a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by veen
veen  ·  1241 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Dear Hubski, what are you reading this summer?

I've been slowly getting back into reading again over the past months. Didn't quite have the mental space for it this winter.

Sourdough by Robin Sloan I read on a whim, which is a whimsical lovely little book of magical realism.

Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday was an easy bite to get me back into the habit of reading nonfiction. I got something out of it, but wouldn't recommend it per sé, there are far better books that accomplish similar goals.

Nomadland I read because it won Oscars and because there was a discussion here on how much the movie sucked compared to the book. It's a fantastic but depressing look into people thoroughly screwed by late-stage capitalism making whatever they can out of it, which is not a lot.

The Monster of Florence is a wonderful book on the failings of the Italian justice system and the most abhorrent serial killer Europe has ever seen, written by one of the best thriller novel writers. A bit on the long side, but it's written so well that I didn't mind it.

Read two Dutch books, one a wonderfully written autobiographical account of the (sex) life of a queer person, the other an eye-opening book on the Dutch real estate market and the nuanced ways in which normal folx are absolutely fucked and how we've built our financial system on an eroding base.

Almost through Fully Automated Luxury Communism, which I found meh. He uses all the stories I've already heard in sustainability consultancy circles as examples for most of his points, and then just moves on. This horse dung story? I've heard it a dozen times. Hell, I've presented it three times myself. It shouldn't make the story less useful, but it does make it a lot more annoying to get through the book when there's little to no diamonds in the rough to begin with.

Currently reading Lies My Teacher Told Me, which KB recommended as a good entry into US history. I quite like it so far, although it could do with slightly less minutiae.

I'm also reading The Captain Class by Sam Walker which had been on my reading list for years. The book actually does a good job of being open and transparent about the methodology that led to the main thesis of the book, which is something I almost never see. "Here's what I noticed, here's the best counterarguments I then analysed, and the reasons I think they're invalid." More books should do that!