books

As a bibliophile, I keep a record of books I've read and want to read, along with lists of books as recommendations. I mostly read science fiction, along with drama, crime, noir, historical fiction, and occasionally non-fiction as an educational exercise. notations: 📚 - paper book ; 💾 - ebook

Currently reading: 5 books; Want to read: 161 books; Have read 809 books (11 this year)

Books I'm Currently Reading

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

_📚physical

fiction & sci-fi by James Clear (2018)

Darwin's Radio

_📚physical

fiction & sci-fi by Greg Bear (1999)

Four Thousand Weeks

_💾digital

non-fiction by Oliver Burkeman (2021)

Meditations

_📚physical

non-fiction by Marcus Aurelius (180)

The Dip: The Extraordinary Benefits of Knowing When to Quit (and When to Stick)

_📚physical

non-fiction by Seth Godin (2007)

Books I Want to Read

Days of Shattered Faith - fiction & sci-fi by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2024)
Own this!: How platform cooperatives help workers build a democratic Internet_💾digital - non-fiction by R. Trebor Scholz (2023)
Personal Knowledge Graphs: Connected thinking to boost productivity, creativity and discovery - non-fiction by Ivo Velitchkov, George Anadiotis (2023)
Practical Data Privacy: Enhancing Privacy and Security in Data - non-fiction by Katharine Jarmul (2023)
The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology - non-fiction by Nita A. Farahany (2023)
The Lies of the Ajungo - fiction & sci-fi by Moses Ose Utomi (2023)
The Lost Cause_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Cory Doctorow (2023)
Breached: Why Security Law Fails and How to Improve It - non-fiction by Daniele J. Solove and Woodrow Hartzog (2022)
Data Privacy: A Runbook for Engineers - non-fiction by Nishant Bhajaria (2022)
Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make And Keep Friends - non-fiction by Marisa G Franco (2022)
The City Inside - fiction & sci-fi by Samit Basu (2022)
The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age - non-fiction by Danielle Citron (2022)
The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World beyond Capitalism - non-fiction by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, Andrea Vetter (2022)
The Happy Valley - fiction & sci-fi by Benjamin Harnett (2022)
The Immortal King Rao - fiction & sci-fi by Vauhini Vara (2022)
Time for Socialism - non-fiction by Thomas Piketty (2022)
What Moves The Dead - fiction & sci-fi by T. Kingfisher (2022)
Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be - non-fiction by Diane Coyle (2021)
Dial A for Aunties - fiction by Jesse Q. Sutanto (2021)
Light from Uncommon Stars - fiction & sci-fi by Ryka Aoki (2021)
Privacy Is Hard and Seven Other Myths - non-fiction by Jaap-Henk Hoepman (2021)
Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting - non-fiction by Lisa Genova (2021)
The All-Consuming World - fiction & sci-fi by Cassandra Khaw (2021)
The Books of All Skies_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Greg Egan (2021)
The Comfort Book - non-fiction by Matt Haig (2021)
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis - non-fiction by Amitav Ghosh (2021)
The Reading List - fiction by Sara Nisha Adams (2021)
The Sentence - fiction by Louise Erdrich (2021)
Why Privacy Matters - non-fiction by Neil Richards (2021)
Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present - fiction by Yanis Varoufakis (2020)
Beyond the Gender Binary - non-fiction by Alok Vaid-Menon (2020)
Burnt Sugar - fiction by Avni Doshi (2020)
How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism_💾digital - non-fiction by Cory Doctorow (2020)
I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf - non-fiction by Grant Snider (2020)
Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World - non-fiction by Tom Burgis (2020)
Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folks_{💾digital📚physical} - non-fiction by Mireille Hildebrandt (2020)
Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA - non-fiction by Neil Shubin (2020)
The Anthology of Irish Folk Tales_📚physical - fiction by Folk Tale Authors (2020)
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - fiction & sci-fi by Christopher Paolini (2020)
Middlegame - fiction & sci-fi by Seanan McGuire (2019)
Red, White & Royal Blue - by Casey McQuiston (2019)
The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintelligence, Rationality and the Race to Save the World - by Tom Chivers (2019)
The Binding - by Bridget Collins (2019)
The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays - by Esmé Weijun Wang (2019)
The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains - non-fiction by Joseph E. LeDoux (2019)
The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Shane Parrish (2019)
Thick: And Other Essays - by Tressie McMillan Cottom (2019)
Unauthorized Bread - by Cory Doctorow (2019)
Zed - by Joanna Kavenna (2019)
Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World - non-fiction by Meredith Broussard (2018)
Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms - by Hannah Fry (2018)
Privacy's Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies - non-fiction by Woodrow Hartzog (2018)
Re-engineering Humanity - non-fiction by Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger (2018)
Secrets of the Ballot Box: How the Irish Voting System really works_📚physical - non-fiction by Brendan Heneghan (2018)
The Art of Logic in an Illogical World - by Eugenia Cheng (2018)
Women Talking - by Miriam Toews (2018)
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst_📚physical - non-fiction by Robert Sapolsky (2017)
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O._💾digital - by Neal Stephenson (2017)
Unsong - fiction & sci-fi by Scott Alexander (2017)
Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story - by Angela Saini (2016)
Infomocracy - fiction & sci-fi by Malka Ann Older (2016)
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise - by K. Anders Ericsson (2016)
Psychology: A Complete Introduction_💾digital - by Sandi Mann (2016)
Radiance - fiction & sci-fi by Catherynne M. Valente (2016)
Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) - by Lisa Cron (2016)
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories - fiction & sci-fi by Ken Liu (2016)
Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by China Miéville (2016)
Data and Goliath - non-fiction by Bruce Schneier (2015)
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2015)
Rationality: From AI to Zombies - by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2015)
The Just City - fiction & sci-fi by Jo Walton (2015)
The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life - by Nick Lane (2015)
The Wind's Twelve Quarters & The Compass Rose_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Ursula K. Le Guinn (2015)
Discourses and Enchiridion - by Epictetus (2014)
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies - by Nick Bostrom (2014)
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds_📚physical - non-fiction by Carmine Gallo (2014)
Work: The Last 1,000 Years_💾digital - non-fiction by Andrea Komlosy (2014)
Every Cradle is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide - by Sarah Perry (2013)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking_📚physical - non-fiction by Susan Cain (2012)
The Rapture of the Nerds_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross (2012)
Debt: The First 5,000 Years - non-fiction by David Graeber (2011)
Reamde_💾digital - by Neal Stephenson (2011)
1Q84: Book 3 - fiction & sci-fi by Haruki Murakami (2010)
Chomsky On Anarchism - by Noam Chomsky (2010)
Schild's Ladder_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Greg Egan (2010)
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2010)
Understanding Privacy - non-fiction by Daniel J. Solove (2010)
1Q84: Book 1_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Haruki Murakami (2009)
1Q84: Book 2_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Haruki Murakami (2009)
Privacy in Context - non-fiction by Helen Nissembaum (2009)
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy - non-fiction by David D. Burns (2008)
Incandescence_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Greg Egan (2008)
The Improv Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Comedy, Theatre, and Beyond - by Tom Salinsky (2008)
Animal's People - by Indra Sinha (2007)
The Android's Dream - fiction & sci-fi by John Scalzi (2006)
Death with Interruptions - by José Saramago (2005)
Olympos_📚physical - by Dan Simmons (2005)
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom - by Jonathan Haidt (2005)
Cloud Atlas - by David Mitchell (2004)
Going Postal_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Terry Pratchett (2004)
The Confusion - by Neal Stephenson (2004)
The System of the World - by Neal Stephenson (2004)
An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics - by Alex Miller (2003)
Ilium - by Dan Simmons (2003)
Quicksilver - by Neal Stephenson (2003)
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1, Book 1) - by Neal Stephenson (2003)
Coraline - by Neil Gaiman (2002)
From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown - by Fredric Brown (2002)
Fooled by Randomness - non-fiction by Nasim Taleb (2001)
Meaning and Argument: An Introduction to Logic Through Language_📚physical - by Ernest Lepore (2000)
Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures_💾digital - by Carl Zimmer (2000)
Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century - by Wayne Weiten (2000)
Thinking About Mathematics: The Philosophy of Mathematics - non-fiction by Stewart Shapiro (2000)
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software - by Charles Petzold (1999)
Children of God_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Mary Doria Russell (1998)
Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order - by Noam Chomsky (1998)
Endymion_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Dan Simmons (1996)
Axiomatic_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Greg Egan (1995)
The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy - by Norman Melchert (1995)
The Fifth Kingdom_📚physical - by Bryce Kendrick (1992)
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990)
Incompleteness, Nonlocality, and Realism: A Prolegomenon to the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics - non-fiction by Michael Redhead (1989)
The Boat of a Million Years_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Poul Anderson (1989)
The Great Indian Novel - by Shashi Tharoor (1989)
Equal Rites_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by Terry Pratchett (1987)
The Forge of God_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Greg Bear (1987)
Origins of Sex_📚physical - non-fiction by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan (1986)
Reasons and Persons - by Derek Parfit (1984)
Startide Rising_💾digital - fiction & sci-fi by David Brin (1983)
The Loser - by Thomas Bernhard (1983)
The Sentinel - by Arthur C. Clarke (1983)
The Color Purple_💾digital - by Alice Walker (1982)
Codex Seraphinianus - by Luigi Serafini (1981)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid_📚physical - by Douglas R. Hofstadter (1979)
The Enemy Stars - fiction & sci-fi by Poul Anderson (1979)
The Stand - fiction & sci-fi by Stephen King (1978)
The Selfish Gene - by Richard Dawkins (1976)
Mrutyunjay [मृत्युंजय] - by Shivaji Sawant (1967)
Asa Mi Asami [असा मी असामी] - by P. L. Deshpande [ पु. ल. देशपांडे ] (1964)
Close to Critical_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Hal Clement (1964)
Privacy is Power - non-fiction by Carissa Véliz (1964)
What Do You Say After You Say Hello - non-fiction by Eric Berne (1964)
Island_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Aldous Huxley (1962)
The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problem of Man - by Ernest Becker (1962)
Batatyachi Chal [बटाट्याची चाळ] - by P. L. Deshpande [ पु. ल. देशपांडे ] (1958)
Cycle of Fire_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Hal Clement (1957)
The Last Question - by Isaac Asimov (1956)
The Guardians of Time_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Poul Anderson (1955)
Brain Wave_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Poul Anderson (1954)
Childhood's End - fiction & sci-fi by Arthur C. Clarke (1953)
Iceworld_📚physical - fiction & sci-fi by Hal Clement (1951)
The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution - by P.D. Ouspensky (1951)
A History of Western Philosophy_📚physical - by Bertrand Russell (1945)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - by James Joyce (1916)
The War of the Worlds - by H.G. Wells (1898)
On the Geneology of Morals - by Friedrich Nietzsche (1887)
Beyond Good and Evil - by Friedrich Nietzsche (1886)
The Game of Logic - non-fiction by Lewis Carroll (1886)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra_📚physical - by Friedrich Nietzsche (1883)
War and Peace_💾digital - by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
Critique of Pure Reason - by Immanuel Kant (1781)

Books I have Read

The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence - Matteo Pasquinelli (2023)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Mar 21 2025 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

I got this book because I... (read more)
I got this book because I saw it being highly recommended somewhere. I didn't remember where or why when I started reading it. So when I was suddenly bombarded with the history of labour and how the word algorithm has been defined and used to also mean the processes and the knowledge of carrying out work, it was interesting to read. However, the book slowly builds its way to the modern times, making the case that algorithms have always reflected the work done by humans i.e. labour and that the role of machines has always been based on the division of labour as a means to reuse the knowledge of the collective. I'm no sociologist, but okay, let's see where this goes. Then suddenly the book gets to the modern AI era and we don't get as many details or as detailed an explanation. I read a review that called this book "blue balling for reading" and that's exactly the feeling I have. Disappointing that right where it would have been most useful, it gives up and finishes.
Harvest of Stars - Poul Anderson (1993)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Mar 16 2025 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

Got this as a small pulp ... (read more)
Got this as a small pulp scifi book hoping there would be something interesting. Unfortunately, the writing is a slog, and even if the story has hints of Heinlein in themes of authority, moon, pursuit, and other themes surrounding AI and colonising exoplanets, it wasn't enough to be entertaining.
Calculating God - Robert J. Sawyer (2000)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Mar 06 2025 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

The premise of this book ... (read more)
The premise of this book felt interesting, so I picked it up at bargain prices from the second-hand section. The blurb said aliens exist, and there have been mass extinction events occuring at the same time across multiple planets. All of this ties to some scientific notion of determining the existence of god. The story itself is more interesting than some science facts being thrown around or a thin wrapper on some existing notion of "... but it MUST be god!". Instead, I really liked that this is actual fiction, and the arguments made are based in that fiction, but also allow us to use and feel them - and that is the intriguing part because god and religion are so uncomfortable to discuss for most people. The book raises some interesting thoughts - what is a god for example - where it is an entity who has control or influence over the development of the universe and is a being as any other. However, the people (Earth) in the story still think of the being as something that is personally aware and intersted in them. I liked that the book shows the human side of it without anything over the top or dramatic (well, there's a cancer story) and having the aliens be reflections of different facets of human thought processes. Clever writing and remarkable restraint.
Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold - Stephen Fry (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Feb 15 2025 in medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

The Greek mythology is fa... (read more)
The Greek mythology is fascinating not only because of its rich characterisation and drama, but also because at the heart of all stories is the core of a philosophy that makes describing humans an exercise in the interpretation of the divine. Greek gods - the mythos - are structured around the facets of human emotions, virtues, aspects, and so much more. I greatly respect Stephen Fry as a narrator, orator, and as a person who knows to focus on being decent above political correctness and style. This book is a fantastic recollection of the greek mythos - covering a lot in such a small space and making it enjoyable. I borrowed this book from our neighbour - and it has been fantastic reading it.
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder (1991)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 14 2025 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

I really wish I had read ... (read more)
I really wish I had read this book when I was in school. It would have been fantastic and it would have changed my life. The idea of introducing philosophy in such as simple but thorough manner is amazing and really creative. And the story within the story adds a nice break from it being a book about dry philosophy. Very much enjoyed it. I have a copy of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy on my shelf which this book is supposed to summarise. I look forward to going through it with rigour.
Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jan 30 2025 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

It is rare that I start r... (read more)
It is rare that I start reading a book and it immediately just 'clicks'. This was one of those rare experiences. The story and the language were fantastic - I was intrigued and when the plot didn't move quickly the british style of humour and character descriptions were entertaining. The only aspect which made me stop and wonder several times is the 'hardness' of science - I kept wanting more details as it seemed just a tad too far fetched and hand-wavy let's pretend this can be a thing type of an argument. But still, it wasn't a sore spot and the story was indeed enjoyable throughout. I'll be looking for more from this author - this was the third novel I've read where I enjoyed the story and the writing and thought both were creative.
Heechee Rendezvous - Frederik Pohl (1984)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jan 21 2025 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Overall, I think I was in... (read more)
Overall, I think I was intrigued with the plot of galactic scale alien civilisation finally come to the fore; but it was marred by the constant focus back on human stuff that felt tedious and just ended up breaking the flow. There are some prescient imaginative moments, such as when the person dies and their consciousness is uploaded to a machine - what is their legal status? But it never gets further. Or how data is being stored and transferred - considering this is an old book now. Most of the times, I couldn't wait for the human squabbling to get over and the actual Heechee plot to move further. But the book just prolongs it so much that nothing much really happens between the first and last chapters. Disappointing. Also the way the aliens were described was so anthromorphic and boring that it takes away all the allure of having them as these imaginitive beings in the first two books - which were quite interesting to go through. The story was left at a cliffhanger. I don't think I will go and read Book 4. Stories rarely take a turn for the better for these kind of series.
Drunk on All Your Strange New Worlds - Eddie Robson (2022)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jan 17 2025 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Heads-up - this is the fi... (read more)
Heads-up - this is the first book that I've read where misinformation plays some role. Or even where it is acknowledged and weaved into the plot. Just for that - kudos. The rest of the story and writing didn't really appeal to me. The premise is interesting - there are aliens who we have already established diplomatic contacts with, and who are here on earth to study the culture and society. They talk telepathically, and thus find books intriguing and useful, and also why they need translators. The story is a murder mystery. In itself, it would make for compelling reading were it not for the writing - that was not something that made me want to turn the pages. It isn't bad, it just isn't engaging. The story itself is also quite bare bones - the world does seem to have some thought put into it. Like filtering news based on some truthiness rating. But otherwise the world isn't quite as well explained or developed as it could have been. The same is also for the aliens - beyond the couple of items necessary to set the premise, nothing else is explored. That would have made the difference between an okay-ish book from a nice to have read book.
Upgrade - Blake Crouch (2022)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jan 15 2025 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Tell me if you've heard t... (read more)
Tell me if you've heard this before: a magic pill or drug or whatever that makes the person super smart, strong, or basically a superhuman, and then chaos ensues. That's the premise of this book. We have some (scientifically structured) gene editing that's been used by the black market to do stuff. The details are a nice touch, with several things clearly coming across as a well thought through plot structure. But the basic premise and the writing style still falls quite short of being an excellent book. This is great beach or plane material - read it while you're tired or don't want to think too much. Because if you do, you will see glaring plot holes and problems erupt everywhere. But if you don't, you get to enjoy a nice ride.
Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks (2000)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jan 07 2025 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Clever book that is set i... (read more)
Clever book that is set in the Culture universe. It is always amazing to read more about the Culture - it is one of the few fully fleshed out worlds which don't have a hangover from the current times, and where there is truly 'science' and 'fiction'. In this case, the book is set after the events in 'Consider Phlebas', where the war and its effects continue to show a deep impact on the psyche - not human specifically but generally the absurdities that manifest in any sentient being. But this was not a serious or depressing book - it was quite interesting to see where the story was going and that there was an interesting story to experience no matter what. Waiting to read the next Culture book.
Inhibitor Phase - Alastair Reynolds (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jan 02 2025 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

Utterly disappointing. Th... (read more)
Utterly disappointing. This is the last book (as of now) in the Revelation Space universe. As such, one expects there to be a large payoff in terms of finishing up things from previous books, and to provide sufficient details to consider the plot 'complete'. The book starts off with a banger - makes one think this is going to be a good book. But no. Then we meander about from one plot armor-ladden situation to the next, all the while introducing random new things that have neither a background nor are they ever clarified in the end. What started off as an amazing book with an excellent world-building (Revelation Space) ends with every book getting progressively worse until we reach this tome of disappointment. The only solace in all this is that this is a rather shorter book as compared to the earlier ones - so there was less pages to finish the disappointment with.
Absolution Gap - Alastair Reynolds (2003)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Dec 29 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Book 3 was a slight impro... (read more)
Book 3 was a slight improvement over Book 2 which disappointed because there were not much details. Book 3 had some, but I didn't like the whole quasi-religious thing which was too long and too prolonged. There were also several deus-ex machina moments where we are expected to go - oh yes sure that just happened - and continue pretending that we're not going to revisit or question that. I'm talking in particular about the whole Hades matrix and weird alient stuff that the characters just don't bother going back to even though it literally gives them species saving technologies. Perhaps, these didn't need to be three separate books (Books 2 to 4) but could have been condensed down into to 1 or maybe even 2 smaller books? Feels like a lot of filler which doesn't have all that details and excitement which the first book did. Since I've got Book 4, let's see whether it ends on a high or a disappointment.
Redemption Ark - Alastair Reynolds (2002)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Dec 24 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A follow-up to the cruder... (read more)
A follow-up to the cruder but creative Revelation Space, this book followed a set of stereotypical characters down into space war with some crazy physics involved. Pushed the story forward, but felt so much like a slow moving filler that it was annoying at times. There were additional characters introduced whose portions simply served to remind that there is more interesting stuff waiting to happen, and hence diluted their existence within the story to providing a 'human angle'. Boring. What I found interesting was the pushing of boundaries when it came to physics and inter-planetary politics - that was cool. The bit at the end justifying the state of play (trying not to put spoilers here) was also cool but it came in too late and was too little. Let's see what books 3 and 4 hold in store.
Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology - Anu Bradford (2023)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Nov 28 2024 in medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A massive tome that goes ... (read more)
A massive tome that goes into detail regarding the emerging digital empires of USA, EU, and China and the extra-judicial effects and influences each is having - increasingly invisibly - on how technology and regulations shape up while trade gets even more complicated.
Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom - Grace Blakeley (2024)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Nov 21 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A powerful book that give... (read more)
A powerful book that gives a succint history lesson on corporate economics and how things keep getting screwed and we keep making the same mistakes again and again with every decade. This book is a good resource to understand the economic side of economy and how certain economic philosophies shaped what we have come to make of the modern world.
Cibola Burn - James S. A. Corey (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Nov 20 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Book 4 continues the tale... (read more)
Book 4 continues the tale of the dramatic crew into more adventures - this time more space western than a space opera. Entertaining as a reprieve from the earlier science heavy books, hopefully this is a pit stop and we get back to more alien mysteries in the next book.
H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction - H. P. Lovecraft (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Nov 15 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A classic and a giant in ... (read more)
A classic and a giant in literature, Lovecraft's unique stories led to the use of 'Lovecraftian' as a genre of Eldritch horrors in itself. Good read, though it is difficult to appreciate these fully now that they have had so much influence and imitation and adoption in modern literature. I think I would have liked a lot more details now.
Creation Node - Stephen Baxter (2023)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Nov 07 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

