Senior Year

Has anyone read Dan Shaughnessy's book Senior Year? I've read one good review of it and it was enough to make me wonder if anyone else has picked it up. Peter King of Sports Illustrated recommended it in his blog.

Books

My friend Anne writes a blog all about books and my other friend Anne recently posted some thoughts as to what she reads.

USA Today, meanwhile, gave us a list of the "25 most memorable books of the last 25 years.

I haven't read a single one. I've seen a couple of the movies and I did leaf through my wife's copy of "What to expect when you're expecting." But I didn't read a single book on that list.

Should I?

Here's the list.


1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
By J.K. Rowling (1998)

2 The Deep End of the Ocean
By Jacquelyn Mitchard (1996)

3 The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown (2003)

4 The 911 Commission Report
By The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (2004)

5 Chicken Soup for the Soul
By Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield (1993)

6 Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
By John Gray (1992)

7 Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution
By Robert C. Atkins (1992)

8 And the Band Played On
By Randy Shilts (1987)

9 Beloved
By Toni Morrison (1987)

10 The Greatest Generation
By Tom Brokaw (1998)

11 Bridget Jones's Diary
By Helen Fielding (1998)

12 Left Behind
By Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (1995)

13 The Purpose Driven Life
By Rick Warren (2003)

14 Fast Food Nation
By Eric Schlosser (2001)

15 The Satanic Verses
By Salman Rushdie (1989)

16 The Closing of the American Mind
By Allan Bloom (1987)

17 The Bonfire of the Vanities
By Tom Wolfe (1987)

18 The Joy Luck Club
By Amy Tan (1989)

19 What To Expect When You're Expecting
By Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg and Sandee Hathaway (1984)

20 A Brief History of Time
By Stephen Hawking (1988)

21 Iacocca
By Lee Iacocca (1984)

22 Waiting to Exhale
By Terry McMillan (1992)

23 Cold Mountain
By Charles Frazier (1997)

24 Backlash
By Susan Faludi (1991)

25 Final Exit
By Derek Humphry (1991)

By the way, if you are going to buy any of these books, please buy them at my favorite bookstore which is right here.

Brain Power -- Eat your carbs

I'm reading the book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma." It is a fascinating look at how food is produced and consumed in the United States. This little nugget of information popped out at me last night.

"The adult human brain accounts for 2 percent of our body weight but consumes 18 percent of our energy, all of which must come from a carbohydrate."

What's interesting is that the author, Michael Pollan, also says that brain size and gut size are inversely linked in animals. The bigger the brain, the smaller the gut and the bigger the gut the smaller the brain. Animals with large guts and small brains tend to usually only eat one or two items. Animals (like humans and rats) with big brains and small guts tend to eat a wide variety of items.

Pollan says that zoologists theorize that the brain of koala bears has actually shrunk over time. It seems that koala bears' brains don't even come close to filling up the space in their skulls. He says that this shrinkage has happened as koala bears have gone from a diet that included a number of different plants to a diet made up entirely of eucalyptus leaves.

Here's to eating a wide variety of carbs!