All books on Alex's bookshelf

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Weather For Dummies John D. Cox

Read on 2023-09-02

#real-world
#weather

I did not enjoy reading this book. The signal-to-fluff ratio is extremely low—each sentence of information is surrounded by multiple paragraphs of drivel. It’s the usual house style of For Dummies books, but turned up to eleven.

While I did learn quite a bit about how air moves and how weather happens, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this to anyone. I read this book because Bill Gates recom-mended it, but either there’s literally no other introduction to meteorology, or he was having a bout of temporary insanity.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Security Analysis Benjamin Graham & David L. Dodd

Read on 2023-08-25

#accounting
#investing
#real-world

I found this to be a very insightful book. It’s strange to say so, but out of the tens of investing books I’ve read, this 1934 text is the best by far.

The authors have the unique approach of reasoning about investments from the ground up. Every chapter introduces some aspect of investing that needs consideration, followed by many real-world examples. These are, of course, horribly outdated, but because they’re always used in support of some abstract bit of reasoning, they still feel relevant.

It’s also shocking how little the world of investing has changed in ninety years. If you strip the references to years and hide the names of companies, the text could easily pass for something written in the last ten years. For instance, they talk about the housing and mortgages bubble, two different sector bubbles, a general mania that distorted all prices, and countless scams.

That said, the seventh edition is certainly an odd beast. You have to read through over a hundred pages of introductions and forwards to get to the first word written by the authors. Overall, I think a third of the book is now written by other people. All these additions do serve to re-ground the book into our times, but it’s not something I’ve seen done elsewhere.

I strongly recommend this to anyone who has investments. It clocks in at over 800 dense pages, but it’s absolutely worth the time investment.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Goodbye, Eri Tatsuki Fujimoto

Read on 2023-08-13

#manga

This is the best manga I’ve read so far. It’s a 200 page oneshot by the author of Chainsaw Man. I won’t say much about it for fear of spoiling it, but I think it showcases the author’s excellent character work, visual story-telling, and off-kilter sense of humour which is both funny and thought-provoking. This work is also much tighter narratively than the author’s other more serial work.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Soon I Will Be Invincible Austin Grossman

Read on 2023-07-26

#deconstruction
#novel
#super-hero

I liked this novel when I first read it six years ago and I liked it even more on a re-read. It’s a deconstruction of the super-hero genre which asks the question of what happens to the super-hero team-up when the heroes drift apart and what goes on through the mind of the super-villain on his 13th attempt at world domination. It’s basically The Boys, but with violence substituted by wit.

The story is just a generic “super-villain tries to take over the world and super-heroes try to stop him” plot, but what the book is actually about is an exploration of how people take on identities. Half the chapters follow an up-and-coming hero with amnesia who’s just been invited to the big super-hero team. Her story is that she doesn’t really know who she is, but is trying to become a successful hero. The other half of the chapters follow a super-villain who’s on his 13th attempt to take over the world. His story is mostly reflecting on how he got to where he is, all the people he’s met, butted heads with, and eventually drifted apart from. The contrast between the two viewpoints makes for interesting reading.

I recommend this to anyone who’s into fiction, especially if they’re familiar with the tropes of the super-hero genre.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Paranoid Mage #1—3 Inadvisably Compelled

Read on 2023-07-13

#fantasy
#litrpg
#webnovel

This is a pretty good fantasy novel, despite its LitRPG web-novel roots. It has a likeable main character who acts with consistency, decent world-building with a setting that feels lived-in, and good storytelling with an overarching plot that doesn’t just stand still when the protagonist isn’t driving it.

To pick one thing in particular, I really like how bureaucratic incompetence plays a key role in the events of the series. This feels very realistic for an organisation that’s supposed to be several centuries old and gives the whole setting a groundedness that many fantasy novels lack.

Another nice aspect is that the magic system has hard rules and the protagonist doesn’t progress by increasing his numbers, but by figuring out new and better ways to exploit the rules.

I recommend this to anyone who’s into fantasy or sci-fi novels. The problem with the series is that it gets less interesting as it goes on, but that doesn’t preclude the first few books from being good.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Biological Pest Control Julian Ives

Read on 2023-07-13

#gardening
#real-world

As a person who had done no gardening and knew next to nothing about insects, I found this book to be very informative.

The text provides an overview of different settings, what harmful insects are likely to appear and when, and which parasites or predators are recommended for reducing the pest populations. The book is also full of photos of both insects and the signs that they might be around.

I recommend this to anyone who’s new to growing plants or is having trouble dealing with unwanted bugs.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Catch-22 Joseph Heller

Read on 2023-06-30

#novel

This was a very good novel. I first read it in high-school and I wasn’t sufficiently patient and world-weary to appreciate it back then.

The prose and story structure are unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else. At the small scale, the text is very convoluted often changing location, time frame, and focused character in the middle of a paragraph. This comes off as witty and I suspect the goal is to prevent the reader from guessing the punchlines to jokes.

Zooming out, the story is set up like a jigsaw puzzle. At the beginning, we’re dropped into the middle of a complicated situation with many characters. As the story goes on, we find out what exactly the deal is with each character and what events led to the oft-times absurd situations described.

I recommend this to everyone—it’s just a very good novel.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Expanse #1–3 James S.A. Corey

Read on 2023-06-24

#hard-sci-fi
#novel
#sci-fi

I have mixed feelings about the Expanse books. On the one hand, they’re shinning examples of hard sci-fi. On the other, I find them really annoying to read.

The setting is vast, feels lived-in, and has multiple conflicting factions that are all justified in their goals. The way the setting evolves over the course of the books is very interesting and is the primary draw in my opinion.

The problem is that the plots seem to be driven forward by idiots. Each book presents a situation that keeps escalating because every character is an idiot. Every intrigue feels like it would just unravel if even a single character stopped acting like an idiot. I assume the books are written like this to build tension, but I just find them very annoying to read.

I recommend at least the first book to anyone who’s into sci-fi—maybe you won’t have as much of a visceral reaction to the writing as I did.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Voodoo Science Robert Park

Read on 2023-06-09

#pop-science
#real-world

This is a collection of stories about bad science. It ranges from health scares based on poorly-understood physics to impossible devices like infinite energy machines.

