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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Books Reading Today: Checklists, Free Cake, and the Revolution

Posted by Paul Constant on Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 10:16 AM

At Revolution Books, Bob Avakian will give the first part of a two-part lecture about how we are on the verge of a revolution. Part two will be next Sunday.

Atul Gawande will read at Town Hall tonight. Gawande, who is a surgeon, recommends using checklists in hospitals in his new book The Checklist Manifesto. It's kind of scary that doctors don't use checklists already.

You'll find a Suggest about this here on Slog any minute now, but the book event of the day is the University Book Store's 110 Year Anniversary Celebration. Many folks mistakenly think Elliott Bay Book Company is the oldest bookstore in town, but UBS is almost three times as old. This is a party to celebrate a new book compiled by University Book Store featuring a ton of local authors including Tom Robbins, Stacey Levine, and Dan Savage. The authors probably won't be in attendance, but there will be free cake!

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

Comments (7) RSS

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Paul...
You shouldn't be taking those Revolution Books press releases at face value. They're most likely showing a DVD of Bob Avakian speaking. And his face won't be easily visible. As one of the RCP faithful told me, "Bob doesn't make public appearances." Look for a picture of him in RCP media and you'll only find one from the late 70's. Talk about image control....

Posted by CripKev on January 10, 2010 at 10:38 AM

Am I the only one who feels like Bob Avakian is a little bit of a cult leader? But that said, I'm sure he has some good points to be made.

Posted by datajunkie on January 10, 2010 at 11:32 AM

Poor Bob... still smarting from the break up of SDS and the splintering of PL. Hey Bob, it's been forty years - maoism is discredited and irrelevant, just like you.

Posted by Pol Pot

on January 10, 2010 at 12:19 PM

mmmmm.... cake!

Posted by this guy I know in Spokane on January 10, 2010 at 4:04 PM

Paul,
It turns out that operating room staff have been using checklists for many years as a way to make sure that we have all of the necessary staff/equipment/supplies/medications on hand to perform the planned operation. This is confirmed with the patient prior to being anesthetized, and re-confirmed before incision. The University of Washington recently participated in an international study of the SCOAP checklist (surgical clinical outcomes assessment program). This is a physician led movement to improve surgical outcomes for patients in Washington state and abroad. Look it up on PubMed.

Dr. P

Posted by Dr. Polly on January 10, 2010 at 6:21 PM

The cake is a lie!

Posted by Deli on January 10, 2010 at 11:26 PM

If they're showing the Revolution DVD at Revolution Books, I highly recommend it. You can actually watch the whole thing at www.revolutiontalk.net See what he's saying for yourself, and don't take the word of those who have either dismissed Avakian without any idea what he's saying, or have settled into the world as it is, and aren't trying to figure out how to bring about fundamental change.

Posted by red on January 12, 2010 at 10:11 AM