About book Wij Zijn Ons Brein: Van Baarmoeder Tot Alzheimer (2010)
This is a seriously intense but magnificent read! There's so much in here but honestly most of it is pretty easy to understand. There were some terms that I had to look up (yay for reading this on my Kindle!) but other than that it was relatively easy. “Take the myth that we use only 10 percent of our brains. You might well be forgiven for thinking this in the case of certain people, but I haven’t the faintest idea what prompted this crazy theory” This is also one of the longest books I've read in a while. That said it's daunting enough by itself but being non-fiction just added to the stress so I took this in smaller doses, reading one or maybe two chapters at a time depending on my ability to understand each chapter!And while this was easy for the most part, I did feel like there was a lot in here that I haven't read before. A lot of information about what happens while a child is still in the womb and how that affects their lives later. I didn't realize, although it makes complete sense, that so much depended on the communication between the mother's brain and the child's. But again, after reading it makes total sense. “When a pregnant woman experiences stress, the brain of a female fetus will become more male and vice versa” Some of this, however, just didn't want to stick to my brain! I think I will have to give this another read or two to be able to soak up all of the fabulous information!Definitely going to read more from D.F. Swaab! While it's certainly not a book to inhale all at once--I've been chipping away at this behemoth since December--We Are Our Brains is filled with fascinating information about how our brains develop, change, and affect our perceptions of the world. I found the information about the earliest stages of brain development most interesting, particularly studies on how a mother's state of mind can affect the brain and therefore the future personality of her unborn child. Because it's an academic work, the author repeats information and refers the reader to other parts of the text frequently. If you're not used to academic writing, you might feel like the book is padded out for more length. Readers might also feel the urge to cry "agenda!" on Swaab, who isn't shy about giving his opinions on how law and society could better conform to the realities of the human brain and what can be expected from it. But what can I say? The man knows his gray matter. Terrifically interesting if not written in a particularly appealing voice or format.
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Brings light to many questions we sometimes cannot explain. Good theories.
—kottoncandy
