Audiobooks

Do I Get A Merit Badge Or Something For Finishing Cryptonomicon?

by

I finished reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon today. Funny enough until a few years ago i hadn’t know it as a body of work had exitested. When i did i was in no rush to start it since i had heard it was a rough slog to read and it was huge. I dont remember what changed recently however I finally got around to starting it in the beginning of April. I cannot recall any novel I have read being that large. I feel like I deserve some sort of cryptography merit badge by finishing it.

Now a days I read way too many reviews on books before I read the actual book. I want to be sure something is worth it for me. With Cryptonomicon I was a bit worried about the time investment since so many people gave it mixed reviews. In the end i decided to risk it. I really liked it. Once i got going i did not worry about how big it was. I also found the story to be a really good progression leading to the conclusion. Many reviews complained it was all over the place and i guess did not see the progression from the original plot points to the end. I thought it was pretty well done overall.

I also got more of a lesson in cryptography than I thought. Since I didn’t really expect any lesson at all.

The Story of My January 2021 Reading List

by

After finishing Revelation Space in late December while I was on holiday I had to sort out what I wanted to read next. I was tempted to read the next book in the Revelation Space series however I reminded myself that I am trying to change pace at least a little bit between books. It took me me a little while to sort out what I wanted to read. I picked Dark Matter from my reading list. It was still science-fiction however a slightly different genre. It was reviewed very well and seemed a like it was perfect for me. A sci-fi book about multi dimensional travel.

Note there will be some possible spoilers of Dark Matter. I had such high hopes for this book. I started seeing sign’s i wouldn’t like it pretty quickly. Early on the protagonists meets a mysterious person was obviously another version of himself.

In another part of the book while he was in an alternate universe it felt like they murdered that version of his wife just to move the plot along. It made no sense or did not feel like they needed to do it other than to put him in a bad situation. I also worried that that twist would turn the book towards a framed murder trope. Thankfully the plot didn’t go that direction however they did use the framing point to a small degree.

Thankfully I was surprised at the direction they took leading up to the climax of the book. I was also slightly surprised at how the book ended. That was good however overall I still feel the book was mediocre. There are just too many sections of the book that I felt annoyed by what was written. It is hard to express however I just was disappointed. I did power through finishing it and I am glad that I did. I still might recommend it since it is a decent mindbending storyline however I wasn’t by any means blown away.

Once I finished Dark Matter I changed genres completely. I read Weapons of Math Destruction. I had heard about this book for a few years now I think. It finally made it onto my to reading list when I saw the author talking in the documentary the Social Dilemma. Sadly Audible UK did not have this book. I wanted to read it enough that I revived my Audible US account and purchased it that way. The author performed the audiobook herself. Her performance was really good. I’d like to say I loved the book however the book is disturbing in what it discusses so saying “love” is probably not appropriate. I thought the stories were fantastic. The issues are extremely thought-provoking. How algorithms are hurting society was disturbing. Overall I highly recommend it. It was well worth the read.

I finished Weapons of Math Destruction in the middle of the month. Due to work commitments I was pretty slow in finishing my next book. I didn’t finish it in February 1. I will put it on my February review list.

The Story of My December 2020 Book Reviews

by

I have a bunch of posts to publish however after writing my post about reading wanted to write about what i had been reading over the past year. At this rate not sure if i will cover everything I read since January 2020 however I started a monthly recap from December onwards. I have December & January written now. This is my December post. Hoping to post January sometime this month in addition to some other stuff.

In December 2020 I finished two books and started a third. I finished one productivity, non-fiction and one science-fiction.

The first book I finished was tribal leadership. It was a fascinating book about the psychology of groups of people, a.k.a. tribes and how they organise. A lot of what the authors said resonated with me. I think because what they call a stage four tribe encompasses a lot of the trates and characteristics we have been aspiring for in devops culture. I think it’s hard for me to realise that even though I’ve been trying a lot I still gravitate between stage III and stage IV sometimes. According to the book the use of I versus we is partly the distinction. The good thing was even before reading this book I have tried to move towards the we your the group versus the individual. Not sure who recommended it however I think it was someone at work. Since finishing it I have been recommending it to others especially since we been talking a lot about dev ops culture at work.

The next book I read after tribal leadership was a bit of a change of pace. That was deliberate. I am trying not to read the same type of book back to back. I am also trying not to read too many books in the series straight through to give myself a break. The next book I read was Revelation space. I already read Chasm CIty. That was technically the 2nd book in the universe written by Alastair Reynolds. I was worried since there were mixed reviews about the audio performance on audible for Revelation space. After listening to the book I can understand what people were complaining about however it was by no means as bad as described or making it difficult to read/listen to the book. The story was pretty good and having read Chasm City did not ruin Revelation space. I have read that it shouldn’t prior to reading Chasm City so I was pleased that that was true. Clocking in around 20 hours to listen to it was pretty long but not the longest I have read. The plot was slow going at some points however they brought things together pretty nicely. Based on how much I enjoyed Revelation Space I will listen to the next book in the series. I am just going to take a slight break and change gears a bit first.

I finished Revelation space right after Christmas. I started on the next book straight away however I did not get to finish it until after the New Year. That means I will talk about it in my January reviews.

My Story of Reading Again Thanks to Audiobooks

by

Growing up I loved to read. As an adult I still enjoy reading however I have done much less of it over time. Looking back I don’t see one single reason why I stopped reading as much as I used to. When I was single I still read. It may not have been as much as in High School or College let’s say, however I did it. When I got married there was even less reading. I think the reasons then were that there was less time to sit and focus on a book. Especially when I would get into a good book and stay up very very late to read. Not something I could do with small children and feel good in the morning. Funny enough it is something my wife has done.

I have been maintaining a pretty big list of things I want to read. In the past two or three years I have started reading a bit more than I had been in the presiding 8-10 years. Interestingly as I started reading more I found it difficult to physically do it. I turned to e-books more and increase the font size. Around the same time turns out I needed progressive lenses. Small type was never my friend however it became more of an enemy in recent history.

I have known about audiobooks for ages. As a kid we even had a free tape recorder for books on tape because of my vision challenges. Back then I just decided to read instead of listen. Until very recently I think my parents had the take recorder they got for free from some service As an adult I have heard many people talk positively of audiobooks however I never really paid it munch attention.

For several years I have known I need to avoid the news. I went back to my blog archive and apparently I have been avoiding watching the news since at least 2005. I have been trying to actively avoid reading it completely since the summer of 2018. Every productivity and mindfulness person that I have read talks about how the news is not good if it doesn’t make you happy. At the same time I continue to read about how using social media is bad for you. I have gone off and on for a while not reading the news. I will go a few months and then fall back into old habits. Less so with social media. I have all but cut out Facebook and don’t really use many other ones.

Earlier this year, around January I decided that one way to help me cut out looking at mainstream news would be to read more long form books. I think the inspiration to try audiobooks instead of a regular book on my phone or tablet was that I was commuting on the tube and listening would be much easier. With that in mind I signed up for trial subscription with Audible.

Since signing up from Audible the amount of books I have read this year is more than the last 5 to 10 combined. Listening to books has been very transformative for me. I have not even wanted to read mainstream news as much and I am engrossed in books for 8 to 10 or 20 hours per book. I did relapse to the news after the US election through Christmas. At the time I am editing this post I am back to actively avoiding the news.

I have read so many interesting books that I would like to write brief reviews for some of the stuff I have read. It has been a mix of Sci-Fi, Fiction, & Non-fiction. I started almost about a year ago so I have a lot to catch up on.