It’s not a bad read, but each of the many stories is treated only superficially. This makes it very approachable, but the only thing to learn from the shallow discussion is that there’s lots of people who peddle fake science and that there’s no shortage of PhDs who are willing to back fantastical claims.

I think I would only recommend this to a somebody who’s on the verge of trying homeopathy or is thinking of investing in a car that runs on water.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Poverty Safari Darren McGarvey

Read on 2023-06-02

#real-world

I found this book to be very interesting. The author writes about his experience growing up poor, going through a very rough patch in his twenties when he became homeless and an addict, and argues that the root cause of many of society’s troubles is poverty and that the entire political spectrum isn’t willing to face the enormity of the problem.

What I particularly like here is that the author feels believable. He went through a bunch of difficulties giving him an unusual perspective on the world, but he also overcame his challenges and was sufficiently introspective to be able to write a book about it all.

It’s also very interesting to me that, during the low point of the author’s life, he was receiving more state help than the median salary in the country I was growing up in at the time. Poverty in a developed country isn’t at all what I imagined it to be.

I think I recommend this to basically everyone because it’s important to know what’s going on in the lower strata of society so that help isn’t misdirected at the wrong problems.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Red Team Blues Cory Doctorow

Read on 2023-05-24

#novel

The idea behind this book is great: a forensic accountant untangles financial crime in Silicon Valley. The problem is that the main character doesn’t actually do forensic accounting. Instead, he often repeats that he’s a forensic accountant, but does all the actual forensic accounting off-page. So, the book ends up following a 60 year old man as he drives around in a bus, has dinner with friends, sleeps with every female character, and avoids the mob without putting much effort into it.

This is basically a Tom Clancy or John Grisham novel, but without the clever plot and stripped down to two hundred pages.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Lords of Uncreation Adrian Tchaikovsky

Read on 2023-05-01

#novel
#sci-fi
#space-opera

I liked the book overall, but it’s much less good than the previous two in the series.

The first two thirds are solid space-opera, but then the book closes with magical dream logic. Also, the explanations it gives for some of the mysteries are kind of meh and they would’ve been better left unexplained.

I think the novel would’ve been much stronger without the last third. Still, if you enjoyed the first two books in the series, or Tchaikovsky’s other novels, then this is worth a read.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

RP2040 Datasheet Raspberry Pi

Read on 2023-04-25

#embedded
#manual
#programming

I learnt a lot reading the RP2040 datasheet. As an experienced programmer, this is the first time I’ve felt that I had a grasp of how hardware actually works. For instance, I now know what a DMA controller is and how to use one. I am also shocked by the sheer variety of peripherals available at the lowest levels.

I could’ve tried reading books on the x86-64 architecture, but that’s complicated by the variety of manufacturers, the history of the platform, and the complexity of the much larger system. On the other hand, the RP2040 is a brand new MCU developed by just one company and it is documented in a single PDF.

As weird as it sounds, I’d recommend this to every developer. Once you get through it, a lot of the magic of hardware suddenly feels tractable.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Other Minds Peter Godfrey-Smith

Read on 2023-04-19

#animals
#pop-science
#real-world

Half the book is stories about the author interacting with octopuses and the other half is discussions on recent research in how brains work. The book’s gimmick is that it compares and contrasts the brain research with what we currently know about octopuses, which the author describes as the most alien minds on Earth.

It’s an ok read and I definitely learned some new things. It was nothing earth-shattering, but the book is fairly short at 200 pages, so it also doesn’t drag on.

I recommend this to anyone who likes reading about smart animals and has an interest in neuro-science research.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Hydroponic Food Production Howard M. Resh

Read on 2023-04-18

#hydroponics
#real-world
#textbook

I might be premature in saying this, but I think this book got me into hydroponics. This is an excellent overview of how plants grow, how different hydroponics setups work, and how various companies built up their farms.

I found the many stories of how farms were incrementally built to be particularly compelling. It appears that getting plants to grow isn’t all that hard and the tech required is fairly simple; the difficulty lies in increasing yields and scaling up operations.

I recommend this to anyone with a passing interest in growing plants—traditionally or with hydroponics—and prefers an in-depth introduction over context-less instructions.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Electronics for Dummies Doug Lowe

Read on 2023-03-31

#electronics
#embedded

I found this to be an excellent intro to electronics, starting with basic physics and building up to projects like Christmas lights and animatronic props. It covered a lot of subjects briefly with an emphasis on practical knowledge and actually making things.

If you’re thinking of getting into electronics, I recommend this over a university textbook or random online resources. Also, given the price tag, it’s great value for money.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Atlas Six Olivie Blake

Read on 2023-03-19

#fantasy
#novel

This was a pretty good modern character-focused fantasy read.

The basic plot is that six magicians have to live together in the same house for a year and are forced to interact with one another. The characters really shine: each feels like a real person, each has their own thing going on, and they butt heads in entertaining ways.

The part where the novel is weakest is the skeletal plot: it does little more than setup interactions between characters and string the reader along with hints of a mystery. It all feels flat. There’s no waves, peaks, or really any texture to it.

However, in a genre dominated by stories like “I Got Hit by a Truck and Discovered I Am a Wizard with a Cheat-level Skill — Say Whaaat?”, this book stands a head above most of the competition.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

The Book of CP-System Fabien Sanglard

Read on 2023-03-04

#programming
#retro-computing

I very much enjoyed reading this book. The deep-dive into the hardware of the CP-System in the first half of the book is the clearest explanation of how a computer is put together that I’ve read so far. I finally understand exactly how memory busses and memory-mapped IO work. The overview of how one writes programs for the CP-System in the second half was less interesting to me, but the book more than made up for it with stories and interviews with the programmers, artists, and musicians who wrote CP-System games.

I’d recommend this to anyone with an interest in computing.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Cost of Energy Review Dieter Helm

Read on 2023-02-18

#climate
#electricity
#real-world

This was a very good overview of the electricity system of the UK from an organizational and regulatory point of view. The focus of the report is on how to achieve the climate change and energy security goals while minimizing costs to consumers.

