Have you ever heard the phrase, "so open-minded your brain falls out"? It's pretty self-explanatory. The art of critical thinking is rendered useless if you're not open to learning new information, but that doesn't mean you need to compromise on the critical part.
I'm a practicing doctor, and I've written so much medical fiction that it's still scrutinized for the tiniest bit of misinformation. Don't get me wrong; the ability to question is one of my favorite things about my readers. Check out my podcast, Straight Talking Doc Unhinged, where you'll find abundant truth that you can decide whether to accept.
Still, when you shop Health Benefits related books, you know Andy Lazris writes from firsthand experience. That's what turned me from a writer to a bestselling author. However, popularity isn't the best filtration system when it comes to writers.
Aren't Conflicting Viewpoints What Help Us Build Our Knowledge Base?
In an ideal world, we could all absorb the world's literature and decide what to believe. In the real world, there's only so much literature we can pay full attention to.
While I salute all readers who endeavor to read it all, I sympathize with those who simply don't have that time. The best thing you can do here is cut out the stuff that doesn't add value. This isn't as straightforward as you think.
Differing opinions are a great way to challenge yourself. Then again, if you buy Civil War-related books online that understate the importance of racial discrimination, are you being challenged?
I wrote a Civil War book called Three Brothers from Virginia. Although I hold a degree in History, I wrote it as a historical fiction book. It's informed by my experiences with legally binding policy and its plentiful shortfalls. As the author, I sought to draw the reader's mind to laws that have since been changed to raise the idea that the law is beyond question.
However, one may still read it and come away with an unwavering belief in the importance of upholding the law. By not presenting myself, the narrator, as an authority on wrong and right, I give more power to my audience.
A fiction or nonfiction book of value will always add to your perspective, not mold it.
Where Should You Draw The Line?
Instead of thinking of it as a line, think of it as knowing your priorities. For example, when you buy a healthcare reform book or even a medical fiction book, you need to stop and think about what you, as the reader, need. The laws of the inescapable narrator bias dictate that the writer of the books you choose will color your perspective.
So ask yourself these questions: who would have the insight I'm looking for? If you're looking for information about what patient experience is, you'd find answers in a book by someone who'd spent time in a hospital and interacted with patients, like a nurse. If you'd like insider information about behind the scenes, you're better off with a practicing doctor.
Let me break it down for you. Aim the following questions, the good old Ws, at the writer:
Who?
Who is this person, and what qualifies them to lend their insight to this particular subject? By researching a writer, you can get an idea of their critical thinking abilities. Even in a work of fiction, you need to beware of those who seek to push their opinions on you. Of course, you shouldn't be so quick to brush off contradictions.
When?
If the person writes from firsthand experience, then congratulations, you might have stumbled on some real conclusive thoughts! Or perhaps not.
You don't want to buy COVID-19 books written by a doctor who had been in retirement long before the pandemic hit. Look for an online COVID-19 bookstore that stocks authors who had a presence on the frontlines of the battle against the virus. This way, you know the experience is directly related.
This is something that's overlooked far more often than it should be. Even the marionettes of modern medical care are still in the hands of the hands of decisions made decades ago.
I've detailed this in my upcoming nonfiction book, A Fork in the Road in Baltimore. As primary care physicians, my co-writer Alan Roth and I stand to lose more than we stand to gain. We were prompted to write this book for nonmedical personnel who are often misled about their healthcare.
We've also incorporated heaps of data we've gathered over our consolidated decades of doing our best to practice our conscience.
What?
The title of the book isn't always honest when it states the focal point of the book, hence the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover". I prefer to state it bluntly to the reader, as can be seen in The Great Stupidity. Although it's a work of fiction, the title keeps no secrets. The book denounces the zealots who claim to have quick fixes to serious problems.
Our quick-fix-friendly healthcare system saw the COVID-19 pandemic, and doctors were falling over themselves to instate rules, policies, and supposed solutions. Even restaurateurs and schoolteachers jumped on board, posting signs about masks and encouraging anyone who would listen to get "the jab".
Personal discretion was thrown, nay, flung out the window in the interest of cure-alls that, to date, have yet to cure anything.
When you pick up a book and the title is misleading, put it back down. Today promotional content runs rampant, and even autobiographies are used to further a political campaign. Beware of dishonest titles because a writer who seeks to pass off their work as something else is not a writer you should trust.
Always read the reviews when you buy affordable nonfiction books, or even fiction for that matter.
Where?
This should go without saying, but you'd be surprised how easily convinced people are by a hardcover and a font with a serif. Say you order nonfiction books to read, and include some health care reform books. The author is a practicing MD, and the book's content fully aligns with the marketing. This book may do a great job of detailing something like the loss of Roe, but the author has never visited or practiced in the US.
Of course, that's a problem! Any physician with a working mind could tell you that the end has long been in sight. Unless, of course, that working mind wasn't present in American hospitals to witness the unconscionable violations of "pro-choice" that the media quickly soothed the masses into ignoring. Yet another example of why you should choose your sources carefully.
Why?
A good writer writes their truth, but the truth is subjective, apparently, and agendas are easily disguised as passion. A writer should have a reason for having formed the conclusions they put forth to the author. My books are transparent, and my agenda is clearly outlined by numerous blog posts and interviews. My anti-masking and anti-ambiguous-vaccination stance has never been hidden from my readers.
However, that won't stop many writers from curating the facts and developing their opinions to promote a lifestyle or a product. It's widely known that books and other art forms have leaned on and propped up political movements and reforms in the past.
Keep a lot out for this, no matter how insidious it may seem, for politics is easily likened to a series of dominos that have been in motion longer than you or I could imagine.
With this in mind, I hope you'll be able to stay wise to the ways of winding, shaping, and sometimes even inventing the facts. This sinister representation of reality triggers the mantras, of which there are more every day, used as a war cry for the blind foot soldiers of this movement or that movement. Mantras turn to marches, and marches invariably lead to things more sinister still.
My latest work, a nominee for Book of the Year, January 6th and the Millenial Horde, outlines how volatile these stoic beliefs have the potential to be. It's one thing to create a blog or even write a book about your truth, but to wage war and publicly denounce all who dare challenge you is to contribute to making a mindless society. For those who like a multimedia dystopia that toes the line between fiction and nonfiction, with a hearty side of hilarity, I highly recommend you purchase 3D Fictional book online.
The Geriatrics Vengeance Club and The Adventures of Yadel the Dreidel are also great fiction books that admittedly contain a healthy dose of my personal experience. Having received much backlash for my mere statement of the facts, I carry on in fiction and best non fiction books to read 2021.
If you're open to pushing the boundaries of the all-encompassing PC standards, check out Curing Medicare. Although it's written about geriatric care by Andy Lazris, a fully qualified geriatric doctor, the hordes will have you believe it's baseless nonsense. I suggest you buy the book and make up your own mind, but hey, what do I know?
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