Category: Uncategorized
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Reading #68 – 2023 in review
After an eight year hiatus and more than a few personal changes, here’s (most of) what I read in 2023. Nonfiction first. 2023 had much less nonfiction than some years as I found it harder to engage with. I did enjoy How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong despite it…
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Reading #67: 2015 in Nonfiction
Just to keep track, here’s (most of) the non-fiction I read in 2015. The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis The Hoarders: Material Deviance in Modern American Culture by Scott Herring The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom Shippey Unspeakable Things: Sex,…
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Reading #66: Fiction in 2015
Just to keep track, here’s (most of) the fiction I read in 2015. Annhilation by Jeff Vandermeer Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (re-read) Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson Confusion by Neal Stephenson Seveneves by Neal Stephenson Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson The Martian by Andy Weir Gun with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem (re-read) Hawk by Steven Brust…
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Reading #65: Design Books in 2015
Just to keep track, here’s (most of) the design books I read in 2015. Thoughts on Design by Paul Rand Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull 100 Diagrams that Changed the World by Scott Christianson How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert I have trouble talking cogently about design books while I’m designing, but…
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Reading #63: Season of the Witch & Ancillary Justice
Season of the Witch by David Talbot I didn’t grow up in California, so certain things about the history of the state, and in particular the history of San Francisco, only slide into place when I have a little more context. This can be around little everyday things — it was only after reading a history…
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Reading #59: Statistical Wizards, Revelations, and Vampires
Nonfiction Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels This is a general introduction to the Book of Revalation, the historical contexts in which it was written and later understood, and what current scholarship has to say about it. I’m not particularly literate in the Bible (nevermind biblical scholarship), so…
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“Some day music will only be air”
It’s a story full of lists. Some day music will only be air. There will be no objects to hold or fetishize and people will simply collect lists. No disc, nothing spooled or grooved, no heads to clean, no dust to wipe, no compulsive alphabetising. Nothing to put away in shoeboxes or spare cupboards and…
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Reading #58: Cooperatives, Stone Axes, and Soviets
Nonfiction The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place by John Abrams John Abrams is the founder of South Mountain Company, a design & build worker-owned cooperative in Martha’s Vineyard. His books describes the history of the company, their choice to move to a worker-owned cooperative model, and their overall philosophy…
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Reading #57: War, Utopias, and the Renaissance
Nonfiction Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations by Michael Walzer This isn’t an easy book to read, although it isn’t quite as dry as the title suggests. I imagine (I hope?) that it is taught in military academies and other places where the morality of war is seriously debated. For me,…
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How not to handle co-branding
I swear I’ve ranted about this before, but I was presented with the following atrocity while buying some prints from my Flickr photos: That’s four brands for the customer to (fail to) absorb: Snapfish (company doing the photo printing) Hewlett-Packard (apparently insecure company which owns Snapfish) Flickr (company who hosts the photos, partnering with Snapfish…