Eric Simons

"We sports fan are glorious expression of all the wondrous quirks and oddities in human nature" - this actual last sentence of the book should've been better placed at its opening. It aptly captures it's spirit and all pluses and minuses stemming from such overambitious statement. However, it was this line that actually made my day:
"Behavioral scientists like the Russian Gregor Pavlov - whose experiments with salivating dogs have forever linked him with canines -..." (p.182).

Ivan Mendel, take note!… (mehr)

Oh, boy, do I recognize myself in these pages! This very entertaining book describes not only how sports fans react to their favorite games, but tries its best to explain in psychological and neurological terms why they -- ok, we -- care so much. Simons must have simplified things, but his prose doesn't feel dumbed-down at all (especially compared to other popsci books out there). Having read this, I can still recognize how ridiculous I am when yelling at the TV, but I can also tell myself, "You're overidentifying just a little, but I get it -- it's your mirror neurons at work!"… (mehr)

Eric Simons -- apparently for no other reason that than he was young and bored and thought Charles Darwin was interesting -- set out to travel through the various parts of South America that Darwin visited during his journey on the Beagle.

The resulting travelogue is... okay. Simons' adventures aren't really all that adventurous, and while he writes with real enthusiasm about Darwin's scientific curiosity and his appreciation for the places he passed through, he doesn't exactly manage to bring Darwin's adventures vividly and compellingly to life. I did learn a few interesting tidbits about Darwin, and about South America, but none of it felt particularly deep. Maybe that's enough for a fairly short, quick-reading book like this one, but I think I was hoping for something just a little bit more.… (mehr)