The first half introduces us to the mess that privatising the electricity system caused and then the report goes over the patchwork of regulations that tried to fix specific issues when they appeared. The second half makes suggestions on how to radically simplify the regulatory framework around generation, networks, supply, and taxation of electricity.

As mentioned in the author’s later book—Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change—these recommendations were mostly ignored by the UK government (they were probably too busy “getting Brexit done”).

The text is very readable, but it’s also fairly specialized. I’d only recommend this if you like reading about how regulations affect industry participants.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

A Spectre, Haunting China Miéville

Read on 2023-02-05

#politics
#real-world

I occasionally run into online people who call themselves “communists”, but I never understood how they rationalise this to themselves. As in, I find it easy to imagine how somebody might have thought communism was worth a shot in 1848, but with almost two hundred years of hindsight, it’s a very different story now.

After reading this book, I finally get it. The core trick is that everything good gets the label “communism” and everything bad gets the label “capitalism”. If something bad was done in a communist context, then clearly it wasn’t actually “communism”. And if something good was done in a capitalist context, then it was clearly just to further entrench “capitalism” and is thus actually bad in the long run. Also, anything currently bad because of “capitalism” will nebulously become good under “communism”. Once you accept this framing, then “communism” is clearly good and “capitalism” is clearly bad.

This book is a great read if you’ve ever wondered what happens when a bunch of people adopt a particular label into their collective identity and then engage in a ferocious hundred year long circle-jerk.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Children of Memory Adrian Tchaikovsky

Read on 2023-01-23

#novel
#sci-fi

This is the third book in the series and I found it a much more interesting read than the first two. The others could be summarised as “sci-fi things happen and then more sci-fi things happen”. This book is the same, but it also has a mystery threaded through. That and new aliens aren’t just more human-aliens; instead, they are interesting starfish-aliens with a novel take on sentience.

I’d recommend it even if you haven’t read the other books in the series—there’s a good summary of them at the start.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Mickey7 Edward Ashton

Read on 2023-01-19

#novella
#sci-fi

This book is set in a hard-ish sci-fi universe, it has characters with conflicting motivations, and it is written well. That said, the entire book feels flat.

The protagonist narrator manages to deliver eating breakfast and walking around with a doomsday device in exactly the same tone. I think this is on purpose and is meant to show how detached he feels due to his semi-immortality, but it just makes everything seem uninteresting.

The fact that the plot is mostly mundane day-to-day activities compounds the flatness of the narration. And this is another novella disguised as a full-length novel which means there just isn’t enough text for much of anything that happens to develop.

I’d only recommend this to somebody who’s already read ~all the other sci-fi books out there and is looking for more.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Build a Weather Station with Elixir and Nerves Alexander Koutmos, Bruce A. Tate, Frank Hunleth

Read on 2023-01-12

#elixir
#embedded
#programming

This book is a solid tutorial in adding some I2C sensors to a RaspberryPi, getting data out of them with Nerves, setting up TimescaleDB with a Phoenix web frontend, and visualizing sensor data in Grafana. The end result isn’t much code, but the difficulty in this sort of project is figuring out what components to use and how they fit together. The authors do a good job of explaining this.

I usually complain that books like this could’ve just been online tutorials, but “ebook sold online” is close enough, and this one actually felt worth the price tag.

I recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in the above topics, but knows nothing about them.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Net Zero — How We Stop Causing Climate Change Dieter Helm

Read on 2023-01-09

#climate
#real-world

The book looks at stopping climate change from a government policy and national economy point of view. This contrasts nicely with Bill Gates’ book which mostly focuses on the tech angle.

The first third of the book is an excellent analysis on the policies enacted in the last 30 years, how they failed, and how they will likely continue failing. Given that the author writes reports on climate change for the UK gov, this is clearly his area of expertise.

According to the author, the three principles for a sustainable economy are the polluter pays, public money for public goods, and net environmental gain. The discussion around all three is interesting, but I think the first one is the most important. The idea is that, since our goal is to get to net-zero globally, we have to not only tax local emitters of carbon, but also importers of carbon in order to encourage the origin countries to tax their own carbon emitters. If we only tax the local producers, then that just moves industry overseas where polluting is free. More generally, we need to target net-zero local consumption of carbon, not just net-zero local production.

At the very end of the book, there is also a short description on how to reform the electricity market to encourage decarbonization. Sadly, not a lot of details are given. I think this was further developed in the “Cost of Energy Review”, but I have not read that yet.

The main problem with the book is that the latter two thirds are a disorganized overview of climate change combined with wishy-washy technobabble. The Gates book makes for a much better overview.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Silence of Unworthy Gods Andrew Rowe

Read on 2022-12-29

#fantasy
#magic-school
#novel

This is the fourth book in Andrew Rowe’s “Arcane Ascension” series. Unlike the third book, we actually have an overarching plot this time, so it feels less like a sequence of random actions.

The series continues to have well-narrated fight scenes, characters that make the most of their limited magical arsenal, and pretty good overall writing.

I look forward to the next book in the series.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Bill Gates

Read on 2022-12-29

#climate
#real-world

This is an excellent overview of the problem of climate change. Having read it, this is the first time I’ve felt like I grasp the whole scope of the situation, what areas need work, how much work is needed in each area, and roughly what the solutions are expected to look like.

If you feel lost hearing that planting trees is the solution to climate change, then hearing that bogs are the real solution, then hearing that we need more nuclear or more wind or more solar, and have never heard about steel, cement and fertilizer, then this is the book that organizes all the noise into information.

This book focuses mostly on technological solutions to climate change: what tech breakthroughs are needed and what R&D is in the pipeline. For government policy and national economy oriented solutions, see the book by Dieter Helm.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Accidence will Happen Oliver Kamm

Read on 2022-11-25

#writing

This is the first writing style guide I’ve read that actually had justifications for the suggestions. For instance, every other guide emphasizes the critical importance of using “who” and “whom” correctly. This one instead uses the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster to show examples of “misuses” throughout history, including by famous authors. It then points out that neither dictionary actually advises using “whom”, and since confusion is unlikely to occur, writers shouldn’t worry about it and instead focus on more important aspects of the text.

