Finished: How I Make Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz 📚 That was good! It’s been a while since I’ve read a photography book....

Finished: How I Make Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz 📚

That was good! It’s been a while since I’ve read a photography book. This one is about the craft of ideas of photography, and the “soft” skills around that. Not much (but not none) is said about the technical aspects. I’ll keep it and revisit as needed.

Finished: The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda 📚 I was pretty disappointed in this book. It’s more MBA focused than art or design...

Finished: The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda 📚 I was pretty disappointed in this book. It’s more MBA focused than art or design focused, and a number of the stories are pretty forced, or don’t feel all that genuine. Maybe they’re just dated, idk. It’s not totally worthless, there are some good ideas in there, but at some point I gave up and only skimmed the last third of the book.

Year in books for 2023

Here are the books I finished reading in 2023. Lots of good reads last year!

Finished: How to Think Like Shakespeare by Scott Newstok 📚 I read this over the summer. I tried to stop but couldn’t, so I guess it was...

Finished: How to Think Like Shakespeare by Scott Newstok 📚 I read this over the summer. I tried to stop but couldn’t, so I guess it was interesting enough. Some ideas I still think about, like the model that thinking is like a handicraft or other manual skill. I find that idea useful.

Finished: How to Be Interesting by Jessica Hagy 📚also read this the other day, it was fun.

Finished: How to Be Interesting by Jessica Hagy 📚also read this the other day, it was fun.

Finished: The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit by John V. Petrocelli 📚 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ highly recommended

Finished: The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit by John V. Petrocelli 📚 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ highly recommended

Currently reading: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 📚

Currently reading: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 📚

Finished: Wool by Hugh Howey 📚 The short version: this is a book that takes the idea of “good writing is about the characters...

Finished: Wool by Hugh Howey 📚

The short version: this is a book that takes the idea of “good writing is about the characters overcoming challenges” to it’s most extreme limit. It’s all suffering and adversity, almost too much. If you can get past that, then it took 2/3 of the book to get going. Maybe it was that way so the long suffering reader gets a real feel for time, and struggle. However, the last 1/3 really moves and was a page turner. I am interested in reading the later books now.

More details below (vague spoiler warning).

I appreciated that the author did not call attention to the things that are hard to believe like submerging a neutral pressure suit under tens and tens of feet of water will just work and you also won’t get the bends during a panic resurfacing, and where are they getting tea from (this only pops up once) or is it actually hundreds of years old, and how come the people don’t develop distinct accents or dialects, and can they really make these things like semiconductors to last that long or do they have even that manufacturing capability??

Some things that people are knowledgable about seem quite a stretch too, given the other things we learn about the world. Like the have-nots just making up military tactics in confined spaces, on the fly with no training in it, that can succeed (for some definition) against a prepared enemy. I am suspicious of the closed ecosystem being able to sustain for that long. But I don’t know enough about ecology to be any more than that about it, so I’ll leave that one there. Or how come there aren’t problems with diseases in the later parts of the story; you’d think separate populations would generate different strains of viruses and when they meet it would be bad for one or both. Where is the underground/black market economy? It really stuck out as something missing from the world to me. There some scenes that described and used the kinds of connections that would enable black or gray market trade to exist, but it seemingly doesn’t play a part in this story.

There may have been a few too many dramatic coincidences to believe, some of them defying even the most generous probabilities.

Even with these cracks and inconsistencies though, if you don’t notice or think about it, then the story is fine. But the veneer over the true science fiction and obvious dramatic or poetic license is only paper thin. Maybe I do prefer hard sf and a little more effort on the part of the writer to make it believable in a somewhat-ordinary-or-at-least-plausible-turn-of-events-for-the-universe-that-they’ve-constructed sense. In the end, I think this story was more of a cartoon depiction than a live action staging.

All that being said, I’m curious how the author arranged all this to exist, which I think is in the first sequel.

Maybe later I will elaborate on the more constructive thought provoking ideas that I had while reading the book. Things like, this is a mirror of our current times (most writing usually is), intra- and inter- nation-state-wise, and how would I arrange a society to function in such isolation, and this is really just a different setting for the same problems and ideas of one of those generation ship scifi stories, isn’t it? I had a lot of “how could this be different” thoughts to many plot points and story choices as I read, I should keep notes on those for the next book I read.