A promising start that ut... (read more)
A promising start that utterly fails to deliver. The premise of the 9th planet being a multi-dimensional black hole that an eldritch entity uses to convince humanity to jump across the multi-verse is a great hook, but the journey in getting there is so boring and dull, and so devoid of the actual substance and characters, that I couldn't wait to finish the book. This is more pop sci-fi than the quality of writing I expect from a sci-fi giant like Baxter. I have to be cautious of future books from Baxter after so many misses amongst the hits.
Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds - Thomas Halliday (2022)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Nov 05 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

This was not a book I fou... (read more)
This was not a book I found myself being absorbed into despite the breadth of content and the topic. This is because the eras are structured most recent first and then the ancient ones at last - perhaps because we know so much more about the recent time rather than the oldest ones. But it meant that I had to read backwards on what came about rather than reading how evolution worked. In addition, the narration was filled to the brim with rapid facts - and at some point I started suspecting how it can be that so much details are available across so many ages. Which means that it was perhaps an extrapolated fiction - which is not a problem for a pop-science documentary but it is indeed a problem if you are looking for something more educational and authoritative. Still, this is a good book to understand the variances of flora and fauna and would make for a good 'coffee table' addition.
Theft by Finding Diaries - David Sedaris (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Oct 24 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

Fans of Sedaris might lik... (read more)
Fans of Sedaris might like this if they want to know more about the mind of Sedaris, but I found this quite dull and the wit and humour in there to not be much amusing.
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands - Ursula K. Le Guin (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Oct 22 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A good collection of short stories, works well for fans of Le Guin
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume One: Where on Earth - Ursula K. Le Guin (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Oct 15 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A good collection of short stories, works well for fans of Le Guin
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Oct 11 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

An expansive space opera ... (read more)
An expansive space opera that promises big mysteries - and delivers! There are some rought edges, and the novel feels a little too big for the story and a little too slow for what you would want the pace to be - but nothing is wasted and there is no dull moment. The ending and the world building made me get all the other three books as I know Reynolds has big ideas and delivers them with great details.
Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do About It - Nancy Fraser (2022)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Oct 07 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

I learnt a great deal fro... (read more)
I learnt a great deal from this book about the history of capitalism, and why those who don't know their history are bound to repeat it. Towards the end of the book, it became less apparent what I was learning, but I think this is a good book to pick up and go through to understand the current state of things and the inner workings of governments and the governed.
Excession - Iain M. Banks (1996)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 20 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

This is a fantastic book ... (read more)
This is a fantastic book for so many reasons, but my favourite is that it concerns 'Minds' - which are AI superintelligences that typically house and run huge ships as a body. There are some humans involved in the story, but they are part of the larger story of a Mind. There is politics and civilisation level threats and manouvers - and its the Minds doing the heavy-lifting. Rather than assign human attributes to machines, the story brilliantly shows how human attributes are inscrutinable in a transcended superintelligence. And to top off all this is a physics-bending phenomenon which is the titular 'excession'. This was fun reading. I will continue to read more Culture novels because of the rewarding world-building and the diversity of story materials as well as the distinct philosophical optimism.
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks (1897)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 13 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This book is the first no... (read more)
This book is the first novel in the Culture series - which I had the mistaken was a typical space opera. What it is instead is a giant box of ideas that span across so many directions that each tiny aspect would have made a cool novel on its own. In this case, the book is a unusual in that it isn't an epic at all - instead it is incredibly punishing by the end because it turns out that nothing really mattered all along. The drama, fights, attitudes - it all were placed on the wrong side of a story. Instead of the 'good guys' we have a main character who is instead not from the good guys. Instead of the 'hero saves the day' ending we get something that realistically shows how tiny and insignificant things can be when the scales are as huge as a galactic civilisation. Didn't really 'enjoy' this book as in 'entertainment', but it was interesting to see the world building in any case.
Abaddon's Gate - James S. A. Corey (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Sep 08 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This series has books tha... (read more)
This series has books that are just enough 'drama' with just enough plot points and sci-fi nerdiness that it makes for a compelling screenplay. I see the appeal of writing book after book that delivers on characters that have personalities, plot twists and occurences which seem plausible because humans will be humans, and a big overarching mystery that slowly unravels across the books. The best part is that I don't mind reading the human stuff most of the times in anticipation of the more sciency stuff. Onwards to book 4.
Caliban's War - James S. A. Corey (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 04 2024 in medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Good space drama involvin... (read more)
Good space drama involving the same crew as the last novel, and some additional characters - just enough to show a different facet of life and politics in the expanse, and softly advancing the plot about the alien horror. If you look closely, you can even see the stereotypes and cliches and the hand wavy manner of getting out of tricky situations. Onwards to Book 3
Alien Clay - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2024)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Sep 01 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

This book is about politi... (read more)
This book is about political prisoners being sent to an alient planet with an ecology so uniquely distinct from the gradual evolution of species on Earth that makes it fascinating reading - for the parts where the future dystpian fascism is shown to directly affect science (even if seemingly heavy handed) and the sheer creativity of how to dream an alien life that is free from the frustrating anthromorphic tendency of humans to see humanity in everything. Reading this reminded me a lot of Lem's works because of alien-ness of the alien ecology being beyond human comprehen, and Proxima by Baxter for its depiction of alien life being composed of modular components instead of organ-based cellular clusters as we have on Earth. I didn't find a single dull moment in the book - the start and end were both enthralling.
Service Model - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2024)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Aug 29 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

The premise of this novel... (read more)
The premise of this novel is that there is a robot butler - a service model - who seemingly accidentally murders his employer and is thus out of employment. Set in the dystopian future where nothing works and humanity seems to be on the verge of extinction, the society is proliferated with robots and robotic systems which continue to function and achieve whatever tasks they have been programmed to do - even if there are no humans or resource around. The story reminded me more of Lem's works rather than any other Tchaikovsky novel. The programmer in me was delighted to see logic-based exposition of thinking in the robot's rather than their simplification and humanisation. What comes across is a tale of one robot's adventure to find 'purpose' in as much sense as the programming can make of the word. The novel is lengthy - and sparse at times where you think it will go in a particular direction but it doesn't. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the reading and I think I enjoyed the world and the journey. The ending - without spoilers - was better than some over the top gigantic reveal or happy ending. I liked that it made sense and didn't break the world.
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI - Ethan Mollick (2024)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Aug 27 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

I had high hopes for this... (read more)
I had high hopes for this book as it promised different perspectives on how AI can be used in different modes and modalities - from supporting us to working on behalf of us. Instead, its a high-level abstract explanation of the concept, with lots of (acknowledged) ChatGPT copy-paste materials, and not enough science or technical details or even political/sociological issues such as risks and careful considerations. A coffee table book.
The Ferryman - Justin Cronin (2023)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Aug 19 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The Ferryman starts off w... (read more)
The Ferryman starts off with a fantastic premise and a hook that makes you want to latch on seeking the mystery promised at every other page. There is a society where there are no children - instead teens are dropped off by a ferry where the implication is that somehow they were created at that stage. The society is a panopticon utopia situated on an island. Amidst all this are shades of something horribly wrong, implications that the freedom is an illusion. The 'help' who serve the utopia are humans who are treated as a poorer class. One would think that after all of this, the ending would be something just as intricate and that there would be a commentary on why things were the way they are. Instead, we get this hand-wavy cliche absolutely not well done. Good book that may get passed as acceptable and even be considered as good for other casual readers - but this was not satisfying for me.
Summerland - Hannu Rajaniemi (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Aug 11 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

Coming hot off the Quantu... (read more)
Coming hot off the Quantum Thief trilogy which was heavy on epic physics and quantum technologies - this was a book I was looking forward with high expectations. Unfortunately, the imply but don't tell much style doesn't work when talking about the afterlife - the more the world and underlying physics is hinted at the more there are questions raised. The story was not really compelling or interesting - maybe it is for people interested in British cultural settings. To me, this was a book that could have been so much more because the ideas are cool, but the execution is utterly not.
Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms: Forays with Fungi across Hemispheres - Alison Pouliot (2023)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Aug 09 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A book about mushrooms, w... (read more)
A book about mushrooms, with pics, and lots of details about history? Yes, please - picked this up straight away and was not disappointed. Expectations were low - a cautious approach to see whether this would be a repeat of what I know or something truly new and interesting. There are lots of nice details and a bit of history, including the role of women in mushroom foraging and forming the early knowledge about fungi. But the book is otherwise too sparse on details - I would have been happy with twice the length. Also, the pics are not that central - a couple of center shots in between chapters and most of them in low quality monochrome printing. I was expecting pictures spread around the text.
The Book of Elsewhere - Keanu Reeves and China Miéville (2024)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Aug 04 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

A new book by China Miévi... (read more)
A new book by China Miéville! Wow. So stoked. Wait - he's the second author? And the first is KEANU REEVES? What is going on? How did this happen? - That was pretty much what was going on when the book was first announced. I didn't read the blurb, stayed away from spoilers, and got the book as soon as I could. I started reading it - and it was difficult to get into. The narrative and styles changed a lot. A LOT. I couldn't make sense of what was happening - whether what I was thinking was indeed what was intended to be thought. But knowing there must be a payoff ahead, I persevered. The story itself is about an immortal being who keeps coming back to life after being killed. Cliche! What's the Mieville angle? Well, it is that the entire affair is quite dark and melancholy - think about a person who has endured for over 70,000 years and just can't be interested any more. The writing is sharp - the narration excellent - and the way the weirder elements are brought out is first rate - what makes Miéville special. At several times I couldn't wait to find out which way things go - desprately hoping there are no silly deux-ex machina endings or that there isn't another love triumphs everything or this is what makes us human type of endings. Good - there weeren't any of this. I really enjoyed reading all of it. Only after finishing it did I discover that this is based on the comic series BRZRKR by Keanu Reeves - so I'm going to go read that next. I hope China Miéville keeps writing more stuff, he's really really great at it.
Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jul 29 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

This is a tightly edited,... (read more)
This is a tightly edited, sharp, and consistent book that starts off as a conventional realistic near-future sci-fi concerning the politics in a solar system where planets have been colonised. and quickly turns in to a good space opera with a hook for future titles. Excellent world building, setup, characters that aren't shallow, and the reading is enjoyable. I think I will be reading the entire series if the second book is as entertaining as this one. And also the TV series would be something to look forward to.
The Fire Starters - Jan Carson (2019)
; read in Wed Jul 24 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

What starts off as a conv... (read more)
What starts off as a conventional conflict drama set in Belfast just after the troubles turns into an intensely personal conflict ravaged by magical realism. Shades of Midnight's Children shining through, the novel doesn't delve in to the horrors or the implications of the society around the story - but focuses with great precision on the analogous mindset of the two main characters whose children are weird - in both a magical and real way. Excellent writing, good pacing, and just the right amount of intensity.
Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman (2017)
fiction ; read in Fri Jul 12 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The Norse Mythology is an... (read more)
The Norse Mythology is an amazing source of wacky stories about gods and michiefs. An author of the caliber of Neil Gaiman writing about them is exciting. Unfortunately, the book is norse mythology written for 7 year olds. The stories are short - too short. There is no amount of additional detail. It is as if you go to random internet articles and get the gist of what norse mythology's top 10 stories are. Also upsetting was the co-incidence of Neil Gaiman being exposed in a sexual scandar at the time I started reading. So what was bad about the book only added depth to the negativity of the situation.
Poor Things - Alasdair Gray (1992)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 10 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

I saw the movie first - i... (read more)
I saw the movie first - it was spectacular. Stunning visuals, splendid acting, good screenplay, and the story had enough elements of science and fantasy to intrigue the mind. So I decided to read the book - thinking it would be a mere expanded version of the film - so I will be reading the same story but in more detail. Turns out the book is quite different from the film. The broader story is the same - but in the book there is an important question at the end ... What actually happened!? Really enjoyed the writing, the illustrations, the way in which Bell Baxter learns about the world and provides a medium for the author to present expose of religion, politics, society, feminism, and so much more. And the question at the end - What actually happened!? was nice too.
Mild Vertigo - Mieko Kanai (2023)
fiction ; read in Sat Jul 06 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This book is a modern cha... (read more)
This book is a modern character study on the mediocre life of a Japanese housewife. Excellent writing and an amazing way of present the 'wall of text' or 'stream of consciousness' approach where sentences never end and an entire story is told. Nothing spectacular happens - which is how life goes by most of the time.
Rabbits - Terry Miles (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jul 01 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The start was fantastic -... (read more)
The start was fantastic - more Stephen King and Murakami than cliche. Lots of interesting stuff happening, enough mystery being built up, and a seemingly otherworldly phenomenon at play. The characters are cardboard level 2-dimensional. Badly written, cliche, and just obtuse. And then the second half makes it all seem boring - there is no payoff, it doesn't make any sense for why things in the first half happened, and the end seems like a deux-ex machina hand wavy good ending meant to placate people. Quickly went from I like this to I detest wasting my time with this.
The Causal Angel - Hannu Rajaniemi (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jun 26 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

The third book in the ser... (read more)
The third book in the series - it coninues throwing advanced physics concepts (while making up many more) in an entertaining way. Enjoyed it thoroughly even if there were some hiccups to understand what exactly was happening (in terms of the technologies being used). This link: http://lewyland.blogspot.com/2015/10/hannu-rajaniemis-quantum-thief-trilogy.html came in handy for later recapping the sheer breadth of creativity in the series.
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell (1996)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jun 22 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

This is an amazing book t... (read more)
This is an amazing book that really shows how science fiction can build great stories with complex characters and philosophical arguments. Its so good that you can forget about the science fiction part just like Gullivers travels didn't need a planet with aliens to imagine tiny and giant people. The book is about religion - and god - and how this leads to a priest going to an alien planet thinking this is a divine calling only to have the entire world shattered utterly. The writing is excellent - the narration and details keep flowing without too much techno-exposition. The philosophy is covered exceptionally well - with nothing thrown in your face or explained in long monologues. The book is a good screenplay in itself. It had me going 'Wow!' so many times because it was deeply relevant to how one things about religion and faith and what it means to believe. Its difficult to tell why this is such a good book without spoiling the story and the ending - but yes, its very human despite talking about aliens, and its worth it. Fantastic read.
The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe (1980)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jun 16 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

If Neil Gaiman mentions a... (read more)
If Neil Gaiman mentions a book to be in his top 3 scifi (the other two being Neuromancer and Left Hand of Darkness) & fantasy books, you pay attention and you read it. This book is a gentle fantasy - there is excellent world building, the language is fantastic, the pacing just right. I didn't feel bored - even if there is no real fantasy stuff happening until quite late in the book. A lot of stuff just went over my head - nothing was explained in a clear manner. The sequels are supposed to be more forthcoming in terms of explanations - but I don't want to read more books just to figure this out.
Ultima - Stephen Baxter (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jun 14 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

I bought this sequel imme... (read more)
I bought this sequel immediately after finishing Proxima. The story ended without answers about the aliens, the space-connecting hatches, and the apparent nature of hatches as changing universes or travelling across them. This book promised the answers. And it did deliver them. I didn't really like the historical spacefarers - they seemed to distract from the story itself which was about these world hopping hatch building aliens. I wanted more of that. The ending (spoilers) deals with the end of universes and the nature of multiple universes (parallel, yes) and how one theory for how they end can be made.
Proxima - Stephen Baxter (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jun 13 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Fantastic story about goi... (read more)
Fantastic story about going to a new world and the alien life there. Initially the premise really threw me off - there is alien life, possibly the first that mankind has come across, and some prisoners have been sent to colonise with a really expensive spaceship instead of a team of scientist who can really explore? Weird. Nonsense. The in-world explanation of this never made sense to me. Once I ignored that, the rest of the story was quite enjoyable. Lots of sparse situations and a good focus on the sci-fi aspects and the aliens. Not everything was answered - there's a sequel to this.
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (2000)
fiction ; read in Wed Jun 12 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

The language used here is... (read more)
The language used here is nice - phrases that are poetic and contemplative. But the story itself isn't appealing. Its too slow, too much caught up into these specific lives that don't interest me. And the pacing is super slow. Would have been a nicer book had it been half its size. Though I can see the appreciation with the Booker - the writing and the embedding of stories within stories within stories is quite clever.
Attack Surface - Cory Doctorow (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jun 10 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Novelisation of American ... (read more)
Novelisation of American authoritarian dystopia where people use tech to degrade democracy and force people to do stuff. Based on the real world - in the sense that things are not far fetched and probably closer to what happens. Story was okay. Tech stuff was okay - a bit overexposed but still fit the story. Its depressing to read this and think that's how the world functions.
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick (1974)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jun 06 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

There's always something ... (read more)
There's always something in PKD books that pulls me right into the world and into the psyche of it. The old style writing, the stark nakedness of humanity, and the absurd coming out of it all. This one is a world swap story - someone wakes up in another world where nobody has heard of them. Nothing much more fancy as in sci-fi happens (until the every end). But the way things get there is such an entertaining story.
A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jun 04 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

Seems to be a YA novel - ... (read more)
Seems to be a YA novel - but I didn't know that until I had already started reading much of it and because there was apparent torture mentioned. The world building is good, but then it just stops. The end of the novel is inconsistent - things just happen. Hand waving and apparently clever seeming plot devices move things forward. Good guys win. Bad guys lose. Boring.
Star Trek Voyager: A Pocket Full of Lies - Kirsten Beyer (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri May 31 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Second best thing to watc... (read more)
Second best thing to watching a Star Trek episode. The perks of having rewatched Voyager several times is that I could picture the characters saying the lines, and with the appropriate mannerisms and styles. The writing itself is a bit lacking, but the story does seem like a typical episode on the show. However, this was one of my lesser liked typical episodes - where there is a conflict, there is a lot of science thrown around but not the main goal, and it is too focused on one particular character (Janeway). Still an okay read.
The Fractal Prince - Hannu Rajaniemi (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed May 29 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

Loads of technologies jus... (read more)
Loads of technologies just thrown at you, with no details or descriptions to understand what they are or what they do. So the end result is everything looks like it makes sense, even seems rooted in physics because when you search those term they all have Wikipedia pages. But there is no knowledge given for how they work within the story. This is more fairy tale sci-fi rather than hard sci-fi. Which is okay, because it achieves its goal of being entertaining and enjoyable. The second book in the series, the new stuff here was how 1001 arabian nights got adapted into the metaverse. Pretty cool stuff. Looking forward to reading the third book.
The Star Diaries - Stanisław Lem (1971)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat May 25 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

The first story is one of... (read more)
The first story is one of the most entertaining time-travel stories I have read so far. Very clever and witty. And in classic Lem fashion - manages to also communicate the cynical take on human incompetence and genius at the same time. The collection as a whole is quite diverse - and as the afterword states these stories were written across the years and reflect the changing perspective of Lem in writing about things. Enjoyed most of them, though some stories were quite stretched in some places and I wonder if things go lost in translation.
Termination Shock - Neil Stephenson (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed May 22 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

