Category Book reviews

Truth or BS? Can You Tell the Difference?

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

If you are the first to tell a “truth,” people will likely believe you, then they will repeat your “truth” to others, who will also believe it. Humans are programmed to believe. Even if you are making up the “truth.”

People once there was a race of bat people who lived on the moon.

Hundreds of British settlers were scammed into investing in a New World country that didn’t exist. They moved there, with tragic outcomes.

Benjamin Franklin was a master of hoaxes and was often dishonest.

Leave it to an Englishman, Tom Phillips, to make the serious business of fake news and dishonesty into an often lighthearted book, Truth: A Brief History of Total Bull—t.

Phillips covers a lot of ground and time, including details related to the topics above. He also delves into the psychology of lying and believing. He explains the difference between a liar and a bulls—ter and shows that fake news is not a modern invention. He even teaches how to tell if someone is lying.

Truth may bring laughs, but the author is honest about how fabricated stories can have harmful consequences, like they did for thousands who were killed when accused of being witches.

If you are looking for more of Tom Phillips, check out Humans: A Brief History of How We F-cked It All Up. That reminds me to warn you that his narrative is sprinkled with colorful vocabulary.

One more thing: Tom Phillips is a professional hunter of lies as a fact checker for Full Fact. Its website cites its goal: “Bad information ruins lives. We’re a team of independent fact checkers and campaigners who find, expose and counter the harm it does.”

Travel High in the Himalaya

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

You long for an up-close look at the world’s highest mountain range, but logistics, cost, and a long list of complications stand in your way.

Here is an alternative: Travel with Erika Fatland and her superb book, High, A Journey Across the Himalaya Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China.

The acclaimed author, anthropologist, and extreme adventurer from Norway traveled solo by foot, car, train, and plane for eight months, gaining access to riveting stories told by people from virtually every walk of life in all five nations. She stayed in local homes, monasteries, and other places that would intimidate many travelers. Her narrative and conversations will make you feel like you are in the room with her, sipping tea or a stronger drink while you watch and hear the people in the room. I hope you are an adventurous eater.

Everyday life, religion, culture, environment, history, transport, politics, arranged marriages, government, and more. She covers myriad topics effortlessly and expertly. She is warned that she could be in danger as a woman traveling by herself, but she keeps going.

Her experiences in western China captivated me. In Xinjiang, a region with 11 million people, mostly Muslim, she reports that more than a million Uyghurs are in “reeducation camps” while the government encourages Han Chinese to move there. She sees modern apartment buildings in Tibet, inhabited by Han Chinese in the government’s effort to dilute the influence of Buddhism.

She vividly describes the mountains that cut between the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan Plateau. More than 100 peaks exceed 23,800 feet and many of them are sacred to Buddhists, even off limits for climbers. She wrote the book in Norwegian, leaving Kari Dickson to translate into English.

If reading High tempts you to try a journey to the Himalaya, you will travel armed with a wealth of insights. Or you could remain in your armchair and let Erika Fatland bring the Himalaya to you.