Bookworms September Wanders

-- A Summary of the September Hangout

This month's bookclub meeting is very nourishing: we talked about so many books (not in the list hahaha)! Summer is a season of ... reading.

About the books of the month

A few of us read The Martian, and agreed that the story is fascinating. For The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, it gives fairly good quotes at the end of each chapter (if examined out of context), although the reasoning style of the book is not the type that I'd appreciate. The idealism and theology content is too much for me. Regardless, we recognize the optimistic notes from the encouraging words in the book.

Wandering in the forest of random topics

We spent most of the time talked about other books: Station Eleven, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Lessons in Chemistry, The Tao of Pooh, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, When Nietzsche Wept... (apology for not remembering all the books mentioned!) I am so glad and excited that we are exploring more books than just "books of the month"!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was not voted but still picked up by a bookworm this month; and it sparked so much contemplation about the ethics of the biomedical/healthcare industry. How could it be the hospital that "owns" the materials from the human body of a patient? As a biochemist, I felt the urge to learn about this more.

And we talked about Zen and Tao (and the interesting book relating Winnie the Pooh to Taoism- The Tao of Pooh), which led us to the discussion about why the Eastern culture is in general more "spiritual" than the West. We concluded that it might be due to the wealth of the Western world - basically people are more spoiled and less struggling, whereas uncomfortable pains (of both the individuals and the society) are vital for spiritual growth.

We talked about personal preference of fiction or non-fiction again (a longlasting debate haha). Fictions are not real but it could serve as an escape from reality- just like video games. For me personally, if the fictions (particularly sci-fi) are too fake, it'd be hard for me to believe the story, let alone burying myself into the fantasy world. I'm the non-fiction lover- I love evidence-based reasoning and narration; it'd be best if the author includes reference in the book! (One of the reasons why I love When Nietzsche Wept although it's a fiction)

Of course, bookworms hangouts are never 2-hour intensive discussions on books. For example, we touched on UCSD on-campus food recommendations in the light of the new quarter/school year.

Good luck Fall Quarter! And have fun reading. Look forward to seeing you in the next hangout!