This is my favourite style guide now.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Scholomance Trilogy Naomi Novik

Read on 2022-11-09

#fantasy
#magic-school
#novel

The snide summary for the Scholomance books is “Mary Sue goes to dark edgy magic school”. It’s ok fantasy and it’s fun to read, but there’s nothing memorable and there are no new ideas to take away.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Use of Weapons Iain M. Banks

Read on 2022-10-24

#sci-fi

This is the third book in the Culture series. It feels a lot more like the “Consider Phlebas” than “The Player of Games” in that it has a fairly weak overarching plot and is mostly characters reacting to events beyond their control.

It uses a gimmick where half the chapters are in chronological order, and half are in reverse order, and the two kinds of chapters are interleaved. I think the point of this was to flesh out the main character by providing bits of his backstory. It succeeds in this, but it was annoying to read, especially given that some of the flashbacks are essentially fever dreams.

All said, the book provides more details of how the Culture operates, so it’s worth a read if you’re into the setting.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Slide Rule Lee H. Johnson

Read on 2022-10-24

#math
#slide-rule

This is the best user’s guide for a slide-rule that I’ve found. It covers all the operations and has many solved exercises for practice. It contains very little theory, but in any case, figuring out why things actually work is half the fun.

The Internet Archive lends out the book, but it’s also not hard to find a PDF of it online.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

An Easy Introduction to the Slide Rule Isaac Asimov

Read on 2022-10-24

#math
#slide-rule

This book focuses on the theory behind how slide-rules work. It has the best introduction to logarithms that I’ve found and then a very slow-paced explanation of how a slide-rule uses them.

I think the biggest reason to read this is to be able to out-nerd almost anybody. “Oh, you’ve read all of Asimov’s books? But have you read the slide-rule one?”

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Dawn of Everything David Graeber, David Wengrow

Read on 2022-10-19

#history
#real-world

This is a book about how humans have historically organized themselves into societies. It’s structured as an argument against the simple story that, as numbers of individuals increased and technology advanced, humans naturally organized into hierarchies.

The book presents many examples of human societies covering the period from 10,000 years ago to a few centuries ago, and focuses on whether they were hierarchies and what these were based upon. The sheer variety of modes of organization surprised me. In particular, I didn’t know that there were very many variations on egalitarianism, that some of them were fairly recent, and that they worked on a scale of tens of thousands of people.

I recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in organizing people.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Cage of Souls Adrian Tchaikovsky

Read on 2022-09-30

#novel
#sci-fi

This is a standalone post-post-post-apocalyptic novel. It’s a fun story about the scheming happening in the last city on a dying Earth.

I read this right after “The Gulag Archipelago”, so when half of this book took place in a gulag, it felt quite real. The take was more light-hearted of course, but not by much.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

99 Variations on a Proof Philip Ording

Read on 2022-09-29

#math

The book consists of 100 proofs for “If $$x^3 - 6x^2 - 6 = 2x - 2$$, then $$x = 1$$ or $$x=4$$”. The proofs include expected and unexpected approaches: “substitution”, “calculus”, “analytic”, “origami”, “found”, “medieval”, and “slide rule”. It is a very fun read.

This is the best demonstration I’ve seen that different branches of mathematics are really just tools and that they can be used to solve problems that are not strictly within their target domains.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Read on 2022-08-22

#history
#real-world

This was an unpleasant book. What shocked me the most was how little padding it has: every paragraph describes some cruelty inflicted by the soviets on their own people, and every chapter describes some systematic way in which the cruelties were doled out.

The book is essentially a hit-piece on communism. It argues that communism cannot function without death camps, and since death camps are clearly evil, communism is also evil. This argument is more concise and harder to argue against than any argument I’ve found before.

The big problem with the book is that it is un-sourced. As in, the sources are the author’s own experiences in the gulag and the testimonies that he personally collected. We’ll never know the true scale of what happened (whether larger or smaller) because the soviets killed most of the witnesses and their records were either fabricated or destroyed.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Never Die Twice Maxime J. Durand

Read on 2022-08-02

#fantasy
#litrpg
#webnovel

This was an interesting fantasy book. It’s got a Norse-inspired setting and it’s told from the perspective of a necromancer with neutral-evil alignment. This is the first book I’ve encountered where the evil protagonist is played straight—they aren’t some misunderstood hero, they aren’t an anti-hero, they’re just evil, but not comically so.

The aspect that prevents me from just recommending it is that it’s a sad book—it’s a story where the necromancer wins. I recall being miserable while reading this and it wasn’t a page-turner despite the interesting story.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Vainqueur the Dragon Maxime J. Durand

Read on 2022-07-29

#fantasy
#litrpg
#webnovel

The joke is that an ancient red dragon discovers the class and leveling system. It then decides to be an adventurer because completing quests is a more efficient way of increasing its hoard than attacking merchant caravans.

This is funny for about two chapters. However, there are many chapters in the book, and there are more books in the series. Everything else is just a bog standard progression novel with the twist that it’s the monsters who are leveling up and gaining skills.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

500 Lines or Less many authors

Read on 2022-07-19

#programming

This is one of the “Architecture of Open Source Applications” follow-up books and it was pretty bad. I think it’s been mostly downhill in terms of quality since the first book.

Out of the 22 chapters, I found only 4 to be interesting. I have a better hit rate just by reading the front page of lobste.rs.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Perfect Run Maxime J. Durand

Read on 2022-07-11

#cyberpunk
#sci-fi
#webnovel

I had fun reading this. It’s a time-loop story with super-hero elements set in a cyberpunk post-apocalyptic world.

The prose is well-written, the plot gripped me, and many scenes were funny, interesting, or just plain delightful to read. Given that this was originally published on Royal Road, I would’ve expected it to be the usual LitRPG slog, but it’s actually not: when we join our protagonist, he’s already had his time-loop powers for a very long time and has already mastered them. The story revolves around him piecing together what’s going on, facing his past, and planning for the future.

