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Thinking, learning, emotions, memory. That good old brain, it's an old song and one that just keeps on kicking. Richard Restak wrote his first three books on the brain using a pen and paper, but switched to using a computer some books ago.

'New Brain' is not that easy to evaluate. Written in a quasi-anecdotal style, it covers a lot of ground, just touching on a lot of important topics. You might not learn that much from this book, but it will certainly give you a lot to think about. For example:

Violence in the movies. Restak comes down hard against violent images, even depictions that are clearly fiction. I've seen a lot of violent movie images in my day, yet over time became increasingly uncomfortable with them. Restak backs up my intuitive reaction fairly unambiguously. Movie violence bad.

Learning. Good news, gang. Brain plasticity (that's a good thing) continues on year after year. You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but an old human? That's another story. Choose your skill and practice practice practice. Carnegie Hall is just across the street.

Memory. Would you really want a perfect memory of everything? Maybe not. Maybe it's better to forget a lot of the trivial stuff. The reason why it's an intriguing question now and in the coming decade can be found in the pages of this book: memory-improving medicines, if 'medicine' is even an appropriate term, are about to appear upon the scene.

And what about emotions? No one wants to be depressed, but is it okay to be shy and retiring? How about a little negative? How about QUITE negative, along the lines of Schopenhauer. A fuller understanding of brain chemistry will inevitably lead to (has led to) ways to change it.

Here's another intriguing thought. According to Restak, some researchers in the psychological community are starting to think of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) not in terms of a disease, so much as an adaptive cognitive style. You know, 'that's just the way things are for some people.' In the media culture, are people's brains rewiring themselves to account for sitting in front of one type of screen or another? Restak makes a pretty good case for it, but mainly he's giving you food for thought.

And a fine feed it is. Tie on your feedback for a provoking (of thought) meal of New Brain [buy at amazon] . by Richard Restak. If you haven't been following brain science over the past ten years (and I haven't) it's well worth reading. If you're a brain scientist yourself, you won't be reading this book and in fact will probably find much to annoy. Let me know! If you have a serious interest in the brain, you ought to check out my old pal Lloyd's brain website. This book isn't listed there.