Where is the action? Wher... (read more)
Where is the action? Where is the well-researched hard science fiction? Beyond some hodgy-podgy climate change scheme, this novel is not what I would expect from a Stephenson book at all. Disappointing to spend 700 pages to have very little payoff.
The Rosewater Insurrection - Tade Thompson (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri May 10 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Reading it as a sequel - ... (read more)
Reading it as a sequel - this gets more into the 'powers' and 'politics' of the situation. Good beach reading. I was more interested in the fungal alien - so that was enough to pass the time.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf - Marlon James (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun May 05 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

Vicious, gory, disturbing... (read more)
Vicious, gory, disturbing tribal stories where people can morph into animals and completely uppend any notion of civilisation. I was okay with the violent aspects of the story, but the writing style and the overuse of descriptions did not make it easy to understand what was going on. The story itself wasn't interesting to me.
His Master's Voice - Stanisław Lem (1968)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed May 01 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Interesting book which go... (read more)
Interesting book which goes through the human side of things were we to find an alien signal. The perspectives and arguments that are explored in the book are good reading. In what I now consider the classic Lem style - the book goes through our arrogance in not understanding the limitations of our own collective consciousness.
Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back - Ulises A. Mejias & Nick Couldry (2024)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Mar 31 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The book might be a more ... (read more)
The book might be a more gentler introduction for people who don't know what has been happening with the capitalist tech industry filled to the brim with surveillance advertising. But otherwise it was a lot of repeated narratives and information. What was interesting at the start was the promise of solutions - but they were far too simplified and not explored in detail at all.
Mortal Engines - Stanisław Lem (1964)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Mar 30 2024 in medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Fantasy tales written with science! Fantastic stuff. What a niche!
Beautiful Star - Yukio Mishima (1962)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Feb 05 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

I picked up the book, tur... (read more)
I picked up the book, turned it around to read the blurb on the back cover - instant purchase! The premise is quirky and weird - four family members from different planets! The book itself is a nicely pieced together bundle of perpectives and clever observations on humanity. I could read it both ways - that these people were really aliens, or were so alienated that they prefered not to call Earth home anymore. The story does falter a bit, but it is still quite visual and interesting. The end absolutely made me sit up and pay attention to what I was reading - so theres's an extra +1 because of that. I didn't know the author was so well known - but now that I do I think about reading more.
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage - Sydney Padua (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Feb 03 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

A really fun adventure ba... (read more)
A really fun adventure based on the fictional reality where Lovelace and Babbage use tech to do stuff. The art style was cool and detailed, and there was enough variety to keep things moving. That someone made this book is a nice thing, and it was not expensive at all.
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood (1988)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 02 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This book is unusual beca... (read more)
This book is unusual because it focuses on the rare topic of female friendships and dynamics - and largely does not trivialise their importance in the story by including men. At the same time, it isn't fantasy but a keen observation of childhood and what social relationships do to a child's mind and how it lasts much much longer than we think without realising what and why we do what we do. Atwood is a master craftsmen - from science fiction to dystopian societies - she has a keen grasp on what it means to be a part of society. And in this case, the reflections are upon what one does and experiences in the 'formative years' and its visceral impact into the adulthood lives. Good read, though a tad depressing because of the realities of the story and experience.
The Algebraist - Iain Banks (2004)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jan 26 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

The title of the book mad... (read more)
The title of the book made me think this is something to do with maths. It isn't - not really. But the story itself is based on some mathematical concepts. There's a galactic civilisation, portals, respecting light-speed, alien cultures, and then there is the hunt for treasure. This is an adventure book that made me wish there was more material about the world and its technologies and its development and use. There's a scene where the villain (trying not to spoil things here) describes what feels like an unnecessary sexual action - which is jarring because it is not expected and is at odds with the level of details not found in the rest of the novel. Other than that, interesting read.
Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World - Irene Vallejo (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Jan 19 2024 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A book about books! That ... (read more)
A book about books! That was the first thought when I saw the book in a bookshop, and being intrigued I bought it. Papyrus promises a history of how the first book was invented. However, I found it to be much much more about how the first libraries were set up rather than the history of how books actually were invented. So while interested, I wanted less of Mediteranian history and more about writing and the need to record, and cave paintings, stone inscriptions, and papyrus - the titular game changer when it came to writing. The book has very little on this. Still interesting because there is a rich history of libraries and books being the medium through which people sought knowledge and education.
Binti: The Night Masquerade - Nnedi Okorafor (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jan 06 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

I did not want to read th... (read more)
I did not want to read this because I barely liked the first book and didn't like the second book, but I had purchased the third one - so I went through it expecting to not like it. Despite these low expectations, I still found it uninteresting, cliche, and apart from the 'interesting' aspect of being rooted in a different culture (tribal from Afria) there was nothing else that I found interesting.
Binti: Home - Nnedi Okorafor (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jan 05 2024 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

Whilst I did like the nov... (read more)
Whilst I did like the novelty of the first novella, the issues around story telling and an almost extravagant focus on the central character made it seem to be written as a Young Adult fiction. This one exceeds these issues by doubling down on lack of details or exposition and focusing entirely on trying to make things stand out while not offering the benefit of either having things be interesting or familiar. The result is a boresome book.
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life - Ed Yong (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Dec 31 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork

Interesting book about ho... (read more)
Interesting book about how life is abundant of examples of a shared existence with microbes from the smallest to the largest. And the necessity of their existence in shaping the processes of living. The title implies a human-centric narration, but the book has more content about others - plants, animals, and microbes - which made for an interesting and educational reading. Lots of cool examples - like watching a good documentary on TV without knowing what's coming up.
Glasshouse - Charles Stross (2006)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Dec 25 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, cork, scifi

Awesome book - compelling... (read more)
Awesome book - compelling story with a thriller backdrop, post-digital age where humanity has trancended body and FTL, and some very cool and smart and realitic use of weapons. What I did not expect was the immense body of work related to gender, identity, misogyny, opression, democracy, rights and freedoms, and how truly barbaric we would seem to people in the future merely because we followed the shitty norms instead of getting up and making things better. Entertaining, educating, and something that will stick in my mind as a reference.
House of Open Wounds - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2023)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 22 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

The more you read, the le... (read more)
The more you read, the less the changes that a book makes you go 'wow, hang on, how does that work?' and eager to read more which opens even more questions. This is one such book. The topic under consideration is magic - all kinds of magic from divine to infernal. There are so many clever and admirable inclusions of aspects such as gods, worshipers, their relation and association, and the use of magic through 'decanted' artefacts. Think 'The Matrix' bottling up humans, except in this case its magic from objects, people, even 'gods'. And then there is the question of the all too apparent fascist country that want everything to be 'perfection' - basically a rejection of anything other than what the 'committee' decides. Too real, too close for comfort, and a constant acknowledgement of the world I live in which makes for a serious and melancholic reading. And yet - I enjoyed all of it. The stories, the settings - the world is massive that I would gladly read a whole lot more books about it, to the various philosophical provocations that got raised in my mind. I consider this an enlightening book because it expands the consciousness into new ways of thinking about something I didn't know about. Sure, all of it is about 'magic', but you could just as well replace it with other things to see how it helps be a foggy reflection of the actual world and people. Excellent read.
The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi (2010)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 15 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: cork

This was enjoyable with i... (read more)
This was enjoyable with its rich dense fully formed world built using post-human quantum technologies with its own politics and social economy, including philosophical implications such as 'immortality as communism' and 'privacy enforced by global techno-suits'. The story itself covers tropes from heists, classical detective, political turmoil, class warfare, and so much more. I ordered the two sequels right as I finished this. Excellent book, and a lot to unpack and enjoy. The way technology is described in action is cool. Less exposition and explanations and a lot of show but don't tell means I had to think (hard) on several things and what they could mean and how they could be developed and used. A clever and intelligent story that also rewards shallow reading just as much as a detailed introspection. This is up there with Accelerando and Neuromancer.
Halting State - Charles Stross (2007)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 14 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: cork

This book is difficult to... (read more)
This book is difficult to read because I kept losing track of who I was supposed to be reading about. It has a lot of second person narrative and the characters keep switching around. But - the concepts are pretty cool and my hunch of picking up the book based solely on Charles Stross displayed on the front cover turned out to be rewarding. Stross has really cool intelligent ideas - this time around it is about online gaming + metaverse + national security. Lots to unpack. But the characters and the setting puts a lid on what could have been an amazing global story. One of the cooler things I will remember from this book is 'intra-game profile interoperability' which is where your characters can be moved or imported/reused across different games all connected by common platforms.
MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 08 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

A meh story, like eating ... (read more)
A meh story, like eating a lettuce that fell out from an amazing sandwich. The entire book tells a mopping story about some people who just happen to know each other across the previous two books, and after humanity has been wiped out. Their biggest problems are two - yes just TWO - crazy Mad Max style villains who don't actually do a lot. There was the big back story of the titular Maddaddam, but even that turned out to be more of a gossip episode and a shoulder shrug rather than the amazing sci-fi bomb that dropped in Book 1 or the hippie nature-loving commune that survived in Book 2. Disappointed in the book - and also in the realisation that I was not the audience for this book.
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk (2003)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Dec 04 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A(nother) shock-horror no... (read more)
A(nother) shock-horror novel by Palahniuk that offers more disgusting, revolting, and profane ideas in an entertaining package. The story itself didn't make much sense - in being realistic, but this would be a good movie or TV show you watch for the 'vibe'.
City of Last Chances - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Nov 28 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A fantasy book by Tchaiko... (read more)
A fantasy book by Tchaikovsky with adult themes makes for a melancholic but interesting read. There is magic - with rules, there are demons, races, gray shaded characters, and to top it all there is the political discourse about fascism, colonialism, and anarchy. I was waiting for the big payoff - and there were certainly some interesting twists and turns, but it didn't feel there was a particular highlight as the book came to an end. There is meant to be a sequel releasing soon while I will read, but that is more because I admire Tchaikovsky's imagination and prolific writing more than the book itself.
Black Holes: The key to understanding the universe - Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw (2022)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Nov 22 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

Black holes are fascinati... (read more)
Black holes are fascinating - pushing the boundary between reality, science, and imagination. Based on this premise I picked this book upon coming across it in the book shop. Famous name for making science easy and online reviews complaining the book is not beginner friendly were positive reasons to buy it. I have read through several physics books at this point - and unfortunately this book is indeed severely dense at places by assuming people 'just get it' when described and whipping up equations that would be at home in a physics textbook. I much rather prefer the explanatory discourse that walks us through things to me scientific thinking more 'accessible' rather than text that says 'look how cool science is' with complex things.
The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods (2023)
fiction ; read in Wed Nov 15 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

Picked this up because I ... (read more)
Picked this up because I like books, ergo I like bookshops, and 'book hunting' is something that resonates with me. The story is about a lost bookshop and how it shapes the lives of three characters. Its set in Dublin, featuring someone who is doing a PhD, there's mention of Trinity and Ha'Penny and other local areas - so of course I picked it up and gave it a go. Was an okay book, enjoyable as a sort of sheepish TV movie that I wouldn't otherwise go for. The bibliophilia is what enticed me.
Paradais - Fernanda Melchor (2021)
fiction ; read in Mon Nov 06 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork

A new voice with an inter... (read more)
A new voice with an interesting way of writing and describing what is essentially two almost adults wrecking havoc on their own lives. Enjoyed reading this, even if it could be considered off putting, I enjoyed it in the same vein as Palahniuk would be considered enjoyable. Looking forward to reading more from the author in the future.
Bitch: What does it mean to be female? - Lucy Cooke (2023)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Nov 02 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational

The equivalent of a jaw d... (read more)
The equivalent of a jaw dropping tour de force documentary. I literally went "WOW!", "that's amazing", or "that's so cool" - so many times even while on the same page. This book is dense with amazing knowledge that does a really good job of highlighting how limiting the science has been because of prudish attitudes and male centric perspectives. I was delighted to read and learn how diversity - including female - leads to better understanding, and that nature is feminist and has amazing fluidity and variety only if we are careful in looking.
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism - Yanis Varoufakis (2023)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Nov 01 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational

A book that tells about t... (read more)
A book that tells about the history of economics, capital, technology, the internet, and the rise of cloud - in a way that is easy to explore, understand, and think about. Whilst I have no qualifications to make statements regarding the validity of the conclusion in terms of alternative models - I acknoledge the vastly important existence of such debates and that I have learned, through this book, the proper tools with which to think about it. It is easy to state that power is concentrated in cloud, but difficult to explain how historiacally this changes things and more importantly what we need to understand about the way money works to understand the implications of a 'virtual capital'. Technofeudalism is what the concept is called where we are locked in a cloud serfdom, unable to escape, and stuck paying 'value rents' to the lords. Reading this soon after The Internet Con was a good follow-up because I could see a lot of its solutions as being necessary and pragmatic in the face of what this book explores.
The Private Lives of Trees - Alejandro Zambra (2010)
fiction ; read in Sat Oct 28 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A short book (novella) th... (read more)
A short book (novella) that chronicles a slice of life in the day of a father putting his step-daughter to sleep while awaiting for his wife to return. The stream of consciousness style narration of events that run within this time frame are nothing significant or worthy of theatre, but instead reflect the thoughts and simple-minded awareness that each of us has when we unknowlingly think of our past and what it has led to in our present. An easy to miss style of writing that is poignant that doesn't rely on hidden meanings.
Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power - Ari Ezra Waldman (2021)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Oct 27 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, DCU, educational

An immensely well written... (read more)
An immensely well written narrative about the disparity between statements made by companies regarding privacy, the reputation and known intentions of privacy professionals, and the disproportionate gap between statement and action. The book is based on interviews with actual practioners in the industry and offers an excellent and necessary perspective on the 'other side'. Bottom line - there is a distinct lack of operational culture and people with needed roles don't have any say or power to make the changes. Regulations are superficial because they are drafted outside-in and promote checkboxes and internal responsibility - which as the book evidently and abundantly shows - is a repeated pattern of not working as intended. This book has been influential in making my research more informed and aware of the challenges in this area.
The Internet Con - Cory Doctorow (2023)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Oct 17 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

Got this off kickstarter ... (read more)
Got this off kickstarter - the author at the time had mentioned that Amazon Audible required a really shit deal of signing over stuff and not being able to have a DRM free experience. The book is a really good 'manifesto' for what has gone wrong with the internet and digital services through rampant abuse of copyright and IP. Much of it is about interoperability - so we all can do what we want to do with stuff. I was surprised to read that the solution is really a better alignment of laws (rather than replacement or overhaul which are exhuberant and expensive) with the intention of 'interoperability' so that we get more competition and better innovation from the grassroot upwards. The book was poignant, restricted in its argument (which is a good thing), and offered a good purview of history to understand why we arrived here and what kind of backsteps we need to get out of the sinkhole. This also made me buy 2 other books from Doctorow, and to support a third on Kickstarter.
A Universe from nothing - Lawrence M. Krauss (2012)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Oct 16 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

This is a mixed-bag for m... (read more)
This is a mixed-bag for me - on one hand the topic is interesting (dare I say 'universal') and the physics is explained in a readily accessible way; on the other hand there is much ado about 'nothing'. I get that the intention of the author is to point out how a universe can arise from 'nothingness' in the sense of energy and mass, and why this doesn't need an intelligent creator - pointing to a similar aha moment in biology when evolution was discovered. But if its intention was to give a metaphysical consideration, it merely touches upon the subject (and I'm the already convinced) rather than have a clearer and cleaner picture. I still liked reading about the aspects of how 'nothing' in space is being still pondered upon in terms of physics - dark matter and dark energy.
The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie (1995)
fiction ; read in Fri Oct 13 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

Its the language. Rushdie... (read more)
Its the language. Rushdie has this sense of weaving a tapestry with words, doesn't really matter what the story is, it always comes out as something extraordinary. The story itself is also clever - rooting itself into several easy to miss historical events that requires a keen observation to recognise. This is a nice accompaniment to Midnight's Children and Shame, and now Victory City - as they really show the same country and culture but with a focus on different narratives. Delightful to read.
The Ministry for the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Sep 30 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

If nothing else, - read C... (read more)
If nothing else, - read Chapter 1 of this book. Tell me if doesn't affect you. So off to a great start about what climate change is going to do to human society, and the havoc it will have on everything. I do not recall another book that had me so personally invested in feeling the frustrations of the plot. Climate change is real, it is happening NOW, and yet we sit idly by. The book takes today as what we would do, and turns it into fiction - what will happen when we get disaster after disaster - and still shows that we wouldn't do much except short term band-aid solutions. The frustration of getting governments and companies to move, to stop producing carbon, to innovate for the betterment of the world and society - I felt all of that. The book is hard science-fiction, but I would categorise it more as 'hard policy fiction'. The stuff about pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, spreading particulates to reflect sun back, stopping glaciers from melting into the sea is cool. But the more interesting stuff is the reluctance from banks and companies to stop making quick profits - and how economics carrots and sticks can be used to induce a change for the better. In this case, through a 'carbon coin' - not a new idea, but certainly an important concept for the story. Blockchain makes an appearance too - and it was awkward because there were no details whatsoever about its implementation, but that's okay since there were other things to follow up on. It is difficult to understand this book - yes it is not 'realistic' in that it expects a lot of cooperation from agencies that we know today do not work that way. But it is also fiction, and the author chose not to just wave their hands and produce solutions. They showed that it is frustrating, but there are ways out of the quagmire we are in - and that is worth something. Let's call this a pragmatic utopian vision.
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Sep 21 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This is the sequel to the... (read more)
This is the sequel to the awesome Oryx & Crake. Set in the same story, it is a parallel telling of how the flood came about. I liked reading this, it provided the other side of the story in terms of what the world was building towards and how others were involved. A little too hippie which felt dragged out, but the world building and the story telling was top-notch and there were always little nuggets of well written lore. I am looking forward to read the third book, also set in a parallel story about the titular Mad Adam.
Zima Blue and other stories - Alastair Reynolds (2006)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 15 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

Zima Blue is part of the ... (read more)
Zima Blue is part of the 'Love, Death, and Robots' anthology on Netflix. It is one of favourite things of all short stories - text or visual - I have come across. So when I found a book titled 'Zima Blue' and containing more short stories from the same author, it was an instant buy. The book contains another short story from the animated series - 'Beyond the Aquila Rift' which is also quite good. Most of the series deal with aspects of science and humanism. Even where I found the stories a bit slow or dull, there was enough science to keep going (e.g. the Merlin's Gun trilogy) or others that truly expanded the consciousness by introducing new ideas (e.g. Everlasting). But the main reason I bought the book was to read 'Zima Blue', and it happened to be the last story in the series. I started it on the bus back from work, and was so hooked and interested to finish reading it in one sitting that I stood on the pavement under an umbrella and finished reading it. This was a rewarding read.
The Book Eaters - Sunyi Dean (2022)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 13 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: cork

A story about people who ... (read more)
A story about people who eat books for sustenance and absorb its knowledge? An alluring and attractive premise! I saw this book first while perusing a local bookstore, and it stuck in my mind despite signs of it not being a decent read. Later, when I came across it again - I decided to buy it. The start was good - there is some world building, some science, a lot of book eating goodness. But it fell apart quite quickly. The writing is weak, the characters were not really interestsing, and most importantly the book eating doesn't really go anywhere.
How Democracies Die - Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Sep 06 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational

The title is as catchy as... (read more)
The title is as catchy as a book on political science can get. In the current times where institutions get taken over by authoritatian politicians and systems get dismantled, it is scary to see this but not know what the future will hold. I have always wondered - how do I think about this? How do I know whether things are getting slightly worse or descending into bad times. Coming across this book unplanned meant it was an instant buy. The book itself is history wrapped around a framework for detecting when leaders are dismantling democracies - through questions and criterias. I found the framework useful, and easy enough to match with news articles and to discuss the interpretations. The book does mention several cases from history across the globe for when governments have descended into authoritarian takeovers - or 'good cases' where they have resisted. The part about preventing and resisting was illuminating. Though much of the book is US-centric and focuses on starting period of Trump era, it does take a broader global perspective. I think this book has been educational in priming my thoughts for how to think about democracy and threats to it. I am eager to understand how the framework works with the current Modi government as it has always worried me that the Indian democractical processes have been systematically dismantled.
Translation State - Ann Leckie (2023)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Aug 31 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

