Rate the last Book you read

I've also read two books by Reynolds and honestly, I haven't been too impressed. To my surprise, Revenger was full YA and I had been under the impression that he writes HC sci-fi. Then I was assured that the Revenger series is an exception in his work, and everything else is that HC sci-fi for adults.

I suppose that House of Suns is closer to what I expected from him, but the characters still felt very YA to me even there. The scope here is massive and the world-building is fine, but the story isn't anything special.

I've rated these 2/5 and 3/5. I will probably pick up the Revelation Space if it appears to the antiquarian nearby, but Reynolds hasn't lived up to the hype for me.

EDIT: Lo and behold, I stopped by the antiquarian while doing groceries and now I have Revelation Space, so I'll be reading at least one more Reynolds at some point.

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Agree that his characters tend into space opera territory, and I think Pushing Ice is no exception. I like space opera, so I was fine with it. Neither of the Reynolds books I have read seemed like hard sci fi to me.

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This book is a masterful analysis.

One of the saddest books I’ve ever read & enjoyed.



(Citizen, thanks.)

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Please Amazon kindle can I get my $15 back. Good review in The NY Times (wouldn’t have bought it otherwise), but I found it to be meh.

If we're counting audiobooks: The Unbearable Lightness of Being... 7.5.

If it has to be physical copy: The Madness of King George... 7.

Lightness is very good & the movie is excellent.

I low-key liked the film better, even though it removes one of my favorite happenings (Tomas' reunion with his son).

I’m reading Melville’s short stories. Love Moby Dick, and some of these are remarkable, but overall it feels dated. Maybe it’s me. I really need to read more. But over the last few years, I’m mainly drawn to non-fiction. Might go back to that.

Not to be snarky, but wouldn’t any novel written in 1851 feel “dated”?

I cannot for the life of me read Moby Dick & I have tried somewhat.

Oh I’m all for snark. That’s the thing though, to me it’s nowhere near ‘every novel’. I mostly read/reread old stuff/classics (since the pandemic anyway) with the occasional non-fiction book thrown in. Many of them don’t feel all that dated. I just finished an Edith Grossman translation of Don Quixote earlier this year (which, you know, the first ‘modern’ novel). That didn’t feel dated to me at all (though I appreciate it’s the translation which was modern, even so, its entire style, narrative — none of that felt dated). I’m planning to read Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Iliad (though The Atlantic, which I love and trust, somewhat trashed it ) next. My point being, for whatever reason, Melville feels more dated to me than this other stuff.

I enjoyed Moby Dick a lot. But then I do love relatively dreary, long meandering books

Moby Dick has got nothing on Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy in this regard.

Which non-fictions are your favorite? and what are some you'd recommend everyone to read?

I mean, I read (and think, and do, and listen to) very weird things, so I don’t know if I’d really ‘recommend’ these, but the last non-fiction book to really blow my mind was Whiteshift by Eric Kaufman. It sounds incendiary, but it’s really incredibly insightful sociological analysis. The kind of data he had and the way he interpreted it was fascinating, reminded me of almost going to study social anthropology.

Made me want to read everything of Kaufman’s, including the book about Christian fundamentalism, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century.

I’ve also always enjoyed everything by Richard Dawkins, but that’s popular science mixed with some other genre, not sure what.

Next up for me and my bestie is Yanis Varoufakis‘ Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. I read his interview in The Telegraph about the book and knew I had to read this, though I am likely to disagree with his take and his politics (judging by that interview, at least).

Deep Medicine by Eric Topol


A brilliant look into AI in the healthcare industry. Already a bit outdated since it was written in 2019, but there is a lot of interesting stuff in here.

I’m gonna read a Noddy book next. Unless in my absence Noddy has been emasculated.

Heh, I wouldn’t be surprised. Let’s hope not.

I think Tremblay ultimately accomplishes what he sets to out to do. I just don't have that firm a grasp as to what that was. 75/100

Can't say it was great but it's short and only took about two days to get through it. While there are things about it that annoyed me it kept me wanting to know what happens next. Not sure about that ending.




I didn't know they made this into a movie. Finished it last weekend and it has a good premise but just misses the mark occasionally.



Both of these are very easy reads and keep the pages turning even if they aren't great.

Man's Search For Meaning
by Viktor Frankl


A good read written by a Holocaust survivor decades ago. I don't agree with some of the philosophical approaches proposed (meaning is derived from work, life, and/or suffering), but there is a lot of thoughtful analysis.

This book on George Harrison. Ignore all that nonsense about peace and love, The guy had demons. Sex, drugs and rock and is all laid out in this book