Best of 2010

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by Nicholas Carr

Carr is decent, intelligent, conscientious and inquisitive, just the kind of person you would want to spend some time with. It's a good thing because the book takes some reading and, I think, requires a full reading. I have the strong feeling that some of the reviewers have only scanned the book because they did not nearly use the best stuff.

The temptation to scan everything, especially non-fiction, is overwhelming given the flood of information besetting us within the time we have for it. This book should be the exception and reading it fully helps make his argument that we miss a lot by failing to read deeply.
Reading deeply means thinking deeply, but our shift over to digital multitasking makes us the prey of uncontrolled sequences and bits of information.

We don't really fear the sci-fi specter of our computers taking over, like Hal in "2001". But we should fear becoming more like our computers, losing empathy and meaning and being subject to whatever garbage feeds itself into our little minds.