Month: April 2024

I’ve never read anything quite like this remarkable book, a sui generis exploration of Herman Meville’s life through a fictional narrative of an academic. The writing is so warm and nuanced and emotive and incredibly moving. And it has inspired me to read Moby Dick, which would be hard to avoid given how warmly this novel deals with Moby Dick. Lovely stuff. 

A fascinating book that genuinely moved my thoughts on a topic: beforehand I would have described myself as quite bullish on space travel and settlement, but through this book’s broad exploration, I am now somewhat more cautious about the whole idea. In particular, I note with appreciation the Weinersmith’s conclusion that we oughtn’t consider space as a solution to the general socioeconomic and political instability that characterises the earth today. Rather, when (or if) we resolve this, then we should ought to pour ourselves into the stars. I did find the humour in this book a little too referential for my tastes in the way that a lot of (self professed) geeky or nerdy things are. There was probably an equal amount of eye rolls to chuckles. Still, even aside from the tone being not to my taste from time to time, I admire this book, its research and the passion that went into it.

A powerful book that focussed on something very universal; life’s purpose. I took a lot from his conclusion that we can only define our own purpose, no one else can define another’s purpose. His views on suffering as a key and essential part of our lives also lit something inside me. Deep and moving. I will say that it is quite unfortunate that he refers to homosexual relationships as “sexual perversion,” but we can understand that as a relic of the era in which the book was written. It is similarly disappointing that he uses ‘men’ to mean people.   

The first half of this book was repetitive and in search of a thesis. I found the second half better: clearer and with less repetition, but it wasn’t enough to salvage the book. I am still interested in the topic of how it came to be that patriarchal systems became dominant when there is nothing certain or inevitable about that fate.

I found this dense and the format—a conversation between the two authors—did not work for me. Not that I think it couldn’t have worked, it just didn’t work in this book. I am torn because some ideas in the exchange are deeply information and thought provoking, and I like the obvious respect and admiration between the authors. Yet I cannot possibly recommend this in its current form. 

This was funnier, and less ‘okay, boomer’ than another similar book I read about an Australian comedian-type. I think I made a mistake by not finding the audiobook version of this, as I’m sure Flanagan’s delivery would have added so much. That said, it is still a bit familiar, and very few of the jokes made me laugh out loud. 

A tremendous piece of original thinking and philosophy. Some ideas were necessarily dense, but Goff’s writing and thought is clear, witty and thought-provoking. I have not landed if I find Goff’s ultimate thesis convincing, but I will be thinking about them for a long time, I suspect. 

Kung’s views on food are fun and his recipes are smartly written. I’m yet to cook anything from the book yet, but I have about 30 or so recipes I’m very excited to make. 

Look, this WAS interesting. But it was very little about distraction and far more about monks: how they lived, worked, acted, and so on. But luckily, Kreiner writes with such wit and authority that even though I wasn’t getting what I expected, I had a fine enough time. 

A fun adventure – Paz’s world-building and concepts are remarkable and a lot fun. My main quibble is with the pacing – the plot moves at a glacial pace with far too many digressions and flashbacks that feel a lot like telling not showing. I think this might make a fun movie.

An excellent exploration of creativity and making art. I wish someone had taught me some of this as a kid, so I probably wouldn’t have internalized so many anti-creative sentiments. This is a book that would interest almost anyone, not just those consciously thinking about creating art. The book positions and treats creativity as an essential and necessary skill. Fascinating! 

Few books have made me see the world in such a different way as this brilliant work by Criado Pérez which exposes a historical and continuing inequity – if our decisions are (increasingly) made using data, and if data around women is not only under-collected but more often than not it is simply not collected: an omission that begins to look deliberate in its scale. This has disastrous consequences for human health, happiness, productivity, and welfare. And it’s simply not good enough and we must do better: collect data and challenge the male as default bias.