Story Tags

Proust and the Squid

The Reading Brain

...and How Digital Media Is Rewiring It

How is your experience reading these words different than if you were reading them on paper? In what ways does the printed word—and in particular, book reading—alter the mind and human culture? How is digital media rewiring the brain and changing the way we think, imagine, and experience life? These are the kinds of questions the books below explore through perspectives from neuroscience, history, linguistics, media studies, literature, and personal stories.

100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Math and the Arts by John D. Barrow

Know A Little About A Lot

Whether it's through a book, podcast, or online class, I love to learn new things! I especially enjoy when something surprises me or makes me think about a certain topic or subject a little differently than I had before. The list below features books that present all kinds of information to readers in unique and exciting ways. Prepare for trivia, dazzle people with your seemingly endless knowledge, or just learn something new for the fun of it!

Free to Learn

Let the Children Play

Books That Explore the Importance of Play

In an age when increased amounts of academic work, standardized tests, adult-organized activities, and passive entertainment dominate children's lives, is there much time left to play? Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, biology, neuroscience, and personal stories, the books below explore the nature of play and why it is essential.

Cryptonomicon book cover

Information Antics

A Reading List

Banned Books Week is drawing to a close, but the Information Antics exhibit will be on display at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library through October 22. Here's a reading list to accompany the show, featuring fiction and nonfiction dealing with the ways in which information and data can shape the world. Fiction:

domesticated

The World As We Know It

How people shape nature

In 2016, the International Union of Geological Sciences will decide whether or not the world has indeed reached the Anthropocene age, an era when accelerated changes to the planet have been primarily caused by human activity.

modern romance

Technology Anxiety

Love it or fear it, writers have something to say about how people have adapted to new tech

"The most important thing about technology is how it changes people" -- Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget

The Answer to the Riddle book cover

Books on Bodies and Brains

Medical books for the average Joe

One of our first Read Feed customers asked for books about how the human body works, especially the brain.

More Picks Lists Coming Soon

Check this space for new suggestions

Check back in this space for some great suggestions from our librarians.

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