The Brain: Nature's Own Computer (review)

Human Brain image courtesy of
PublicDomainPictures.net

The Brain: Nature's Own Computer by Anthony Johns is a satisfactory read for those who enjoy technical concepts without being familiar with cognition or the brain in general. The author has a background in computer sciences and personal experience training his brain after a nervous breakdown in 1988. Since that time, Johns has dedicated himself to the study and understanding of the brain. This book is essentially the research from that period and forward and is aimed at a younger reading audience.

How much younger? That is a tricky question due to the inconsistent stylistic and technical choices of the author. There were definitely sections I felt my nine-year-old son, with some coaching on my part, would benefit greatly from and enjoy. There were whole sections I was drowning in techno-babble. Admittedly, I do not have a degree (or significant personal study) in the nature of the brain, but if the aim was for the lay-person to be permitted to glimpse the cogs in the machine and come away edified, there was some left to be desired.
I would have preferred that this book were a textbook in a class I could attend. There were some spelling and grammar errors, which Johns was honest about at the very beginning. I received a free e-copy of this book for doing this review.

This is my Goodreads review of the book. As may be apparent by the stacks next to my bed, the eight bookshelves that are full to bursting, and the many book-related t-shirts I own, I like books. In my efforts to continue reading, fight off the anxiety I associate with library books, and not go broke- I have started doing reviews for free copies of books. While interested in the subject matter, looking through the lenses of a computer engineer at the topic made it somehow less appealing to me. Like trying to use baseball to study Math. Bleh. Still, if you aren't shy with computers and you want to learn more about the brain, this could be a good book for you.

I think for my next book I will be reviewing a biography. I would like to tackle something simple and fun (probably not Stalin).