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| Your Brain: The Missing Manual | 
 enlarge | Author: Matthew Macdonald
Publisher: Pogue Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $14.78
You Save: $10.21 (41%)
New (47) Used (5) from $14.78
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 6902
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 274
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0596517785
Dewey Decimal Number: 153
EAN: 9780596517786
ASIN: 0596517785
Publication Date: May 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: I20081201033114S
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-9 of 9 | | « PREV | | |
A very enlightening book July 22, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I heard of "Your Brain: The Missing Manual" from the technical podcast "The Java Posse". I wasn't disappointed.
This book gives the casual reader a detailed exposition of the brain, its parts and their functions. It mixes in quite a bit of fun facts about the brain functions, such as optical illusions, with practical ways for how to better use them, such as memory improvement tips.
This is a thin book, and can be read over a weekend.
Your Brain: The Missing Manual July 16, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I read a lot of books on science and the human body, so I expected the usual on this book. Matthew MacDonald's book, "Your Brain, The Missing Manual" blew me away. In this book MacDonald covers the entire brain from neurons, to glands, to emotions. The book starts out covering the brains biological workings. It covers neurons, synapses, the Endocrine system and the Nervous system. Next he covers how the brain uses energy and how it gets its food. In this section MacDonald includes the Brain-Friendly Diet and explains how Protein, Fat and even Chocolate affect the brain. There is a great explanation on how the Human Appetite works. In one chapter he discusses the brain and sleep. He writes how the human brain needs light and dark to regulate the sleep cycle. In the book, MacDonald, state how sunlight or bright lights can wake you up fasters. I tried it for myself, I got out of bed early one morning and stepped outside and faced the morning sun. I was amazed at how fast my mind woke up and how clear my mind was.
The Sections on the mind's visual perception and memory were extremely interesting. I enjoyed the Optical Illusions that he included in the book. One thing I would like to point out is that MacDonald references several websites throughout the book were you can get additional information. I found this very useful and learned a lot on these websites. In addition, the section on how to improve your memory helped me significantly. There MacDonald lists several methods on how to boost your memorization powers, don't skip this section trust me.
The author goes on to cover such topics as Emotions, Reason, Personality and more. MacDonald lays all the information out in an easy to understand format. This is one of those books that you're skeptical on getting, but once you've read it you know it was well worth the purchase price. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand the brain, or just wants to improve their memory. This books is a must have on every book shelf, you won't be disappointed with "Your Brain, The Missing Manual".
Reasons why I recommend this book July 5, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
There are a number of reasons why I can recommend this book.
Matthew MacDonald displays a great sense of humor in Your Brain: The Missing Manual.
He covers a complex subject as complex as the human brain in simple easy to understand language and does it in about a third the number of pages needed to cover a much simpler computer operating system.
He includes summaries of the information that can help you to use this understanding for your own brain maintenance.
At this point in my initial review I was wrong when I wrote "I also believe that his own brain fooled him into including a probability example from a 1990 Parade magazine article." I had read about this before and the author repeated what I had read - that hundreds of math professors wrote in with faulty logic to "correct" the solution that was given in the Parade article. At least I was not alone in being wrong.
A person is to pick the one of three doors that leads to the prize. After he picks the door, the host then eliminates one of the remaining doors that does not contain the prize. What I missed and what Mathhew MacDonald clearly showed in his diagram was that there was just one chance in 3 that the first pick would lead to the prize. There was a two thirds chance that the prize was behind the other two doors. The host provided information that says which of the other two doors it would have to be behind. Switching is a better choice two out of three times. I believe that having read a poorer explanation of this before and being upset by what I thought was faulty logic may have blinded me to Mr. MacDonald's correct explanation. I was only able to understand my error after reading a third report and then re-examining Mr MacDonald's diagram.
I recommend reading "Your Brain: The Missing Manual" to learn more about how our brains and others words lead us to incorrect conclusions, and about ways we might better maintain the way our brains function.
This is a five star book that I will read more than once.
Interesting, Fun Read June 19, 2008
25 out of 27 found this review helpful
'Your Brain: The Missing Manual' is a different book than most of the fare that Pogue Press puts out, but this doesn't mean that it's not a good read!
The Missing Manual line of books is simply one of the best publishers I have ever had the PLEASURE to read. I stress the word pleasure because TMM books truly are what they say they are. Incredibly laid out, easy to follow, and enjoyable to read and hold in your hand, most of The Missing Manual books I have read I give 5 stars and it's no mistake.
With 'Your Brain' this book looks at how the brain works from all different perspectives: logic, eating, aging, sex, stress, pleasure. It examines how the brain interacts with these subjects and why things work they way they do.
If you like previous Missing Manual books or are curious how the brain works, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. Jam packed with color pictures and a small footprint with a small size of 250+ pages, this is a great weekend read that will entertain and TEACH you something as well!!
***** RECOMMENDED
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