Wrap your brain around your brain: Thought provoking books on the human brain

Understanding the human brain was always going to be a topic which … well which fascinates the human brain. If you need any proof of just how interesting we find it, just look at this list of recent library books on the topic.

Neuroscience is a hot topic and brain imaging has made it apparently explicable to us all – ooh look at that bit light up when he looks at a picture of his beloved.

It turns out its not that simple. Scientists,  theologians and philosophers are still arguing about some very basic definitions –  like whether the mind resides in the brain or if it is something else altogether, and do we really know what those glowing synapses are telling us? The final verdict could revolutionize our view of ourselves.

The prospect of understanding how we tick in a whole new way has led to some thought provoking questions. Recent books in our collection explore them:

   

Try some of them out, and wrap your brain around the topic of your brain.

One out of the box

Cover: Her MajestyReally out of the box. Kind colleagues who know that I hold Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in very high esteem alerted me to the arrival of Her Majesty.

It’s a book to gladden the hearts of book lovers who believe that reading a book on a device is all very well, but that nothing can match turning the paper pages of a behemoth.

Her Majesty tells the story of QEII’s  reign, mostly in very large and very beautiful photographs, but with some text. And it came in a  dull gold box with its very own plastic handle. Classy.

The box and the book have parted ways, but  really the box is a minor detail, even if it did have Her Majesty printed on the side. Packaging is all very well, but the book is the main thing here. It’s definitely for more than staunch (and strong) Royalists.

The sheer size and quality of the photographs make it an object of beauty worthy of a good long look. Getting it home may be another matter!