Some remarks about this page

This page contains comments on some books that I have read, and that have for some reason been special. There are other special books that I haven't mentioned here, mainly because I read them long time ago.

If you find here an interesting book, but don't find it in a local bookstore, try the Net bookstores: http://www.books.com/, or http://www.amazon.com/.

Martial arts related stuff, Zen books etc


SciFi

I used to read lots of scifi at some time, but nowadays less and more selectively. This book has however made a big difference: em>Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

Comments on some of my more recent readings:

Cognitive science

As an introduction into the current dialogue among researchers in cognitive science, read Speaking Minds, Interviews with Twenty Eminent Cognitive Scientists .

Daniel Dennett's Consciousness Explained is definitely worth looking into. He presents the current discussion about consciousness in a thorough way, and you will notice that nothing is as simple as you thought (as with all philosophical type of discussion). Warning for the dualist: Dennett is not one, and this material may make you change your views in a thorough fashion!

Gödel, Escher, Bach

A temptating book by Douglas R. Hofstadter for anyone interested in broad connections e.g. between visual arts, music, math and mind puzzles. Every second chapter is a piece of a "story", dialogue between Achilles and Tortoise. The chapters in between address the same questions in a more explicit way.

Gödel was a mathematician famous for Gödel's incompleteness theorem, a disconcerting theorem that roughly says that no axiomatic system is provable, i.e. that you cannot ever prove all the truths that are expressible in that system. Hofstadter makes this sound much more interesting, and ties it together with Escher's paintings of "strange loops", Bach's strange experiments and musical "jokes" and other seemingly as unrelated things.

Few and very miscellaneous other authors

Cartoons


Finnish books and authors (in Finnish)

Leena Krohn

Kirjoittaa kognitiivisesti tietoista proosaa. Maailman ja mielen välinen yhteys ei enää näytäkään yksinkertaiselta. Häneltä on muutamia tekstejä myös verkossa (koskien mm. tietoverkkoja), ja verkon ulkopuolella on ilmestynyt ainakin Tribar, Tainaron, Älä lue tätä kirjaa, Matemaattisia Olioita ja Umbra.

En välttämättä jaa kaikkia hänen kognitiivisia mielipiteitään (vaikka kyllä yllättävän monia), mutta tärkeämpää on näkökulma, pohdiskelu, kyseenalaistaminen, ja vanhojen ajatusrakenteiden sekoittaminen uudeksi järjestykseksi, vähän kuin kaleidoskoopissa.

Mika Waltari

Etenkin pitkät historialliset romaanit, ja niistä erityisesti Johannes Angelos ja Nuori Johannes. Esikoisteos Suuri Illusioni on varmaan Waltarin raivostuttavin kirja.

Muita:


Krista Lagus <krista@psych.helsinki.fi>
Last modified: Sun Sep 1 23:14:50 1996