Humble Pi by Matt Parker is a very entertaining book about math errors. His irreverent personality really comes through and the stories make the important point about how essential math is to our everyday lives. 📚
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Currently reading: Humble Pi by Matt Parker 📚
The Light of All That Falls by James Islington is a great end to The Licanius Trilogy. I was in the mood for an immersive fantasy series and these delivered, each book weighing in at close to a thousand pages. Interesting mix of fantasy, politics, time travel & free will 📚
Currently reading: The Light of All That Falls by James Islington 📚
The long way to a small, angry planet by Becky Chambers is great. I really enjoyed the characters and the sense of family on the Wayfarer. Definitely a nice change of pace from some more typical hard sci-fi stories that are more focused on the physics📚
Currently reading: The long way to a small, angry planet by Becky Chambers 📚
Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett is a charming, short book about how our brains work and our misconceptions about them 📚
Currently reading: Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett 📚
If you’re interested in how algorithms are affecting us, Hello world by Hannah Fry is a great read. Rather than explain how algorithms work, Fry describes their opportunities and risks in different parts of society, such as health, justice, and art 📚
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is a very imaginative and entertaining mix of sci-fi and horror 📚
Blueprint by Nicholas Christakis is an interesting book about universal feature of our societies (the social suite) and how they are based on genetics, emergent properties, and complex network effects. The book has lots of interesting examples and makes clear connections between human societies and attributes of other animals.📚
Currently reading: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 📚
Currently reading: Blueprint by Nicholas A. Christakis 📚
Of the 30 books that I read this year, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine was my favourite fiction book. And, What is Real by Adam Becker was my favourite non-fiction one. 📚
Currently reading: Ego is the enemy by Ryan Holiday 📚
The Value of Everything by Mariana Mazzucato is an effective description of how our economy is constructed by decisions and assumptions over time. By defining value as the same as price, we confuse value creation and value extraction, which leads to many of the problems we see in today’s economic structures. Her proposals for change would help us achieve the world we’re striving for. 📚
Currently reading: The Value of Everything by Mariana Mazzucato 📚
Currently reading: The obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday 📚
I wanted to avoid using the word border in a political context and was reminded how much I enjoyed Borderline by Mishell Baker #mbnov 📚
I really enjoyed To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. A little jewel of a space exploration story that really captures the spirit of scientific exploration 📚
Wednesday, November 11, 2020 →
Currently reading: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers 📚
Finished reading: Breath by James Nestor. A great book about the importance of breathing. Full of interesting stories that certainly convinced me to be more thoughtful about my breath. The end of the book also has a good summary of the main points with detailed methods. 📚
Currently reading: Breath by James Nestor 📚
I enjoyed The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington. A reasonably complex plot with mystery and adventure, along with some good characters. The word building has lots of potential and the rules for the magic make sense. I was a bit intimidated by the length, given it is part one of a trilogy, but it is nice to get immersed in a good, long book. 📚🧙♂️
Reading Shortcut for the iPad 👓⚙️
Sunday, July 26, 2020
I haven’t yet adopted the minimalist style of my iPhone for my iPad. Rather, I’ve found that setting up “task oriented” Shortcuts on my home screen is a good alternative to arranging lots of app icons.
The one I use the most is a “Reading” Shortcut, since this is my dominant use of the iPad. Nothing particularly fancy. Just a list of potential reading sources and each one starts up a Timery timer, since I like to track how much time I’m reading.
Here’s a screenshot of the first few actions:
I like the bit of whimsy from using emoticons:
- 📚 for Apple Books
- 💵 for The Economist
- 📰 for NetNewsWire
- 👓 for Safari Reading List
A nice feature of using a Shortcut for this is that I can add other actions, such as turning on Do Not Disturb or starting a specific playlist. I can also add and subtract reading sources over time, depending on my current habits. For example, the first one was Libby for a while, since I was reading lots of library books.
This is another example of how relatively simple Shortcuts can really help optimize how you use your iOS devices.
The Aleph Extraction by Dan Moren is a fun read and worthy sequel to the great Bayern Agenda. The mix of cold-war thriller and sci-fi setting is definitely in my sweet spot 📚
The Last Emperox by John Scalzi is great fun and a fitting end to the trilogy 📚
China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station is intensely creative and very entertaining 📚
What is Real by Adam Becker is a great book on the measurement problem in quantum physics. Becker writes very clearly about the actual physics of the problem and the fascinating history. Such a clear example of how science is a human endeavour with politics and personalities 🔭📚
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 →
She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Carl Zimmer is a thorough, detailed, and fascinating book about heredity. I appreciated that Zimmer expanded heredity well beyond genes to make the important point that we inherit many things from our parents 📚