What are you reading these days?

Started reading Neuromancer a few months ago, but I've gotten bad about reading regularly, again. It comes and goes in spurts. Anyway, I'm recomitting to trying to read at least 30 min a day so I am going to pick that back up.

This week I finished reading Veronica Raimo's Lost on Me and Selahattin Demirtaş's Dawn.

Lost on Me was a fun read that I won't remember much about. It's consisted entirely of its protagonist's internal monologue, who's a middle aged woman who reminiscences about his earlier and recent life. I thought the story it was telling was hackneyed, but it was a light read that had some promising sections, especially about the protagonist's thoughts on her father in the later sections of the book. (I won't go into detail so as to not ruin it for anyone who might read the book.)

Dawn on the other hand has made an impact on me. Selahattin Demirtaş was the co-leader of a pro-Kurdish party in Turkey who has been jailed since 2016. He published Dawn in 2017 and the entirety of the book was written in prison. It contains twelve stories, some a couple of pages long, some much longer than that. Some of them are inevitably political and has a non-fiction tone, but these are surprisingly sarcastic and hopeful, implicitly poking his finger at the system's eye. I don't know if that's the byproduct of Demirtaş's bravery and enduring personality, or the fact that he had only been jailed for a year then but regardless of what it is, it makes one feel strange today -- especially so if you're familiar with his case, as I am. That being said, I find his fictionalized stories that touches on class, capitalism, and feminism a lot more impactful. His prose is far from perfect, but he writes with such simplicity that you can't help but be affected by it. I don't know how much it'd speak to a foreign audience, but I was certainly affected by it, as well as upset with myself for not having read any of his books until now.

I'm planning on reading Neil Gaiman's Stardust next. Fantasy genre is not my cup of tea but I have barely read anything from it, apart from the usual suspects back in my earlier years, but Stardust seems to be highly regarded so I'm excited to see how I'll respond to it.

Nonfiction: I finished The Ascent of Money as recommended by Tildes and am starting Sleepwalkers: some really long title about the causes of World War I. I also read The Trouble With Physics, a book about the problems with string theory as a field, recommended by Hacker News. And I am reading a book about the Iliad that was recommended by an article linked to from HN a few months ago.

If anyone has a good history on the Medici dynasty I would be interested.

Fiction: New /r/fantasy Bingo season started, last year I did a card where every title had the word "City" in it, this year I am doing a card where every title has the word "Empire" in it. A few squares are going to be tricky I think, like "Dark Academia," I've looked through every single page of 5 or so lists of Dark Academia books on goodreads and not found one single option. So far I've read The Trials of Empire (book 3 in Empire of the Wolf (Justice of Kings series) and Empire of the Vampire/Empire of the Damned.

But I haven't been just working on this card, I've been a bit all over the place. Read a bunch of space opera: Winter's Orbit & sequel; several Vorkosigan books (honestly overrated but maybe it gets better?); Some Desperate Glory (I have a whole rant about it tomorrow that I am saving for the Hugo readalong post tomorrow but I can post it here too if anyone is interested). Most recently Sorcery & Cecilia and sequels by Patricia C. Wrede, very cute regency romantasy trilogy. Going to go back to hugo nominees after this I think with Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (conveniently fills the alliteration square) & then back to empire books! I am looking forward very much to Sun Eater (which starts out with a book 1 with "Empire" in its title, and publication of the audiobook for book 6 was delayed a bit, which is why I'm waiting, it's at the end of the month).

Currently reading Frankenstein, Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Grit by A. Duckworth.

Just finished The Practicing Mind by Thomas Sterner. Basically, the message is to focus on process rather than results. Not much new, but it's a good reminder. My biggest takeaway from it is the suggestion to deliberately slow down what you're doing, which helps you be more thoughtful about your actions, which in turn can get you into a flow state more easily. Reminds me of the cliche "slow is smooth, smooth is fast."

Moved onto The Demon Haunted World by Sagan, which seems to be a defense of scientific and rational thinking. So far I'm thinking it's pretty much preaching to the choir, because the only people who would bother reading such a book are likely to already be familiar with such concepts. Even so, I'm hoping it will help me be more open to examining my own beliefs and also make me a better communicator, since Sagan was a pretty well-received science communicator.

I'm reading The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno & The Network Battle For The Night by Bill Carter. This book was the basis of the HBO movie of the same name. I found the movie on Max and then had to reread my copy which I never finished. I recommend the follow up The War For Late Night: When Leno Went Early And Television Went Crazy which I originally read first.

I'm also reading Last Call: The Rise And Fall Of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent.

I'm reading The Rain Maker by Grisham. I don't know what it is about Grisham, but so far his novels have been good without being great... good for a vacation or whatever, I guess. Everybody is obsessed with working long hours.

This was presented as an intense courtroom drama, but 1/3rd in and he just became a lawyer.

After this I'm going to breeze through Casino by Pileggi. Its what the movie was based on and I've heard its good but not great, but still benefits the film. After that it will be a novelization of Alien!

... I need to switch it up. The Late Shift: Letterman... sounds good.

I'm starting Stepping Into Freedom by Thich Nhat Hanh. I've listened to talks of his in the past and their really resonated with me. So when I heard one of his students say that the first thing they were given was a copy of this book to read I had to get it.

I'm only starting, but I find him very good at conveying how to shift mind states as well as different types of focus.

Oh, I'm also reading a very well written Batman fan fiction called Through a Glass Darkly by JanEyrEvanescence12 https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7833417/1/Through-a-Glass-Darkly

I just finished the Phoenix Project and starting the Unicorn Project by Gene Kim. I think the only thing that keeps me going with these books is the accuracy of describing the software development world I am in (e-commerce and manufacturing). The writing itself, and story-telling, is quite bland and boring. Specifically with the Phoenix Project having a sole arbiter guide all the learnings of the main character is off-putting. I don't think anyone learns everything they need from the stoic statements of a single board member of their company.

I'm only a couple chapters into the Unicorn Project but I am starting to get the sense that it may be a bit more in depth and dynamic of a story but probably fall short like the Phoenix Project. I would still recommend them to people new in Software/IT but I wouldn't call them "great" books.

These books make me want to go back to the more fictionalized worlds of Microserfs or jPod. I may pick those back up.

I have been reading Surviving the Evacuation book 6. It's about various survivors in a zombie apocalypse, sometimes they kill off characters, sometimes add new ones. I only started really getting into reading a few months ago and I really like the author of it. Still kind of crazy to think I got like 15 more books to go, as a kid I thought Harry Potter was crazy long and that was only 6..