This is the fifth book in... (read more)
This is the fifth book in the Imperial Radch universe. A standalone 'sequel' to the Ancillary trilogy, it continues the wonder of aliens, genders, and technology - all wrapped up in drama of the highest quality that makes for a fine space opera. The ending might leave a milder taste for some, but it has a lot going on underneath that keeps those interested in hard science still intrigued. I waited for a while to buy this, until I finally came across it in a local bookshop and then I bought it immediately. I read this book within a day - and suffered from withdrawal because I enjoyed reading all of it and it ended quite soon.
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment - Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass Sunstein (2021)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Aug 31 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational

Noise is a book about sta... (read more)
Noise is a book about statistical noise - and it is a mandatory read for anyone dealing with any sort of decision making, pattern finding, or even simple data analytics. What was surprising was that I picked up the book thinking it would be about the noise in our thinking and actions (which it is), but in addition I also got lots of relevance to the use of AI - such as the argument that algorithms can make decisions better than humans, but how do we justify this and what should be the parameters to even discuss this. In addition, and more importantly, it talked about what we can learn from the way we are developing AI to improve our own (humankind) processes and abilities to make decisions. Excellent book, and the last sections are a nice bonus as they provide a summary of relevant concepts.
Ring - Stephen Baxter (1994)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Aug 22 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork

Baxter writes hard sci-fi... (read more)
Baxter writes hard sci-fi. Excellent mashup of string theory, quantum physics, even astrophysics, and the end of the universe. And there's some multiverse in there. But the thing that I get annoyed with is the writing about the people. It really distracts from the actual plot - which for me is woven with science rather than "drama".
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski (1982)
fiction ; read in Fri Aug 18 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork

Bukowski has a style. An ... (read more)
Bukowski has a style. An ugly degraded style. But that's also what we avoid thinking we look like in the mirror. In this case, Bukowski writes about childhood and how messed up growing typically is. I really liked reading this book, and seeing how the adult Henry Chinaski emerged from the younger version.
Consciousness: A User's Guide - Adam Zeman (2002)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Aug 12 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

I picked up this book bec... (read more)
I picked up this book because of the title stating it is "a user's guide" - which to me implied that I would be receiving some sort of primer or framework. To a certain extent, the book does provide different concepts and theories from philosophy, neurology, biology, and physics to discuss consciousness. This knowledge spans and skips domains in so many ways that the book became quite dense and at times it felt that the subject wasn't been explored in as much detail as possible. For example, the notion of neurons and the brain being evolutionary key pieces to discuss how consciousness evolved is a great topic to understand what consciousness actually is or means. But it is quite quickly glossed over. Similarly, how the brain exhibits consciousnes versus what is the 'feeling' of being conscios is mentioned throughout the book, but the conclusion never offers enough insight to think about it further. Even as a book providing 'here's what we know' type of collections, it didn't really tickle my neurons. Good to skim through and pick at pages that interest.
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (1980)
fiction ; read in Tue Aug 08 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

Sherlock Holmes set in Me... (read more)
Sherlock Holmes set in Medieval Italy with lots of excellent discussions and discourses on religion and philosophy. This was a really nice read, and I could see the emerging blossom that eventually became Foucault's Pendulum.
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Aug 05 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

As biofiction hard scienc... (read more)
As biofiction hard science fiction, I really enjoyed reading it right from the start. The novel setting - based in an isolationist Thailand but after a global climate upheavel that leaves much of the world in floods and chaos, while conventional energy sources have run out and the "market" has been overtaken by capitalist genetic multinationals. The detailing was excellent, and the insertion of philosophical narratives very subtle. It meant the reader could opt to ignore the underlying perspectives and focus on the book as entertainment alone. But this would be a loss - the themes of unchecked capitalism and its ever disturbing nature as a force as insidious as any plague are impervious to the story and characters. While I enjoyed this aspect of the book, the titular "windup girl" - a clone designed with genetic subservience and obedience that is ravaged by the society behind closed doors did not go down well with me. I understand what it was trying to achieve, but felt it at odds with the rest of the settings which were unique and interestingly fleshed out.
Faith in Fakes - Umberto Eco (1986)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jul 29 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

An in-depth visitation on... (read more)
An in-depth visitation on a variety of topics all related to 'semiotics', Eco takes a dense deep dive into what is the meaning of things that we see and experience in culture. Focused in most cases on the American imperialist impact (consequence of globalisation - everything veers towards Americanism), the essays unpack a dense narrative that risks the key points been lost amidst sentences. Good read, but lots to unpack.
Wireless - Charles Stross (2009)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 22 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Charles Stross is a man o... (read more)
Charles Stross is a man of many ideas that go deep into the way society evolves with technology, and how that affects the very core of social constructs in terms of broad societal behaviours. This collection of short stories provides an interesting palate of stories that range from hard sci-fi to milder avenues delving into Lovecraftian lore and tributes to Asimov. All done with an excellent take on things and a story that demands the reader to be smart to keep up.
Un Lun Dun - China Miéville (2007)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 15 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: cork

I picked this up because ... (read more)
I picked this up because it was written by an author who always has an excellent and varied take on storytelling. Turns out this book is for kids (mostly), but it is still excellent as a simple and lightweight story. There are places where things are created creatively, from a twisting of everyday life, and they present little joys of discovering the connection and how it moves along and affects the story. I know this would have been an immensely enjoyable read many years ago.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness - Arundhati Roy (2017)
fiction ; read in Fri Jul 14 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: cork

This book was an excellen... (read more)
This book was an excellent experience of being immersed in the reading - not the world but the act and joys of reading a good book. Just as you know your experience of enjoying a good meal and are immersed in the tastes and feels of each morsel, this book was such an experience where every page, character, and setting was enjoyable. Set in the roots of Indian society, the book takes on a lot of unusual characters that simultaneously seem ludicrous to exist and yet would not be out of place or even noticeable amongst the other chaos of the society. There are subtle comments, leaps from personal to national topics, and a vivid writing style that is more about the journey than the goal. I found myself not caring overall about where the plot is going or what the overall story and its meaning was. Instead I simply enjoyed the things as they were presented.
Cursed Bunny - Bora Chung (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jun 28 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Some of the stories in th... (read more)
Some of the stories in this collection are really good - they are provocative, uncomfortable, and really evocative. The others aren't interesting in various degrees. The cover is quite cool, and because the stories came with a different cultural emphasis I picked it up on a whim. Was a decent read. The stories I liked the most were The Head; The Embodiment; Cursed Bunny; Snare; and Goodbye, My Love.
The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem (1965)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jun 24 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

A collection of short sto... (read more)
A collection of short stories featuring two 'creators', the book is an excellent mix-up of so many wonderful things that it was a delight to read through this without any forewarning. There is physics - lots of it. But what makes it interesting that the physics is portrayed through folk tales, fairy tales, and old-style stories of kings and inventions and inventors. Its reminiscent of reading Alice in Wonderland, Borges, and Hitchhiker's Guide. I read one story at a time while also reading other books. So the pacing was nice and slow, as if having a good dinner every day. Having read Lem's other works, this is as far away from stories about alien civilisation discoveries and the absurdities of it as it can be. But there is no question that underneath the stories there is a wonderful trove of knowledge and thoughts about physics, civilisations, humans, and discourse that permeates through each situation. I wish we had more of such 'modern' tales.
The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jun 20 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A multiverse story done w... (read more)
A multiverse story done with finese and restraint that makes for an excellent reading. The core premise is that there are multiverses, but the only people who can travel safely are those whose parallel selves have died in that universe. And the only people more likely to die are the poor and living dangerously. And thus begins a typical story about society but with the twist of multiverses thrown it. I enjoyed reading the book, and following along the different cultural perspectives (I think these were from Africa?) while also enjoying the drama and thriller style story.
Starfish - Peter Watts (1999)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jun 16 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

An enjoyable hardcore cyb... (read more)
An enjoyable hardcore cyberpunk story set in the sea - now that's different and evocative of Crichton's Sphere and also setting the early stage for how Blindsight envisioned evolving humans. The story is about a bunch of 'divergents' i.e. people who are different from 'normals' in the sense that they don't fit in or follow the same norms and rules of society. People who have suffered trauma or have tendencies for violence. It was uncomfortable to read since this isn't a protagonist that the reader can usually read along as or with - but perhaps the point of the story was to suggest these people are so far off from society that any chance to further the distance is a natural tendency. The tech was cool - genetic modification but not just hand-waving, instead having a gradual consequential impact through living and integrating it as part of what we see our bodies as a system of functionalities. There is another three books in the series - but I do not think the reviews and discussions are promising enough for me to give it a read. I remember not liking Echopraxia after looking forward to it from reading Blindsight.
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa (1994)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jun 11 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Set on an unnamed island,... (read more)
Set on an unnamed island, this book is reminiscient of 1984 and the Holocaust literature in that there is a 'Memory Police' who are authoritarian and force people to forget things by destroying those as well as using capture and interrogation to detect memories of those objects. While I understand the point of the novel, and the slow vanishing of the identity and the world, I could not enjoy the writing or the plot. There never was anything that interested me - other than waiting for why must things be forgotten. Sadly my curiosity was never quenched. To make things more disinteresting, all characters are passive. Only ever impacting through minor actions. It feels the sort of world that has given up and is awaiting its final descent.
Walled Culture - Glyn Moody (2022)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Jun 11 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A short history of sorts ... (read more)
A short history of sorts regarding copyright and its effect on digital technology, this book was a refresher on several moments I had known but had forgotten about. Like the upload filter, Megaupload, Napster, and so on. Moments where the internet changed as I was growing up. The book didn't offer much of anything new other than these except to emphasise how the copyright movement has been affecting things for a long time and to not forget these. It would have been better to have researched some more materials and to have detailed in-depth analysis instead of a blog-style rehash of things.
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner (1968)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jun 11 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

This book is famous for b... (read more)
This book is famous for being written in the 60s and 'predicting' a lot of the modern technologies that we have today. It certainly contains several of these to be impressive. The writing style is confusing (quite 60s) for today, and the plot is the typical geopolitical situation. Interesting book to read for a cult classic. A movie on this made in the 70s would have been quite cool to see today.
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (2003)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jun 01 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

A brilliantly written boo... (read more)
A brilliantly written book that has so many different themes and topics. From society to technology, personal relations and civilisations. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Looking forward to the other two books.
Waste Tide - Chen Qiufan (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri May 26 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The premise of this book ... (read more)
The premise of this book is an eco-thriller set in China where all the electronic waste is dumped and consequentially there is class segregation of 'waste people' whose lives depend on it. The book does contain some ideas - nothing original as such - and the setting and cultural influence does give it a different flavour. But I found the writing and the story to be a caricature - repetitive, stereotypical, and under-explored - and often heavy-handed when it came to stating things. Two instances where this was a problem - first where the plot is moved forward based on mundane motivations seen everywhere, and second where the details were just thrown in for random objects such as the brand of jacket or which album the song playing was on. It neither added to the character development nor to the environment. So the end result is a book with a promise that just does not materialise.
Birnam Wood - Eleanor Catton (2023)
fiction ; read in Tue May 23 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Expectations were high fo... (read more)
Expectations were high following the immensely enjoyable Luminaries. It was strange to see a foray into 'modern thrillers' where we have crazy technologies used as toys and seemingly extraordinary hacking is a common tool for the uber rich. The writing is good, there are points where the commentary on the world, society, and politics feels realistic because it is flawed yet informed - which fits that there are young adults discussing things. But the characters themselves are not that interesting. Somehow this feels like a TV series that was watched to spend time, found good enough, but not memorable. So in conclusion I really enjoyed the writing and pacing and the perspectives. But I did not enjoy the story itself - it is a decade too late. I get that this is supposed to be some creative adaptation from or of Macbeth, but I am not the audience to appreciate it.
Iron Sunrise - Charles Stross (2004)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue May 16 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This could very well be t... (read more)
This could very well be titled 'Space Nazis fuck off'. Quite astounding how much stuff Charles Stross can fit into a book. There are characters, there is society, there is science and fiction, there are epic themes - in this case the role of technology and progress, artificial intelligence, nazis or to be more specific authoritarian religious dogma. There was even a teenager girl with a cyberspace companion. Interesting and excellent reading.
The Road - Cormac McCarthy (2006)
fiction ; read in Wed Apr 26 2023 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Hemingway type writing co... (read more)
Hemingway type writing combined with post-apocalyptic society and the bare terror of human society falling apart. All of this makes for an interesting read. The writing is simple, but the story is intense. A good read.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka (2002)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Apr 24 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

This is a clever book wri... (read more)
This is a clever book written with prose that is witty and implies wisdom in places without throwing it in the face. It is set in the Sri Lankan conflict, and without the cultural knowledge of the situation a lot of references and subtle nuances would be lost. I enjoyed reading it, even if the story itself was not particularly to my liking - but the writing style was rich and enjoyable.
Child of God - Cormac McCarthy (1973)
fiction ; read in Wed Apr 19 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

I can only guess what the... (read more)
I can only guess what the author meant by stating that a deranged violent psychopath is a 'child of god', but the book does show how a child born in civilisation turns back upon the barbaric and unhinged beastial nature of everything that defines social morals. The language is sparse, and sometimes poignant in thinking and stating things. Interesting end to the novel, though I wished more was written about the character at different walks of life - especially as a child and young teen.
Hollywood - Charles Bukowski (1989)
fiction ; read in Tue Apr 18 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

As a book written by Buko... (read more)
As a book written by Bukowski this is funny and on point for debauchery being pulled every few pages - but somehow still pretty tame. Good way to pass the time, like on the bus. Some of the quotes are memorable and poignant.
Grass - Sheri S. Tepper (1989)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Apr 15 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This is a well-written bo... (read more)
This is a well-written book with characters that are multi-dimensional, a world and setting that is explored in depth, and a sci-fi narrative that has sociological ecological analogies. The only thing that felt out of place was the setting of social constructs based on aristrocatic fox hunting, though I understand how that setting made sense for the story. Enjoyable, though the novel is a bit long and takes its time to showcase the mysteries. I can imagine this as being an excellent TV series.
Gnomon - Nick Harkaway (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Apr 11 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

This is a difficult revie... (read more)
This is a difficult review. On the one hand, I enjoyed most of the themes in the book, and it is an excellent display in to the creativity Nick Harkaway has, reminiscient of Gone Away World. But on the other hand - its too dense, too big, and sometimes it feels as if it needs an editorial hand to condense the text into a page with borders. I did enjoy the story, but not the story telling.
Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West - Cormac McCarthy (1985)
fiction ; read in Fri Apr 07 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: cork

This was a dense read. To... (read more)
This was a dense read. Too much was happening - which made sense when I later read that the book is a 'magnum opus'. But my main issue with reading was not the violence (which was a lot, and didn't feel drawn out or out of place), but that there was no single thread of the story that the reader is following, and things just seemed to happen. Yes, there is a central character, but it always felt as if watching a documentary recorded by someone else. Maybe that's because I'm not the target audience, I'm not American, and I don't know the history behind the three groups the story is about. Still - reading it was a good experience to pass the time. The writing is okay - its too 'prosaic', the story is good - and all of the book shows the 'reality' of how comparatively barbaric we were not so long ago even if we fantasise civilisation and honour in the westers evoked in cinema today. The Judge is as memorable a character as any, and I could see the book could easily have been named 'Dancing with the Devil'.
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy (2005)
fiction ; read in Thu Apr 06 2023 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This was my first Cormac ... (read more)
This was my first Cormac McCarthy book. The story is a violent thriller - which I like, and which reminded me of some books I used to read when I was younger. The story is told in the style of show rather than tell, with some acute observations and comments that feel poignant to read. I chose this book because I like the film and it has some intense characters that stay in memory. While reading I could visually recall scenes. While this speaks volumes about the film directors and actors, it also shows that the book is also a good story and experience in itself. Its rare that I like a book I read after I have watched and liked the film based on it. I have some more books by the same author, which I look forward to read.
Lords of Uncreation - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2023)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Apr 05 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

The two big questions wit... (read more)
The two big questions with a final book in a series is always whether it delivers in the conclusion and whether it takes too long to get there. In this case, Tchaikovsky has managed to succeed on both answers. The book was interesting to read, and while I couldn't wait to understand the big reveal at the end, it was also interesting to see all the political battles being waged to get there. Felt more realistic than the alternative - that somehow everyone is idealistic and co-operates to save the universe. There were places where things felt stretched too thin and where it felt that episodic scenes were being played when we knew they wouldn't matter in the long run. But I still enjoyed reading through most of the book - and that's quite something. Thoroughly enjoyed the series.
Lanny - Max Porter (2019)
fiction ; read in Tue Apr 04 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

I liked that this was an ... (read more)
I liked that this was an experimental book, more about exposition and conversations that are internal and external - and how there sometimes is no difference between them from our perspectives. The story was not overtly complicated, but the way it was presented added to the interesting writing style. A good, enjoyable read. Though I would have liked to see more of the magical realism the book started with, and to have it continue as part of the character's lives. So instead of relying only on internal perspectives of what one is thinking in a situation, we also would have had things happening (still normal, just written in the style). The illustrative writing felt cool to read through within the plot.
Victory City - Salman Rushdie (2023)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Apr 01 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork

I didn't know a new book ... (read more)
I didn't know a new book from Salman Rushdie had been published until I came across while walking through the book store. Bought it on an impulse - how could I resist. Looking forward to the mesmerising delight that is Rushdie's linguistic forte, I was quite surprised to discover that this was an incredibly clever and well-woven tale of modernity spun into the fabric of ancient Indian history. So much to easily miss, not notice, and realise that this is a really well written story. I missed the poetic language that evoke a love for reading, but the story itself being set in parallels to India mythologies was intriguing in itself. Still a good read - but I want to go get another Rushdie book to satiate my appetite for the language from Midnight's Children and Shame - which I immensely enjoyed.
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory - David Graeber (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Mar 26 2023 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

I found a copy of this bo... (read more)
I found a copy of this book lying around in the labs where I was teaching. Curious enough, I flipped through some pages to know what the fuss is all about. The impression was that this was something interesting, so I ended up reading the book to know more. I thinl I'm not the target audience for this book. It postulates that there are some jobs that are bullshit or useless. While the argument does make sense, I think it lacks a rigid social analysis and methodological analysis. Because an important consideration is the people doing the job - which could be saving time, effort, and so on. So are the jobs bullshit or is the job culture bullshit? The book nevers gets into it.
Utopia is Creepy; and other provocations - Nicholas Carr (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Mar 21 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Interesting book that con... (read more)
Interesting book that contains few thought-provoking articles, but then most of the other times its just some person rambling on a topic. Sometimes its things that don't seem sensible because I'd see biases and prejudices for a particular technology or company (mostly Apple) that taint the other writings.
Permutation City - Greg Egan (1994)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Mar 14 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 💾digital📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

Permutation City is the b... (read more)
Permutation City is the book about multiverses, cyberspaces, and post-AI consciousness - all rolled into a physics and mathematical construct. The sheer scope of imagination here is immense - and that's what makes this a pleasure to read. I like hard sci-fi that also manages to push the boundaries of several things at once - and Greg Egan is an interesting person to read about this. I'm compelled to buy all his books and read through them.
Rosewater - Tade Thompson (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Mar 07 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This is a scifi story set... (read more)
This is a scifi story set in Nigeria, which provided a nice change of setting than the usual American or British ones. The culture, characters, background, and implications were different - which made for an interesting read. The story itself involves aliens, telekinesis, fungi, secret government departments, and more. So it felt like a mashup of X-files, Neuromancer, and Snow Crash. What was not good was the editing. The chapters went back and forth between timelines too much, and the story felt rushed and not well developed in the second half.
The Gene: An Intimate History - Siddhartha Mukherjee (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Feb 28 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, educational

