I’m new to this and it seems interesting. I use https://bookwyrm.social/ to track my books. I’m unemployed right now and my priorities is to get a job, which means most books are related to that future job where I’m a billionaire. The best so far are:

• Head First Design Patterns : it’s a good software development book, and most “Head First” books are nice to read, and won’t give you headaches.
• Designing Your New Work Life : it’s a bit different from the other motivational books I have read so far, and it gives you an alternate point of view of work and the workplace. This book is not preachy and shows interesting advice on how you can experience (or “reframe” as they say) your daily job.

I stopped reading the “Bullet Journal Method” because it was filled with useless motivational quotes, the kind you can read on Instagram, while giving absolutely no useful advice or method.

Finished Project Hail Mary a few days ago, wanted to get it read before watching the movie tonight. It was such a great read, Rocky was amaze! Started Player One by Douglas Coupland afterwards/now, as I wanted a genre change up, been quite a non-stop thrill when comparing to the length of Project Hail Mary.

On the nonfiction side, reading Metaphors We Live By (by Johnson & Lakoff) currently. Taking it slow as it gets me thinking about experiencing experience itself. Real meta stuff.

I wanted to read a classic that I’ve never read before. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I’m reading it on Libby. It’s good so far. Different from what a lot of movie and TV adaptations have been.

I have finally just finished 1984 by George Orwell, and with that, my last bingo square as well. \o/ Overall, I liked it, but found it too drawn out; the book section at the 60% mark especially killed the pacing for me. The appendix about Newspeak at the end was fascinating, though.

The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas

Just finished “How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder” and “Binti”

The former is very good lit fic. It does deal with some tough topics including rape and murder, but it’s very good. Highly recommend.

Binti is very short, but well done. The book won a Hugo award.

Currently reading “Blindsight.” It’s also quite good, though I’m only through the first section.

I’m almost done with For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. I’ve quite enjoyed reading it and was surprised by the complaints of some people online regarding Hemingway’s writing style. The book indeed reads like it was literally translated from Spanish, but it was a creative choice given that the plot is set in the Spanish civil war. Hemingway navigated censorship of profanity in a humorous way by replacing slurs like “fuck” and “shit” with “muck,” “obscenity” and “unprintable.” Also, the protagonist’s inner dialogues are insightful.

I just finished my second reread of Starship Troopers. I’ve read it in three very different parts of my life and every time I read it, I come away with something new.

I’m currently reading Salt: A World History and listening to The Final Empire.

Made the choice of trying out infinite jest, boy is it tough yet so interesting. Like the parts a lot with some incredible descriptions yet some words are just so incredibly niche I have to stop and look it up.

I’m on an Ira Levin kick right now. I just finished The Stepford Wives, now I’m reading The Boys From Brazil with a work friend. It’s really good.

I have two in progress.

• Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way. Some of it more dated than I expected (The opening page mentions a sign in Yugoslavia.) Some of it I already knew (or at least had already been told, even if I’d forgotten the details). But linguistical trivia can be interesting and informative, so it’s worth the read.

• Louis Sachar’s The Cardturner. This is a blatant propaganda novel. The author is a bridge player and hopes to popularize the game among younger audiences (perhaps inspired by the million weaboos who took up Go inspired by Hikaru no Go.) At least it’s a nobler cause than some of the propaganda I’ve been exposed to. The old, rich, blind bridge expert hires a kid to escort him to tournaments, look at his cards, tell him his hand and play it as he directs. The previous kid fucked up and got fired for learning enough bridge to question his decisions, but this new cardturner knows nothing. The book is intended for YA audiences and has the usual scenes of teenagers acting like teenagers, often while their parents act like toddlers, neither of which appeal to me, but they can be skimmed to get back to bridge scenes more comprehensive than I’d expected.

The Cardturner would be a great fit for the 4E (Game, Gamble, Contest) bingo square. This would also break a beautiful symmetry on my card. Not counting the central square, all 12 of my my scoring lines have an odd number of books completed. (2 lines are 1/5 completed, 8 are 3/5, and 2 are 5/5.) I don’t think that specifies a unique arrangement (even up to rotational and reflectional symmetry), but it was surprising.

Nemesis Games, although probably will finish tonight or tomorrow.

And then listening to Towers of Midnight.

I like series, because there’s always another book! Until there’s not, and then panic.

I’m now reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I was in the mood for something lighter and I had never read it. No murder yet, no idea how the story will unfold. It breathes that old atmosphere of a classic detective, which is really nice.

I have been re-listening to the Battle Of Midway.

The story is the stuff of legends and the narrator is excellent.

I just finished 1Q84, Book 2 by Haruki Murakami over the weekend. I’m excited to finish, but I’ve decided I needed a bit of a break before getting into Book 3.

In the meantime I’ve started There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. Tonally very different, but the intro was so intriguing I had to learn more!