Currently reading: Wool by Hugh Howey 📚

Currently reading: Wool by Hugh Howey 📚

Finished: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu 📚 it was ok. I don’t plan to read the sequels, I’ll check the wikipedia pages to see...

Finished: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu 📚

it was ok. I don’t plan to read the sequels, I’ll check the wikipedia pages to see what happens.

Finished: The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt 📚 👍

Finished: The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt 📚 👍

Finished: How To Think: A Survival Guide For A World At Odds by Jacobs, Alan , 1958- (author.) 📚 👍

Finished: How To Think: A Survival Guide For A World At Odds by Jacobs, Alan , 1958- (author.) 📚 👍

Finished: Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat 📚 👍

Finished: Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat 📚 👍

Finished: The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin 📚 good stuff, recommended 👍

Finished: The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin 📚

good stuff, recommended 👍

Finished: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 📚 This was very good.

Finished: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 📚

This was very good.

Finished: Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges 📚 I actually only read Ficciones. Where have I been on Borges? Missing out, that’s...

Finished: Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges 📚

I actually only read Ficciones. Where have I been on Borges? Missing out, that’s where!

Finished: The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚 Rereading it after a while.

Finished: The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚

Rereading it after a while.

Finished: The Return of the Shadow by Christopher Tolkien 📚 Much more interesting than I expected, as a nerd, as a reader, and as an...

Finished: The Return of the Shadow by Christopher Tolkien 📚

Much more interesting than I expected, as a nerd, as a reader, and as an aspiring writer.

Finished: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin 📚 It was good 👍

Finished: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin 📚

It was good 👍

Finished: How To Think: A Survival Guide For A World At Odds by Jacobs, Alan , 1958- (author.) 📚

Finished: How To Think: A Survival Guide For A World At Odds by Jacobs, Alan , 1958- (author.) 📚

Finished: 300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso 📚 It was interesting, I had a few thoughts in response. I’m not writing them down here right...

Finished: 300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso 📚

It was interesting, I had a few thoughts in response.

I’m not writing them down here right now, but I might do it sometime later.

Finished reading, with satisfaction: The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker 📚 Dang, that was a much better read than I was expecting. I will...

Finished reading, with satisfaction: The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker 📚

Dang, that was a much better read than I was expecting. I will keep that one on the shelf for reference, and re-read any section now and again.

Reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Return of the Shadow" in parallel

Currently reading: The Return of the Shadow by Christopher Tolkien 📚

and

Currently reading: The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚

I read the first chapater of FR, and then the same in RS (first phase, anyway), and it was totally unsettling. Like reading the twilight zone version of some history you know really well. What a trip. I’m going to do the reverse order for chapter 2 and see if that is less unnerving.

It’s been quite a while since I read LotR (I pronounce it loter), over 20 years, I think. I have seen the extended version of Jackson’s films quite a few times over those years, and the memory of the films has really modified what I thought was in the text. So this is kind of like re-reading with fresh eyes. I’m pretty excited!

The RS / history of the text, after the alternate history take is absorbed, is also super-duper fascinating. Like a mystery novel in construction. I’m enjoying what I’ve read so far.

Nerd alert 🚨

😁

Finished reading, with satisfaction: Blindsight by Peter Watts 📚 Well that was rather excellent. I will read the sidequel book too at...

Finished reading, with satisfaction: Blindsight by Peter Watts 📚

Well that was rather excellent. I will read the sidequel book too at some point. Some quick notes:

• not always the most graceful writing, particularly in the beginning
• it’s hard scifi, so expect jargon and nonchalant use of unexplained technicalese. Keep a dictionary handy, wikipedia will tell you which sections to expect.
• there are nontrivial elements of horror, in several flavors. Reminded me of House of Leaves in that way.

Thought provoking work, I’ll consider other Watts books going forward. Taking recommendations, as always!

Finished reading, with satisfaction: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 📚 What a good book. This is therapy. It’s permission. I should have...

Finished reading, with satisfaction: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 📚

What a good book. This is therapy. It’s permission. I should have read it years ago, but maybe I wasn’t ready for it then. Extremely highly recommended.