The Organization

Has it been that long? Again?

Starting reading "Salvation Lost", the second book in Peter F. Hamilton's latest trilogy. I find myself judging these kinds of aliens-want-to-wipe-out-humanity space operas against "The Three Body Problem" and nothing can measure up to that. I'm still enjoying the book and series, but it doesn't have the ... depth? Something. Which is fine, it is still fun speculative fiction, and i'm enjoying it. But. Now everything is, unfairly, measured against TTBP.

personal book reading permalink

Toast

Just got my copy of "Kissa by Kissa" by Craig Mod.

My Book! So pretty. So much texture.

I wish i had gotten myself together to visit Japan in my early 20s. Although, having now been fortunate enough to have visited in my late 40s (got there eventually!), i wonder how that would have changed my life.

Regardless, this book is a lovely visual trip, literally and figuratively, through Japan, and a particular culinary genre involving "pizza toast". I love these kinds of "inside stories" about cultures, that you can't really get without having lived in a place. Or walked it.

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Iron

Reading a 4 part series about iron, "Iron, How Did They Make It?', in the pre-modern age. Very interesting, especially in thinking about the differences between the reality of making iron and steel, and how it is frequently depicted in video games around crafting and resource management. Notably that iron is actually very prevalent and not difficult to find "in the wild", and the conversion/smelting of it didn't actually use coal, but a lot of charcoal. Anyway, the writing style is very approachable and, dare i say it, fun to read. History, it can be interesting! Lots of other articles that i'm looking forward to reading there too. Oh, and there is a lovely collection of articles setup/indexed for World Builders.

reading history permalink

I got nothing

I like the idea, and implementation, of Pairagraph "A hub of discourse between pairs of notable individuals". I just read a discourse between Om Malik and J. DeLong, titled "Is America in Decline?". Interesting, and i will probably read some of the other posted. I wonder how one can subscribe to an ongoing "live" discourse? How would that work in RSS, or email? Because i don't want to have to come back to the website all the time to check for updates. Like an animal.

There is a main RSS feed, i guess i should subscribe to it and see how it looks in my reader (NetNewsWire). And they do have an email signup, but i'm not doing that one right now.

personal reading rss permalink