Well cant sleep and I have a stack of books that I have finished reading and need to log so here goes nothing :)
In my attempt to expand my reading horizons, I have begun a concerted effort to pick up more non-fiction books. This one, "The Cerebral Symphony: Seashore Reflections on the Structure of Consciousness" by William H. Calvin is an interesting dichotomy of personal reflection and crazy scientific scrutiny. In it, Dr. Calvin (a neurobiologist by trade) hypothesizes that the cells of our brains operate from minute to minute much like a "speeded up" version of biological evolution.
It is a concept that takes a bit to wrap your mind around but one that I found was not too big to think about, once I understood the gist of what he was attempting to do. So brainstorming, for instance, could be akin to the crudest caveman like approximations, where we have a vague idea that spins (or evolves) into more complex scenarios setting the stage for tentative plans and then invariably a choice or action that carries us into the present.
I have to admit that such heavy reading, and thinking, wasn't ideal bedtime material. By the time I struggled through my understandings of his text (intermingled with dense detailed, almost poetic, renderings of the Cape Cod area) I was either asleep or completely awake.
I think that this is one of those books that I will have to read a bit piecemeal so that I can savor the idea slowly and take what I can glean from my own experiences (being neither very scientific nor inclined to Cape Cod fantasies)
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