Mayobrot wants to read Melancolia by Mircea Cartarescu
Ce sont trois longues nouvelles encadrées par deux contes. Melancolia est un livre sur l’expérience …
I have to many books that I'm currently reading, so I'm shelving this one for now.
Reviews and Comments
I've mostly read sci-fi, but am trying to branch out. I really like to think and talk about books, hope to find people here to chat with!
I sometimes write longer stuff here: a-blog-with.relevant-information.com/posts/
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Mayobrot reviewed Life Ceremony by Ginny Tapley Takemori
With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short …
Recommend to anyone who wants something weird
I wrote a short review here: a-blog-with.relevant-information.com/weblog/2024-01-11-life_ceremony_by_sayaka_murata/
Mayobrot commented on Life Ceremony by Ginny Tapley Takemori
With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short …
Uh, so the titular story of this short story collection made me slightly nauseous, but it also made me feel warm inside in the good way. But also nauseous.
Mayobrot started reading The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
What a rare mushroom can teach us about sustaining life on a fragile planet
Matsutake …
mushroom book
Mayobrot started reading Melancolia by Mircea Cartarescu
Ce sont trois longues nouvelles encadrées par deux contes. Melancolia est un livre sur l’expérience …
Cărtărescu writes in this strange way that occasionally goes into very detailed descriptions that is weirdly compelling.
Mayobrot started reading Life Ceremony by Ginny Tapley Takemori
With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short …
This one is a bit weird.
Mayobrot finished reading コンビニ人間 by Sayaka Murata
「普通」とは何か? 現代の実存を軽やかに問う第155回芥川賞受賞作
Finished reading my first book in Japanese!
A more thought out summary
These are basically Steven Erikson playing around with putting two haughty necromancers and their poor manservant into common fantasy settings. The whole thing is written with humor in mind, kind of like how you can read a normal Terry Pratchett sentence and wonder if that's some word play or not. The first one is a police procedure set in the Malazan equivalent of Ankh-Morpork, the second one is on a pirate ship and the third one is uh not sure how to summarise that one. All in all a good read, and you don't need to have read the other Malazan books to understand, and you won't be spoiled of anything either. It's a valid entry point into the series I think, but it's also much more light hearted, although the density of the prose and the number of characters carries over.
Very entertaining
'twas a good read! It's more light hearted in tone, but in a morbid comedic way compared to the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Really recommend this to folks who like Erikson's style. Perhaps even to people who want to get a taste of Erikson's writing as well.
Adter the second story I'm even more convinced now that Steven Erikson wanted to take inspiration from Terry Pratchett, but with his own morbid twist.
(Do hashtags work here? #Malazan)
So far this kind of feels like Steven Erikson's Ankh-Morpork.
Mayobrot commented on Future Ethics by Cennydd Bowles
‘Eloquent, insightful and utterly a must read for anyone who is inventing the future or …
Chapter seven is about climate change. Before this I've felt that this book is kind of weak and afraid of taking a stance or to work outside the frame of capitalism, but this chapter has been pretty good.
Oh, and he denounces cryptocurrencies for their ridiculous energy consumption so we're good on that front too.
Mayobrot commented on Happening by Annie Ernaux
Huh, I think I found a typo. There is a closing parenthesis that isn't matched by a opening one.
Mayobrot commented on Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures …
Some African writers I want to read (someday™, damn you ever growing reading list!) that were mentioned in this book:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nnedi_Okorafor
Mayobrot commented on Technology matters by David E. Nye
Honestly it's kind of amazing that there was a time when there were electric, steam, and petrol cars were about equally common in USA and it wasn't clear which would come to dominate the market. Steam cars ran on kerosene which was super common, while petroleum wasn't that easy to get. Their main disadvantage was that they were heavy. Electric cars were lighter but had batteries. But those technical reasons didn't determine the outcome (we wouldn't have these damn SUVs if heaviness was that important). Both the electric and the steam car were hand crafted so they were expensive, whereas the patrol car began to be mass produced I'm factories which drove the prices down. Mass adoption followed which meant that Ford could afford to invest in infrastructure (pumps, mechanics etc.), which further cemented its position. In other words it wasn't just the technical aspects of the cars (e.g. the …
Honestly it's kind of amazing that there was a time when there were electric, steam, and petrol cars were about equally common in USA and it wasn't clear which would come to dominate the market. Steam cars ran on kerosene which was super common, while petroleum wasn't that easy to get. Their main disadvantage was that they were heavy. Electric cars were lighter but had batteries. But those technical reasons didn't determine the outcome (we wouldn't have these damn SUVs if heaviness was that important). Both the electric and the steam car were hand crafted so they were expensive, whereas the patrol car began to be mass produced I'm factories which drove the prices down. Mass adoption followed which meant that Ford could afford to invest in infrastructure (pumps, mechanics etc.), which further cemented its position. In other words it wasn't just the technical aspects of the cars (e.g. the energy density of the fuel) that mattered, economics and politics also played a vital role.