Welcome to Litsy!

An interesting and insightful exploration of the mental health world, particularly as it relates to psychopathy. I read this for my IRL book group in preparation for seeing Jon Ronson talking about it last night. He was an entertaining presenter, and having a couple of the people whose stories he told in the book joining in by Zoom on a big screen was inspired.

I asked my5 year old to choose my next read. Thinks what she chose.

I enjoyed this book. I liked Ronson‘s style and curious nature. It was silly in some ways but informative in others. He showed an ability to learn, apply, and self correct through the book. I bought the rest of his books in the early pages of starting this one. I look forward to reading them.

Psychopathy, sociopathy, and ASPD have been seemingly everywhere lately, so I pulled 3 books to try and learn more about them and sort out facts from pop culture misinformation. This was the second book in my stack. It‘s written by a journalist, and the writing is compelling, but it‘s kind of all over the place. I‘m mostly learning the history behind the pop culture perception of psychopathy, which isn‘t really what I‘m after…

This is going to be possibly my only audio book of the year! Listened to on our recent road trip. I found many of the chapters interesting but was a bit confused about whether there was a real connection. A few times ideas started and didn‘t really go anywhere and there was a sense of ‘so what‘ about some of the content And ideas

Currently reading this book and I just can't put it down. I will definitely be ordering other books written by Jon Ronson.

This was a long-starting title on my TBR stack, and I‘m glad I finally read it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a story about madness.

#FirstLineFridays

While the book does pose some interesting thoughts and hypotheses, i agree with a review ive read on it - that it seems like haphazardly arranged piece done by a college lad in a dorm room with red string criss-crossing. There is an absence of cohesive thought & i find myself wondering what ive learnt (if anything)

Just finished this... I enjoyed reading it and there is great information and references... but kind of jumps form one issue to the next through a meandering path to a somewhat complex summation so I enjoyed reading this complex story

So I‘ve been wanting to read this for a while and finally picked it up after I was cleaning my room... so I‘m reading this and loving the first 100 pugs I gues I‘ll read the other book on my nightstand after 🤪📖

Book 1 of #coronaquarantine I hope to catch up on my TBR books I own since library closed.
I don't really get this book at all I feel. I don't really think it transitioned well between the stories of psychopaths and finding the Being and Nothingness book. I know he's a really popular author; I think his writing style just isn't for me.

First book club. ✅

We all rated this 3.5 ⭐ (tagged book)

Next book is illuminae

I had too much gin though and very hungover so I am going to be under a blanket reading for the rest of the day...

Started this today for our book club pick. Really interesting and funny so far.

I‘m about to start book 2 of 2020, has anyone else read it?

Can‘t believe I forgot to add this, huge fan of this book and of Jon Ronsons works. This one may be my favourite of the works by Jon that I‘ve read.

A cool, crisp morning. A cup of hot black tea. An hour-long train commute to work. And ... a book about how to spot psychopaths. Let‘s get this day started ... 😬

I enjoyed this audiobook because of the author‘s British accent. It has some humor & some interesting parts. Sometimes I wanted it to be more in depth. A good read overall but not a favorite. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I had perfect timing today for #BFCr2. Went to park to walk, got about 35 min done, was going to walk a little more in order to play Wizards Unite. Went by the car, & it started raining heavily. So, I went to run errands instead & am now home. I‘m cozy inside while it storms outside. Also, I have a new job which should start soon. It‘s not my dream job but has a lot of positive aspects, so I‘m grateful for it. Made some progress on audiobook.

What an thought-provoking, strange book! It‘s not just about psychopaths, although that‘s most of it. I also got to learn about the development and evolution of the DSM, the overdiagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder, prison experiments, Scientology, etc. Interesting, yet at times disturbing, stuff. 4⭐️

#bfc #bfcr2 book 22/28 #goteam

Hey y‘all, I did it!! I read 24 hours in 37 hours!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻💃🏻💃🏻📚📚 I‘m about ⅔ finished with these three books, and I completely finished three others yesterday. Pretty good! I should probably get some sleep, maybe watch some TV! 🤣🤣

Woo hoo! #24in48 #readathon #completed #needsleep 😴😴😴

The title is a misnomer as the book takes a more holistic look at mental health disorders and the labeling of patients. The exploration of the right amount of “madness” required for compelling reality tv was most interesting (and upsetting and clearly exploitative).

