Use Turn Signal

I recently finished "A Left-hand Turn Around the World: Chasing the Mystery And Meaning of All Things Southpaw" by David Wolman. The best way I can think do describe this book is that it's like Bill Bryson, but about lefties. (If you don't know who Bill Bryson is, go visit the library.) In Brysonesque fashion (I can just imagine Bill being thrilled that that word has officially been invented now) David Wolman's book is one part travelogue, one part history lesson, one part humor and one part technical information for laymen. I've read past lefty books (particularly "The Left-Hander Syndrome") which were full of stats and figures and numbers. And if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for stats and figures and numbers. It could be a book about cork, but if there were enough graphs, I'd be hooked. In this book, however, it is much more about the author and his adventures than just the topic. He takes a trip to Japan for a left-handed golf tournament and visits France to look at brains in a jar. He visits palm readers and handwriting analysis believers and monkey researchers and visits with all of them. The grand point of the book: we don't know why people are left handed. Maybe language specialization caused it. Or vice versa. Maybe we should study strongly handed people vs mixed handed people. Maybe it's chance. Maybe it's hormones in the womb. (Think lefty, Shannon!) Maybe it's none of those things. But the book is an interesting, if not riveting read.