In a recent post I mentioned the wild places I go to. Today I took one of my books along. Some extra weight never hurt anybody, right? Here’s the photo shoot and the review of Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.

Since the time I read this book years ago I’ve been telling the same things to people. Things like:

• No, your facial cream doesn’t work. It’s a scam. At best it glues microscopic wrinkles straight for a few moments.
• Homeopathy is the hugest scam ever! It’s unbelievable that its promoters aren’t prosecuted. (That’s when I usually hear stories how homeopathy helped someone. In reality it was either placebo or the time just came to get better.)
• Omega 3 is a scam that started from the result of one single tiny biased research that doesn’t even qualify as a real research.

I could also tell you lots of hilarious stories behind those “detoxing treatments” but Ben Goldacre has a talent for entertaining audience with science so it’s better to hear those stories from him.

I’ve learned tons of useful information from the book. There are references to scientific work and research behind each finding. It means you can actually check why the facts from the book are true, unlike statements from advertisers or folklore. I haven’t managed to persuade any single person though. They continue to invest into things that at best won’t help them and at worst will hurt them. They refuse to read Bad Science or look for scientific information somewhere else. Maybe ignorance feels safer. If you can’t see you are wrong, you might believe you are always right and thus nothing bad will ever happen to you.

Maybe it will be different this time. Now I have the blog (). This post can reach someone who’s already suspecting some foul play in all the fashionable treatments, supplements and cosmetics. If you are the one looking for answers, read Bad Science. It was written for you.

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I saw the GIF, I judged the book by its cover and I fell in love with it. The book’s fate seems to be posing and being beautiful in pictures because its arrival to my place coincided with my day trip to the neighbouring “Moon”. Today I took it for a photo shoot in Rozafa castle, Albania.

The book is non-fiction. It’s called Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. It was written by Leonard Mlodinow. Its title basically says what the book is about. And that’s what the book’s cover does:

That’s how the book was exploring the castle.

The book has a high rating of 4.05 on Goodreads. Its cover is not that cool as the GIF suggested but it’s still nice.
The first few pages are slightly too boring for a book on such an exciting topic. Of course, I’m not going to give up that soon.

Stay tuned for the review. Subscribe to the blog!

Trevor called his memoir Born a Crime because that’s what Trevor was. He was born to a black mother and to a white father in South Africa during apartheid. That was a crime. Parents could go to jail for this, Trevor could be taken from his family and placed in an orphanage. His mom had to photobomb family photos taken outside because she had to pretend she was not his mom but a servant. They had to sneak out to see his father. Trevor had to spend most of his childhood behind closed doors. They lived in a city designed in such a way that it could be easily bombed in case of an uprising. How Trevor Noah managed to turn it all into a heartwarming, moving and funny story is a mystery to me, but he definitely achieved this.The book has taught me so much. I mean not only historical and cultural facts that are not known to an average person from Europe thanks to education system that has other priorities, but also for putting everything into perspective. The book shows you that you believed in something without even knowing it and that you took many things for granted.Born a Crime has many interesting thoughts. I especially loved the one on racism and how it is easily destroyed by language. A person can only hate something that sounds different. As soon as you start speaking their language they understand that you are one of them. I love Trevor’s book because it uncovers many of such gems, and does this without any pompousness or drama.At some point I was actually ready to cut one star of the book for Trevor’s dismissive attitude to cats. It’s my judgement after all and it can, indeed, be influenced by such details. The star was soon restored. Even my overprotection of cats couldn’t outweigh the awesomeness of the book. By the end of the book I felt awkward for having even considered giving the book anything less than five stars.Such books teach you more than any education programs or historical works. They are as truthful representation of a reality as there can be. Yes, they are personal and subjective but they are not brushed over by a system and so they are always more genuine.I’m very thankful to the book and I would suggest anybody to read it. I would also advise getting the audio version first if you are fine with audiobooks. Trevor’s performance is priceless.