A decently easy to read and comprehensive textbook.

Not much to be said about assigned reading, and this is not exactly leisure reading material, but if you can choose your own texts on the topic, this is a pretty good choice.

One of the worst books I have ever read. On par with The Secret and perhaps worse because this guy has an MD and claims to have a PhD (his PhD was acquired from a uiniversity later shutdown by the State of California literally for being a degree factory). Here are some random thoughts because the book makes me too angry to even compose a thoughtful review: He explains the levels of energy in one chapter (never really explaining how he could possibly measure this stuff), then he discusses cultures based on this same scale. There is no correlation. The sections could be in separate books. He basically implies that industrial societies never go to war...or that industries never exploit, etc. The more modern the society the higher the energy level. This must be comedic gold to anyone who has ever had their lives destroyed by an MNC or an Iraqi. A fundamental truth of existence is that all people are flawed; some are better at some things than others and some are worse at some things than others and this is not mutually exclusive. He is separating personality traits as if an angry person is just angry all the time or a person who shows compassion is just compassionate all the time, or as if someone who is prideful can't also, in other circumstances, expressx acceptance or a willingness to act for others. Engery Level 500 he calls love. But what he appears to be describing isn't love but the human desire for totality/wholeness/integrity/purity/etc. This may be a reasonable thing for an individual to do (though I doubt it, as it can never succeed) but socially and politically, such a quest has led to more death and unhappiness than any other idea/human desire in history. The argument of essence prior to existence underlies every genocidal/democidal regime in history, as well as all the major institutionalized and violent religions. The reason for this - as far as I can figure - is when you prioritize essence (or the whole) over existence (or specific people, places, things) what does it matter if you break a few eggs? What you are attempting to achieve is far more important than any one person's life. And though most people would at least argue that reason leads to the realization of essence over and above existence, he is trying to get us to ignore reason, which is worse. I get that he is advocating this for individuals, but very few people seem to be good at keeping their ideas and beliefs private any more. To top it all off, he makes a bizarre scientific claim with absolutely no evidence re endorphins (there is no footnote). Four pages later, he puts himself in the same energy level category as Jesus when he claims he has knowledge of the energy level of Jesus through his own personal experience. The man is not only a snake oil salesman, he is arrogant beyond anything. I stopped reading around page 100. I NEVER fail to complete a book. But I just can't take this horseshit any longer. Absolutely horrible in every way.

Great read. Check it out

Fascinating read on decision making. Yeah, sure we are logical, methodical...

An excellent follow up to his Pulitzer winning "Goedel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid" Written in an essay format Dr Hofstadter delves into everything from Rubik's cube to short biographies of science greats - and all these wide ranging essays are organized into a coherent, intricately organized order that somehow finds a connection to everything. Written for a popular audience Hofstadter is always searching for and asking even deeper philosophical questions which often touch upon the supernatural.