Because I always enjoy this...

[fajrdrako]

From lfire1:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Well, first of all, all my books are cool and intellectual, in the best possible way, especially that comic book collection.

As for the book closest to hand... Hmm. I haven't got to page 123 yet - I'm still on page 73. It's the book I was reading over breakfast, The End of Faith by Sam Harris, quoted previously re Shakespeare. From page 123:

I cannot judge the quality of the Arabic; perhaps it is sublime. But the book's contents are not. On almost every page, the Koran instructs observant Muslims to despise non-believers.

You will be unsurprised to know that this chapter is called "The Problem with Islam".

lfire1's instructions ended with "tag three people on your flist" but I make it a point not to tag people. If I did - well, hey! Zap, you're it!

Comments

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

The nearest book to me is a (overdue) library book, Michael Shermer's _Science Friction_, from which I'm writing a book review. The sentences specified above on page 123 would be:

[Quoted from Helen Fisher's _Why we love_] "The caudate [nucleus, in the human brain] helps us detect and perceive a reward, discriminate between rewards, prefer a particular reward, anticipate a reward, and expect a reward." And, most interestingly, Fisher's fMRI experiments found heightened activity in the ventral tegmental area of the brain, which is a center for dopamine-making cells, the same dopamine that surges during heightened attachment.

This passage appears in a chapter titled "Darwin on the Bounty," on how various psychological factors in both the crew of HMS Bounty and its commander predisposed them toward a quarrel that caused the most (in)famous mutiny in modern history.

And then you wonder why the book review is still incomplete ... :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Overdue - tut tut! Have you tried renewal?

It does sound interesting, though, and I look forward to your review. The case of the Bounty is an interesting bit of history - I'd be interested in the psychological factors.

faith with breakfast?

[maaseru.livejournal.com]

I heard Sam Harris being interviewed on the CBC last year some time when he explained that he started writing this the day after 9/11, making his case for why faith itself is the most dangerous element of modern life. As I already agreed with his main message, the book was a must-read.

Look forward to the discussion.

Re: faith with breakfast?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes; I first heard about this book from you, though after that, various people recommended it to me. I was on the request list for it at the library for eons. (And some damned soul before me used yelllow highlighter on the book - the nerve! But not too badly.)

I'm finding it fascinating. He's saying some things I already thought, and clarifying other things that I am still thinking about.