book

Rated The Old Man and the Sea 10/10

Wants to read The Mote in God's Eye

Rated The Metamorphosis 10/10

Rated Tao Te Ching 10/10

Wants to read Hyperion

Rated The Great Gatsby 10/10

Wants to read The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

Rated Oryx and Crake 10/10

Wants to read The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Wants to read The Other End

Finished reading House of Open Wounds

Reading Real Americans

Rated The River Warriors 10/10

Rated Meditations 10/10

Rated The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable 8/10

Rated The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 10/10

Wants to read House of Suns

Rated Bluebeard 10/10

Bluebeard is only the second Vonnegut book I've read, immediately following Slaugherhouse 5, and reading it has convinced me to go through every last one of the author's books. <br/><br/>This book resembles Slaughterhouse 5 (S5) in its structure, except whereas s5 uses a sci-fi concept about non-linear time to jump throughout a person's life, Bluebeard instead does so through the autobiographical account of the fictional protagonist, Rabo, as he writes a memoir about his life. The book jumps back and forth through points in Rabo's life. While the structure is scattered, it maintains a sense of linearity by the careful withholding and revelation of details as the novel progresses, at times giving information seemingly at random points, and at others following story threads more sequentially though of course with many interjections. <br/><br/>But where S5's themes of trauma and PTSD lend it a more sardonic tone, Bluebeard is instead strongly optimistic. Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of cynicism, anti-war discussion, and discussion of possible trauma, but Bluebeard offers a kind of acceptance of life. Rabo's story is tragic, and his story visits his early years as the child of poor Armenian immigrants, his years as an artist during the great depression, his time as a soldier in WWII, his rocky marriage, and his membership with the Abstract-expressionist art movement, and ultimate shortcomings within it. Throughout this, Rabo interjects with moments from the present day, where he is 71, lonely, and through luck, rich, and which serves as another source of linearity in the story as it progresses. In contrast to S5, Rabo experiences noticeable character development, and the characterizations of everyone, while not necessarily complex as Jane Austen's characters, are much more complex than the archetypes used in S5. <br/><br/>The payoff, too, is simple yet satisfying, though I won't provide any details. <br/><br/>I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, and I was a little skeptical at first. But I got way more than I thought I would, and really enjoyed the experience reading it.

Rated Against Method 10/10

Easy-to-read philosophy advocating epistemological anarchism that effectively caused the Philosophy of Science to abandon the demarcation problem? What more could you ask for? Probably my favorite text in the philosophy of science. <br/><br/>The portions about Galielio are interesting, but a little more difficult to follow. They however fit in well with the other arguments of the book, and the main points are well summarized.

Rated Honor's Knight 8/10

Sometimes cliches work. "Action packed" truly covers <i>Honor's Knight</i>, with a breakneck pace and more alien monsters than you can shake a blaster at. Compared to the first in the series there is less of the bodice-ripper subtext and more plot twists and reversals but Bach keeps things moving so quickly it's impossible to spot the holes (which are few). She knows how to do Space Opera right and I look forward to reading #3 and finally discovering what the hell is going on.

Finished reading Things Fall Apart

Rated Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder 8/10

Wants to read Love and Fatigue in America

Wants to read Mammother

Finished reading City of Last Chances