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205 reviews
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
5.0
So I have just one wish for you -- the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintainthe kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organization, or your financial support,or so on, to lose your integrity.
May you have that freedom.
Thus ends this amazing set of anecdotes by Richard P. Feynman.
May you have that freedom.
Thus ends this amazing set of anecdotes by Richard P. Feynman.
Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf
4.0
I have just finished this book.
And always when i come to review a book I am ... uncertain how to best voice my opinion such that reading a review of mine will leave the reader with a comprehensive understanding of how i liked any given part of a book.
But that's not a realistic goal, at least not for a completely comprehensive review (which i mostly dont do, ... though maybe i should)
So, beware of Negativity bias, for i will mention some things i didn't like/agree with in this book, but practically anything i don't mention i something which i loved.
Letter Two annoyed me, not because of its inaccuracies, in fact I'm almost certain all of the information about how the brain processes the word are factually based, but I'm talking more about how it could have been summarized in a lot more compact way, especially that after a while this doesn't feel like a book about reading per say, and just orgasming about the complexity and ingenuity of the human brain, which, fair enough, the brain truly is amazing, but that's less ... directly related (?) to reading only, which bleeds to my complaint about Letter three.
You see, reading letter three, i did not once find a situation where Maryanne said something about a property pertaining exclusively to reading physical books, which *kind of* annoyed me, but it's very understandable, i personally thought it was an excellent "Chapter"/"Letter" about deep focus and analytical thought in consumption of media in general, but, in the author's defense, it is true that *physical* books are a lot less instigators of distraction-related inattention (?; as in the reader is not as easily distracted by various stimuli like what he'd get if he watched, say, a movie in Netflix or a video in YouTube, etc.)
The other main complaint i have is Letter Eight, and i don't really have anything more to say than that i think Maryanne is being WAAAAYY TOO OPTIMISTIC about stuff, where unfortunately everything seems to lead to a conclusion where our future is going to keep getting infested by these counter-productive ways of using technological gadgets; I think Maryanne is underestimating the momentum and inertia of human behavior.
But i could be wrong of course. (i hope so)
Otherwise, this was a fantastic book that i will almost definitely return to at some point for the rereading of some individual letters or for a full re-read, plus the author convinced me of the importance of re-reads so i got that going on for me.
Add to this that all of the previous opinions are things I've formed after only the first re-read, so yeah, they are subject to change.
And always when i come to review a book I am ... uncertain how to best voice my opinion such that reading a review of mine will leave the reader with a comprehensive understanding of how i liked any given part of a book.
But that's not a realistic goal, at least not for a completely comprehensive review (which i mostly dont do, ... though maybe i should)
So, beware of Negativity bias, for i will mention some things i didn't like/agree with in this book, but practically anything i don't mention i something which i loved.
Letter Two annoyed me, not because of its inaccuracies, in fact I'm almost certain all of the information about how the brain processes the word are factually based, but I'm talking more about how it could have been summarized in a lot more compact way, especially that after a while this doesn't feel like a book about reading per say, and just orgasming about the complexity and ingenuity of the human brain, which, fair enough, the brain truly is amazing, but that's less ... directly related (?) to reading only, which bleeds to my complaint about Letter three.
You see, reading letter three, i did not once find a situation where Maryanne said something about a property pertaining exclusively to reading physical books, which *kind of* annoyed me, but it's very understandable, i personally thought it was an excellent "Chapter"/"Letter" about deep focus and analytical thought in consumption of media in general, but, in the author's defense, it is true that *physical* books are a lot less instigators of distraction-related inattention (?; as in the reader is not as easily distracted by various stimuli like what he'd get if he watched, say, a movie in Netflix or a video in YouTube, etc.)
The other main complaint i have is Letter Eight, and i don't really have anything more to say than that i think Maryanne is being WAAAAYY TOO OPTIMISTIC about stuff, where unfortunately everything seems to lead to a conclusion where our future is going to keep getting infested by these counter-productive ways of using technological gadgets; I think Maryanne is underestimating the momentum and inertia of human behavior.
But i could be wrong of course. (i hope so)
Otherwise, this was a fantastic book that i will almost definitely return to at some point for the rereading of some individual letters or for a full re-read, plus the author convinced me of the importance of re-reads so i got that going on for me.
Add to this that all of the previous opinions are things I've formed after only the first re-read, so yeah, they are subject to change.
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
2.0
Pfeh.
It was OK.
I mean, I still don't know what the point of it was ?
Eh, i wasn't really expecting great character, I wasn't really expecting great world building either, I was under the impression that these "smaller" Sci-Fi classics were about interesting ideas, and thus they don't give much attention to scientific accuracy and allow handwavium and stuff.
But even then, I don't really ... care about these people or what they're doing or why they're doing it ?
Also, surprisingly enough the hard-SciFi works I've seen are ironically better capable of speaking about "big" ideas and such, in my experience anyways.
Yeah i really don't even know what to say, it was a forgettable experience, like ???
CLASSIC SCIFI.
Just to be clear: I do not think this book is bad at all, just ... not for me ?
It was OK.
I mean, I still don't know what the point of it was ?
Eh, i wasn't really expecting great character, I wasn't really expecting great world building either, I was under the impression that these "smaller" Sci-Fi classics were about interesting ideas, and thus they don't give much attention to scientific accuracy and allow handwavium and stuff.
