Thursday, August 9, 2007

Chocolate and books. What more can a girl ask for?

The treat drawer for the office I share is unfortunately in my desk, the bottom drawer. I have spent the day eating wasabi peas and gooey incredibly rich chocolate truffles.

Groan.

That has got to be bad for you on some level, and it is certainly an unlikely combination...though yummy if enough time passes between the mouthfuls. One of the other women at work tried it and liked it too, but she is 7 months pregnant. I have no such excuse.

Strange but true.

This is busy blooming outside the door, and I thought it was gorgeous...




Books Beth with whom some of you may recall I went and met a week or so ago very generously gave the girls gift certificates for a bookstore....look what we got. Thanks Beth. Hope you haven't left yet and you see the post...



I also picked up a couple of books that fascinate me from a variety of angles...

How I love a bookstore.

The man got the girls some earrings...very grown up.....




And the other....


I am busy working away at "The Hand" which is taking me an inordinate amount of time to read, mostly because while the book is fascinating, and I am going to purchase a copy because so much of it is so relevant to what I do/teach and am interested in that I keep wanting to underline....this is how it reads(picked at random):

That explanation was compatible with both the statistics and the seemingly paradoxical occurrence of opposite handedness among identical twins.
Fascinating, but it requires a little more concentration than I can always muster.

The section I am currently reading about handedness is fascinating for two reasons at this moment. First, they have discovered exactly nothing about why some people are right handed and some are left. Secondly, the argument moves on to state that hand dominance in a superior - inferior mindset may well be meaningless. We culturally do this, in Italian for instance the left hand is the mano sinistra, as in sinister, and right is mano destra as in dexterous. This book's supposition, so far, is that it is more useful to look at the different roles that the two hands play when tasks are being done...the right wields the tool (if you are right handed) and the left manipulates the material. You may understand the vital but different role of each hand if you picture trying to cut paper with only one hand. The other difference between the two is that the so called dominant hand is used for micro-moviments and for fast or repetitive movements while the non-dominant hand is usually utilised for macro-movements. A neat way of looking at things.

A fascinating read.

This book will also warrant a re-read or two. One of those books I got also looks comparable, and also deeply fascinating. It is called the language instinct and the subtitle is How the Mind Creates Language. I can hardly wait...and this one I own!

8 comments:

Angel said...

ooh, love the ear rings..and books! I could get locked in a book store and be in Heaven!

Esben Agersnap said...

Wow, you bought a book of Steven Pinker, that is brilliant. His book "The Blank Slate" is one of my absolute favourite books ever, and I admire Steven Pinker enormously, for his tireless defence of evolutionary psychology. Hope you enjoy it :o)

Terrie said...

Hey I'm still here. It's been a hectic summer. What was the name of those books you suggested for my little guy? You said the girls loved them. The books you are reading are way to serious for me. I like A good mystery with some smut and a lot of trash.

oreneta said...

Beth: The girls asked, as we were standing in line to pay, about how great it would be to work in a bookstore. Yup, it would be great, but you can't pay the rent in books and that would be all I'd bring home.

Esben: Thanks for the heads up, it looked brilliant, I've gone on Amazon, I'll have that book you mentioned sent to Spain.

Terrie: Yahoo, sorry the summer is hectic though, it isn't how it's supposed to be is it. I could do with some trashy mysteries right about now....whose writes your favorites?

kate said...

Hey, that's so funny, as I am currently reading "The Language Instinct"! I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Not light summer reading by any stretch, but still a fascinating book. Hope you enjoy it!

Helen said...

I always think it odd that string players seem to do the most fiddly bits (it the fingers on the fret board) with the non dominant hand while the dominant hand has the bow - I do actually know that bowing technique is very fine manipulative work, but still find it odd. Handedness is so ingrained - but it is easy to teach a left handed child to iron because it is a mirror action with one on each side of the board (I am right handed). Then of course you can go into braindominance and cross brain dominance as well - quite a minefield!

oreneta said...

Kate: That is odd, I am glad it is good...the book I am reading, "The Hand" refers to it several times...

Helen: Do any violinists/string players play any other way? I thought you HAD to do it that way no matter what, and if so, how many lefties are there that are accomplished string players? A direct relationship to lefties in the general population or no?
Hmmmm Like piano or hockey or golf, it seems that no one hand's role is more or less demanding...

Helen said...

You do get people playing the wrong way round with the violin etc but not very often as it is so awkward to sit them in the orchestra - more guitar players as it is easier to deal with and restring the instrument, but there are some. I think if at all possible any teacher will get the kid doing it the "right" way round and as you do use both hands significantly maybe they work ok on people without a very strong dominant hand.