Brain Magic - Part One: Brain Facts & Figures

The blurb is rather misleading. One expects a serious if fairly popular account of current neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. The first volume offers some of that, from Slessenger, a science journalist, but most of the rest of the set is taken over by a Gilbert, a goofy motivational speaker, good-natured and assertive but ignorant and vulgar. I had to give up on it. There are many other titles available that give real neuroscience, sometimes in the context of more particular topics: Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, Cacioppo's Loneliness, even Johnson's Mind Wide Open. Bryson's Nearly Everything and Angier's The Canon also contain a good deal of legitimate neuroscience, though aimed specifically at a popular audience. Brain Magic isn't anywhere close to joining the real third culture league. It keeps company instead with Lipton's The Biology of Belief and Pink's A Whole New Mind--other stinkers I had to trashcan after just a few minutes, plenty of time time to reveal the quality of intelligence at work.

This was a good intro, but the book is split into several parts and isn't worth paying the money for in several parts. Read Brain Rules by Medina instead! At least you get a whole book!!

Brain Magic was a complete waste of time and money. It was like Car-Talk (the NPR radio program) discussing their opinions on the brain. The book Brain Rules was worth reading, this program was just hideous.