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.

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“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.

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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.

If you value your own progress, you need to learn how to criticise yourself. We are often eager to criticise others, but when it comes to criticising ourselves we are strangely reluctant. The art of self criticism is essential to learn ing from mistakes and gaining an improved perspective on life.

Consider Your Motives

We maybe able to fool other people, but we should never try to fool ourselves. It is important to be aware of our motivation for doing something. For example, are we being kind to someone with selfless motives, or is it being undertaken with an ulterior motive? At times we like to fool ourselves into thinking we are being altruistic, when actually we are acting from the basis of our ego. This is when we need to be self critical because otherwise our mind can trick us into feeling we are a very good person, when actually we are just being selfish. By being aware of this, we can try to reduce the power of the ego in our lives.

Be Honest with Yourself

Self criticism means we have to be honest with our-self. There is no benefit from trying to justify our bad actions. If we can learn to be honest with ourselves our conscience will prevent us from undertaking regrettable actions. Many bad people, will try and find a way of justifying their actions to themselves; this is the danger of not being honest with yourself.

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Note: Each week PickTheBrain reviews a book or product related to self improvement. This review represents the honest opinion of the author, but we’d like to disclose that PickTheBrain receives a small referral commission on orders.

An interesting product I’ve been using for the past several months is the Paraliminals series from Learning Strategies. The best way to describe Paraliminals is a combination of guided meditation and neuro-linguistic programming. It’s best experienced with stereo head phones because it works by playing two different audio tracks simultaneously.

The experience is difficult to explain, but the two soundtracks compliment each other in such a way that it’s impossible to concentrate on either but your brain is able to absorb both. One voice usually tells a story, relevant to the theme of the session while the other repeats affirmative messages. The sessions cover a wide range of self improvement topics, including health, relationships, personal charisma, and motivation.

Behind the audible voice tracks are soothing nature sounds accompanied by binaural beats. The real power of the program is the binaural beats, which work by using two complimentary frequencies that interfere with each other to create pulsating phantom frequencies.

The beats affect brainwave patterns and help bring the mind to a state of focused relaxation. If you’ve ever used a guided relaxation program, where the instructor takes you through the process of relaxing each part of the body, then you’ll recognize the feeling of your body being totally relaxed while the mind remains alert.

The benefit of Paraliminals is that it allows you to reach this state much more quickly and helps to block out distractions. I’ve found myself using Paraliminals as a substitute for naps.

Instead of going to sleep and waking up groggy, I lay down for 20 minutes and listen to one of the CDs. There are a wide range of topics covered in the Ultimate You series, so I can usually find something that matches my goals for the near future. After listening to the program I get up relaxed, refreshed, and motivated to take action.

Does It Work?

I don’t think anyone is silly enough to believe that listening to a CD will somehow take the work out of success. If you approach Paraliminals with this attitude then you’ll probably be disappointed. That being said, I think those who have a strong desire to bring about positive improvements will find Paraliminals to be a helpful tool.

The biggest benefit that I’ve experienced with the program is the ability to reach focused relaxation in a matter of minutes. Instead of having to find an isolated place and exert effort to clear my mind, Paraliminals puts the process on autopilot. I can just lay back and listen.

If you’re interested in learning more, I’ve put together a page with more information about my experience with Paraliminals. I’ve also gone to the trouble of negotiating a significant discount, available only to PickTheBrain readers. Check out the Paraliminals page for all the details.

If you want to build muscle, barbell exercises are the easiest way. The problem: you need weights. Not everyone can afford expensive gym memberships or buy a home gym. Maybe you don’t feel the need to get huge, but would still like to gain a little muscle and tone what you already have. Fortunately, there are some simple yet effective exercises you can use to sculpt your body.Here’s a muscle building workout you can do without weights:

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I’m sure you have experienced a wake up call at some point in your life. Events such as a divorce, a new baby, a firing, a terrorist attack, or a near-death experience tend to hit us like a ton of bricks and are not easily forgotten.Personally, what I find interesting is that implicit in the idea of a wake up call is that we have, in some sense, been asleep. What is it that we have been asleep to?When I think of wake up calls, the word that comes to mind is “priorities”. Wake up calls tend to make us stop, pull back from the runway of life, and consider exactly what it is that is important to us.Very often we realize that we have had our priorities upside down. Perhaps we have been spending too much time at the office, too little time with our kids, or have been neglecting our health. So to answer my earlier question, it seems to me that many of us travel through life asleep to what really is important.If you are in a slumber, the following are some ideas to help you wake up and remember the important things in your life:

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The ability to recognize deception is an essential skill for business dealings and personal relationships. If you can’t spot a liar, you’ll be easily fooled into taking bad deals — costing you money and credibility.Yahoo! Finance has an interesting article that explains 7 social cues you can use to recognize liars. The article is targeted towards entrepreneurs, but the information could be applied anywhere.One tip recommends looking for incongruent communication:

When our words and our body language don’t agree, our communication is incongruent. Imagine that you ask a salesman if he can assure your delivery will be on time. If he explains how certain he is about it being on time while also shaking his head–as if non-verbally saying “no”–he is incongruent. When this sort of incongruence occurs, you would do well to believe the person’s body over his words.

How else do you know when someone is lying to you?Are They Lying to You? [Yahoo! Finance]

If you’re anything like me then you experience motivation in waves. One day you’ll feel unstoppable and eager to work, as if success is a certainty. A few days later your confidence will drop and you’ll start to drag your feet and feel discouraged, hopeless, or worse — indifferent.

These ups and downs are a natural part of life, but if you don’t work to minimize the downs you’ll reach a plateau. If every positive step is followed by a down slide, the net gain is minimal. The key to reaching your highest potential is stringing together positive steps and constantly accelerating forward.

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