Book Update

Two of my yearly goals (1 and 2) are about reading.  I've decided I had better post monthly about my progress to keep myself turning the pages!

So far I've made progress into 3 of the 7 books I hope to read this year.

1) Survival of the Prettiest :  I've made it to page 91 (of 245).  So I'm a little more than a fourth of the way done.

The nature of the writing makes this book a little bit of a easier read that some of the others, so I'm expecting to finish it first.  Although I'm definitely coming across some interesting ideas and new information, I'm becoming a little disappointed in the book.  I did pick it up in order to learn a more scientific view on the issue of beauty, but I am finding a little bit of the discussion of beauty--- especially when the author is being more 'scientific'--- a little superficial.  The first two chapters were pretty solid, but the third chapter--- being more about the sexual side of beauty and gender difference is definitions of physical beauty in the opposite sex--- is the one that felt the most disappointing.  Although I appreciate she is trying to provide the evolutionary context for human sexual behavior and physical attractiveness, I find that she really isn't telling me anything I didn't already know and she is not offering much analysis or comment on what the scientific research and evolutionary theory has concluded.  It seems that men value physical beauty slightly more than women (and more now than they used to); the average man finds the physical characteristics of a never-pregnant teenage girl the most attractive; women factor relational and economic (provider) elements into their mate-choosing more than men.  None of this is really surprising, so I wish she would delve into the ways this impacts our modern lives (which have changed somewhat faster than our genetics and evolutionary development).  She also talks a lot about the 'average' man and woman, but I am really more interested in the range of human preferences and behavior, and how both biology and society interact around this range.

She will also say things like: "A man's talent and star power can override concerns about his age, a woman's does not."  but she won't offer any comment.  It doesn't seem like something like this could be explained by pure biology or evolution---- so what does she think could be happening here?