The one thing that prevents me from just recommending it is that there’s a lot of side-questing towards the end. I suspect the author had a list of plot hooks he left in the story, realized he was reaching the end, so he rushed to tie up all the loose ends. It adds some amount of world-building, but the main plot grinds to a halt whilst this is going on.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The 3D Printing Handbook Ben Redwood, Filemon Schöffer, Brian Garret

Read on 2022-07-05

#3d-printing

This textbook is a good overview of the different 3D printing technologies, how they work, what strengths they each have, and what difficulties to expect when using them.

I read this because I thought it would help me choose which 3D printer to buy. It did not help in that, but at least now I’ve got a better idea of how 3D printing could be used in industry.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Fugitive Telemetry Martha Wells

Read on 2022-06-23

#novella
#sci-fi

This is another novella set in the murderbot universe sold for the price of a full-length novel. Like the other books in the series, it’s solid sci-fi, but it’s not good value-for-money.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The War of Broken Mirrors Andrew Rowe

Read on 2022-05-26

#fantasy
#novel

The three books in the series are fun fantasy novels.

The setting is a fairly traditional sword-and-sorcery world with some twists. While the magic system isn’t as developed as in the author’s later works, it’s still versatile enough that the characters can do interesting things with it. It’s refreshing to see magic make some amount of in-universe sense, and characters that try to make the most of their limited abilities.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Something & Anything Dakota Krout

Read on 2022-05-08

#litrpg
#novel

The joke is that the protagonist’s class in-universe is literally “murderhobo” and that he solves every problem by being extremely violent.

This is an entertaining read for about half the first book. However, there are three books in the series and there’s nothing else to carry the narrative along.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Shards of Earth & Eyes of the Void Adrian Tchaikovsky

Read on 2022-05-04

#novel
#sci-fi
#space-opera

The “Final Architecture” novels are the best space opera I’ve read in years. They have everything from a large and complicated galactic setting, interesting characters that change during the story, and a plot that is both small enough for the characters to matter and large enough to impact the whole setting.

One interesting concept I hadn’t encountered before is the idea of a technological ceiling: there are multiple races in the setting and all are at around the same level of technology. The explanation is that this is basically the highest tech level attainable with their understanding of the laws of physics. Then there’s the one race that’s more advanced than anybody else and whose technology nobody can reverse engineer because they just don’t understand the principles by which it functions. Of course, there’s also the obligatory precursor race whose understanding of the universe was so deep, that all the artifacts they left behind look like magic to the current races.

I look forward to reading the third book when it comes out in Q2 2023.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Dichronauts Greg Egan

Read on 2022-04-27

#alien-physics
#sci-fi

This is another Greg Egan book with alien physics. The gimmick this time is that the universe has two dimensions of space and two dimensions of time. The result is a very weird world. The author’s website has more details on how the physics work out.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Hexarchate Stories Yoon Ha Lee

Read on 2022-04-13

#sci-fi
#short-stories
#space-opera

I was hoping this would further flesh out the Hexarchate setting. Instead, it was a bunch of mostly uninteresting short stories. As I write this eight months later, I can’t remember a single one.

I have a suggestion for the author: if you’re going to write an author’s note bragging about how quick and easy it is to write these stories, don’t put it after the one that’s just a really long sex scene. Instead, put it after one of the stories that’s actually like the main books and that has something actually interesting happen.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

The Grid Gretchen Bakke

Read on 2022-03-28

#electricity
#real-world

This would’ve made for a pretty good magazine article. Instead, the content was stretched to book length by the repetition of the few core ideas and offtopic anecdotes.

I recommend “Living on the Grid” by William L. Thompson instead.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Mother of Learning Domagoj Kurmaić

Read on 2022-03-23

#fantasy
#litrpg
#webnovel

This is another take on the “fantasy character stuck in a time-loop” trope. It’s well written, even if the middle part feels like a slog, and the mystery of the setting is good enough. The big problems with it are that it doesn’t do anything to set itself apart from the crowd and that it’s very long.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Living on the Grid William L. Thompson

Read on 2022-03-17

#electricity
#real-world
#systematics

The book is an overview of how the electric grid of the US functions from the point of view of an experienced operator. It focuses on how hard it is to balance supply and demand of power on a moment-by-moment basis, how different kinds of electricity generation and loads affect grid stability, and how hard it is to recover from failures.

I found this to be a very interesting read both because there are parallels to distributed systems, but also because it unambiguously answers questions like “Why can’t we replace everything with solar power?”.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Black Hat Rust Sylvain Kerkour

Read on 2022-03-03

#infosec
#programming
#rust

This book by Sylvain Kerkour was a broad overview of a few security topics, descriptions of some tools to explore said topics, and then Rust code to implement the tools. This is the book for you if you know nothing about infosec and want to follow a tutorial implementing a web crawler in Rust, among other things.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Columbus Day Craig Alanson

Read on 2022-02-17

#novel
#sci-fi

This book tries to be a space opera seen from the point of view of a human grunt in a setting where humanity has not actually developed space travel and gets shanghaied into the galatic war. To say good things first, the setting seems interesting and it has a few fresh takes on the usual galaxy-scale conflict trope. But that’s not enough to carry the boring plot or the unwitty writing.

For instance, one of main character’s traits is that he is a redneck who repeatedly mentions his superiorirty to dem city folk. And then the super advanced AI with godlike powers chooses to present itself as a Bud Light can. I know the author was really pleased with himself for this specific joke because he drew attention to it in every single chapter in the second half of the book. I think the writing tries to be witty, but it just isn’t.

The writing might get better in later books in the series, but there’s just better stuff to read.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Ancillery Justice & Ancillery Sword Ann Leckie

Read on 2022-02-03

#novel
#sci-fi
#space-opera

The first book in the trilogy is an interesting sci-fi story about a trans-human making her way through a universe shaped by the millennia-old actions of other trans-humans. It is very good.

The second book throws out everything that made the first book interesting and is instead just a story about rooting out some corrupt officials on a space station. Mind you, it isn’t a bad book exactly, but it’s just generic sci-fi schlock.

The second book was disappointing enough that I’m not going to bother reading the third one.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

He Who Fights With Monsters Shirtaloon

Read on 2022-01-28

#fantasy
#litrpg
#webnovel

I think this might be the arch-typical progression novel. It is insanely long and just follows a single character as he grinds experience at a snail’s pace. There’s probably a plot somewhere in there, but it’s impossible to see from how thin it’s stretched.

