Max Driffill > Recent Status Updates

Fascinating read.

Currently re-reading. Dawkins has said that his latest book, “the genetic book of the dead” is a kind of sequel to this book.

I re-read TSG every few years or so. I do this for a few reasons. It is easily one of the finest pieces of science writing in the field. It is still entirely relevant. It is a wonderful explanation of evolution. And it is the book that caused my pivot to biology in college.

The Hard Case Crime novels are delightfully pulpy. This one is starting off a tad slow and no characters are really popping out to me as interesting. The trick with a lot of noir and pulp traditions is they set the hook pretty early. Hopefully this picks up.

After losing the damn thing, I’m back at it. So far so good.

Started reading the book because it kept getting recommended. It’s an Audible chore companion. Sadly I’m not far in and already annoyed with everything thing about it. Which is shocking because it really started to grab me. But I detest allegedly smart characters who have grown up and existed in a certain kind of world then stupidly violating good sense. Hopefully it gets better.

This is the latest reading project for the boyo and I. Quite interesting so far.

I read this comic event 36 years ago. Kind of odd.

After the Kyoshi books, I have to say, I’m finding this installment a bit of a let down. It’s been fairly uneventful. The Kyoshi novels engaged me the way a good martial arts epic must. At the end of day, the Avatar series, for all its emotional depth, is a martial arts forward series. It is chambara jidaigeki + Wuxia + YA sensibilities. So far, “The Dawn of Yang Chen” hasn’t given me that.

This is a deeper, and updated dive into a chapter on Ebola Quammen had in his excellent book “Spillover.” I thought it would be timely to re-visit zoonotic disease given, well, this past year of the consequences of a spillover event.

Just started this, I'll keep you posted.