Bad Science

Last week I read two books that were so good I feel like they should be required reading in school. One was named Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre, and the other was Do You Believe in Magic?, by Paul Offit.

Bad Science's description: "Have you ever wondered how one day the media can assert that alcohol is bad for us and the next unashamedly run a story touting the benefits of daily alcohol consumption? Or how a drug that is pulled off the market for causing heart attacks ever got approved in the first place? How can average readers, who aren't medical doctors or Ph.D.s in biochemistry, tell what they should be paying attention to and what's, well, just more BS?"

"Ben Goldacre has made a point of exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies. He has also taken the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window. But he's not here just to tell you what's wrong. Goldacre is here to teach you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample sizes, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it. You're about to feel a whole lot better."

Do You Believe in Magic?'s description: "In Do You Believe in Magic?, medical expert Paul A. Offit, M.D., offers a scathing exposé of the alternative medicine industry, revealing how even though some popular therapies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, many of them are ineffective, expensive, and even deadly."

"Dr. Offit reveals how alternative medicine—an unregulated industry under no legal obligation to prove its claims or admit its risks—can actually be harmful to our health."

"An outspoken advocate for science-based health advocacy who is not afraid to take on media celebrities who promote alternative practices, Dr. Offit advises, 'There’s no such thing as alternative medicine. There’s only medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t.'"

I really loved both of these books. They were easy to read, and fascinating.

Both explain why you should critically examine health claims made by those in the media, and how to critically examine them. Both were fascinating, fun to read, and full of crazy stuff that's ignored or misunderstood by the media. For example, did you know that antioxidant supplements not only have been found to have no benefit, but actually increase your chance of dying from cancer or heart disease? I had no idea.

I highly recommend them if you'd like to have the ability to be able to critically examine health, medical, or science claims made by those on the news, podcasts, blogs, news websites, etc.

2015 Book List

Well, I only read about half as many books in 2015 as I did in 2014, but that's okay. I plan to read a lot more this year. I made a list today of books I want to read and am excited to get started on it.

There is one book that I feel like reading this year was a real accomplishment - Don Quixote. I wanted to read it before our trip to Spain, and I'm really glad I did. It was a great, clever, funny book. I listened to it on LibriVox - a site where you can listen to free audio books (that are all in the public domain). It took me a very long time to listen to all of it - like a whole month. I listened to all of Volume 1, which was published in 1605. There is still all of Volume 2 (published in 1605) for me to listen to, which I feel will be kind of hard work (like the first one was), but just as rewarding.

The books I read in 2015 were:

- Rogue Knight (Five Kingdoms) by Brandon Mull
- 13 Suspicious Incidents by Lemony Snicket
- "Shouldn't You Be in School?" by Lemony Snicket
- The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
- If You're Reading This, It's Too Late by Pseudonymous Bosch
- This Book is Not Good for You by Pseudonymous Bosch
- This Isn't What It Looks Like by Pseudonymous Bosch
- You Have to Stop This by Pseudonymous Bosch
- 123 Magic by Thomas W. Phelan
- Don Quixote, Volume 1 by Miguel De Cervantes, translated by John Ormsby
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (reread)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (reread)
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Steve and I by Terri Irwin
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Princess Bride by William Goldman
- Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
- The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
- Entwined by Heather Dixon
- Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch
- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
- The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard) by Rick Riordan
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (reread)
- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett 
- Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan
- Crystal Keepers (Five Kingdoms) by Brandon Mull

Looking over this list, I really like most of the books I read this year. All of the Brandon Mull and Rick Riordan ones were great. Lemony Snicket was good ol' Lemony Snicket. The Pseudonymous Bosch ones were all pretty kid-ish, but amusing reads nonetheless. Don Quixote was awesome. Winnie the Pooh was delightful. Entwined was one I just found on the shelf of the library that turned out to be a surprise favorite (it's a retelling of the fairy tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses").

I read "The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess" for the first times this year. I've seen the movies of course, and it was really interesting to see how they compare. To be honest, I don't really like The Secret Garden movie, but (surprise, surprise!) the book was way better. I still like the A Little Princess movie better than the book, but the book was good too. The thing that surprised me most with that book was that the book and the movie had two different overall messages - the movie's message is about how we all have inherent worth; the book's message was about always trying to do the right thing even in hard circumstances. Both are good messages.

So yeah! That's what I read this last year. :)