Thursday, June 28, 2007

Buy, Buy, Baby by Susan Gregory Thomas and Pesthouse by Jim Crace

A couple more books that we are discussing for the award that I liked...Buy, Buy, Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds by Susan Gregory Thomas. One of the subjects that I am interested in and have been reading about for a long time is brain development. I have been reading about the impact that media and advertising has on the cognitive development of young children for years, starting with the brilliant book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. (I have also read giant stacks of books about brain differences between the sexes but that is a different story). Buy, Buy Baby is probably the most focused and accessible of the bunch. It is interesting how the (marketing hating Gen-X generation) has been manipulated by that very industry. Facinating.

I also liked Pesthouse by Jim Crace. This takes place in a post-industrial society where violence is rampant. This was very compelling although it was difficult for me to not compare it to my favorite book from last year (The Road by Cormic McCarthy) but this was such a different vision of the future that it was an engrossing read. I still like his book Being Dead better though.

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