Bias – DaneCobain.com

John Darnielle – Wolf in White Van | Review

Title: Wolf in White Van

Author: John Darnielle

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 216

Rating: 3.5*/5

John Darnielle – Wolf in White Van

This book took me a little while to get into, but I think that’s almost the point of it. It’s a multi-layered little thing, something you could re-read a bunch of times and pick up something different every time.

It’s actually kind of hard to explain what this book is about, but I guess I’ll give it a stab. We follow a kid with a facial disfigurement who runs a sort of cross between a Choose Your Own Adventure book and a game of Dungeons and Dragons via postal correspondence. And while there is a plot of sorts, it’s not necessarily linear, so the book itself is both confusing and kind of rewarding.

It’s also written by John Darnielle, the lead singer/songwriter of The Mountain Goats, which is one of my favourite bands. I guess that could potentially bias me in the book’s favour, but the truth is that it made me a tougher critic than I would usually be. Still, it was definitely an interesting book that was worth reading, I’m just not sure whether I actually enjoyed it.If anything, it was more like a workout for my brain, and that’s fine.

John Darnielle

Click here to buy Wolf in White Van.

Lee De-Wit – What’s Your Bias? | Review

Title: What’s Your Bias?

Author: Lee De-Wit

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 218

Rating: 5*/5

Lee de Wit – What’s Your Bias?

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

This book was fascinating, a real thinker. De-Wit makes a great case for how we’re all inherently biased when it comes to politics and decision-making, and he uses a whole heap of different studies to back himself up. It was fascinating to see how subtly we’re influenced by such trivial things, even including the way that a politician looks or who actually proposed an idea. A case in point was a study in which conservative voters were asked to choose between two different standpoints and almost all of them agreed with Jeremy Corbyn – until they found out where the proposals had come from.

If nothing else, it’s worth reading books like this to get a better idea of how exactly our brains work and what might be going on inside our heads when we cast our votes. We can’t take steps to combat our bias unless we know it’s there, which is why it’s so important to understand what happens inside our heads. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum. Enjoy.