Book Recommendations

NancyLebovitz

This is a place to consolidate book recommendations.

I'm reading The Logic of Failure and enjoying it quite a bit. I wasn't sure whether I'd heard of it here, and I found a post here called Great Books of Failure, an article which hadn't crossed my path before.

There's a recent thread about books for a gifted young teen and a slightly less recent discussion of books on cogsci thread which might or might not be found by someone looking for good books.

So, what books or lists of books do you recommend?

This is a place to consolidate book recommendations.

So, what books or lists of books do you recommend?

| Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

But stomach ulcers aren't caused by stress, they're caused by Helicobacter pylori -- although it seems like stress might slightly increase your risk of getting them.

Seeing how the book appears to have been first published long AFTER that discovery, I'm a little suspicious regarding the quality of the research.

The guy knows his stuff and can be quite entertaining.

Check his video over on EDGE on TOXO (the cat lady parasite). At the end he mentions an avenue for research he's working on into a possible mechanism by which stress damages chromosomes

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/sapolsky09/sapolsky09_index.html

20 minutes well spent.

I agree the Zebra book was a little boring, but it fits right in w/ the recurrent OB theme on status and health

0Jonathan_Graehl16y

I'd heard that also. I don't recall to what degree Sapolsky acknowledges it. Ulcers are definitely not the core topic of the book; it's stress (and its varied effects). The book both explains historic experiments and changes in scientific consensus, and cites studies properly. Of course I have no way of vouching for his selection of evidence, but there is plenty of it.

3Wei Dai16y

I think "slightly" understates the medical consensus that stress is an important cause of ulcers. See http://www.aventinomedicalgroup.com/documents/Stress_PU_JAMA.pdf, which notes that more than 80% of people with H pylori do not develop ulcers. (I have a personal interest in this topic, because I used to have ulcers, which was cured by taking a combination of antacids and antibiotics to kill off H pylori, but I'm pretty sure that in my case stress contributed to having ulcers in the first place.)

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Book Recommendations

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Book Recommendations

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