I don’t know how this made it onto my pile but it was a quick read (I started it yesterday). It’s so weird to read 90s tech memoirs. People were still sorta building stuff back then, weren’t sure where things would end up, and so on.
Bookwyrm posts
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Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman
Figure 1. Cover of Close to the Machine by Ellen Ullman, published 1997-04-26. Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:57 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131241/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131241/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia
David Wong
Figure 1. Cover of Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia by David Wong, published 2023-09-22 by St. Martin's Press, 416 pages, part of the Zoey Ashe series (book 3). Fun as expected. A pre-order, because that this point I just subscribe to Pargin stuff.
It’s been two months since I finished anything, my head has not been in the right space to read, I’d bounced off three other things, and I’ve been taking lots of long walks instead.
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:56 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131238/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131238/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
The Trial
Franz Kafka
Figure 1. Cover of The Trial by Franz Kafka, published 2006-07-06 by Waking Lion Press, 216 pages. Someone in Bernal Heights (Bonview at or near Cortland? It was a few months ago) left a box of books on the sidewalk with “FREE” written on a flap that had a few things I grabbed, among them, DFW’s “Consider the Lobster, and other essays” which I started and abandoned (lol), and this.
I enjoy stuff like this from time to time but don’t think I’m “smart enough” for it, whatever that means (and I’m not entirely sure).
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:55 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131235/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131235/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka
Figure 1. Cover of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, published 2022-10-31 by W. W. Norton & Company, a 400-page paperback. A friend posted that they’d just read a book that they think might be the best book they’d ever read, and it was this one. 4, 3, 2, 1 was listed for a Booker and this one won the prize? OK, I’ll try it.
I really wanted to like it more than I did, and the second act really flows well, but I had a hard time finishing it, today, finally. It’s right up my alley in lots of ways. v0v
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:55 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131227/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131227/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
Michael Kohlhaas
Michael Kohlhaas
Figure 1. Cover of Michael Kohlhaas by Michael Kohlhaas, published 2018-10-31 by Katakrak Liburuak, a 160-page paperback. 4 3 2 1 was full of writers learning the trade from other writers and hundreds of books are mentioned. I’m sure I’ll thumb through it for more suggestions but this one was the first I chose.
I think probably best to go in completely without any idea what it is beyond: german, written early 1800s, takes place in the 1500s, and Kafka, of all people liked it a lot.
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:54 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131222/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131222/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
4 3 2 1
Paul Auster
Figure 1. Cover of 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster, published 2017-08-28 by Henry Holt and Company, 866 pages. Loved it, spent most of my spare time since I started it with it, will miss it, probably missed a lot in it.
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:53 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131218/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131218/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
SPQR
Mary Beard
Figure 1. Cover of SPQR by Mary Beard, published 2016-09-06 by Liveright Publishing Corporation, Liveright, a 608-page paperback. 18th book of the year: “SPQR”, by Mary Beard
Wanted to read some history after the last few things. Kept seeing Beard press over the years, saw she has a new book out and grabbed a used copy of her old stuff instead.
lotta “assassinated for tyranny after proposing social and/or land use reforms” Kermit-confused-face.bmp
lotta good stuff on how normal people lived
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:52 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131215/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131215/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
The palm-wine drinkard ; and, My life in the bush of ghosts
Amos Tutuola
Figure 1. Cover of The palm-wine drinkard ; and, My life in the bush of ghosts by Amos Tutuola, published 1994-01-07 by Grove Press, 307 pages. The story I enjoyed in Black Water 2 was an excerpt from “The Palm-Wine Drinkard” (which is subtitled “and his dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads’ Town)
I preferred the drinkard because more of the stories in it seem like little self-contained myths. And of course I’m glad to now have a connection back to the Byrne/Eno album that I love.
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:52 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131211/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131211/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic
Alberto Manguel
Figure 1. Cover of Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic by Alberto Manguel, published 1990-12-18. “Black Water 2, More Tales of the Fantastic” loved it, full of surprises and delights from authors I’ve never heard of and authors most have — Arthur Conan Doyle, F Scott Fitzgerald, E B White, Joseph Conrad, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margret Atwood, George Bernard Shaw , Arthur C Lark) — and stories too , like Melville’s Bartleby.
"The Complete Gentleman” turned me onto Amos Tutuola, who I’m now reading in full.
And a story from Isabell Allende?! Nice.
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:51 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131207/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131207/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown. -
Oceanic
Greg Egan
Figure 1. Cover of Oceanic by Greg Egan, published 2009-04-08. Egan again. I knew I’d have a 10 hours of plane time, so I brought “Oceanic” and it delivered.
Egan’s political and hard science (the bulk of this set) stories are my favorites while the atheist ones like the title story “Oceanic” are probably more interesting to previously religious people, which I never was. I’ve always found faith to be entirely inscrutable, so exploring losing it is kinda just more of that to me?
Posted on Bookwyrm about a year agoon December 30, 2024 - 6:50 PM and archived here at /bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131202/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/bookwyrm/2024/12/30/6131202/ in the Bookwyrm collection in both HTML and markdown.