When someone goes out of his or her way to ask me to do something very specific, I usually try to accommodate them, especially if the request is reasonable. Though I've been quite busy editing the draft of my coming novel Secondhand Sight, my friend Sean made a point of asking me to read Free Will by Sam Harris. I protested that I was busy writing and editing my novel. Readers of my first Robert Mercer mystery, titled Coastal Empire, have been clamoring for the sequel, which won't come after Secondhand Sight. I don't want interest to wane, while I'm screwing around reading another writer's book. Sean persuaded me by countering that the Harris book was short, and an "easy read." So I splurged on Amazon, shelling out $3.99 for the Kindle edition. What a sucker I am! Oh, it was short, all right. And an easy read. But more importantly, the book proved to be an utter waste of my time and money. Love ya, Sean, but I should have just kept writing. Do not assume that I fail to appreciate Sam Harris as a writer. On the contrary, I thought his book The End of Faith was quite good, though I disagreed with most of his conclusions. It was quite brave of Harris to admit that he believes in a spiritual facet of the universe that inexplicably exists, but cannot be defined in conventional, scientific terms. The "Fourth Horseman" clearly departed from Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins on that point.  Harris said he prefers the term "mysticism" to "spiritualism" to describe this phenomena he accepts, because he believes the latter term has more … [Read more...]