There are certainly funny scenes, but I found the protagonist to be extremely annoying. Every one of his lines tries to be a quip, his contribution to conversations is usually some non sequitur, and he just never ever shuts up. The book acknowledges this and implies he’s doing it to distract and annoy his adversaries. But I have to read this crap too and it annoys me just as much.

I listened to the first audio-book, but I won’t be bothering with the other eight (and counting).

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Seeing Like a State James C. Scott

Read on 2022-01-20

#real-world
#systematics

This is an interesting history book looking back at the failures of scientific forestry, collectivization, artificial new country capitals, and more.

The book doesn’t really reach any compelling conclusions, but it does have a few interesting ideas to take away. The first is the concept of legibility: it’s well known that maps and models don’t precisely describe the reality they represent. I’ve always thought of this as just a warning to not blindly trust predictions made by models. The book has a different take: when states found that they didn’t have the bureaucratic capacity to model reality accurately, they made reality more “legible” by, for instance, reducing the number of tree species in a forest, or by relocating villages to farm grid-layout fields, or by imposing arbitrary family names on a population that had none before.

The second idea is that of the “modernist aesthetic”. The book points out that many of the “scientific” things done in the 19th and 20th centuries were really arbitrary decisions dressed up as science. For instance, cities were built with grid layouts and architects had some sciencey-sounding theory about why this is better. However, the architects failed at the scientific process and didn’t do the crucial step of testing whether the new layout was actually better in practice. They just wanted something that looked nice on a map and made some vague untested predictions about how this would work out in practice.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in large-scale systems.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars Christopher Paolini

Read on 2022-01-17

#novel
#sci-fi
#space-opera

I have mixed feelings about this novel. It is certainly a good science fiction novel with lots of features. It’s got space travel, hard sci-fi technology, ancient alien artifacts, several alien races that actually feel alien, memorable characters that develop over the course of the story, an evolving universe, and it’s all tied together in a single story that never gets dull.

My main issue with the book is that none of the elements felt great. I finished reading it and I wasn’t thinking about how good the book had been—I was instead thinking about I’d read next. This is unfair because I think the book ticked off all the items on my “good sci-fi checklist”, but it felt like it did stopped at that and did nothing more.

All said, I’d still recommend it. It’s a solid space opera, and there’s been a dearth in this genre in recent years.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

MapReduce Design Patterns Donald Miner, Adam Shook

Read on 2022-01-01

#big-data
#programming

This book was an overview of a few ways to organize map-reduce jobs in terms of splitting work and merging results. It was an interesting read—I learned a few things—but the text is padded out by uninteresting Java code. On the whole, the book should’ve been a wiki or a series of blog posts.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Project Hail Mary Andy Weir

Read on 2021-12-29

#hard-sci-fi
#novel
#sci-fi

This is a hard sci-fi book about people solving a massive, but fundamentally basic, problem with limited resources. It’s refreshing to see physics experiments replace techno-babble as the sci in sci-fi. The plot is also interesting—it is essentially one big research project—and all the plot twists are eminently plausible in context.

If you like hard sci-fi, you’ll like this.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Existentially Challenged Yahtzee Croshaw

Read on 2021-12-26

#fantasy
#novel
#witty-writing

This is the sequel to “Differently Morphous”. It’s a fun read and showcases Yahtzee’s dry humour, this time mixing occult societies, British bureaucracy, and net culture.

This is one of the few books I’ve read in recent years that’s carried not by its plot, setting or characters, but by its very witty writing. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Arcane Ascension 1–3 Andrew Rowe

Read on 2021-12-16

#fantasy
#magic-school
#novel

These are sword-and-sorcery stories with a hint of progression novel. The many dungeon puzzles are fun to read about, the fight scenes are well-narrated, and the cast of characters is likeable.

I’d recommend this to anyone into fantasy, especially if they’re looking for a non-Tolkien and somewhat lighthearted setting.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick

Read on 2021-12-04

#business
#communication

The central premise of this book is that people are naturally bad at giving feedback, especially if they’re afraid they might offend. The book presents strategies and questions to extract useful opinions even in these adverse circumstances.

I didn’t find the text particularly interesting because I’ve grown to have very low expectations of people when I solicit feedback. That said, this is a good book to recommend to people who might not realize that everybody lies to them about their work.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Six Sacred Swords 1-3 Andrew Rowe

Read on 2021-11-29

#fantasy
#novel

These are fun sword-and-sorcery books with a flexible magic system. The first book is meh, but the second and third ones narrate an interesting fighting tournament with lots weird fighter/sorcerer multi-classers.

This is very much a “read it for the fights, not the plot” kind of series.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Distributed Services with Go Travis Jeffery

Read on 2021-11-01

#distributed-systems
#go
#programming

This is a pretty good intro to writing distributed programs in Go. It’s not amazing, but it does a good job of illustrating how easy it is to combine different libraries into a fully-featured client and server application.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

There Is No Antimemetics Division qntm

Read on 2021-10-16

#novel
#sci-fi
#scp

This is a collection of SCP stories focused on entities which can manipulate people’s memories of them.

The book essentially asks the question “How do you fight something that you can’t remember exists?”. The answer isn’t very satisfying in my opinion, but everything up to the answer is a fun read.

I’d recommend this to anyone who’s ever wanted to get into SCP, but was put off by the sheer volume of literature surrounding the foundation.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Coup d'État — A Practical Handbook Edward N. Luttwak

Read on 2021-10-07

#gift-book
#politics
#real-world

This is a good analysis on how coup d’états happen, what preconditions are necessary, and how different countries have made themselves coup-proof.

This is a good book to read if you’ve ever wondered why certain countries (e.g. many African ones) seem to have coups every year and why other countries (e.g. European ones) almost never get coup’d.

