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Just finished the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons. Can't believe I'd never read it before. It's got everything: Catholic theology, 19th-century Romantic poets, Teilhard de Chardin, space battles, Norse mythology, morally ambiguous AIs, time travel, literary framing devices, 4-armed time-manipulating demons, poorly-researched interpretations of Buddhism!

in b4 "this thread".

Neuromancer by The Gibson, though. Really digging it.

The Healing Power of Forests: The Philosophy Behind Restoring Earth's Balance with Native Trees - Akira Miyawaki, Elgene O. Box

Came across this in a second hand book store. It is a surprisingly good read about how forests/trees have a far greater impact than we give them.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1303609.The_Healing_Power_of_Forests

Fantastic book. What's really interesting to me about Gibson though is that his later books are kind of the same as his earlier books, but with the Sci-Fi replaced with present day tech...which is not so different from what he was writing about in the 80s. Specifically, his book Pattern Recognition is basically Mona Lisa Overdrive, but without the AI. He could write it again today, though, with far fewer changes!

currently a brazilian friends's rec: the posthumous memoirs of bras cubas

up next is: mount analogue

Previous: Walkaway - Cory Doctorow (Goodreads) Enjoyed this book but his style of writing is very odd. Had a certain Brave New World/1984 vibe.

Current: The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure - G. Lukianoff, J. Haidt A lot of interesting corollaries and solid points, provides a lot of background information as well as many studies to support their conclusions and so far I agree with what I have read. It is a VERY dry read though.

"Teach Yourself Serbian"!

It's been a lot of months of making and memorizing flashcards, getting my ass handed to me by grammar, and meeting extraordinarily slavic people on FaceBook. I'm having a great time.

that seems.. awesome.

I've been trying to teach myself french for about ~5 years, and haven't met a single person yet (french or otherwise) to conversate with. Feels antisocial, man.

How To Attract A Leather Daddy by jk rowling

There are forums out there for people just like you who are learning languages and want to chat! You should scope it out. I'm lucky -- I have Serbian family. I've been talking to them a lot, and they're just excited that I exist. If you have French family ( even distant relatives! ) they might love talking to you, too!

just finished The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. lots of turns and foreshadowing. really recommend if you like mystery!

I finished "Why fish don't exist" by Lulu Miller recently. I really enjoyed the philosophical discussion within it, especially the post-nihilism thoughts.

Just started "Accelerando" by Charles Stross. It feels futuristic yet slightly dated at the same time. Can't quite put my finger on which parts are which though.

Antifragile

• Nassim "Fat tailed" Taleb

meditations by Marcus Aurelius

digital minimalism by cal newport (sort of ironic that I'm on here)

Interested! Been thinking about doing some backoff on my computer usage. This sounds like it's right up my alley. How do you like it so far?

Nice. I'm a big fan of Cal Newport. He's the reason I have the exact job I have, in fact. I learned about the company through a blog post on his site and got involved in it.

i just started reading 1984 (second attempt, i got bored of it because i was reading it in school) and i have already ran out of sticky notes that denote examples of propaganda. literally only got through the first chapter

Currently reading Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler, rather peculiar and surreal book but i like it

Non fiction:

Started docker deep dive today.

Fiction:

Leviathan wakes (first book of the Expanse). The blade itself (book 1 of the first law trilogy)

Recently finished Words of Radiance.

just finished Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway, great noir cyberpunk detective story

Less is More - Jason Hilkel.

A book all about a possible future of Degrowth in the economy.

Only about 2/3rds of the way through and it is... ok. I have said for a long time that when ever someone mentions Capitalism, 98% of the time you are going to get an ear full of a one sided ideology about it. This is another example of this and I felt like it is best to skip the first 2 sections.

Otherwise it isn't terrible, just a little to grim on some sides and far to optimistic in others.

I am not a firm believer in the overall goals of Degrowth being achievable but I do think the movement can shift the overton window to start people thinking and talking about these issues before they become forced into some segments of society. As modern philosopher Daniel Schmachtenburger says, "We need to bend not break".

Having never experienced anything related to The Witcher, my boss did recommend the books but so far I had a hard time getting into the first one. Hard time wanting to just read a book in general, even though I can get really into them.

I got a couple books within the last day, a Ruby-centric "Learn to Program" 3rd edition, and The Communist Manifesto. I'm not sure what I'll think about the latter, but I have taken a recent interest in Ruby programming and the reviews plus my skimming make me really confident I'll enjoy working through that one.

Today I started The Official Rules (kobo.com) by Paul Dickson. Below is the synopsis.