Finished reading: Breaking Free of Neoliberalism: Canada’s Challenge by Alex Himelfarb is a fascinating exploration of neoliberalism: what it is, how it has gone wrong, and some alternatives. I can see some glimmers of hope with discussions of universal basic income and a return to government ownership. Many potential pitfalls though 📚
Finished reading: Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks is a great story about revenge, regret, and forgiveness with a dazzling sci-fi background 📚
Poor management of my library holds resulted in three books arriving simultaneously. I’ll do what I can 📚
Finished reading: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer is hard to describe. Very little happens and, yet, it is a compelling story. I’m glad to have read it 📚
Next up in the reading queue. Sure to be thought provoking 🇨🇦📚
Finished reading: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett is great. An interesting mystery in a compelling fantasy world 📚
Finished reading: Two Wheels Good by Jody Rosen is a fun read. Looking forward to my ride to work tomorrow 📚
Finished reading: Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith is fascinating. Cephalopods are such strange creatures and a useful contrast to us when thinking about consciousness 📚
Finished reading: I enjoyed Jack the Bodiless by Julian May. A fun premise and interesting mystery📚
Finished reading: I like the idea of Origin Uncertain by Anatoly Liberman. The book really demonstrates well the fluidity and creativity of the English language. The chapters do get daunting though. Lots of details that are hard to keep track of and a bit of a slog 📚
Finished reading: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky was a fun read. Tchaikovsky is great at creating interesting aliens and having humans struggle to understand them 📚
Finished reading: Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley is a delight. Great writing and quirky characters, along with nostalgia for my own childhood. Recommended via Paul Wells 📚
Finished reading: The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan is a compelling story about justice and the law. A great start to the series 📚
Finished reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis is a fun and zany time-travel mystery. Although I enjoyed the story, it does get a bit frenetic 📚
Finished reading: Surprising no one, Alias Grace A Novel by Margaret Atwood is very well written📚
Finished reading: Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway is a fun noir detective mystery📚
Finished reading: The Casino Shift by Brian Goldman is a rather sobering look at the poor state of emergency medicine in Canada. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen through neglect, partly motivated by ERs’ amazing ability to adapt and get by with less, until they can’t anymore 📚
Finished reading: The Will of the Many by James Islington was a fun read: think Roman senators in Hunger Games at Hogwarts 📚
Finished reading: The Notebook by Roland Allen is a comprehensive look at how physical notebooks have affected culture over centuries that was more interesting than I’d expected.
I’ve been using physical notebooks, with varying levels of enthusiasm, for decades. These days, I mostly use a Field Notes notebook as my primary capture. I use a light structure of an underlined date and Patrick Rhone’s Dash/Plus system. Then I have a Shortcut that takes a photo, transcribes the text, and sends it to other apps for further use on my iPhone. Works well for me and I like relying on the physical notebook while still having the benefits of the digital 📚
Finished reading: Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse is a fun sequel to Trail of Lightning 📚
Finished reading: Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts has an intriguing premise – a voice emanating from a black hole – that didn’t quite pay off for me. The theology of the ending seemed too contrived 📚
Finished reading: Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson is a good ending to a great trilogy 📚
Finished reading: Hostages to Fortune by Peter C Newman really helped me better appreciate the role that the Loyalists had in shaping Canada. Much more extensive than I recall from my history lessons in school 📚
Finished reading: In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick is the harrowing story of survival that inspired Moby Dick. Hard to imagine such an ordeal 📚
Finished reading: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson is an immersive story with great, imaginative details. Took a few chapters to get into and then was a page turner 📚
I asked Claude to find all the books I’d missed from series that I’d started
I started reading: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. I’ve read that if I can get through the first couple of hundred pages, this is a great series. I’m up for the challenge! 📚
Finished reading: The Republic of Alberta by Tyler Dawson make a compelling case that the rest of Canada needs to be paying attention to Alberta separatism. I remember how traumatic this was with Quebec and am not keen to do this again 📚
Finished reading: Although I preferred the mystery of his previous book, Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley is still a fun read 📚
Finished reading: The Governors General by John Fraser is a good companion to The Prime Ministers book. The Governor General as an important and misunderstood part of Canada’s government that deserves more attention. This book is a fun and personal start 📚