I wasn‘t sure about this book after the first chapter or two but then it very quickly became engrossing, interesting and a little bit scary.

Some of the ‘experiments‘ carried out were very 😲!

This was my #blinddatewithabook swap from the #readingretreat so thank you very much Emma @Oryx !

I read this book a few years ago and loved it. It‘s a fantastic book (and I can certainly think of someone currently in a position of power that would check a lot of boxes....). But after listening to Ronson‘s podcast, “The Butterfly Effect,” I knew I had to listen to this one. I could listen to Ronson read the dictionary tbh.

Fascinating

This is so well written it‘s easy to forget it‘s nonfiction. And yes I did just spend the last five minutes googling “mark zuckerberg psychopath test”.

The Psychopath Test provides an entertaining journey through the madness industry. The goal of this journey was to explore psychopathy, but Ronson also delves into a variety of other topics including other forms of mental illness, the development and use of the DSM, misdiagnoses, scientology, and more. These topics were interesting, educational, and well-written, but I think they distracted from the focus on psychopathy. Still enjoyable though!

Beautiful #audiowalk (or more accurately #audiosnowshoe) this morning. Patches is on the run 😂 #dogsoflitsy

Book gems are books that never remain on a shelf. They can never be read once, and when I read this again, THE PSYCHOPATH TEST, what I took away is this: "A lot of people are scared they‘re going mad these days...and it‘s comforting for them to hear someone like me on the radio, someone who has the same ‘crazy‘ beliefs they have... but sounds happy, and not mad. I challenge anyone to come and see me and leave believing I sound mad.” ~

"Practically every prime-time program is populated by people who are just the right sort of mad, and I now knew what the formula was. The right sort of mad are people who are a bit madder than we fear we‘re becoming, and in a recognizable way. We might be anxious but we aren‘t as anxious as they are. We might be paranoid but we aren‘t as paranoid as they are. We are entertained by them, and comforted that we‘re not as mad as they are."

"Sociopaths love power. They love winning. If you take loving kindness out of the human brain, there‘s not much left except the will to win...The higher you go up the ladder, the greater the number of sociopaths you'll find there... So the wars, the injustices, the exploitation, all of these things occur because of that tiny percent of the population up there who are mad in this certain way?”

"You're standing on an escalator and you watch the people going past on the opposite escalator. If you could climb inside their brains, you would see we aren‘t all the same. We aren‘t all good people just trying to do good. Some of us are psychopaths. And psychopaths are to blame for this brutal, misshapen society. They‘re the jagged rocks thrown into the still pond.”

#ebquotes2019

#1 (2019) Enjoyable easy read, kept my attention. Nothing groundbreaking but drawn together well. Engaging writing style. Psychopaths and the science behind the way the brain works is fascinating and I really want to find some more scientific and detailed texts to read now. But even more thought provoking is the issue of madness as a spectrum and/or spokes, and the ethics of categorising people and their madness as a result. 7/10 #ebbooks2019

Really interesting and compulsively readable. Made me want to research more on this topic, which I think is the sign of a great nonfiction read.

2018 has been the year of non-fiction for me. Here are all my unread non-fiction books. I don‘t think I‘ve ever had this many on my owned tbr. Currently reading The Psychopath Test.

Next up! It‘s looking up be a wild Saturday night. 😉

Listened to the first half today and, well, I‘ll just be over her diagnosing everybody as a psychopath, m‘kay!

Double spot for numbers fifteen and sixteen #countingbooks

Twelve #countingbooks

I guess this wasn‘t what I thought it would be (should have read summaries closer!) He‘s not a psychiatrist, or even a psychologist, so if you want real information on psychopaths/sociopaths, I would recommend “The Sociopath Next Door” as being much better. Some of the history Ronson provided was interesting, though, and particularly a look at current diagnoses of kids today. I listened to the audio, read by the author, and my concentration varied

This is a great book that takes you through one disorders journey in psychiatry by introducing the doctors, researchers & pyschologists that created the experiments, treatments, drugs & ultimately the test. Ronson introduces some great living characters & some weird, creepy ones too but it makes his journey all the more interesting. This is a guy who has done his research and he has a great writing style which kept me engaged throughout the book.