Clipmarks | Sheroug's 'reading' clips

Reasons to Read Memoirs

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:12:11 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Reason # 1: Pleasure
Reading a memoir lets me lose myself while I enter someone else’s world

Reason # 2: Wisdom
By reading memoirs, I learn how the good, the bad, and the boring all accumulate into the journey of life.

remind me of my grandmother’s sayings, “Life goes on” and “This too shall pass.

Reason # 3: Expand my circle of empathy

Now I no longer need to guess how they feel. They can tell me themselves. I have been with people as they visit relatives in an African village, have postpartum depression, escape the rough streets of New Jersey, grow up poor in Ireland, grow up with a world famous father, and on and on

Reason # 4: Learn about the world

Reason # 5: Feel inspired by writers who keep growing

writers keep growing, not just within their story, but also through the process of writing about their lives. Every memoir writer develops skills, and organizes material.

Reason # 6: I learn about stories from the inside out

Reason # 7: I learn the bold art of self discovery

Tags: reading, memoir

Reading Fiction Improves Social Abilities

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:49:19 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: www.sixwise.com

Those Who Read Fiction Better at Reading People

"Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't."

A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality and led by Raymond Mar

found that people who read narrative fiction often have improved social abilities, while for those who read non-fiction, the opposite holds true

"Stories often force us to empathize with characters who are quite different from us, and this ability could help us better understand the many kinds of people we come across in the real world."

People who frequently read narrative fiction scored higher on tests of both empathy

and social acumen

Frequent reading of non-fiction was associated with poorer empathy and social acumen.

Why is Fiction Reading Good for Social Awareness

First

it exposes people to examples of the way people behave socially

Second

readers practice inferring people's intentions and closely watching their relationships

Tags: reading, fiction, socialize

7 Benefits of Reading Fiction

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:48:43 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: www.buzzle.com

7 Benefits of Reading Fiction

1. Providing an escape from the day-to-day

Fiction is a great way to take a quick immediate break, to be instantly transported into another world. Today you could be in America, in the deep south with Alice Walker’s ‘The Colour Purple’, tomorrow in the Australian bush with Tim Winton’s ‘Dirt Music’, next week in downtown London with Helen Fielding’s ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ and next month in Ireland with Jim O’Neill’s ‘At Swim, Two Boys’

2. Relaxation

The beauty and rhythm of language has the ability to calm and relax us.

3. Stress relief

Taking your mind off your own problems, even for a few minutes, can have a therapeutic effect and be a timely circuit breaker. This is so effective that the National Health System in the United Kingdom has introduced a ‘Reading and You Scheme’

4. Stimulates the right side of your brain

Reading opens your mind to new possibilities.

takes your mind on a wonderful journey through others’ lives

5. Entertaining

6. Enjoyable

7. Rejuvenating

Tags: reading, ficition

First Computer Bug

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:49:49 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: www.computersciencelab.com

One of the primary programmers for the Mark I was a woman, Grace Hopper. Hopper found the first computer "bug": a dead moth that had gotten into the Mark I and whose wings were blocking the reading of the holes in the paper tape. The word "bug" had been used to describe a defect since at least 1889 but Hopper is credited with coining the word "debugging" to describe the work to eliminate program faults.

John McCarthy Quotes

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:08:43 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: en.wikiquote.org

John McCarthy

A true intellectual is a man who, after reading a book and being convinced by its arguments, will shoot someone or, more likely, order someone shot.

It's just a pissing contest, but unfortunately the contestants never seem to run out of piss.

People mourn when a person dies, but no-one mourns the billions of intestinal bacteria that his death dooms. Speciesism, I calls it.

When there's a will to fail, obstacles can be found.

No-one has yet built a monument so high that a bird can't fly over and shit on it.

Tags: quotes, john mccarthy, ai, computer science

A Book Quote Worth Reading

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:36:23 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug
clipper's remarks: No, in my case.

Clip Source: homepage.eircom.net

What if a demon were to creep after you one day or night, in your loneliest loneness, and say : "This life which you live and have lived, must be lived again by you, and innumerable times more. And there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and every sigh - everything unspeakably small and great in your life - must come again to you, and in the same sequence and series...". Would you not throw yourself down and curse the demon who spoke to you thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment, in which you would answer him : "Thou art a god, and never have I heard anything more divine!"

- Frederick Nietzsche, "The Gay Science", 1882

People Reading

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:05:14 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug
clipper's remarks: The idea of the blog is quite interesting.

Clip Source: peoplereading.blogspot.com

People Reading

in San Francisco

About People Reading

This blog is my exploration of literary San Francisco and daily affirmation that people still read.

While the Golden Gate Bridge and our hilly streets define our city's physical landscape, I believe that the books we read are markers of our mental landscapes--the character of San Francisco.

Pictures are taken the day of the posting in San Francisco, unless I say otherwise. I get rejected about 20% of the time and I respect the privacy of people who do not want to be on this site.

Cell phones, iPods, and sudoku may continue to occupy the BART platforms, but books are everywhere, too. San Francisco, not surprisingly, is a very well read city.

I don't pretend to be well read myself--this blog is more of an attempt to live vicariously through others--though I do read and I'm very interested in why we read what we do and what makes a good book good. Right now I'm reading Air Guitar, by David Hickey.

Clip Source: peoplereading.blogspot.com

Scott Adams Blog

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:22:50 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: dilbertblog.typepad.com

I’m Determined

I take pride in small accomplishments. For example, I have always been proud that I could take any medicine, no matter how awful, without complaining. This is an extension of my greater power of liking, or at least tolerating, almost any food taste. It’s a gift. Recently, I met my match.

The other day, I felt a possible cold coming on, and started looking through the drawer where we keep all our meds, to see if we had one of those cold preventive pills, with the zinc in them. I recalled reading that they work. And placebo or not, they seemed to work for me in the past.

The Kama Sutra of Reading

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:45:20 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: blog.coolz0r.com

Kama Sutra

Books are hot. I often go into a book store to go indulge myself in that ‘new book smell’. Man, that’s so addictive. This summer I’ll be reading some nice marketing books and I’ll post the reviews here as soon as I’m done with them. Did you know you can actually have fun reading with your girlfriend/boyfriend? It can be quite erotic as well. Here’s how that works:

A Little Bed Time Reading

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:38:40 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: www.ellopos.net

PLATO : COMPLETE WORKS

Apology of Socrates Crito Euthyphro Laches Lysis Charmides

Hippias (major) Hippias (minor) Ion Alcibiades Protagoras Meno Euthedemus Gorgias Menexenus

Phaedo Symposium Phaedrus Politeia

Cratylus Parmenides Theaetetus Sophist Politicus Philebus Timaeus Critias Laws

7th Epistle