This is an exceptional bo... (read more)
This is an exceptional book that not only informs, but also educates and shapes the mind and perspective across many discplines. There's the history of the gene, including its scientific place in understanding the world as well as humans. But there's also a very well written account of how it led to the cultural changes, most prominently the eugenics movement and the Nazi's weaponisation of the gene and genetics. It explains how the gene was discovered, how its role was identified, and how we've come to where we are today. Along the way it also explains the philosophical and ethical concers, the advantages of technological leaps, and the implications of every misinterpretation and mistake on a fragile culture. In this it never wavers on the science - I learned a lot about biology and genetics. It reminded me of the time when I was 14 and had checked out a genetics book from the school library and how fascinating I had found all of it. It blew my mind. This book gave me the same feeling throughout my reading.
Apurvai [अपूर्वाई] - P. L. Deshpande [ पु. ल. देशपांडे ] (1960)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Feb 26 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: cork, humour

Classic Pu. La. Deshpande... (read more)
Classic Pu. La. Deshpande book with the humour coming out of a common man visiting a foreign country and the things that happen with a change in culture and perspective. The language is elucidative and offers a funny and witty outlook into situations. One of the greats in Marathi literature.
Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Feb 15 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Lots of ideas, little exp... (read more)
Lots of ideas, little exploration of them, and some boring characters that get more focus than the other interesting stuff. Imagine if Big Brother took place within Rendezvous with Rama.
The Digital Republic: How to Govern and Take Back Control Technology - Jamie Susskind (2022)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Feb 02 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

A comprehensive book abou... (read more)
A comprehensive book about what 'republican' means in the political context (not the American one), and how it applies to the rising digital internet economy. There's a lot of interesting concepts, and even though I knew a lot of the events and situations mentioned, the specific perspective of how they relate to things such as self-determination and governance of systems was interesting and thought-provoking.
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins (2006)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Jan 23 2023 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, educational

Wow. Some books expand th... (read more)
Wow. Some books expand the mind, or as Dawkins correctly puts it - they expand the 'consciousness' because it forever changes the perception and ability to think about things. This is one such book. It really hammers down on religion, even though a lot of it (most?) is Abrahamic ones, the arguments and the logical questions are utilities for any and all religions. This is a great book to consider why we must question everything, and why things don't make sense when we put them in a consistent logical framework. And this is what religion is explained as - and why and where and how it ruins our ability to progress. Really influential book, and which has permanently set me on a path to finalising my mind. The only bits I would have liked to be included was an exploration of religions which don't have a written book, but instead rely on the moral policing by society itself. This is what I saw and experienced growing up in India. Its still religion, but there is no single word of God to debate against. The book does give the tools that are universal in arguments, but it would have been nice to see them used for exploring such social structures as well.
Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide - Richard Dawkins (2019)
; read in Thu Jan 19 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A concise set of notes th... (read more)
A concise set of notes that really acts like an introduction on how to structure the mind in a logical and argument driven framework for understanding and escaping the dogma of religion. As I found later, much of it is a summarisation of The God Delusion - itself a much better explained and explored work.
Time is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis - Connie Willis (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jan 13 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

An excellent collection o... (read more)
An excellent collection of short stories that really show the breadth and versatility and quality of Connie Willis in being one of the reknowned writers. Enjoyable collection, even though a lot of them are not hard sci-fi. The background and explanations following the stories also made for an intersting read in to the origins of the stories.
Life 3.0 Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - Max Tegmark (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Jan 06 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

This is a pop-sci book. G... (read more)
This is a pop-sci book. Good introduction if one didn't know about AI and its upcoming boom. But I've already read a lot on this topic - so all I had to do was flip the pages. The topics were a good collection. The fan-boism on Elon Musk was too much in bad taste though.
Bear Head - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jan 05 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

I enjoyed Dogs of War bec... (read more)
I enjoyed Dogs of War because it had something different, but was annoyed with its anthromorphic storyline and characterisation. This is a sequel with the same outlines, though as a more techno-oriented thriller. It was okay, I read it because I was sitting in an airport and wanted to get this book out of the way.
Semiosis - Sue Burke (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jan 05 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

An interesting premise - ... (read more)
An interesting premise - what if alient plants were sentient and how would we know and how would we react and what kind of conversations we could have. But then the execution fizzled out and this turned out to just be a what-if type book rather than a detailed study that would have made excellent hard-fiction.
Dragon's Egg - Robert L. Forward (1980)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jan 05 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This was an interesting b... (read more)
This was an interesting book - a physics lecture on Neutron stars masquerading as a story. I don't like anthromorphism because it stops the creativity from imagining truly alien and different stories.
A Master of Djinn - P. Djèlí Clark (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jan 04 2023 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A nice world-building of ... (read more)
A nice world-building of something different - magic in Egypt set during the time of colonialism. The story was nice, and even if stereotypical, I enjoyed it. It would make a nice TV series or Movie.
The Last Wish - Andrzej Sapkowski (2007)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Dec 31 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Having liked Witcher 3 im... (read more)
Having liked Witcher 3 immensely, and having watched the (bad) adaptation by Netflix, I was intrigued as to what the books offered. I enjoyed the short stories, and the links to what I had played and seen. I might give the other books a try if they also contain similar interesting experiences - especially since now there's a new Witcher 3 HD release that I plan to replay.
Undercover: My Journey into the Darkness of Hindutva - Ashish Khetan (2021)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Dec 28 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life

I was not prepared for th... (read more)
I was not prepared for this book. It is raw, honest, detailed, and factual. There were times when I felt overwhelmed from what was in the book and comparing it to how little I knew or was exposed to. That there were investigations and court cases to such an extent, and that they were all somehow 'managed' was a revelation. I always believed that there was mischief, but reading the book I've come to the realisation that the reality is much more sinister and there is evil which believes itself righteous. The book also helped understand a lot of the current political landscape in terms of the key people and their (political) governance models. By the end I was feeling hopeless, lost, sad, upset, angry, frustrated, and in chaos. But this is also progress - because I went from ignorance to awareness.
Shame - Salman Rushdie (1983)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 24 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: language

A beatifully constructed ... (read more)
A beatifully constructed prose that describes an observation of a culture's obsession with shame - and all that follows. I enjoyed the book right from the start, with all its weird pacings which go from intricate detailed expositions of a single picture to paragraphs that move time in decades. Perhaps I liked this so much because I could visualise the characters and the descriptions and could relate to them. Perhaps this was why I was not much impressed with Quichotte despite it containing the same beautifully written narrations.
Aurora - Kim Stanley Robinson (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 22 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list:

An interesting book if on... (read more)
An interesting book if only for its narrations about an AI that is comprehending human language and what it means to 'accurately' interpret linguistic phrases. The rest of it was interesting at the start - a generational spaceship that is going to colonise a star systel - but it went nowhere and was disappointing. The bits about overestimating space travel, and that the biomes we need cannot function properly in space was interesting, as was the need for social organisaiton. But it all went more into drama and social commentary - overused at times - especially disappointing with no 'ending' that could be of interest. No doubt the author has a great grasp on the practicalities of space travel and how to wrench stories from them, but this is not my interest.
Eyes of the Void - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Dec 21 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

The second or middle part... (read more)
The second or middle part of a trilogy, this was the stereotypical filler-material book with not much actual progress as compared to how much of the world the first book introduced. Some more adventures, some more characters, a lot of teasing about information that you hope will be revealed but never is. And so one must wait for the third book. That said, I did not feel bored or annoyed at any point in the story. In terms of episodic content, it was a good book. I just wished for more details and things to be presented because the first book was quite good in terms of how much new things and world descriptions it contained.
Helgoland: The World of Quantum Theory - Carlo Rovelli (2021)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Dec 10 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

There's no illusions that... (read more)
There's no illusions that this book is written by someone who can explain quantum physics in the manner of a nice lecture. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the book comes off as. Excellent start, some hand waving of concepts that should have chapters dedicated to explanation, and then complete derailment towards things that are relevant but not on the topic. When the book is this thin, every page has to offer more. All this said, the book did offer new perspectives, but didn't make good descriptions out of them.
Shards of Earth - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 09 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

I'm constantly expecting ... (read more)
I'm constantly expecting that I'm going to stop being amazed with the next book I pick from Tchaikovsky, and this was no exception, and I keep surprising myself by being immersed into the book and enjoying it a lot. This time its a space opera with some nice differences while still feeling the same-ness to a lot of other things I've read. I immediately purchased the second book in the series when I was nearly complete with this one.
The Book of Universes: Exploring the Limits of the Cosmos - John D. Barrow (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Dec 06 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A nice book describing ho... (read more)
A nice book describing how different solutions to a theoretical equation led to the modelling of how universes work and what may happen with the one we live in.
Children of Memory - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 01 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, scifi

A follow-up to three prev... (read more)
A follow-up to three previous books, this was a book with high expectations to start with. Though parts of it felt not that interesting, the lingering thoughts after the book had been over were that of thoughtful hints of something wonderful. For starters, the book has crows/corvids in the follow up to spiders, ants, octopuses, fungii... That's amazing. And then there is something new and alien, which though not mind blowing, really does end up with a fun read. I hope there are more books in this series, and that they are filled more with details.
The Perils of Perception: Why We're Wrong About Nearly Everything - Bobby Duffy (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Nov 17 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Interesting, well-studied... (read more)
Interesting, well-studied collection of how what we believe deviates from facts and that sharing those facts doesn't 'educate' us, but instead confirms out pre-existing distortions and biases. But, the book did not go too deep into these things, instead presenting anecdotes and rehashed arguments from other books. It is much more rewarding to read specific investigations, such as into politics, sexism, and social behaviours - which also inform about such distortions, but are more rewarding because they look at through the lens of causality.
Inverted World - Christopher Priest (1974)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Nov 01 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A crazy premise (City on ... (read more)
A crazy premise (City on Trains) with crazier Physics (try living on a pseudosphere) and an even crazier society (imperial guilds). This was a surprising read because I did not expect to be educated about physics of space-time within a story. This is Greg Egan stuff, and I like such stuff.
Walking to Aldebaran - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Oct 26 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

A short, but intense, nov... (read more)
A short, but intense, novella that clearly takes inspiration from The Martian and several other great entertaining books, and puts enough of a spin on them to have something of its own. Like the author, and will continue to invest my time in their books.
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) - Katie Mack (2020)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Oct 25 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational

When I finished reading t... (read more)
When I finished reading this book, I went, 'is that it?' because I was surprised that I had finished reading all of it. Like a big meal that you do not realise was immensely satiating well until you've started walking back home. This book was a feat in breaking down complex scenarios down into simple explanations without burdening the reader with the complexities of any specifics. I hope they make a documentary of this some day.
The Redemption of Time - Baoshu (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Oct 20 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Despite containing a lot ... (read more)
Despite containing a lot of cool and recent science concepts webbed into the story, the overall execution falls much short of the epic saga from Three Body Problem trilogy. There are far too many cliches, and a discomforting return to good vs evil that somehow feels like an imitation.
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl (1980)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Oct 14 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A sequel that manages to ... (read more)
A sequel that manages to keep up with its predecessor is always an enjoyable experience. In this case, there's science fiction, humanity and its cliches that are dated but integrated well into the story, and a great hook for yet another sequel. The whole thing with sexualised teenagers seems weird and out of place and really dated. It also feels forced. I'm not sure why that even made it into the story in the first place.
Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1972)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Oct 02 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi

An amazing work that real... (read more)
An amazing work that really paints a beautifully haunting picture of human condition. Justifiably the best known work of Strugatsky - and as a fan of Stalker - just as fulfilling to read.
The Shortest History Of China - Linda Jaivin (2021)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Sep 30 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A really comprehensive su... (read more)
A really comprehensive summary of a vast cultural history, though it suffers in presenting what is more important right now - the history of China from 1900 onwards. Still, an excellent introduction to Chinese history and cultural perspectives.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - Becky Chambers (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Sep 26 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
A decent book on its own, but an unappealing sequel
Record of a Spaceborn Few - Becky Chambers (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Sep 25 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
A decent book on its own, but an unappealing sequel
A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Sep 24 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

An okay-ish follow-up bec... (read more)
An okay-ish follow-up because it featured different characters, didn't have the breadth and excitement of adventure from the first, and just felt like a filler episode. Since I have already bought all the four books in the series, I'm obligated to continue reading the rest of them.
Echopraxia - Peter Watts (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 16 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

A disappointing sequel fo... (read more)
A disappointing sequel following a spectacular first part. There are nuggets of awesome things, but the package is so disarrayed that it make things difficult to follow and just feels no as enjoyable as the first book. I would still want to check out other books from the author, because there are really intelligent discussions and explorations that pique my interest.
Binti - Nnedi Okorafor (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Sep 12 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A nice fresh tale, though cut short by hasty endings.
The Shape of Inner Space: String Theory and the Geometry of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions - Shing-Tung Yau & Steve Nadis (2010)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Sep 04 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: educational

An excellent book that ta... (read more)
An excellent book that takes a slow but methodological approach to present mathematical concepts of geometry and topology and how they fit within the applications required by physics and more specifically quantum gravity and string theories. I think I barely understood 10% of what is covered, given that a lot of the mathematical theories require time to digest and ruminate and grasp, but the fact that the book really explains things from a simple approach first approach means I have both an appreciation as well as knowledge about what goes on inside the reseach in these areas. Illuminating, educational.
Restless Creatures - Matt Wilkinson (2015)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Aug 31 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

Interesting way to presen... (read more)
Interesting way to present what is essentially a biological phenomenon - walking. There's physics, chemistry, biology - of course, but also lots of practical mix-match between these. Educational in the sense of presenting a way of thinking how disciplines flow into one another at the face of a problem. The writing was difficult and dry at times, but the overall pacing was good and the topic was handled well. At the end of it all, I did learn something new about walking, and its various forms such as flying, slithering, contracting, expanding, floating, and so on.
Globalization and its Discontents - Joseph Stiglitz (2002)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Aug 28 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational

I'm not an economist, nor... (read more)
I'm not an economist, nor do I have any formal training or background knowledge on this subject. Despite this, the book was remarkably easy to read and understand, and illuminating and how plain and simple the causal models of fiscal policies can be. Even before I had finished the first chapter, I knew more about the world, and could understand and appreciate better the way finances work. By the time I had finished the book, I had realised the immense huge machinery that is the global economy, and how increasingly it looks like economics = rich people. A narrative that *must* change if we are to progress.
Killing Moon - N. K. Jemisin (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Aug 24 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

Interesting take on dream... (read more)
Interesting take on dreams and magic. Good world building, characters with stories, and a mystical plot. Though where the story goes next depends on whether I would want to read the sequels.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris (2008)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Aug 19 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

More of David Sedaris tel... (read more)
More of David Sedaris telling quips about how shit his life is, how weird his upbringing was, and offering slices of his life along with his family and friends. A decent way to pass time. Read it, move along.
Feersum Endjinn - Iain M. Banks (1994)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Aug 18 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

This is an interesting bo... (read more)
This is an interesting book, with an apparent novel sci-fi situation containing virtual second lives. Why this is novel is beyond my understanding, when Philip K. Dick had already published the much more intriguing and existential Ubik way back in 1969, a good 30 years prior to this work. In addition, the language was off-putting. Phonetic English (writing as sounds are spoken, not as words conventionally written) may be interesting in small measures, but to read a lot of it is annoying. The choice of why medieval cultures are chosen to reanimate the dead is just absurd, and the insistence on classes, clans, wars, factions - is interesting were it not the overusage of convoluted sentences - seemingly for the sake of it. Definitely not a book for my tastes.
2312 - Kim Stanley Robinson (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Aug 15 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

A bold mystery set in sol... (read more)
A bold mystery set in solar space that manages to convince that not just humankind's set but the setting has changed as well. Personal computing, gender identity, sexuality, ethics, a lot of things that mesh well together without feeling forced or introduced to make a point. Just matter of fact, as if part of the world. The story I thought I'd read before, so was not novel. But the plot points and space-tech was enough to continue reading.
The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Aug 12 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

The sheer magnitude of th... (read more)
The sheer magnitude of this work is immense and worthy of admiration. I had no idea of the background much of the book hopes upon - the cultural significance of this work in Poland, the state of affairs related to this notorious personality and religion within that time, and that someone could write such a mythical book of fiction as their magnum opus.
The Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges (1949)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Aug 06 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A learning experience on writing and reading from a master of the craft.
The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie (2008)
fiction ; read in Fri Aug 05 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: cork

An enchanting fairy tale ... (read more)
An enchanting fairy tale full of beautiful language and magical realism. But the constant objectification of women and confining them to sexual roles somehow left a bad impression.
Homeland - Cory Doctorow (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Aug 01 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork

This was scary to read be... (read more)
This was scary to read because it might as well be what's happening out there. Not so much the actual sinister stuff, but the systemic normalisation of authoritative surveillance and the vast potential for it to become a norm that we shrug and live with because we're too complacent to do something.
Little Brother - Cory Doctorow (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Aug 01 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

This book made me remembe... (read more)
This book made me remember why I started caring about privacy and surveillance in the first place, and now that I'm older and wiser - why I need to continue.
Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table - Kit Chapman (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jul 30 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork
If discovery of superheavy elements were a thriller TV series (in a good way).
Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it all - Jonas Jonasson (2016)
fiction ; read in Wed Jul 27 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The book starts off at a ... (read more)
The book starts off at a good spot. There's simple exposition, situational humour, and all the makings of a good recipie. By the end, it got boring, repetitive, the humour had all but become stale and there was nothing special anymore. A nice book if this had been half its length, or had spent some time on its characters instead of shuffling them from scene to scene.
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris (2013)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Jul 24 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The standard fare of Sedaris stories.
Simply Maths - D.K. Publishing (2022)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jul 24 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😠awful (1/5) ;

I'm not sure who exactly ... (read more)
I'm not sure who exactly this book is for. The illustrations seem intended for a younger audience, but the concepts themselves are far too complex to be suitable. And to further aggravate the experience, nothing is explained in either details or placed within some larger picture. The book is nothing but a fancy index of concepts, and not a good one at that. Too bad this was a gift, I had hoped to like it.
The Doors of Eden - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 20 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A fantastic imagination o... (read more)
A fantastic imagination of what life would have been like if sentient species had dominated at various points in the timeline instead of humans, their existence on parallel earths, and how their various cultures might clash. A lesser rating because the part where it was all shoehorned into a human society episodic chase between an organisation and the good folk was not interesting at all, and the characters were shallow with no interest to read about.
Black Sun - Rebecca Roanhorse (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jul 14 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: cork

There was nothing here to... (read more)
There was nothing here to hook me. The world-building was nice, but there was no hook to keep me interested. Everything felt meh, and rushed. While cliffhanger endings can be great, this book turned it into a frustrating experience of reading parts of a book instead of feeling like a complete novel.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 13 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, cork, scifi
A space opera that feels like an incredible episodic season. Eager to read the other two books.
Singularity Sky - Charles Stross (2003)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 09 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: cork, scifi

A blazing story about fut... (read more)
A blazing story about futurism, politics, philosophy, and impact of technological progress on society and social structures. Not only was this exciting sci-fi, but also a great read on the nature of information and its role in sociological structures like governments. Information wants to be free - a phrase that will be imprinted after reading this one.
The Best of Greg Egan - Greg Egan (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 09 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, cork, scifi

