Found via Open Culture, the New York Times has created a new section that allows readers to read and discuss classic books online:

Earlier this month, The New York Times Book Review launched an online Reading Room that lets readers tackle great books with the help of “an all-star cast of panelists from various backgrounds—authors, reviewers, scholars and journalists.” The first reading starts with Leo Tolstoy’s 1200+ page epic, War and Peace (1865-69), and it’s led by book review editor Sam Tanenhaus and a supporting crew consisting of Bill Keller (executive editor of The Times), Stephen Kotkin (a Russian history professor at Princeton), Francine Prose (author of Reading Like a Writer), and Liesl Schillinger (a regular reviewer for the Book Review).

It’s great to see the classics breaking through into a mainstream media outlet, and I’m interested to see how the discussion group with “all-star panelists” works out. I would have loved something like this when I was reading 2000 page novels in my pre-blogging days.

On a related note, for those of you who enjoyed PickTheBrain’s free audio book and podcast resource collection, Open Culture has a some free audio educational resources that might be of interest:

• Foreign language lesson podcasts
• Free University courses
• Even more free audio books

The web is an amazing educational resource. The quantity of information available on any given topic is more than most people will ever need, and probably more than they can handle. This vast amount of information is the web’s greatest strength, but also creates major usability problems. If you try to educate yourself online without a clear strategy, you’ll quickly find yourself frustrated and misinformed.

Effective online education goes beyond finding answers. It requires you to process numerous information sources, evaluate them based on credibility and relevance, and piece together a mosaic-like picture of the truth.

Everyone does this to some degree, whether they realize it or not. The following is a strategic framework you can use to make the most of your online self education. Click here to continue »

“We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars;” –Shakespeare

In Shakespeare’s time, people blamed the stars for their problems. Today scientists tell us either that our brain has been pre-programmed by evolution, or shaped by our environment, or both, and therefore operates on auto-pilot. According to all of this, we are not responsible for our actions or our personalities.

“No basis for discussion can be found with anyone who believes that mind and brain are separate” says neurologist Mark Hallet in a recent article.

I like to read about the brain. It is relevant to my work in education. I compare what I read to my own experience. Life may be full of illusions, but I like my illusions, especially those that work for me. Click here to continue »

PickTheBrain has two new sponsors for the month of November that we’d like to briefly thank and introduce.

Lumosity is a brain fitness program, comprised of games and exercises, scientifically designed to improve your memory, attention, and processing speed. I first discovered them in PC Magazine’s list of the Top 100 Undiscovered Sites. They offer a free trial of the brain games — I’ve tried it myself — the games are fun and high quality.

ChargedAudio specializes in unlocking the power of the subconscious mind through subliminal messaging. They offer a free trial CD and ebook, so you can test their products at minimal cost.

There are still sponsorship spots available for November. If you have a product or service that you’d like to share with the PickTheBrain community, check out the advertising page for more information or send us a message.