What book are you reading now?

I decided that I needed a new book to read and managed to find one on my bookshelf that I’d only half read so thought I’d finish it off: Tower, An epic History of the Tower of London by Nigel Jones. I just wondered what everyone else is reading at the moment? What does everyone else like to read?

Parents
  • Ironically at the moment I'm reading a book called 'Normal people'.

    I like to read books by the same authors. My favourite is Jodi Piccoult.

    A book I read recently and really loved was called 'Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine.

  • ’normal people’. I hope you’re enjoying the book? Many years ago when I started my psychology degree I remember studying all the different definitions of what constitutes normal. The conclusion I think was that while you can consider normal to be that box which the majority of the population fit into, at the end of the day, everyone’s perception of normal is different, therefore there can be no fixed definition of normal Slight smile

    I predominately read historical biographies of Tudor/medieval monarchs and there families or sometimes I like to read about the history of a certain place. If I fancy a bit more of a ‘hardcore’ read then I reach for my neuropsychology books, I do love reading about the brain and it’s workings.

Reply
  • ’normal people’. I hope you’re enjoying the book? Many years ago when I started my psychology degree I remember studying all the different definitions of what constitutes normal. The conclusion I think was that while you can consider normal to be that box which the majority of the population fit into, at the end of the day, everyone’s perception of normal is different, therefore there can be no fixed definition of normal Slight smile

    I predominately read historical biographies of Tudor/medieval monarchs and there families or sometimes I like to read about the history of a certain place. If I fancy a bit more of a ‘hardcore’ read then I reach for my neuropsychology books, I do love reading about the brain and it’s workings.

Children
  • i remember  , just up a bit, she was really nice and kind and very knowledgeable. No idea why she never came back. so miss her Disappointed

  • My guess is it's a play on neurotypical, although the characters are AS.

    When I read the authors first book I assumed the author was AS given her characters. There were sections that just came too close to how my brain works and couldn't have been written by an NT. When I read Normal People again I felt Connor in particular was likely AS although the book's not about being AS in particular. He's verbally challenged and shutsdown. So the two characters are AS and she's called them normal, cos they are, just not NT! It's great, a great book with two AS people at the centre and nothing about autism!

  • I think that may be the point yes. I think it is something like nobody is "normal" or it is completely normal that life isn't just going to go smoothly and to plan.

  • Maybe the author thinks that normal is as daft a concept as we do?

  • Good question. It is fiction and it follows the life of 2 people. I never actually figured out why it was called normal people. I feel it was a bit of a play on words that goes straight over my head.

  • What is the book ‘normal people’ about? I should have asked this earlier and I feel like it has an obvious answer but you never know...

  • Thanks. I will check out the book you suggested, as I said it's mostly for me but also so my daughters psychologists can't fob me off with a load of babbling nonsense! 

  • It was a shame. I do think it is something I would have enjoyed taking further but I just switched off from it. Others I knew that did it at A level did study things like autism which I would have enjoyed. We did the psychology of noise. What a joy that was thinking about music in a lift. I was far more interested in how we learn and different conditions and things like that. I also disliked the structure of the course. It was completely study based. I understand studies are a hugely important part of psychology but I would have liked to have done more of the theory that goes with the studies and more about the structure and workings of the brain. We were mainly working on what was good and bad about the studies, whether their subject size was big enough, whether it was ethical etc. Again I know these things are important if you are going to carry out a psychological study but I was more interested in the content.

    I don't actually know enough about sociology to know which parts I'd be interested in. But I am interested in social class and the differences between them. The same goes for gender. That's quite a big topic to me. I'm also interested into how social topics/issues fit into education. And I do have a bit of an interest in the criminal mind so again how social class etc fits into and effects crime etc.

  • Good luck with your diploma!

  • I lent my introduction to Psychology text book to someone many years ago and sadly never had it returned but I found this on amazon which looks to be similar

    www.amazon.co.uk/.../015508044X

  • Its a shame that the syllabus that you studied for Psychology put you off of it. Having done GCSE, A-level and Degree Psychology. I can say that unfortunately when studying Psychology, and most likely any other subject, you don't really get to choose what modules you want to study until the 3rd year of your degree. Which means that until then you have to put up with learning the general topics that aren't always the most interesting. That said I guess the general topics do give you the knowledge that underpins and enables you to understand the more advanced topics. For my 3rd year I chose advanced statistics; hearing speech and language; Evolutionary Psychology; Depression; Schizophrenia and developmental cognitive neuropsychology all of which i thoroughly enjoyed. 

    Sociology sounds interesting, I knew a few sociology students when I was at university and they seemed to enjoy it. What parts of sociology are you interested in?

  • I am about to start a diploma in psychology and wondered if you could recommend any reading materials, only doing the course for me so don't need anything to in depth! 

  • I didn't like the syllabus that we had for psychology. The topics and format didn't interest me that much. There were elements that I really enjoyed but it was a shame because it really put me off psychology. Speaking to others that have studied it, I think I would have enjoyed other syllabuses a lot more. I also think I would have liked sociology. 

  • It’s very rare that I read a ‘pure’ fiction book. I like to read for information. Though I do like fiction based on fact books, such as historical romances like that between Henry the eighth and Anne Boleyn, or the life of Isabella, wife of William the conqueror. In these books many of the finer details I imagine are improvised but overall they are fact based but written in the style of a novel, Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir are two well reviewed authors of such books. 

    How did you find studying psychology?

    I also use the internet to research topics that I am interested in, though I tend to be quite a concentrated reader. If that’s find an article that really interests me then I’ll get completely absorbed in it and read it all before moving on to the next article 

  • I only really read fiction. I'm not actually sure why this book is called normal people.

    When I was in high school I did psychology and we got asked what normal was. I gave a similar answer to what you just said and said you can only be normal for you. There is no generic normal.

    If I want to learn about non fiction things I would read online and just about the particular topic I was interested in at that moment. I do like to learn about things like the brain. But my attention span jumps round too much to read a book about stuff like that. I read one interesting thing about something and then 5 questions pop into my head and I have to look the answers up or it drives me mad.