I enjoyed this collection... (read more)
I enjoyed this collection very very very much. Emphasis on the overuse of subjective adjectives describing my experience. Each story is an intense rendering of some concept that I had to sit back and think about for a while, even if it was mentioned in passing. There are things about self-reflection, AI, mind, modification of the mind, philosophies, quantum physics, computing, information theory, Godel's theorem, Turing machines, cloning, biology, society, cosmology, relationships, religion, beliefs, physchology, and so much more. It was worth the time to read this slowly, digesting each story and its experience. Definitely made me enthusiastic about reading (again). The best part was that the stories were collected based on the author's perception of their best work - so it was not an arbitrary collection of 'best selling' stories or something like that.
Short Fiction - Poul Anderson (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jul 07 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A collection of short stories by the author from a diverse and prolific career. Overshadowed by some of the noteworthy novels read before.
Slime: A Natural History - Sussane Wedlich (2021)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jun 25 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The title and cover impli... (read more)
The title and cover implied this would be about slime substances and slime molds. But instead, it was a collection of short articles mostly about slime as in the gooey substance with very little about slime molds. The articles were interesting, but too short to keep up interest. Disappointing pick to read.
The Secret Network of Nature - Peter Wohlleben (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Jun 23 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A good nature documentary in book form.
Revenant Gun - Yoon Ha Lee (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jun 21 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
The third course in a very entertaining series.
Raven Strategem - Yoon Ha Lee (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jun 20 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Thrilling follow-up, like the middle layer in a really good sandwich!
Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jun 17 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi

Exciting, action-packed, ... (read more)
Exciting, action-packed, weird, enjoyable. Space opera with some weird belief system and mechanics thrown in. Fully built world, consistent use, and no hidden surprises that felt out of place. I went out to the store to buy the sequels as soon as I finished this.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond (1997)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Jun 14 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational

An interesting book with ... (read more)
An interesting book with a more scientific premise of social progress, and understandable why it is so highly awarded. Though it did tend to go off more on the anthropological and sociological side, which made the book quite difficult to read (as in entertaining) but its typical of books of this type. The title is anecdoctal, so the initial impression was quite misleading that the book would offer a historical perspective on the three things - guns, germs, and steel.
The Medusa Chronicles - Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jun 08 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

A worthy successor to Cla... (read more)
A worthy successor to Clarke's story, this was so much more entertaining and interesting than I initially thought. A great example of a sequel nobody asked for being outstanding.
A Meeting with Medusa - Arthur C. Clarke (1971)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jun 06 2022 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A classic Clarke short story
Antkind - Charlie Kaufman (2020)
fiction ; read in Sun Jun 05 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
This is Kaufman, but 700 pages long.
The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One - Amanda Lovelace (2018)
fiction ; read in Sun May 29 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Book 3 of the series, just as wonderful and evocative.
The Doomed City - Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (1989)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat May 28 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A masterpiece of how scie... (read more)
A masterpiece of how science fiction can be a work of philosophical and political commentary. Reading it today there is no indication of why this was a controversial or risky venture in its time and place. But the explanation provided at the end by the authors explains it quite well how imagining this in today's social situation where freedom of thought and speech are common is a difficult - we have no means of comparing or experiencing what it would mean to consider some thoughts as illegal. To imagine this has happened, and at the risk of happening again is a provocative realisation.
Naked - David Sedaris (1997)
non-fiction ; read in Wed May 25 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Sedaris being quirky. If you like it, you like it.
Mr. Palomar - Italo Calvino (1983)
fiction ; read in Wed May 18 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, language
A delightful read that is clever and thoughtful
The Vagina Bible - Jen Gunter (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Sun May 15 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: educational

Undeniably educational, t... (read more)
Undeniably educational, this book is a good collection of short chapters on various topics and issues and all sorts of things a woman (and a man, and everyone for that matter) could benefit from knowing. A lot of online reviews, e.g. goodreads, point out the tone of the book being too opionated or that this information can be found elsewhere. I don't understand them. Can you blame the author when history and even large swathes of the current society are ignorant of women and their bodies? I'm bitter about not knowing things that 50% of all humans have or are facing. And I don't even have a women's body. Despite this, I found the book to be educational, even if as a refresher to things, to know more about the crazy amount of issues women have to live with, every day every month, and that there are a lot of things that I should know about too.
Brave New World Revisited - Aldous Huxley (1932)
non-fiction ; read in Wed May 11 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational

An excellent and astute o... (read more)
An excellent and astute observation from the mind that wrote Brave New World, the Revisited can be interpreted as a collection of essays on the reflection of that book's topics to the functioning in real world. It is quite sobering, and astounding, if not merely depressing - to realise that this book was written 60 years ago (from today) and yet the words are eerily accurate and applicable to the current times. Whether to call people like Huxley and Orwell is an understatement. The fact that we did not course-correct is more telling that whether they were accurate. Because we could have decided not to let them be accurate. And yet here we are two generations later, seeminly worse than ever.
Revenger - Alastair Reynolds (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun May 08 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A decent mix of cyberpunk and space pirates.
The First Idea: The First Idea: How Symbols, Language, and Intelligence Evolved from Our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans - Stanley I. Greenspan, Stuart G. Shanker (2004)
non-fiction ; read in Wed May 04 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

Interesting idea, dense a... (read more)
Interesting idea, dense and limited views. The authors and consequently the book is very much rooted in Psychology and Anthropology as opposed to what I was hoping would be a more broader view of Biology and Philosophy. It spends too much time on anecdotal stories about babies and their abilities to communicate - which while very interesting, does not satisfy the question of how did we evolve to think symbols and languages. The title should have warned me - this book is only about primates, and nothing before that, but I suppose I was too excited to notice. For instance, communication is the basis for an idea - which the book makes clear, but utterly fails to consider any notion of communication in non-primates as being of relevance other than a few related mammalian instances. Birds, bees, insects, even plans all communicate. Do they have a language? Undoubtedly yes. Do they have symbols? Probably. Do they have Ideas? I don't know! By not considering this, the book fails at the premise of answering its own question. And identifying a larger one at that - whether the notion of ideas and symbols has been evolutionary only within us or we merely at the tail of a long chain of developments in nature.
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk (1999)
fiction ; read in Sat Apr 30 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Though the second book by Palahniuk, by now the writing seems formulaic and repetitive. Read it, forget it.
The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes - Donald D. Hoffman (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Apr 26 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

This book was one of the ... (read more)
This book was one of the most difficult reads so far. It definitely has valuable concepts and interesting perspectives. But reading it is just so painful that I wanted to give up in the first chapter itself. Things are excessively repetitive, often vague enough to make me browse back 10-15 pages to see if I had missed something explaining it, narratives jump across domains and seemingly unrelated topics that distracts immesely from what was being discussed, and to top it all - how designed jeans can make butts look bigger is used as an example of how our perception is not the 'objective reality'. Good topic, bad book.
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse (1922)
fiction ; read in Fri Apr 22 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A gentle but thoughtful rendition of meeting the Buddha and being the Buddha.
Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet - Tim Hwang (2020)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Apr 21 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A good summary for the uninitiated. But we are initiated, aren't we Bruce?
Elder Race - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Apr 21 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Interesting and innovative take on advanced science being indistinguishable from magic
Numero Zero - Umberto Eco (2015)
fiction ; read in Thu Apr 21 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: cork

All the classical signs o... (read more)
All the classical signs of Eco's wit and humor. Though the plot really did do too much into historical fact and fiction in between, and the ending wasn't as imapactful.
Diaspora - Greg Egan (1997)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Apr 19 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, aliens, cork, scifi

I have definitely not gra... (read more)
I have definitely not grasped half the stuff that was going on, but the things that I did were... awesome! One might need a PhD in Physics, or Quantum Mechanics, or Mathematics to fully appreciate the level of detailing that is presented here, but the concepts start off with known ones so there's something for anyone who knows a bit about these topics. Some really cool stuff in here.
Terminal World - Alastair Reynolds (2009)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Apr 18 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in lists: cork, scifi

What began as an exciting... (read more)
What began as an exciting cyberpunk Zone-of-Thought meets Blade Runner type adventure eventually devolved into post-apocalyptic Mad Max adventures that lacked the sci-fi details I was so hooked on to. Great start, disappointing finish.
Quarantine - Greg Egan (1992)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Apr 16 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: cork

An impressiv feat of futu... (read more)
An impressiv feat of futuristic sci-fi thriller that manages to squeeze in bioengineering, quantum physics, and aliens into a small package. As a fan of Philip K. Dick, this was immensely enjoyable.
A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Apr 14 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;

An enjoyable sequel to an... (read more)
An enjoyable sequel to an amazing first book, it is also full of delightful characters, cultures, norms, languages, biologies, aliens, first contacts, and so much more.
Obelisk - Stephen Baxter (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Apr 02 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A good overview of Baxter... (read more)
A good overview of Baxter's various writing styles in which he grapples with philosophical questions in one, to what is it to be human in future science. A lot of the stories are connected to other novels, often relying on some hidden knowledge that isn't apparent at first. Still, a good read.
Kraken - China Miéville (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Mar 26 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Mieville doing what he does so well: write weird fiction.
Math Without Numbers - Milo Beckman (2021)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Mar 20 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

I received this book as a... (read more)
I received this book as a birthday gift from a dear friend. Incidentally, I had recently read "A Brief History of Mathematical Thought", so I was more surprised and amused at having received this. Math books are not something my friends would think I'd be interested in, quite the oppposite. I failed math in college. Good, clean, practical engineering maths. Because I absolutely hated the way it was taught. I always thought math is more philosophical, it is supposed to represent the way we think, or change the way we look and understand things. Instead, I was always taught math as a series of take-it-or-leave-it lectures that made me memorise formulae and their application. When I accepted this book, I was sceptical - how much math stuff would I *not* know. I've finished high-school, I've finished an engineering college (where despite my failed math exams, I always did know how to do math), and a PhD in computer science. Turns out the answer was - there's always more I don't know, including the exactness of mathematical concepts, or why they are the way they are, or how they associate to the way I'm supposed to be thinking. It reminded me something about another book - "Thinking in Systems: A Primer", which also was about fundamentals and building a thought process that was close to what we're used to in terms of language and comprehension. A good read, a good topic, and a good gift!
Beautiful You - Chuck Palahniuk (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Mar 18 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork
Shocking start, crazy middle, typical ending - more Palahniuk books please.
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut (1973)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 16 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Classic Vonnegut - where some satirical stuff happens.
The Particle at the End of the Universe - Sean Carroll (2012)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Mar 13 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

A relaxed introduction to... (read more)
A relaxed introduction to the world of particle physics, detection methods, LHC/CERN, and the importance of Higg's boson. A little too much on the people-side of things, but it makes up by explaining particle theories and applications in good detail. Has some useful analogies to understand things without a physics doctorate.
Traces - Stephen Baxter (1998)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Mar 11 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A decent collection of short stories revolving around scientific progress without social changes
A Brief History of Mathematical Thought - Luke Heaton (2015)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Mar 04 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A (truly) brief summary of different mathematical 'philosophies'. Would have been nice to read in school.
Dying of the Light - Georg R. R. Martin (1977)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Feb 26 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A typical older sci-fi take on the implications of progress while retaining inherent flaws of humankind.
Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman (2011)
fiction ; read in Sun Feb 20 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A thematic book written in London slang. Like watching City of Gold mixed with Mud in word form.
Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang - Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok (2007)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Feb 15 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational
An educational read, though a bit heavy on the physics side, of the big bang, origins of the universe, and the theories out there.
Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jan 29 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
An enjoyable read combining horror/thriller with Mira Grant's penchant for details and science. A tad too long, which affects enjoyability.
Song of Kali - Dan Simmons (2005)
fiction ; read in Tue Jan 18 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A slow burner with a fair setting in Kolkata. Thought it was slow but the scenes lingered after reading.
Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1961)
fiction ; read in Thu Jan 13 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A darker and well concocted humour mixture from Vonnegut. Small and quick read.
House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jan 12 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Awesome from page1. The breadth, scope, and story makes this one a classic. What a wonderful reading.
Slapstick or Lonesome No More - Kurt Vonnegut (1976)
fiction ; read in Fri Jan 07 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Funny dark humour. Not Cat's Cradle though.
Pygmy - Chuck Palahniuk (2009)
fiction ; read in Wed Jan 05 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Sharp wit but a difficult read and excessive Americanisation of sarcasm to extremes. Maybe that was the point.
Axiom's End - Lindsay Ellis (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jan 03 2022 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
A promising alien first-contact premise, but disappointing writing and plotlines. Still some interesting topics were broached.
Humpty Dumpty in Oakland - Philip K. Dick (1986)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jan 01 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: cork
A non-sci-fi book from PKD that follows the same themes but loses the cohesion.
Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom - Simon Barnes (2013)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jan 01 2022 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: cork, educational
A nice collection of short stories with facts. Kind of lick those 90s Discovery TV shows I grew up watching.
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut (1990)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Dec 26 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork
A clever and witty book that shows Vonnegut's style and humour. Read for the experience.
The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson (1954)
fiction ; read in Thu Dec 23 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: cork, fantasy
Got interested in the book upon learning it was an epic fantasy released the same year as the Lord of the Rings. Turned out to be an enjoyable read.
The Last Days of New Paris - China Miéville (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Dec 20 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: cork
How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers - Sönke Ahrens (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Dec 19 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: educational
Deus Irae - Philip K. Dick and Roger Zealany (1976)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Dec 18 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories - Ken Liu (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 16 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology - Lisa Margonelli (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Dec 09 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Too much people experience, not enough termites
Lap Dancing for Mommy: Tender Stories of Disgust, Blame and Inspiration - Erika Lopez (1997)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 04 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Our Friends from Frolix 8 - Philip K. Dick (1970)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Dec 04 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk (2001)
fiction ; read in Fri Dec 03 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
No Bones - Anna Burns (2001)
fiction ; read in Mon Nov 29 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
This was the stone from which the Milkman diamond was cut
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Nov 27 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, scifi
Enjoyable read. Project Hail Mary = The Martian + Children of Time + The Andromeda Strain
Cage of Souls - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Nov 25 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Dress your family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris (2004)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Nov 20 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Railsea - China Miéville (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Nov 14 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: fantasy, scifi
The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Nov 13 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing (1999)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Nov 12 2021 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement (1954)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Nov 09 2021 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Contact - Carl Sagan (1985)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Nov 05 2021 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, scifi
Cosmos - Carl Sagan (1980)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Nov 04 2021 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
The Hilarious World of Depression - John Moe (2020)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Oct 31 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
An autobiography of someone who has and overcame depression. Some gems to collect as you read
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick (1965)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 23 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 09 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Jyave Tyanchya Desha [जावे त्यांच्या देशा] - P. L. Deshpande [ पु. ल. देशपांडे ] (1974)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Sep 26 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
To Hold Up the Sky - Cixin Liu (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Sep 23 2021 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Hard to be a God - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1964)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 22 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (1999)
fiction ; read in Sat Sep 18 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: horror
Like reading someone's else's dreams. Enjoy the dish. Don't try to guess the ingredients.
Limbo - Bernard Wolfe (1952)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Sep 14 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A weird philosophical version of Atlas Shrugged, filled with the 50s notions of masculinity, sexism, classism, and power.
Ethical Data and Information Management - Katherine O'Keefe, Daragh O'Brien (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Sep 13 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Good overview of concepts and processes. Would have been impactful if I had read this at the start of learning.
City of Illusions - Ursula K. Le Guinn (1967)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 03 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Planet of Exile - Ursula K. Le Guinn (1966)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 03 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Rocannon's World - Ursula K. Le Guinn (1966)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 01 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A Horse Walks into a Bar - David Grossman (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Aug 29 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick (1970)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Aug 28 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Time Out of Joint - Philip K. Dick (1959)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Aug 27 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick (1964)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Aug 23 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Consentability: Consent and its Limits - Nancy S. Kim (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Aug 22 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational
A Time of Changes - Robert Silverberg (1971)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Aug 17 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
LESS - Andrew Sean Greer (2017)
fiction ; read in Fri Aug 13 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss (1958)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Aug 13 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester (1953)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Aug 10 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Monday Starts on a Saturday - Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (1965)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Aug 09 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (1990)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Aug 06 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Female Man - Joanna Russ (1975)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Aug 01 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Raft - Stephen Baxter (1991)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 31 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Gateway - Frederik Pohl (1977)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jul 29 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke (1961)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 24 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Martian Time-Slip - Philip K. Dick (1964)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jul 13 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 03 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Iron Council - China Miéville (2004)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jun 26 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Snail on the Slope - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1980)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jun 24 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe (1972)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jun 20 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick (1977)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jun 19 2021 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Firewalkers - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jun 10 2021 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter - Paul J. Steinhardt (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jun 05 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Parable of the Talents - Octavia E. Butler (1998)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun May 30 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges (1962)
fiction ; read in Fri May 28 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue May 25 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: cork
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality - Max Tegmark (2014)
non-fiction ; read in Sat May 22 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, DCU, educational
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media - Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky (1988)
non-fiction ; read in Tue May 18 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational
Poor Economics - Abhijit V. Banerjee (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Apr 29 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational
Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk (2019)
; read in Thu Apr 22 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: storytelling
The Stone Sky - N. K. Jemisin (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Apr 19 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Obelisk Gate - N. K. Jemisin (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Apr 18 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Apr 17 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
VALIS - Philip K. Dick (1981)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Apr 16 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Disturbingly brilliant.
Bloodchild - Octavia E. Butler (1984)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Mar 21 2021 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Lavinia - Ursula K. Le Guin (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Mar 17 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The Word for World Is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin (1976)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Mar 14 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Tau Zero - Poul Anderson (1970)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Mar 09 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany (1966)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Mar 07 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The City We Became - N. K. Jemisin (2020)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Mar 06 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The Scar - China Miéville (2002)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Feb 21 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: fantasy, scifi
Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jan 31 2021 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: aliens
Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler (1993)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Dec 07 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
What Every Postdoc Needs To Know - Liz Elvidge (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Nov 30 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life

A lot of stuff presented ... (read more)
A lot of stuff presented in the book may seem like common-sense and common-advice so prevalent in academia, but the impact and coherent view really puts everything in perspective together. There are lists, checklists, and areas where you are asked to stop and think before moving ahead. This book presents a great exercise in shaping the postdoc career from the start and is a good reference to keep coming back to in the first two years. Receiving this at the end of my PhD was a delightful (and useful) gift. That said, I would go ahead and recommend this to PhDs who are curious about careers in academia and want to move on the becoming a postdoc.
The Raven Tower - Ann Leckie (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Nov 04 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list:
S. - Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Nov 01 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: visually-stunning
Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control - Stuart Russell (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Oct 26 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
King Rat - China Miéville (1998)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Oct 25 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Provenance - Ann Leckie (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Oct 22 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships - Eric Berne (1964)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Oct 17 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics - Adam Becker (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Oct 16 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: educational
The Denial of Death - Ernest Becker (1973)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Oct 15 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, DCU, educational
Blindsight - Peter Watts (2006)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 10 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, scifi
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
fiction ; read in Sun Oct 04 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Supernova Era - Liu Cixin (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Sep 24 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😠awful (1/5) ;

Ridiculously written, wit... (read more)
Ridiculously written, with utterly weak premises, weak science, and weak characters. This was boring. To think this is the same author as the Three Body Problem is a travesty. The entire book is underpinned by subtle political commentary, which leaves a bad taste. And yes - the science is weak, it would have been better to not have the supernova itself at all.
Dichronauts - Greg Egan (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Sep 24 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny (1967)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Sep 20 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: fantasy, scifi
Tehanu - Ursula K. Le Guin (1990)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 16 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin (1972)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 16 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin (1970)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 16 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin (1968)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Sep 12 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino (1972)
fiction ; read in Thu Sep 10 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: language
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures - Merlin Sheldrake (2020)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Sep 09 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, educational
Autonomous - Annalee Newitz (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 04 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage - Alice Munro (2001)
fiction ; read in Sun Aug 30 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Soft Science - Franny Choi (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Aug 25 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: language
Perdido Street Station - China Miéville (2000)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Aug 23 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World - Pedro Domingos (2015)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Aug 19 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