But even then, I don't really ... care about these people or what they're doing or why they're doing it ?
Also, surprisingly enough the hard-SciFi works I've seen are ironically better capable of speaking about "big" ideas and such, in my experience anyways.
Yeah i really don't even know what to say, it was a forgettable experience, like ???
CLASSIC SCIFI.
Just to be clear: I do not think this book is bad at all, just ... not for me ?
Death's End by Cixin Liu
1.0
Disliked this enough that I wont review it right now, maybe later, maybe.
Unsouled by Will Wight
4.0
This was a relatively enjoyable read!
This was my first xian xia novel.
And from scouring the web on impressions for the quality of this work, I knew from the beginning that it was not considered the best, some of the comments i heard on it said that it was of average quality.
But none said it was bad.
And after reading it, I agree.
Lindon is our protagonist, and I like his ingenuity and i found him to be a refreshing change from the norm (IE he lies, cheats, does whatever he can to achieve his goals) and he has nice problem solving skills.
Now, from a character development standpoint, I'm not too sure on the quality of it, doesn't change the fact that i always rooted for Lindon of course, but still, even though i have seen him interact with a decent number of people including his family and clan-members, I still don't think that we had the 'C L A S S I C A L' deep-dive into his character, personality, thoughts and other good stuff.
Then again, i think it's usual in these types of novels.
I find myself intrigued by the sheer scale of these power levels, and I want to know the conflicts that these Xian Xia protagonists face (this is,after all, my first xian xia, so at first when i heard that the protagonists in this genre go for immortality and godhood i was skeptical)
In the ending of this book, and after Yerin's reveal, I am hopeful as to the action and content of the next installments of the series)
I have all the books in my kindle, as well as The travelers Gate trilogy -Courtesy of Will Wight making these books free on July, 4th of 2019, so i will probably pick up the rest of this series soonish.
This was my first xian xia novel.
And from scouring the web on impressions for the quality of this work, I knew from the beginning that it was not considered the best, some of the comments i heard on it said that it was of average quality.
But none said it was bad.
And after reading it, I agree.
Lindon is our protagonist, and I like his ingenuity and i found him to be a refreshing change from the norm (IE he lies, cheats, does whatever he can to achieve his goals) and he has nice problem solving skills.
Now, from a character development standpoint, I'm not too sure on the quality of it, doesn't change the fact that i always rooted for Lindon of course, but still, even though i have seen him interact with a decent number of people including his family and clan-members, I still don't think that we had the 'C L A S S I C A L' deep-dive into his character, personality, thoughts and other good stuff.
Then again, i think it's usual in these types of novels.
I find myself intrigued by the sheer scale of these power levels, and I want to know the conflicts that these Xian Xia protagonists face (this is,after all, my first xian xia, so at first when i heard that the protagonists in this genre go for immortality and godhood i was skeptical)
In the ending of this book, and after Yerin's reveal, I am hopeful as to the action and content of the next installments of the series)
I have all the books in my kindle, as well as The travelers Gate trilogy -Courtesy of Will Wight making these books free on July, 4th of 2019, so i will probably pick up the rest of this series soonish.
Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson
4.0
Alright!
Overall, short novel, quick read, i believe i could've read it in a day to be honest, but given .. well .. events in my life currently, i took my time.
Anyways, Lift's character was ... different, I kind of like her, sometimes however i find her irritating, but that's being accounted for i think (what with Wyndle's 'endless' complaining)
Also, kind of surprised that the Assassin in White ended up as a disciple (?) of Nale.
God bless NightBlood! You saved Lift.
According to the postscript, this was mainly done to provide the reader with contextual knowledge concerning Nale's realization, and coincidentally also Lift's oaths.
Should provide decent background info to StormLight 3, yay!
Overall, short novel, quick read, i believe i could've read it in a day to be honest, but given .. well .. events in my life currently, i took my time.
Anyways, Lift's character was ... different, I kind of like her, sometimes however i find her irritating, but that's being accounted for i think (what with Wyndle's 'endless' complaining)
Also, kind of surprised that the Assassin in White ended up as a disciple (?) of Nale.
God bless NightBlood! You saved Lift.
According to the postscript, this was mainly done to provide the reader with contextual knowledge concerning Nale's realization, and coincidentally also Lift's oaths.
Should provide decent background info to StormLight 3, yay!
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
5.0
I am kind of disappointed in the fact that it took me a long time to read this and finish it.
However, this book did not disappoint, the magic remains amazing, answers were given and were illuminating.
The ending was beautiful.
Brandon's classic endings are, as always, faithful, Avalanche Endings I've heard them being described.
Everything makes a lot of sense.
This seems like a trilogy with a very big re-read value.
Then again, so are most of Brandon's book.
It felt kind of slow at the beginning, only started to pick up when Elend wanted to take Fadrex and such, but still, the earlier parts were still interesting.
All in all, good stuff.
However, this book did not disappoint, the magic remains amazing, answers were given and were illuminating.
The ending was beautiful.
Brandon's classic endings are, as always, faithful, Avalanche Endings I've heard them being described.
Everything makes a lot of sense.
This seems like a trilogy with a very big re-read value.
Then again, so are most of Brandon's book.
It felt kind of slow at the beginning, only started to pick up when Elend wanted to take Fadrex and such, but still, the earlier parts were still interesting.
All in all, good stuff.