I'm only 2/3 of the way through the book but thought it would be worth posting a review before completing it for one reason. The reason is that all the many links found in the book do not need to be entered in by hand. The authors recently put the complete list of links on their web page. This makes it a lot more enticing to go off and explore illusions and support information.
I liked the idea of the book, and when I started reading it, it seemed somewhat unengaging. Somewhere after the first 10 hacks or so that changed. I guess I started developing a feel for what it was all about. It's sort of textbook-ish, but nevertheless very interesting. Sort of like a lab manual and you are the lab.
I think other reviewers have given a pretty fair idea of what it's about, so I'll only make a few comments.
I think it's worthwhile reading their comments sprinkled among the references. There's some very good info there and suggestions about further reading.
A real show stopper item is how we use the external world as a database to help us see. That's a real twist. See the J. Kevin O'Regan web article, Hack #40. That reminds me. Some of the illusions on the web, particularly those on change blindness, are a little tricky. A good illustration is in this article. There's a section (single line actually) called "slow motion". You probably won't notice what happens in the animation until it stops, and you try to restart. Suddenly it jumps out at you. My point is that sometimes you have to fidget awhile with the computer. This is not a fault of the book.
Another show stopper (to me at least) is the experiment discussed in the chapter on integration, Hack #61. It appears that language is necessary to integrate information from our senses. In this case, geometry and color.
As of this writing, it's unfortunate the publisher hasn't yet put some of the book online. There are a few items I would like to search for that I did not highlight and cannot find in the index. The index is, however, quite good.
Another good current read on the mind is "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell.
P.S. I'm looking for the story about the pilots.
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