I read this book on the r... (read more)
I read this book on the recommendation of a friend. We are both computer scientists, with her being vastly more knowledgeable than I am on the topic of machine learning. In fact, I barely know machine learning at all. With that as the background, reading this book is a good introduction to what’s been happening out in the world - provided you already had an idea about it. If you’re a beginner or someone who doesn’t already know about machine learning, I think the book is going to be unbearably dense and confusing.<br/><br/>As for the contents of the book itself, I found the first half exceedingly enjoyable and fun to read. The little titbits of history, of explanations, and the connections were all an excellent addition to the reading. However, the second half of the book, in particular the last two or three chapters pertaining to the master algorithm itself were woefully inadequate, short, and dense for my continued comfort. <br/><br/>I would still recommend reading this book for the topic and perspective, but with a fair warning about taking the last chapters on application of machine learning as ground truth. They’re not (hopefully). For instance, the author thinks privacy is overrated, laws that limit misuse of data are myopic, and that sooner or later we will all be handing our data to a ‘trusted third party’. I cannot agree with this in good faith. I must point out the good along with the bad - there was a good argument for transparency in the workings of algorithms, about introducing control points for tweaking, and being more cohesive in the different branches of technology and its applications (finance, health, medicine, even dating). These I agree and support, but lest we do not forget that accountability and ethics are also what makes humans as humans in addition to our superior intellect and reasoning capabilities.
Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon (1937)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Aug 11 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi

The sheer scope of this w... (read more)
The sheer scope of this work is immense - stars, civilisations, universes, and beyond. Difficult to read due to the language and dry descriptions, and the mystic attributes in discussions. A classic for a reason. Rewarding myth building as Stapledon likes to call it.
Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Aug 11 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

A nice collection of essa... (read more)
A nice collection of essays and articles. Mostly about the authors perception through which we discover things. Reminds me of the Sunday newspapers that I used to like to read with interest and at leisure. Some of the essays are quite good, some personal.
Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon (1930)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Aug 05 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;

Ambitious - the first wor... (read more)
Ambitious - the first word that springs to mind upon reading Last and First Men. Tracing human civilisation starting from World War 1 through the various cycles of evolution, politics, religion, and even consciousness - this book is an incredible read. However, as things progress, there are greater and greater leaps of faith and fiction until we eventually reach the Last Men - the point where we read about things that happen without the time or space to think about why and its implications on us today. The writing is dry and typical of its publication era (1930), so a bit difficult to read and keep engaged with.
Doing Time - Jodi Taylor (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Aug 01 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

As if Doctor Who was made... (read more)
As if Doctor Who was made into a tv series, except with time police. I haven't read any of the other books by the author or the series - so this was great for some light reading. Typical plot characters, simple language, and easy to follow through and read at leisure. Some really funny moments that are enjoyable.
The Wandering Earth - Liu Cixin (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jul 26 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jul 20 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, scifi
Dogs of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 01 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Thinking in Systems: A Primer - Donella H. Meadows (2008)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Jun 28 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: DCU

This is a great book to i... (read more)
This is a great book to introduce yourself to "thinking in systems" - just like the title says. Other than that, the book can be frustrating if one tries to figure out how to apply it everywhere. At this point, one realises that the book is an introductory course in systems thinking - it will tell what a system is, how to express the functioning of a system, and how to map some real-world events in terms of systems. This is like a first-year college course - you learn things, but you need to get more advanced knowledge before you can apply it masterfully. All that said - excellent book to get started.
Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity - Felicia Day (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Jun 28 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life

This is an amazing book. ... (read more)
This is an amazing book. Absolutely great at forcing yourself to get out (or in?) and do some stuff - even if it is mundane scribbling on a paper (of the book). Felicia Day is like that hyper-cheerful host of a workshop that you turn up and sit silently at but then get asked in an extremely enthusiastic way to get excited and do some things. The start is annoying, a bit uncomfortable, and there is a dislike for the cheerful excited loud person in the room. But eventually once you start doing things it gets easier then nicer and then fun. The only right way to read (perform?) this book is to do some exercises, get on with life, then come back and do some more. The exercises (let's call them activities?) are stupid, fun, self-reflective, creative. And doing them makes the book personal - this is your creative diary now. The focal point of the book - which it hammers by showing you a mirror - is that you are responsible for the things that hold you back in your own head. I quite enjoyed going through the book - and plan to do the activities in ink someday again.
Old Man's War - John Scalzi (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jun 26 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Super cheesy, but good cheesy. Great hard sci-fi and drama. Means enjoyable cheesy.
Ancillary Mercy - Ann Leckie (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jun 16 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
The Test - Sylvain Neuvel (2019)
fiction ; read in Mon Jun 15 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A Black Mirror novella - definitely worth reading.
Nightfall and Other Stories - Isaac Asimov (1969)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jun 13 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A good collection of short stories that show the way Asimov thought and wrote and improved. Useful for aspiring writers.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power - Shoshana Zuboff (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Jun 11 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, DCU, educational
Once Upon a River - Diane Setterfield (2018)
fiction ; read in Mon Jun 01 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;

A great start, and a good... (read more)
A great start, and a good blend of genres in this tale-spinning book. However, I found it too lyrical and moving in circles for my reading pleasures. Some people are bound to like this more than I have.
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death - Caitlin Doughty (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Fri May 22 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A nice fun read about an usually grim subject. A good coffee table book.
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness - Peter Godfrey-Smith (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Tue May 19 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The topic of the book is ... (read more)
The topic of the book is quite interesting, it had me completely hooked at the beginning. However, the narration and structure is a big let down. Topics of interest are not followed up on. The book ultimately ends up being a tease about consciousness and turns itself more into a mini-documentary about octopus (and cephalopods).
Sex Instructions for Farmers - Charles McSherry (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Fri May 01 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Flights - Olga Tokarczuk (2007)
fiction ; read in Sun Apr 26 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: storytelling

This book has been an abs... (read more)
This book has been an absolute delight (in both literal and figurative sense) and a pleasure to read. Flights is composed of short stories of varying lengths - from single paragraphs to novella-esque lengths. Sometimes the stories have connections between them, sometimes they are split into parts. But the best part is that each story is a tiny island of personality into itself. I could never guess which storyteller I would get next. Each starting was a new adventure. The stories themselves are varied in topics, themes, and places - but they all share a vague resemblance and relation to the title "Flights". The English translation was quite well done - but the beauty of this prose is undoubtedly in its descriptions and characters written by the author almost as if they exist. Maybe they do, and this was a travelogue all along - I don't want to know. I am sure I will be revisiting this book again some day and will enjoy it once again again too.
An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds - Jonathan Silvertown (2009)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Apr 18 2020 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;

The books is all about se... (read more)
The books is all about seeds - or so it claims. And yet it barely scratches the surface - but just enough to be disappointed with its ending. A good start, and then a flop of a finish.
What Every Postdoc Needs To Know - Liz Elvidge (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Mar 13 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life

A lot of stuff presented ... (read more)
A lot of stuff presented in the book may seem like common-sense and common-advice so prevalent in academia, but the impact and coherent view really puts everything in perspective together. There are lists, checklists, and areas where you are asked to stop and think before moving ahead. This book presents a great exercise in shaping the postdoc career from the start and is a good reference to keep coming back to in the first two years. Receiving this at the end of my PhD was a delightful (and useful) gift. That said, I would go ahead and recommend this to PhDs who are curious about careers in academia and want to move on the becoming a postdoc.
I'm Not Your Paper Princess - J.R. Rogue (2019)
fiction ; read in Mon Mar 09 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right - Atul Gawande (2009)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Feb 28 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, DCU

