact replica, would you do it? How about £20 for trying on a jumper owned by Fred West? Where do such feelings come from and why do most of us have them? Humans are born with brains designed to make sense of the world and that need for an explanation can lead to beliefs that go beyond reason. To be true they would have to be supernatural. With scientific education we learn that such beliefs are irrational but at an intuitive level they can be resistant to reason or lie dormant in otherwise sensible adults. It now seems unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs or superstitious behaviours will be completely successful. This is not all bad news – such beliefs are a useful glue that binds us together as a society. Combining brilliant insight with witty example Hood weaves a page-turning account of our ‘supersense’ that navigates a path through brain science, child development, popular culture, mental illness and the paranormal. After reading SuperSense, you will realize why you are not as reasonable as you might like to think – and why that might be no bad thing.

MY VERDICT: I, as someone really interested in studying superstition, was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately I was disappointed. Bruce Hood has a couple of interesting insights but it is obvious that there wasn't quite enough to fill the book and it is a laborious read and very repetitive.

BOOK 132: CASH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY: JOHNNY CASH

Cash: The Autobiography is a 1997 autobiography of Johnny Cash, country musician, written twenty years after his first autobiography, Man in Black. Cash co-wrote this book with Patrick Carr. Cash's autobiographies were the basis for the award-winning biopic Walk the Line in 2005.

BOOK 116: WORDS: JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

The book, consisting of Sartre distancing himself from writing and making his farewells to literature was very successful for the author and was hailed nearly unanimously as a "literary success" In November of the same year, 1964, he refused the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded for his work, described as "rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age."

MY VERDICT: I enjoyed the second half of this book (the ‘writing’ section) much more than the first half.  I was a little bored with the whole history of Sartre’s family and found it unnecessary, however I did enjoy discovering the relationships he had with his Grandfather and Mother.  It has been a while since I read Nausea and even though Sartre makes a comment about his most recent work being his best I thought Nausea was better.