Tag: books

Books I skipped this week 📖

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

Photo of my office shelf a few weeks ago.

I had every intention of reading these books, but after reading the first some-odd pages, I became consumed in other things, and skipped….

  • A very stable genius / Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig
  • Click here to start / Denis Markell

Is it acceptable to recommend a book one hasn’t read? That’s neither here nor there in this moment. I liked what I read in the opening pages of each book. For reasons, I didn’t have the time to read them all the way through. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What I’m reading this week: “A Gentleman in Moscow”

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

gentleman-in-moscow.jpg

What I’m reading this week: “A Gentleman in Moscow,” by Amor Towles. 😀📚 Imagine being a member of the wealthy aristocracy in a grand city in the early 20th century. Your days and nights are filled with social encounters and clever repartee in every breathing moment. Servants are all around you, never betraying any hint of resentment at their confinement to a lower station, nor anything but utter contentment and devotion to their task of tending to your every need. Even when confined to house arrest by the Bolsheviks after the revolution has wiped out the old social order and replaced it with a new one, your prison is a luxury hotel, as befits your station. And naturally, the hotel is filled with interesting characters from every slice of the social strata with whom you may engage in fascinating conversations to pass the time and reinforce your social mastery though your sterling wit and charm. This is the world of “A Gentleman in Moscow,” and like a dinner guest who is impeccably charming, cultivated and au courant, the novel is endlessly entertaining — though the endless part sometimes obscures the entertainment. A well-fashioned escape into a rose-colored fantasy of old-world high society, set against the backdrop of a people’s revolution to provide essential cover for the reader to indulge in the guilty pleasure of high society role-play. The writing, especially the dialogue, is first-class and the plot development, though predictable at times, is interesting and keeps the pages turning. A pleasant and lightly edifying read, tailor-made for a richly costumed historical fiction film adaptation.

Garden library

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

I never pass up the chance to push a wheelbarrow full of books.

The little free library was built by a local youth for his Eagle Scout project. He planned, designed, built, fundraised and led a team of volunteers to install it in the local community garden. 📚🌱

What I’m reading this week: “The Secret of Thunder Mountain”

Posted on by Sean Reinhart
Spiral aloe (Aloe polyphylla)

What I’m reading this week: The Secret of Thunder Mountain, by Fran Striker

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The photos tell the story of this vintage adventure from 1952. Set in the deserts of the American Southwest, at the dawn of the nuclear era. A land of grit and desolation, where bold and wild characters search for rocks worth more than gold. Fran Striker’s journalistic writing style lends credence to the stark comic relief. Irony from another era. The descriptions and dialogue surrounding the gigantic main character, Gulliver bouncing over desert rocks in his customized jeep, are surprisingly entertaining. An unsung classic of the genre. #franstriker #bookreview



@hideflibrarian

Lost in a good game 🕹

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

What I’m reading this week: “Lost in a good game,” by Pete Etchells 🕹💡📖 Is it worse for young people to experience killing and death IRL (in real life), or in a video game? This is not merely an academic question. Deranged individuals now regularly commit IRL mass shootings using IRL weapons of war to murder innocent people. Yet those weapons of war only exist because they are used every day for the IRL official killing and death of people in less fortunate countries around the world. Are video games to blame for real deaths? Or are video games merely another vivid example of art imitating life? This book takes the latter view, and begins by sharing how video games actually helped the author, a psychologist, cope with the death of a loved one. Video games do not cause violent deaths— they are works of art that provide a dearly needed respite from the harshest realities of a dangerous real world beyond our control, according to the author. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this interesting book to learn how this thesis plays out. 📚

Time flies, books endure

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

Time flies, books endure. 📚💡Photo of Kepler’s Books as it appeared in 1968. Kepler’s has been a beloved local mainstay since 1955. Its historic roots took hold during the counterculture revolution of the 1950’s and 1960’s, when Roy Kepler founded the shop to encourage social activism and democratize reading. In its heyday, Kepler’s was a cultural epicenter with a loyal following among Beat intellectuals, pacifists, Stanford students and faculty, and book lovers of all stripes for its commitment to fostering the exchange of “serious books and ideas.” Among many notable visitors over the years, the Grateful Dead and folk singer Joan Baez often appeared at Kepler’s holding impromptu salons to discuss ideas, political action, and music.

What is not yours is not yours 📚🗝

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

What I’m reading this week: “What is not yours is not yours” 📚🗝😀 by Helen Oyeyemi. I’m loving this collection of dreamlike short stories that turns on the idea of keys as a metaphor for our hidden perceptions. A refreshing stream of clear, evocative, sparse yet mesmerizing prose that ebbs and flows into ever deeper locks of subconscious meaning and insight as each story unfolds. The tales are interlocking, but in a wholly unexpected way, which adds to its brilliance. Not for the overly literal, despite its declarative style. A breakthrough, transcendent voice. Can’t wait to read more.

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What I’m reading this week: “The Soul of an Octopus”

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

What I’m reading this week: “The Soul of an Octopus,” by Sy Montgomery

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Strange and beautiful, weirdly intelligent, cold yet emotive, octopuses are in a word, fascinating. Octopuses see and feel the world around them in profoundly different ways then we do. Each tentacle has its own network of neurons—a mind of its own.

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What I love about this book is how the author describes her interactions with captive octopuses in tanks, caressing them with her hands and arms, holding and being held by them. She documents each experience in lavish detail and with deep emotion, much to the book’s benefit. The book’s middle section sags when she dives into lengthy, sometimes boring technical descriptions of her scuba diving trips.

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The big takeaway of this book for me is that octopuses are incredibly complex, intelligent and emotionally aware creatures. Montgomery emphasizes this fact over and over again, which naturally raises the question of whether these curious, self-aware creatures should even be kept in captivity. Octopuses are notorious escape artists, to the point of knowingly risking their lives to get out of aquarium tanks. She ultimately takes a position on the question, however indirectly, and I found myself disagreeing with her, even to my own surprise. I will leave it to you to read the book and decide for yourself.

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For aquarium lovers and animal rights enthusiasts alike, “The Soul of an Octopus” is a stimulating close-up look at one of Earth’s most interesting and enigmatic inhabitants.

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What I’m reading this week: “Rise of the Robots”

Posted on by Sean Reinhart

What I’m reading this week: “Rise of the Robots,” by Martin Ford.

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Humans have a love-hate relationship with automation. We love automation when it gives us dishwashers, washing machines, and robot vacuum cleaners to relieve the drudgery of menial labors. But we hate automation when it enables telemarketers to endlessly spam our phones, corporations to displace real people’s jobs, and tech companies to surveil our every movement.

Pop culture is replete with nightmare visions of cold robot overlords taking over the world on one hand, and utopian dreams of effortless lives and limitless adventures supported by faithful robot servants on the other. The truth is probably somewhere in between— although robots themselves may never rule the world, the people and organizations who control the most powerful robots almost certainly will.

“Rise of the Robots,” written by economist Martin Ford is a detailed analysis of the current state of play. Will robots dominate society? The answer is yes, they already do. The more pertinent question right now is, who will control the robots? Ford’s book explores this question with skill and keeps it interesting, aside from a few sections that get out into the technical weeds. (He is an economist, after all.) An eye-opening look at the value and risks of living in a roboticized world.

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