Checklists work, they pro... (read more)
Checklists work, they provide discipline, and are critical in complicated tasks such as surgery and flying a plane. That sums the book, though of course why checklists are needed, and how they are adopted and some good stories about their use is what makes the book a good read. Alas, I bought the book in the hope of using checklists for personal productivity - to which the book provides no clue or indication. Still, I will say this has been an enjoyable read if only so as to read about checklists used and being useful across the world.
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov (1972)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Feb 24 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling - Emer McLysaght (2017)
fiction ; read in Sat Feb 22 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The City & the City - China Miéville (2009)
fiction ; read in Tue Feb 18 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge (1992)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Feb 08 2020 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jan 17 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jan 14 2020 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America - Matt Kracht (2019)
fiction ; read in Tue Dec 31 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Chip Heath (2006)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Dec 30 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (2002)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Dec 29 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, books-changed-life, scifi
Naïve. Super - Erlend Loe (1996)
fiction ; read in Fri Dec 27 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons (1990)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Dec 23 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: fantasy, scifi
Hyperion - Dan Simmons (1989)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 20 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: fantasy, scifi
Exhalation - Ted Chiang (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 19 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, books-changed-life, scifi
Where'd You Go, Bernadette - Maria Semple (2012)
fiction ; read in Mon Dec 16 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed - Lori Gottlieb (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Dec 14 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life
The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie (1942)
fiction ; read in Sun Dec 08 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😠awful (1/5) ;
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
fiction ; read in Sun Dec 08 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Once Upon a River - Bonnie Jo Campbell (2011)
fiction ; read in Sun Dec 08 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Lime Twig - John Hawkes (1961)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 07 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (1962)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 07 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
50 Greatest Short Stories - Terry O'Brien (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 06 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker (1988)
fiction ; read in Fri Dec 06 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata (2016)
fiction ; read in Wed Dec 04 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Second Frederic Brown Megapack - Fredric Brown (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Dec 04 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Memories of My Melancholy Whores - Gabriel García Márquez (2004)
fiction ; read in Mon Dec 02 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
How to Get into the Twin Palms - Karolina Waclawiak (2012)
fiction ; read in Mon Dec 02 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Dept. of Speculation - Jenny Offill (2014)
fiction ; read in Sun Dec 01 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien (1967)
fiction ; read in Sat Nov 30 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
In Watermelon Sugar - Richard Brautigan (1968)
fiction ; read in Fri Nov 29 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Heartburn - Nora Ephron (1983)
fiction ; read in Fri Nov 29 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Being There - Jerzy Kosiński (1970)
fiction ; read in Thu Nov 28 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Acceptance - Jeff VanderMeer (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Nov 28 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Authority - Jeff VanderMeer (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Nov 28 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Nov 28 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: horror
Politics - Aristotle (-350)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Nov 26 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics, DCU, educational
Fall or, Dodge in Hell - Neal Stephenson (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Nov 26 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Wall - John Lanchester (2019)
fiction ; read in Tue Nov 19 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Quichotte - Salman Rushdie (2019)
fiction ; read in Sun Nov 17 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Here and Now and Then - Mike Chen (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Nov 16 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Philip K. Dick MEGAPACK ®: 15 Classic Science Fiction Stories - Philip K. Dick (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Nov 15 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami (2002)
fiction ; read in Mon Nov 11 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: horror
The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman (1986)
fiction ; read in Thu Nov 07 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: storytelling, visually-stunning
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman (2013)
fiction ; read in Sat Nov 02 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge (1999)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Oct 31 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Overstory - Richard Powers (2018)
fiction ; read in Thu Oct 24 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The Fredric Brown MEGAPACK ®: 33 Classic Science Fiction Stories - Fredric Brown (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 19 2019 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami (1987)
fiction ; read in Tue Oct 15 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1959)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Oct 10 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke (1979)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Oct 07 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Milkman - Anna Burns (2018)
fiction ; read in Sun Sep 29 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: language
The Testaments - Margaret Atwood (2019)
fiction ; read in Sun Sep 22 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Caroline Criado Perez (2019)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Sep 16 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson (1995)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 13 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Sep 09 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Voices Within - Charles Fernyhough (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Sep 04 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Artemis - Andy Weir (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Aug 16 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Aug 14 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Aug 14 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Martian - Andy Weir (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Aug 13 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Ringworld Engineers - Larry Niven (1979)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Aug 08 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence - Michael Pollan (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Aug 06 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Don't Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master - Brad Warner (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Aug 06 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One - Amanda Lovelace (2019)
fiction ; read in Wed Jul 31 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: language
The Night Life of Trees - Bhajju Shyam (2006)
fiction ; read in Tue Jul 30 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: visually-stunning
Three Men on the Bummel - Jerome K. Jerome (1900)
fiction ; read in Sat Jul 06 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails - Sarah Bakewell (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jul 06 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie (1936)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jun 29 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Recursion - Blake Crouch (2019)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jun 27 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Ulysses - James Joyce (1922)
fiction ; read in Mon Jun 24 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, DCU, storytelling
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
fiction ; read in Fri Jun 21 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, DCU, storytelling
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character - Richard P. Feynman (1985)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Jun 21 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Princess Saves Herself in This One - Amanda Lovelace (2016)
fiction ; read in Sun Jun 16 2019 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: language
The Wonder Down Under: A User's Guide to the Vagina - Nina Brochmann (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Jun 10 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture - Roxane Gay (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Jun 03 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
As a Man Thinketh - James Allen (1902)
non-fiction ; read in Wed May 29 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
3001: The Final Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke (1997)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon May 27 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
2061: Odyssey Three - Arthur C. Clarke (1987)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun May 26 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
2010: Odyssey Two - Arthur C. Clarke (1982)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat May 25 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu May 23 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Girl, the Moon, and the Ocean - Kevin Koidl (2018)
fiction ; read in Tue May 21 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Satantango - László Krasznahorkai (1985)
fiction ; read in Mon May 20 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor (1952)
non-fiction ; read in Mon May 20 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now - Meg Jay (2012)
non-fiction ; read in Sun May 12 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri May 10 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury (1949)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed May 08 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive - Brian Christian (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Mon May 06 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion - Paul Bloom (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Apr 21 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov (1962)
fiction ; read in Sun Apr 14 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: language
Hopscotch - Julio Cortázar (1963)
fiction ; read in Tue Apr 09 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: language
Calypso - David Sedaris (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Apr 04 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: humour
Hoochie Mama: The Other White Meat - Erika Lopez (2001)
fiction ; read in Mon Apr 01 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino (1979)
fiction ; read in Sun Mar 24 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: language
Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre (1938)
fiction ; read in Thu Mar 21 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics
Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking - Daniel C. Dennett (2013)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Mar 13 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
They Call Me Mad Dog!: A Story for Bitter, Lonely People - Erika Lopez (1998)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 13 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Passionella and Other Stories - Jules Feiffer (1959)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 06 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: visually-stunning
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion - Jonathan Haidt (2012)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Mar 05 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: educational
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires - Tim Wu (2010)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Feb 24 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: educational
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo (2019)
fiction ; read in Thu Feb 21 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing - Merve Emre (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Feb 20 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine K. Albright (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Feb 19 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Capital in the Twenty-First Century - Thomas Piketty (2013)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Feb 15 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Feb 15 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
21 Lessons for the 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Feb 14 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks (2006)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 08 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Intercourse - Andrea Dworkin (1987)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Feb 01 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life
Solaris - Stanisław Lem (1961)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jan 29 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, scifi
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values - Robert M. Pirsig (1974)
fiction ; read in Mon Jan 28 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments - Ali Almossawi (2013)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jan 26 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😠awful (1/5) ;
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (1961)
fiction ; read in Sat Jan 26 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1864)
fiction ; read in Wed Jan 23 2019 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Mr. Fox - Helen Oyeyemi (2011)
fiction ; read in Sun Jan 13 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
All the Birds in the Sky - Charlie Jane Anders (2016)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jan 07 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
featured in list: TCD
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
fiction ; read in Wed Jan 02 2019 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: language
Letters from a Stoic - Seneca (64)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Dec 28 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Why We Broke Up - Daniel Handler (2011)
fiction ; read in Mon Dec 24 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Gudgulya - D.M. Mirasdar (1977)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 22 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Ringworld - Larry Niven (1970)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Dec 22 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Naked Sun - Isaac Asimov (1956)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 21 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Seveneves - Neal Stephenson (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 20 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions - Brian Christian (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Dec 20 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing - Erika Lopez (1997)
fiction ; read in Mon Dec 17 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: visually-stunning
The Gone-Away World - Nick Harkaway (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 13 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
After the World - Máire Brophy (2018)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 13 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Fiasco - Stanisław Lem (1986)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Dec 13 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: aliens, scifi
Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders (2017)
fiction ; read in Wed Dec 12 2018 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Six Wakes - Mur Lafferty (2017)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Dec 12 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1879)
fiction ; read in Mon Dec 10 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, storytelling
Passage - Connie Willis (2001)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Dec 08 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Stumbling on Happiness - Daniel Todd Gilbert (2006)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Dec 05 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Across the River and into the Trees - Ernest Hemingway (1950)
fiction ; read in Wed Dec 05 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Evening Class - Maeve Binchy (1996)
fiction ; read in Sun Dec 02 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Models: Attract Women Through Honesty - Mark Manson (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Dec 01 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
I, Robot (Robot, #0.1) - Isaac Asimov (1950)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Nov 30 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Grimm's Fairy Tales - Jacob Grimm (2011)
fiction ; read in Wed Nov 28 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, DCU
Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado (2017)
fiction ; read in Tue Nov 27 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry - Jon Ronson (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Nov 25 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Fukat - D.M. Mirasdar (1993)
fiction ; read in Fri Nov 23 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Republic - Plato (-380)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Nov 23 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics, DCU, educational
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (1981)
fiction ; read in Mon Nov 19 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy, language, storytelling
The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov (1954)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Nov 11 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov (1952)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Nov 08 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov (1953)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Nov 03 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton (2013)
fiction ; read in Fri Oct 19 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: storytelling
Embassytown - China Miéville (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Oct 18 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Forward the Foundation - Isaac Asimov (1993)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 13 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov (1982)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 06 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Lady in the Van - Alan Bennett (1999)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Sep 26 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (2010)
fiction ; read in Wed Sep 19 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (2008)
fiction ; read in Fri Sep 07 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: storytelling
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
fiction ; read in Wed Aug 22 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: storytelling
Animal Farm - George Orwell (1945)
fiction ; read in Tue Aug 21 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics
Anathem - Neal Stephenson (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Aug 13 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Silence - Shūsaku Endō (1966)
fiction ; read in Sat Aug 11 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress - Steven Pinker (2018)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Aug 07 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, educational
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1985)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Aug 07 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Robots of Dawn - Isaac Asimov (1983)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Aug 02 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood (2016)
fiction ; read in Wed Jul 25 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Sellout - Paul Beatty (2015)
fiction ; read in Fri Jul 20 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Geek Feminist Revolution - Kameron Hurley (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Jul 18 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Foundation - Isaac Asimov (1951)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jul 13 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven D. Levitt (2005)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Jun 29 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Patriotism - Yukio Mishima (1961)
fiction ; read in Fri Jun 29 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End - Atul Gawande (2014)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Jun 27 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein (1959)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jun 22 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1969)
fiction ; read in Wed Jun 20 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Accelerando - Charles Stross (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jun 08 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
The Complete Robot (Robot, #0.3) - Isaac Asimov (1982)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jun 04 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Candide - Voltaire (1759)
fiction ; read in Fri Jun 01 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Sacred Games - Vikram Chandra (2006)
fiction ; read in Sun May 13 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Classical Literary Criticism - Penelope Murray (2001)
non-fiction ; read in Tue May 08 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The Art of Rhetoric - Aristotle (-322)
non-fiction ; read in Fri May 04 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, DCU
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie (1988)
fiction ; read in Thu May 03 2018 in 💾 medium ; owned in 💾digital medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Ubik - Philip K. Dick (1969)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Apr 24 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki (2013)
fiction ; read in Fri Apr 13 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Robots and Empire - Isaac Asimov (1985)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Mar 28 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)
fiction ; read in Tue Mar 27 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life
Rainbows End - Vernor Vinge (2006)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Mar 26 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
The Vegetarian - Han Kang (2007)
fiction ; read in Thu Mar 15 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Prelude to Foundation - Isaac Asimov (1988)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Mar 14 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life - Mark Manson (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Mar 02 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (2005)
fiction ; read in Sat Feb 24 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov (1986)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Feb 23 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1932)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Feb 22 2018 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, educational, scifi
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (1996)
fiction ; read in Wed Jan 31 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Trial and Death of Socrates (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (death scene only)) - Plato (-400)
fiction ; read in Mon Jan 08 2018 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (1985)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Dec 18 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics
Pulp - Charles Bukowski (1994)
fiction ; read in Sun Nov 26 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Nov 15 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (1992)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Nov 14 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Duckworth (2016)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Nov 11 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Post Office - Charles Bukowski (1971)
fiction ; read in Thu Nov 02 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Death's End - Liu Cixin (2010)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Oct 20 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert (1969)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 14 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997)
fiction ; read in Sun Sep 24 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert (1981)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Sep 04 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco (1988)
fiction ; read in Mon Sep 04 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World - Peter Wohlleben (2015)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Sep 04 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Aug 28 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics, DCU, educational
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (1890)
fiction ; read in Thu Aug 24 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Aug 19 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
1984 - George Orwell (1949)
fiction ; read in Wed Aug 09 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics
Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics - Robert Gilmore (1994)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jul 22 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Dark Forest - Liu Cixin (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jul 17 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Edgar Allan Poe (1841)
fiction ; read in Mon Jul 10 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (1952)
fiction ; read in Sun Jul 09 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain (1881)
fiction ; read in Mon Jun 26 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller (1934)
fiction ; read in Sat Jun 24 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert (1984)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jun 17 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin (2006)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jun 17 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noah Harari (2017)
non-fiction ; read in Thu Jun 08 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Fri Jun 02 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: DCU, educational
The Clever Guts Diet: How to Revolutionise Your Body from the Inside Out - Michael Mosley (2017)
fiction ; read in Fri May 19 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😠awful (1/5) ;
featured in list: TCD
Notes of a Dirty Old Man - Charles Bukowski (1969)
fiction ; read in Tue May 09 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Lord of the Flies - William Golding (1954)
fiction ; read in Thu May 04 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick (1962)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu May 04 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick (1968)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Apr 22 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1960)
fiction ; read in Mon Mar 20 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Chapterhouse: Dune - Frank Herbert (1985)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Mar 10 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Balloon Hoax - Edgar Allan Poe (1844)
fiction ; read in Tue Feb 21 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle (-340)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Feb 13 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, DCU
American Gods - Neil Gaiman (2001)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Feb 06 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Who Rules the World? - Noam Chomsky (2014)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Feb 04 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: DCU
Dune - Frank Herbert (1965)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Feb 03 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, scifi
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jan 22 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (1926)
fiction ; read in Fri Jan 20 2017 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Chimera - Mira Grant (2015)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jan 18 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Trial - Franz Kafka (1925)
fiction ; read in Fri Jan 13 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead (2016)
fiction ; read in Thu Jan 05 2017 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Children of Dune - Frank Herbert (1976)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jan 04 2017 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Tales of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski (1983)
fiction ; read in Sun Jan 01 2017 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Dubliners - James Joyce (1914)
fiction ; read in Wed Nov 23 2016 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (2008)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Nov 13 2016 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King (2000)
non-fiction ; read in Mon Oct 31 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer (1400)
fiction ; read in Mon Oct 24 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Symbiont - Mira Grant (2014)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 09 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Writing for Computer Science - Justin Zobel (1997)
non-fiction ; read in Wed Aug 24 2016 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (1915)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jun 07 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, horror
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts I and II - John Tiffany (2016)
fiction ; read in Fri Jun 03 2016 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Neptune's Brood - Charles Stross (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri May 27 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (1877)
fiction ; read in Mon May 02 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Redshirts - John Scalzi (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Feb 12 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome (1889)
fiction ; read in Tue Feb 02 2016 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: humour
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1963)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Jan 24 2016 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Life, the Universe and Everything - Douglas Adams (1982)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Sep 26 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: humour
The Bhagavad Gita - Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (-400)
fiction ; read in Mon Sep 07 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Delta of Venus - Anaïs Nin (1969)
fiction ; read in Wed Jun 17 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: books-changed-life, classics
Siege of Mithila - Ashok K. Banker (2004)
fiction ; read in Thu Apr 09 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Wrong Case - James Crumley (1975)
fiction ; read in Thu Mar 19 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (1999)
fiction ; read in Sun Mar 08 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
UR - Stephen King (2009)
fiction ; read in Sun Feb 22 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Parasite - Mira Grant (2013)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Jan 20 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (The World As Myth) - Robert A. Heinlein (1985)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jan 03 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5) - Stephen King (2012)
fiction ; read in Thu Jan 01 2015 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Nov 22 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Secrets of a Devon Wood: My Nature Journal - Jo Brown (2020)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Oct 26 2014 in 📚 medium ; owned in 📚physical medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: visually-stunning
Delightful illustrations. Worth being a collectible.
Feed - Mira Grant (2010)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Oct 18 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Axis - Robert Charles Wilson (2007)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Sep 12 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Lord Edgware Dies - Agatha Christie (1933)
fiction ; read in Thu Sep 11 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Sons of Sita - Ashok K. Banker (2012)
fiction ; read in Tue Sep 02 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Final Country - James Crumley (2001)
fiction ; read in Mon Aug 18 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Wolves of the Calla - Stephen King (2003)
fiction ; read in Sun Aug 10 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Prey - Michael Crichton (2002)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 16 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Art of War - Sun Tzu (-500)
non-fiction ; read in Thu May 22 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Spin - Robert Charles Wilson (2005)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Apr 28 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Dark Tower - Stephen King (2004)
fiction ; read in Sun Apr 13 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Neuromancer - William Gibson (1984)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Mar 17 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, scifi
Rose Madder - Stephen King (1995)
fiction ; read in Sat Mar 08 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Wizard and Glass - Stephen King (1997)
fiction ; read in Tue Mar 04 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Demons of Chitrakut - Ashok K. Banker (2005)
fiction ; read in Tue Feb 25 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
It - Stephen King (1986)
fiction ; read in Mon Feb 10 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: horror
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri (2003)
fiction ; read in Mon Feb 10 2014 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Cujo - Stephen King (1981)
fiction ; read in Thu Dec 19 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Poirot Investigates - Agatha Christie (1924)
fiction ; read in Tue Dec 03 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering, Vol. 1 - Ramesh Menon (2006)
fiction ; read in Thu Oct 03 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Gunslinger - Stephen King (1982)
fiction ; read in Tue Oct 01 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
The Egg - Andy Weir (2009)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Sep 26 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Moby-Dick or, the Whale - Herman Melville (1851)
fiction ; read in Mon Sep 16 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams (1992)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Aug 28 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - Douglas Adams (1984)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Aug 23 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: humour
Einstein: His Life and Universe - Walter Isaacson (2007)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Aug 06 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (1926)
fiction ; read in Mon Jul 29 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Armies of Hanuman - Ashok K. Banker (2005)
fiction ; read in Mon Jul 29 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Death in the Clouds - Agatha Christie (1935)
fiction ; read in Sat Jun 22 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Accidental Prime Minister (The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh) - Sanjaya Baru (2014)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Jun 08 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (2005)
fiction ; read in Thu May 02 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
The Shining - Stephen King (1977)
fiction ; read in Sun Apr 14 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: horror
Prince of Ayodhya - Ashok K. Banker (2003)
fiction ; read in Sun Mar 31 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Complete Stories and Poems - Edgar Allan Poe (1849)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 27 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
One to Count Cadence - James Crumley (1969)
fiction ; read in Sun Jan 27 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Mystery of the Blue Train - Agatha Christie (1928)
fiction ; read in Fri Jan 18 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein (1961)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jan 09 2013 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson (2006)
fiction ; read in Wed Dec 26 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Under the Dome - Stephen King (2009)
fiction ; read in Wed Dec 19 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Congo - Michael Crichton (1980)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Nov 24 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Carrie - Stephen King (1974)
fiction ; read in Sun Oct 21 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: horror
Three Act Tragedy - Agatha Christie (1934)
fiction ; read in Sun Oct 14 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin (1998)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jul 27 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin (2000)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 25 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Vengeance of Ravana - Ashok K. Banker (2010)
fiction ; read in Fri Jul 13 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Countdown (Newsflesh Trilogy, #0.25) - Mira Grant (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 11 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Codex - Douglas Preston (2003)
fiction ; read in Mon May 21 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Algorithmic Puzzles - Anany V. Levitin (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Wed May 16 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (1979)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Mar 19 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, humour
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton (1969)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Feb 24 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
'Salem's Lot - Stephen King (1975)
fiction ; read in Tue Jan 17 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: horror
Duma Key - Stephen King (2008)
fiction ; read in Sat Jan 14 2012 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: horror
Deadline - Mira Grant (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Dec 16 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Mist - Stephen King (1980)
fiction ; read in Wed Nov 23 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: horror
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson (2007)
fiction ; read in Sat Oct 29 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin (1996)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Oct 19 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Burning Chrome - William Gibson (1986)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Oct 07 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke (1973)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Oct 02 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein (1966)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Sep 29 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Vortex - Robert Charles Wilson (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Aug 17 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Waste Lands - Stephen King (1991)
fiction ; read in Mon Aug 08 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming - Peter Seibel (2009)
non-fiction ; read in Sat Aug 06 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
WWW: Wonder - Robert J. Sawyer (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jul 09 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie (1934)
fiction ; read in Thu Jun 02 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Last Good Kiss - James Crumley (1978)
fiction ; read in Thu May 26 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson (2011)
non-fiction ; read in Sun May 22 2011 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Misery - Stephen King (1987)
fiction ; read in Mon May 09 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
Bridge of Rama - Ashok K. Banker (2005)
fiction ; read in Sun May 08 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Timeline - Michael Crichton (1999)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Apr 20 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering, Vol. 2 - Ramesh Menon (2006)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 30 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie (1923)
fiction ; read in Sat Feb 05 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Black Coffee: A Mystery Play in Three Acts - Agatha Christie (1930)
fiction ; read in Mon Jan 10 2011 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
King of Ayodhya - Ashok K. Banker (2006)
fiction ; read in Mon Nov 15 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Count Zero - William Gibson (1986)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Oct 14 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
The Eyes of the Dragon - Stephen King (1987)
fiction ; read in Wed Oct 13 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Doctor Sleep - Stephen King (2013)
fiction ; read in Mon Aug 16 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (1988)
fiction ; read in Tue Aug 03 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Firestarter - Stephen King (1980)
fiction ; read in Wed Jul 07 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie (1920)
fiction ; read in Thu Jun 03 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Dreamcatcher - Stephen King (2001)
fiction ; read in Fri Apr 30 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson (1988)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Feb 25 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Song of Susannah - Stephen King (2004)
fiction ; read in Wed Feb 24 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Blackout - Mira Grant (2012)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jan 08 2010 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: scifi
Dancing Bear - James Crumley (1983)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 05 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Big Four - Agatha Christie (1927)
fiction ; read in Sat Nov 14 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
WWW: Watch - Robert J. Sawyer (2010)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Sep 28 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams (1980)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Sep 27 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: humour
Sphere - Michael Crichton (1987)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Sep 23 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson (1999)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Mon Jun 29 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Cell - Stephen King (2006)
fiction ; read in Mon Apr 27 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King (1987)
fiction ; read in Thu Mar 26 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Peril at End House - Agatha Christie (1932)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 27 2009 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Eight Million Ways to Die - Lawrence Block (1982)
fiction ; read in Mon Jan 19 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
WWW: Wake - Robert J. Sawyer (2009)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat Jan 10 2009 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in lists: ai, scifi
A Dance with Dragons - George R.R. Martin (2011)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Fri Jan 02 2009 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: fantasy
Holy Bible: King James Version - Anonymous (1611)
fiction ; read in Mon Oct 13 2008 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown (2009)
fiction ; read in Wed Aug 13 2008 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Doomsday Conspiracy - Sidney Sheldon (1991)
fiction ; read in Wed Jun 25 2008 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon (1985)
fiction ; read in Wed May 21 2008 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Return of the Dancing Master - Henning Mankell (2000)
fiction ; read in Wed May 07 2008 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Tell Me Your Dreams - Sidney Sheldon (1998)
fiction ; read in Fri Mar 28 2008 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again - J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Tue Mar 18 2008 in 💾 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Nothing Lasts Forever - Sidney Sheldon (1994)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 15 2008 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Last Juror - John Grisham (2004)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 29 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Deception Point - Dan Brown (2001)
fiction ; read in Wed Dec 05 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Chamber - John Grisham (1994)
fiction ; read in Tue Oct 02 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick Süskind (1985)
fiction ; read in Sat Sep 29 2007 in 💾 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
At Risk - Stella Rimington (2004)
fiction ; read in Mon Aug 27 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (1957)
fiction ; read in Wed Jul 04 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life
The Stars Shine Down - Sidney Sheldon (1992)
fiction ; read in Tue Jun 26 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques - Michael Michalko (1991)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Jun 19 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (1988)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Jun 05 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: educational
The Broker - John Grisham (2005)
fiction ; read in Fri May 11 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith (1998)
fiction ; read in Mon May 07 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris (1988)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 14 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
The Sky is Falling - Sidney Sheldon (2000)
fiction ; read in Tue Jan 16 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Sands of Time - Sidney Sheldon (1988)
fiction ; read in Mon Jan 15 2007 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Red Dragon - Thomas Harris (1981)
fiction ; read in Fri Sep 29 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
featured in list: thriller
A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly (2003)
fiction ; read in Sun Sep 24 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Inferno - Dan Brown (2013)
fiction ; read in Wed Jul 26 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Eat Cake - Jeanne Ray (2003)
fiction ; read in Fri Jul 21 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Up and Down in the Dales - Gervase Phinn (2004)
fiction ; read in Sun Jul 16 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Morning, Noon & Night - Sidney Sheldon (1995)
fiction ; read in Mon Jun 26 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
A Stranger in the Mirror - Sidney Sheldon (1976)
fiction ; read in Thu May 25 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Angels & Demons - Dan Brown (2000)
fiction ; read in Thu May 11 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand (1943)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 29 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: books-changed-life
The Client - John Grisham (1993)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 10 2006 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Rage of Angels - Sidney Sheldon (1980)
fiction ; read in Tue Aug 23 2005 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (2003)
fiction ; read in Mon Apr 18 2005 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Naked Face - Sidney Sheldon (1970)
fiction ; read in Sat Apr 16 2005 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Best Laid Plans - Sidney Sheldon (1997)
fiction ; read in Mon Jan 24 2005 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The King of Torts - John Grisham (2003)
fiction ; read in Sat Jan 08 2005 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Other Side of Midnight - Sidney Sheldon (1973)
fiction ; read in Mon Oct 11 2004 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Dirty Bomb - Gilbert King (2004)
non-fiction ; read in Sun Jul 25 2004 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Murder Artist - John Case (2004)
fiction ; read in Tue Apr 13 2004 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Hannibal - Thomas Harris (1999)
fiction ; read in Wed Mar 31 2004 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill (2004)
fiction ; read in Wed Apr 16 2003 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3) - J.R.R. Tolkien (1955)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Mar 06 2003 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Sidney Sheldon (2004)
fiction ; read in Sat Nov 16 2002 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Digital Fortress - Dan Brown (1998)
fiction ; read in Mon Nov 11 2002 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Windmills of the Gods - Sidney Sheldon (1987)
fiction ; read in Tue Oct 29 2002 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon (2003)
fiction ; read in Thu Oct 03 2002 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Master of the Game - Sidney Sheldon (1982)
fiction ; read in Sun Jun 23 2002 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Memories of Midnight - Sidney Sheldon (1990)
fiction ; read in Wed Jun 05 2002 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Start From Here - Sean French (2003)
fiction ; read in Thu May 16 2002 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙁bad (2/5) ;
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (1879)
fiction ; read in Tue May 29 2001 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle (1901)
fiction ; read in Thu May 17 2001 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Last Don - Mario Puzo (1996)
fiction ; read in Thu May 17 2001 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
fiction ; read in Sun Feb 04 2001 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Fursungicha Faster Fene (फुरसुंगीचा फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1975)
fiction ; read in Sun Jan 07 2001 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling (1897)
fiction ; read in Sun Sep 17 2000 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Oz: The Complete Collection - L. Frank Baum (1900)
fiction ; read in Thu Aug 10 2000 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings - Edgar Allan Poe (1843)
fiction ; read in Thu Aug 03 2000 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling (1998)
fiction ; read in Thu May 18 2000 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Pratapgadawar Faster Fene (प्रतापगडावर फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1966)
fiction ; read in Mon May 08 2000 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (1719)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 18 2000 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling (1999)
fiction ; read in Fri Feb 18 2000 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne (1864)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sun Dec 19 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Tales of Mystery and Madness - Edgar Allan Poe (2004)
fiction ; read in Fri Nov 05 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, horror
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass - Lewis Carroll (1871)
fiction ; read in Mon Oct 25 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Five Weeks in a Balloon - Jules Verne (1863)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Jul 07 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
fiction ; read in Thu Jun 17 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling (2003)
fiction ; read in Mon May 03 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank (1947)
non-fiction ; read in Tue Apr 20 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Faster Fenecha Ranrang (फास्टर फेणेचा रणरंग) - B.R. Bhagwat (1960)
fiction ; read in Mon Mar 22 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Jawaanmard Faster Fene (जवानमर्द फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1979)
fiction ; read in Sat Mar 06 1999 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Gold Bug - Edgar Allan Poe (1842)
fiction ; read in Sat Nov 28 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne (1870)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Oct 08 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, scifi
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There - Lewis Carroll (1871)
fiction ; read in Sat Sep 26 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Complete Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
fiction ; read in Fri Sep 25 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (1839)
fiction ; read in Tue Sep 01 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne (1873)
fiction ; read in Sun Jun 28 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
Tick Tock Faster Fene (टिक टॉक फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1985)
fiction ; read in Tue Jun 02 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Sicilian - Mario Puzo (1969)
fiction ; read in Sun Mar 22 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Omerta - Mario Puzo (1999)
fiction ; read in Sat Jan 17 1998 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Faster Fene Detective (फास्टर फेणे डिटेक्टीव्ह) - B.R. Bhagwat (1964)
fiction ; read in Mon Dec 15 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (1884)
fiction ; read in Sat Dec 13 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Chakrivaadalaat Faster Fene (चक्रीवादळात फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1971)
fiction ; read in Wed Nov 26 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (1850)
fiction ; read in Tue Sep 02 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Eragon - Christopher Paolini (2002)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Wed Aug 27 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (1868)
fiction ; read in Sun Jul 20 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales - Edgar Allan Poe (1839)
fiction ; read in Sat May 24 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne (1865)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Sat May 17 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Aage Badho Faster Fene (आगे बढो फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1976)
fiction ; read in Fri May 09 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling (2000)
fiction ; read in Mon May 05 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Hogwarts Library) - Newt Scamander (2001)
fiction ; read in Sat May 03 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Call of the Wild - Jack London (1903)
fiction ; read in Thu Apr 17 1997 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain (1875)
fiction ; read in Sun Oct 13 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Tring...Tring...Faster Fene (ट्रिंग...ट्रिंग... फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1981)
fiction ; read in Mon Aug 05 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Fools Die - Mario Puzo (1978)
fiction ; read in Sat Jul 06 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne (1865)
fiction, sci-fi ; read in Thu Jun 27 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Hogwarts Library) - J.K. Rowling (2008)
fiction ; read in Fri Jun 14 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 😁good (4/5) ;
Baalbahaddar Faster Fene (बालबहाद्धर फास्टर फेणे) - B.R. Bhagwat (1977)
fiction ; read in Tue May 28 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Aesop's Fables - Aesop (-560)
fiction ; read in Fri Apr 19 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain (1889)
fiction ; read in Tue Mar 05 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling (2007)
fiction ; read in Thu Feb 22 1996 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling (2005)
fiction ; read in Tue Oct 31 1995 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Tales of Terror and Mystery - Arthur Conan Doyle (1908)
fiction ; read in Tue Sep 05 1995 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (1861)
fiction ; read in Tue Sep 05 1995 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
featured in list: classics
Quidditch Through the Ages (Hogwarts Library) - Kennilworthy Whisp (2001)
fiction ; read in Thu May 11 1995 in 📚 medium ; it was 🙂okay (3/5) ;
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling (1997)
fiction ; read in Sat Apr 08 1995 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in lists: classics, fantasy
The Godfather - Mario Puzo (1969)
fiction ; read in Sun Jan 01 1995 in 📚 medium ; it was 😍awesome (5/5) ;
featured in list: classics