No-brainer book offers little insight

WELCOME TO YOUR BRAIN: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life. By Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang. Bloomsbury. 211 pages. $24.95.

Infotainment. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang straddle the fence between being scientific and being interesting pretty well.

In general, the science is understandable. There's some pop psychology and even a few quizzes to stimulate the reader.

Before you even get to the first chapter, there's a question about that age-old conflict between men and women over the toilet seat.

The attempts at humor are appreciated, though not always amusing.

There are practical tips on such topics as how to hear better when you're talking on a phone in a noisy environment, how to fight jet lag and why teenagers don't always make good choices.

But there's a major overall flaw with "Welcome to Your Brain." Did you ever take basic biology and psychology classes? Do you scan magazine articles while sitting in the doctor's office? If you answered yes to these two questions, you've already been exposed to 80 percent of the information in this book.