I think this is also a good book to gift. Imagine: you sidle up conspiratorially to the victim, you give them the book wrapped in nondescript brown paper and whisper “This is one of my favourites. I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting the interesting bits. Also, my GPG key is at the back… for when the time is right.”. Even if they don’t like the book, they get a story about how their crazy friend gave them a how-to-coup-the-state book.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess

Read on 2021-10-04

#fiction
#novel

This novel sets itself apart with its setting and main character. The book takes place in a version of post-war Britain which took a turn towards extreme violence, and the story is told from the perspective of a character who’s almost a sociopath. It’s an interesting read because everything is played straight: the violent society isn’t some cautionary tale; it’s just how things could have turned out. Similarly, the main character isn’t some dark anti-hero who is really good underneath the hard edges; instead, it’s just a very misguided youth who enjoys dishing out a bit of the “ultra-violence” and feels no remorse for it.

This is one of those books that’s on many reading lists and it deserves its place, but there’s nothing really unique about it to make me want to recommend it to anyone.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Dune Frank Herbert

Read on 2021-09-29

#novel
#sci-fi

This is one of those classic sci-fi novels that makes it onto all the reading lists. I’m sure it was amazing when it came out, it still holds up for the most part and it certainly has a bit of everything you’d expect from a sci-fi story, but there are now many novels that have done any of the individual elements much better.

I think I’d recommend it only to people who enjoy getting into the atmosphere of a book and to anyone who’s already gone through all the other big sci-fi novels.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Freaks' Squeele—L'Étoile du soir Florent Maudoux, Ophélie Bruneau

Read on 2021-09-23

#fantasy
#novel

This is a novel set in the same universe as the Freaks’ Squeele comics. It’s not bad, but the plot is just “wacky stuff happens”. This works fine in the comics because the art does all the heavy lifting, but it makes for a forgettable novel.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Schild's Ladder Greg Egan

Read on 2021-09-12

#alien-physics
#sci-fi

This is another of Greg Egan’s books with weird physics. This one is about the “quantum graphs that underlie all the constituents of matter”.

I have no idea if this is plausible physics or not. As I couldn’t follow the explanations, it all seemed like magic to me. Unfortunately, without the weird physics aspect, the book is just a boring fantasy novel with uninteresting characters.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Network Effect Martha Wells

Read on 2021-08-30

#novel
#sci-fi

Oh, wow: It’s a full length novel in the Murderbot universe! And it’s actually pretty good now that characters have space to develop and the plot is long enough to be more than just “go to place and fight some robot”.

As far as sci-fi goes, this is pretty light reading, so I can recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Why We Sleep Matthew Walker

Read on 2021-08-28

#model
#self-help

The book gave me a model of sleep. Before reading this, I had no idea what sleep was for, why I’d be sometimes sleepless and other times sleepy, what damage poor sleep would cause me, and why things like coffee didn’t seem to work most of the time.

I would recommend the first third of this book to everyone.

Mind you, this recommendation isn’t to say the book is without fault. It has the common problem that the content is frontloaded, many of the stories and stats seem anecdotal, and it generally feels padded out. Still, the first three chapters will provide anyone with a good starting point for a personal model of sleep.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Maus Art Spiegelman

Read on 2021-08-09

#graphic-novel
#ww2

This is a graphic novel telling the experiences of a Holocaust survivor. It’s an interesting read and gives a glimpse into what happened. To say the obvious, it’s not a fun read because most of the characters end up begin murdered.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

The Peripheral William Gibson

Read on 2021-08-05

#cyberpunk
#novel
#sci-fi

This is a solid sci-fi novel with a future society which is actually plausible, a time-travel McGuffin which operates by hard rules, and interesting characters who are forced to adapt to unusual circumstances.

The future world described feels lived-in and the various actors are all believable. Basically, it’s a cyberpunk future, but the mega-corps aren’t comically evil and everything isn’t just shit for no reason. Instead, it’s an almost idyllic society which only appears dark and melancholy to our present-day eyes.

The novel also describes a version of the apocalypse that I hadn’t encountered before: the Jackpot. Spoiler: Instead of one big thing happening, it was a series of unfortunate events whose combined effect was to decimate the human population. However, throughout all this, technology progressed enough for the survivors to overcome the problems of the new world and build fairly comfortable lives for themselves.

I’d recommend this to anyone into sci-fi.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

L'apprenti épouvanteur Joseph Delaney

Read on 2021-08-05

#fantasy
#novel
#young-adult

I read these novels in French to brush up on my French, and I think they’re fine for this purpose. Otherwise, they’re pretty simple young-adult books about a kid who’s training to be a wizard.

The books are fine for what they are, and hey, the protagonist isn’t a slaver! In that regard, these are better stories than other popular young-adult titles. Still, I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone outside the target demographic.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Heaven's River Dennis E. Taylor

Read on 2021-07-24

#novel
#sci-fi

I liked this book, but less so than the trilogy that preceded it. Half the book felt like a solid sci-fi plot where the characters are exploring a strange alien megastructure, but the other half felt like the setup for another book. It makes for good reading, but without the “Bob” angle of the previous books, it feels a bit generic, almost like second tier sci-fi from the 1980’s.

I suggest waiting until the follow-up book or books come out before reading this.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

The Goal Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Read on 2021-07-17

#business
#graphic-novel
#management
#systematics

I enjoyed reading this business-themed graphic novel. While it doesn’t have a complicated message, it doesn’t come off as preachy and it also doesn’t over-explain.

A snide review would be to say that the book could’ve just been a paragraph: “When trying to improve an existing system, start by defining the metric that is the goal, then understand how the system affects said metric, and finally fix the bottlenecks that prevent the goal from being reached. It is very important to keep the goal in mind at all times and not be distracted by other metrics.”

That said, the book does a good job of illustrating the above in an engaging way. It also happens to be the only book I’ve found that warns against doing haphazard “improvements” or “optimisations”, a problem which is endemic in software development.

I’d recommend this to basically everyone, especially because it’s not long.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

An Elegant Puzzle Will Larson

Read on 2021-06-15

#management

To start with the good bits, I think this book has an excellent binding. It’s the kind of hardcover that you rarely see these days: not only is it a pleasure to hold open, but the cover also has a nice texture to it that feels really pleasant to your fingertips. The subtle embossing of the tree and the minimalist aesthetic make it a great addition to any bookshelf. I give the cover a ten out of ten.

