Factfulness
Normally I don't like nonfiction. But these are not normal times (in case you hadn't noticed) and this isn't a normal book. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World-and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, by the late Hans Rosling, is an excellent read during strange times like these, and a great read for more normal times as well. Without further ado, here's why you should read it as soon as you can, and what you can expect from the book.
A lot of famous people like it
I don't want to spend too much time on this subject since it's relatively trivial, but the book has a lot of glowing reviews from famous people, including Bill Gates and Barack Obama. While I don't like it when books brag about all the famous people who've read the book, I think that does speak to something. Below are their respective reviews:
"A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." ―Barack Obama
"One of the most important books I've ever read―an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world." ―Bill Gates
It's easy to understand
There are a lot of different fact-based books like this that overwhelm the reader with information to the point it's difficult to understand, but Factfulness does an excellent job of presenting small bits and pieces of information at a time and weaving them together to make an easy-to-understand story. Plus, it's packed with lots of cool graphs and charts. Praise the graphic designer, because the graphs splattered throughout the book are fantastically done. Not only are they pretty to look at, but they're also easy to understand and read, and can be really interesting, too.
It's entertaining and positive
As the name implies, the book uses facts to give you hope about the future, instead of using facts to drag you down and portray the world in a negative light. The author does an excellent job of mixing in scientific facts and studies (many of which were conducted by a cool organization called Gapminder, who you should also check out) with his own personal experiences as a doctor and statistician. That being said, the book doesn't push some idea where we live in a perfect world where nothing can or will go wrong. But it does help provide some perspective as to how the world isn't as bad a place as is commonly portrayed in the news.
Okay, I'll check it out. What can I expect from the book?
Great choice, dear reader! The book starts out with a simple quiz: thirteen questions to test how much you know about the world. Don't be alarmed if you get them wrong. It's expected that you'll get them wrong (for more details about that, check out the book). After that, the book dives into 10 logical fallacies common throughout our lives and in the news-media, examples of them throughout the author's own personal experience, and throughout history. After that, it shows you what you can do to fight back against these biases, and how you can remain calm in times of uncertainty.
While the world isn't perfect, it's easy to give it less credit than it deserves, especially in times of crisis like these. If you're finding yourself scared by the headlines of today's news, or if you want an interesting and engaging read, check out Factfulness, by Hans Rosling.
-William King
This book sounds pretty interesting. I don't think that I have ever read a book with a small trivia at the beginning of it. I think I may give this book a shot later on, because I've been getting a bit bored with fiction.
ReplyDeleteWow! This book sounds like something I need to read. I think it's important to mix facts with positivity, because a lot of times facts are regarded with a stigma of "facts don't care about your feelings" and I think especially during these times it's important to realize that facts can also bear positive meanings. I like how supposedly light hearted this book sounds. Starting off with a trivia is definitely an interesting approach and sounds like something that would be done in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction paragraph in this post is a crazy hook. It sounds dramatic but not so dramatic that you are blowing things out of proportion (actually, I don't really know, because I haven't even read the rest of the post yet). Reading one sentence of your introduction, I knew there would be a lot in this post, as there seems to be.
ReplyDeleteThis really makes me want to read this book! I love the main points that you used, especially the one about the book making these points easy to understand. It is pretty easy to get pessimistic these days, and a nice book to lift you up and give you hope could be very helpful. I like that it uses real facts and studies to show how our world may not be as bad as we see it instead of just saying that we are all wrong and our lives are actually perfect.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds great! I honestly could use a little more positivity in my life, especially now, in a pandemic, with all sorts of things feeling like they are out of control and going badly. I also like how this isn't just some stupid book that tells you to improve your mindset and just be positive, because I find that so unhelpful. Instead, this book backs up it's positivity with facts and logic. I am definitely going to try to read this book!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds quite useful, as you said, at a time like the present. I think it would be great to envelop myself in realistically framed information and to have a resource to guide me in navigating potentially misleading or hysteria-inducing media. And I think it would be interesting to read the ideas of someone who doesn't believe the world and all its beings to be inherently evil... not that everyone does... Anyway, great job! This book sounds really interesting.
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