I was ignorant on the ways of Goldacre's Guardian's columns until the day I read, perhaps in one of the great blogs I advertise down below on the left, that Goldacre's was a Guru in search of the truth. After reading a very brief mention to his writing ability I decided to search for his books. Firstly, I found his picture and immediately got startled by an Einstein-figurine that through times has been vindicating that crazy hairdos do not have to linearly belong to crazy people. Somehow still yet inebriated by my secular iconoclast soul I decided to give this author a chance... and what an amazing surprise I was hit with. Probably, for most of the Brits I work with, Goldacre is a must since they were like sixteen. How surprised did they sound when I revealed that this writer, doctor, columnist, man of a thousand jobs, was new to me and I had yet to let him captivate me if he was to stand a chance of belonging to my personal library.
I don't care how surprised my colleagues sounded, or the extent of their irony. How can people who have no idea who Saramago was, Pessoa, Miguel Torga, Eca de Queiroz, or the most contemporary, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Lobo Antunes and Agustina Bessa-Luis, claim ignorance on anything. OK, now I'm being rough, but you understand my point guys, somehow I had to advertise the great writers from my country who more than deserve to be read by all of you. Well, let's move forward! Reading is knowledge and regardless of when it hit you, it is always welcome. And I must say that even though it might sound a tad arrogant, Ben Goldacre knows his way with words, facts and arguments that cement his intrepid ideas. Intrepid because he messes with a secret-shaped mud, revolves the ground that hides the truth and exposes the facts based on other even more real facts. Nevertheless, and even though he assumes that his exposures might direct people to over-criticism of science and pharma, it is very easy to drift reasoning and assume passion if one is not careful and blindly think that if in the populace there's a black sheep, all sheep are thus, black.
I recently purchased two great books from Ben Goldacre's collection, one is a best-seller, the other is a continuum of his investigatory attitude towards dismantling the monsters we all applaud without even blinking. I must exacerbate that I am not anti-pharma, or even anti-science (how could I?), not at all. I love pharma, I love science, they are necessary domains that complement each other and replenish the world with progress. What I hate in fact is ignorance, as I do not consider it bliss. And I pity people who love being ignorant. Goldacre is not a guru, I have no patience for gurus. Goldacre is a guy who investigates pretty well, exposes it in a very simple, funny, pungent way, and then, after you've been served, you are left craving more... Truth!
Title: "Bad Science"
Author: Ben Goldacre
Label: Fourth Estate
Year: First published in Great Britain in 2008
Price: £4.30 on Amazon (sold by World of Books Ltd)
Public review: 4.4 stars
Public comment:
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Title: "Bad Pharma"
Author: Ben Goldacre
Label: Fourth Estate
Year: First published in Great Britain in 2012
Price: £6.54 on Amazon (sold by SuperBookDeals)
Public review: 4.5 stars
Public comment:
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