As for the content, it’s been two years since I read it and I can’t remember a single thing from it. Flipping through, it looks like it’s just the usual management platitudes. The most interesting part is the last third which is recommendations for books and papers. The papers in particular are definitely the popular and interesting ones.

As far as management schlock goes, this book is probably one of the best. If you have to read one, maybe because you’re interacting with people who like reading management books, then this is worth a look.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

How to Read a Financial Report John A. Tracy, Tage C. Tracy

Read on 2021-05-28

#accounting
#investing
#real-world

I’ve read a bunch of books over the years on dissecting financial statements and this was the best one by far. The structure makes sense, the prose is clear, and the extra-wide page layout makes for good presentation.

The only real problem is that books like this tend to become out-of-date fairly quickly as accounting standards evolve. However, Tracy & Tracy are pretty good at updating their books and the core ideas don’t ever really change.

I recommend this to anyone with an interest in accounting, especially from an investment point of view.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Bad Blood John Carreyrou

Read on 2021-05-28

#business
#management
#real-world

This was a very entertaining read. I think what happened at Theranos was that they tried to “fake it til they made it”, but they never did make it, so they had to keep doubling-down. Reading about all the lies they told and how each one led to the next was very interesting.

I recommend this to anyone who has an interest in business, management, or just wants to read an interesting story about something that happened in real life.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Phoenix Extravagant Yoon Ha Lee

Read on 2021-05-11

#novel
#sci-fi

This certainly wasn’t The Hexarchate Trilogy or even just Ninefox Gambit. I’m not sure how to describe it other than kind of meh.

The story follows a non-binary painter who’s hired by the occupation government of his African country to animate golems using the magic of painting. That’s unfortunately the entire book—the ideas are just introduced and not explored in any depth. The plot is thin as well and it’s mostly just “stuff happens”.

I recommend not reading this until more books come out in the series with hopefully more developments.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Irrational Exuberance Robert J. Shiller

Read on 2021-05-01

#investing
#real-world

I am writing this two years after having finished the book and I can only remember a single takeaway from it. That said, it was a very important takeaway.

Shiller points out that housing prices have only gone up historically. There have been periods when prices didn’t go up as fast or have even stagnated, but they have never gone down (with the exception of cities that are dying). So, “waiting for the bubble to pop” doesn’t work. That said, waiting for mortgages to be cheaper still sounds plausible, but Shiller didn’t investigate this.

I think the book is a good theoretical investing read. In addition to housing prices, it also goes over the CAPE which is always a good thing to know about.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Ciaphas Cain — Books 1-10 Sandy Mitchell

Read on 2021-04-12

#novel
#sci-fi

The Ciaphas Cain books are very fun reads. My only real complaint is that there aren’t more of them.

Mind you, these aren’t high literature. The characters are simple and unchanging. The setting is Warhammer 40k, so while it has novelty, it feels samey after a while. And the books have essentially just one joke: Ciaphas Cain is a coward, but has to act heroically because of his station. That said, the writing carries the series and makes all of Ciaphas Cain’s escapades entertaining to read. It’s also pretty good hard-ish sci-fi.

If you’re on the fence, I’d say watch this short to decide if you like the character.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Site Reliability Engineering Google

Read on 2021-04-10

#distributed-systems
#ops
#programming
#sre

I have mixed feelings about this book. One the one hand, it’s the single best collection of essays on engineering large-scale distributed systems that I’ve ever found. I think it’s basically mandatory reading for anyone working in the field.

On the other hand, I’ve had a growing feeling for a while that large distributed systems are either a mistake, or a symptom of a problem. As such, spending a massive amount of effort to make them rock-solid might not be the right solution.

For instance, this is the book that teaches you how to engineer a telemetry ingestion pipeline of many geographically-distributed ingresses, message queues, map-reduce processors, and gigantic databases. Notably, it also describes how to monitor these systems and what the human support organisation might look like. What the book doesn’t do is suggest that maybe you shouldn’t be generating a 1 KB event for every click a user makes in your app which includes their GPS coordinates, what other apps they have open, and a slew of IDs to track them across different networks.

More succinctly, this book describes how to operationalize Google-scale solutions. But maybe the right thing to do is to engineer your systems and organisation to not have Google-scale problems in the first place.

Must Read

If you have any interest at all in the subject, I think you should read this.

Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Michael E. Shea

Read on 2021-03-24

#dnd
#ttrpg

I found this to be chock-full of good tips for preparing a D&D session. It emphasises that there are a few things that need to be decided in advance and that the rest can be improvised.

I read this two years ago and, while I like to prepare more than the author recommends, I still use the basic structure outlined in the book for all my notes.

I think this is a good read for any aspiring or current DMs, especially if they feel like they’re spending too long preparing.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Humble Pi Matt Parker

Read on 2021-03-15

#pop-math

This is a collection of little stories and anecdotes involving numbers. I happened to know every one of them despite never searching for this kind of facts.

I imagine it’s a fun read if you’ve basically had no interaction with math since high-school, but for the people likely to read my stuff, I expect it won’t be very interesting.

Maybe Read

If you read a lot in this subject area, then I think this is worth reading.

Freaks' Squeele Florent Maudoux

Read on 2021-03-15

#comic
#fantasy

I found this French comic to be a fun read. It’s better than most in that it has small-scale stories that tie into a larger saga, the characters have things going on and change as the story advances, and there’s even social commentary threaded subtly through the narrative.

I read this mostly because I wanted some French practice, but I think I would’ve enjoyed it even translated. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s into Japanese or Korean fantasy comics, but is disappointed by the generally inept writing.

Don't Bother Reading

I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to. This is not necessarily because the book is bad per se; it's just that there are many better things to read.

Harry Potter et l'Enfant Maudit John Tiffany, Jack Thorne

Read on 2021-03-02

#fantasy
#stage-play

I wasn’t much a fun of stage plays and reading this did not change my mind. The plot is a pretty dull time-travel one that you’ve definitely seen before, the characters each have exactly one trait that defines them, and the protagonist’s development is boring and reeks of heavy-handed moralism.

I think this would only appeal to someone who’s are really into Harry Potter and wants to see the characters again after a few decades. Like with most of Rowling’s stuff, Pratchett did it better and he wrote a lot, so there’s always more to read.

Bookshelf