If anyone who reads this have not listened a lot to classical music: check out the classical guitar. Even softer to the ears and mind than piano or bowed strings, IMO. Segovia, Tarrega, and others.

I find baroque classical music in general nicer than later classical music when reading, but YMMV.

Aksel Sandemose, A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (1923, translated to English in 1936. I read it in Swedish, En flykting korsar sitt spår when I was 16).

It was in a long list of books where we had to pick some of them as required reads. I found it intermittently boring, but it introduces the Law of Jante that became a cultural/sociological descriptor/phenomenon and is often referred to locally in Scandinavia but also internationally. It made me see things about my culture that I had not noticed before as they were so ubiquitous for me, having grown up immersed in it.

Ah, thank you for your words, reflections and the sympathy! I am still in healthcare but nowadays with less patient contact of that particular kind. I am also what could most closely be described as a hedge druid with some organised training, so you could say I do stand with a leg in each camp. It sometimes makes it easier, but sometimes not. Let us all help each other to the best of our abilities.

Despite some bad experiences, many people I encounter seem to reason like you and I. This is very good, I think.

“In bad faith” was a good and succinct collective descriptor for books I think deserve to be burnt (though as you conclude, impossible to screen for). I know the expression well, though I did not think of it (English as second language).

There is a lot of interesting research and experience about how positive thinking and holistic views and also some treatments influence disease progress and prognosis. It can work well together with traditional/conventional medicine. Or by all means, solely in some cases. But it needs to be an informed decision not influenced by the profit hunger of someone else.

I think following the money can be very elucidating. Cui bono? Just like personal finance books written by people who only got rich writing personal finance books. Adding cancer to it just makes it even more heartbreaking.

I think in many countries it is already forbidden to make “health claims“ of a more specific kind. But it seems easy to get around it by insinuation and such. I agree about the Streisand effect.

Yep, that is one of the books I saw influence someone to make decisions that led to their premature death.

I agree with not burning them, definitely. No literal burning of books for me. But figuratively, I want to burn them.

Thing is, I do agree that adults need to take responsibility for their choices, for the information they consume and make decisions from. And information wants to be free. But having seen the chaos and desperation that some illnesses bring, the people profiting from this makes me sick. I have not heard about the podcast, will check it out.

Blatant misinformation that is directed to vulnerable people can be very harmful. Predatory books by health gurus directed towards ill people and their loved ones.

I have worked in healthcare with cancer patients and their close ones who were given false hope by some alternative medicine books and gurus selling books and supplements/lifestyle advice. Seeing the patients suffering and refuse treatment (even for pain) and slowly slip away, all the time blaming themselves for not responding better to the woo-woo prayers/substances/positive thinking/particular diet/supplements… Seeing them hurting and SO confused and hurt about why they are becoming worse and not better… Some of them even perished from things that a surgical procedure would likely have cured. All of it while lining the pockets of some sociopath with a degree and a book deal.

If it was tough for me to witness, I can only imagine how it was for them and their families living it.

Traditional medicine does not work all the time either. Refusing treatment of any kind is definitely within anyones right! I am not looking for a debate on this. My point here is not about the science being right or wrong, it is about predatory guru-like authors (sometimes using their educational credentials in traditional sciences) using cancer patients to sell books and branded supplements and putting the blame on the patients when the particular “treatment” does not work.

In theory, I would like to burn these books. In practice, I realise and accept that it would be impossible to do in a reasonable way. Also, there is the danger of the slippery slope, controlling free speech and all. But I still want to see those particular books burn.