What I read in 2023, the list. How to read this list: * = Recommend** = Really recommendNC = No comment (or, really, do not bother)RR = Re-readF = FictionNF = Non-fictionP = Plays Titles and micro-reviews of what I read over the last year. Not many great ones, but a few interesting gems amidst the mid … Continue reading 2023 – A Year In Books
Category: Reading Right Now
Debt and Taxes
Ah, I've been thinking a lot about the late David Graeber lately. He was right about diagnosing so many problems (and quite wrong about many of his proposed solutions). Debt, The First 500 Years, has become one of my favourite economics books. I keep coming back to it and how it makes explicit the dirty … Continue reading Debt and Taxes
Protection Rackets
"But there was more to it than that. As the Amazing Maurice said, it was just a story about people and rats. And the difficult part of it was deciding who the people were, and who were the rats." ~ The Amazing Maurice I can't help noticing the protection rackets all around us at the … Continue reading Protection Rackets
Why Optimism Makes People Angry
Why does optimism make people angry? If you even mention the word in mixed company, not only do you get ridiculed and treated as though you are a little simple, it actually makes people angry. At you. But why is this? As a natural pessimist (I am terrible cynic) I have a few ideas. Pessimism, … Continue reading Why Optimism Makes People Angry
Consider the Lobster (and Friends)
“…a peculiarly American loneliness: the prospect of dying without having once loved something more than yourself" ~ David Foster Wallace Sex and loneliness (and how porn may, indeed, be more human than Hollywood after all). How masculinity is falling out of fashion. Critical culture wars over words (and how he who controls the dictionary controls … Continue reading Consider the Lobster (and Friends)
2022 – Another Year in Books
What I read in 2022, the comprehensive list. How to read this list: * = Recommend** = Really recommendNC = No comment (or, really, do not bother)RR = Re-readF = FictionNF = Non-fictionP = Plays This year's list is (far) shorter than usual. I had a lot going on that's none of your business. I don't post … Continue reading 2022 – Another Year in Books
The Ordeal of Change
A couple of quotes from the ever-quotable Erick Hoffer's The Ordeal of Change (which is really more of a list of life advice than a "book" per say: “One cannot escape the impression that the intellectual’s most fundamental incompatibility is with the masses. He has managed to thrive in social orders dominated by kings, nobles, … Continue reading The Ordeal of Change
2021 a Year in Books
What I read in 2021, the comprehensive list. How to read this list: * = Recommend** = Really recommendNC = No comment (or, really, do not bother)RR = Re-readF = FictionNF = Non-fictionP = Plays No, I won't be posting purchase links, I suggest you purchase a copy of whatever sounds interesting from your favourite local second … Continue reading 2021 a Year in Books
The Future Starts Now
Yes, this is technically my own book - but I only wrote one of the 20 essays, so I am really more of a reader than a writer here too. Agency is a tricky thing. The less we use it, the more we lose it. The more we give up and outsource our responsibilities, the … Continue reading The Future Starts Now
Flowers for Algernon
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”~ Daniel Keyes It seems like one of the themes that emerged, again and again, in 2021 was the warning to be careful what we wish for, because what will … Continue reading Flowers for Algernon