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With the three tech tycoons stranded on a nature reserve island tearing at one anothers’ throats, Martha, Selah, Arthur and Badger made sweeping changes to the tech conglomerates to advance environment conservation, green initiatives and use the wealth for the benefit of the world.
Overall a great story that offers many thought provoking points relevant to our own reality.

Rating: 4.5

When the AI tech sounded the alarm that an apocalypse was imminent, the 3 tech tycoons got on a plane, ready to leave the world to its doom while they hunker down within their bunkers to wait out the crisis. In a twist of events, the AI tech was fabricated by members of their inner circle who banded together in an attempt to change the world for the better. They had orchestrated the fake world ending pandemic alert.

While the evident threat of environmental crisis looms, those in power continue to undertake profit-driven decisions that harm the planet, deepen the polarization of views and bring the world closer to an apocalypse. Instead of using their wealth and influence to take action to avoid an apocalyptic scenario, the tech tycoons each built their own bunkers and bought out survival AI tech purported to predict doomsday.

A bit of a slow start as we get introduced to the Tech Billionaires, but an absolute page-turner the rest of the way through. Beautifully written dystopian setting that draws parallels to our current reality. In the story, 3 large tech firms: Fantail (Facebook), Anvil (Amazon) and Medlar (Microsoft) have concentrated Power and Influence over the World’s economy.

(Physical book - Pg 158 of 292)

(Pg 102 of 244 - reading on iPad)

(Pg 270 of 645 - Reading on iPad)
Amazing starter book to find out more about video games design. Author has a humourous writing style.
Completed 8 chapters so far
1: Brief introduction to staff roles in video game development
2: Ideas
3: Story-writing
4: Game Design Documents
5: Character
6: Camera
7: Controls
8: HUD and icon design

(Pg 279 of 280 - Reading on iPad)
“It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out. But it is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. The regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy”
“While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.”

(Pg 279 of 280 - Reading on iPad)
“sadness is intrinsically part of happiness. You can’t have one without the other”
“You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it”
“It’s not what you look at that matters, is what you see”
“Love and laughter and fear and pain are universal currencies”

(Pg 279 of 280 - Reading on iPad)
“the game is never over until it is over…All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward. One square after another. And you can get to the other side and unlock all kinds of power “
“In chess, as in life, possibility is the basis of everything. Every hope, every dream, every regret, every moment of living “

(Pg 279 of 280 - Reading on iPad)
“You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life”
“I think it is easy to imagine there are easier paths…But maybe there are no easy paths. There are just paths.”
“We spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad”

(Pg 279 of 280 - Reading on iPad)
More quotes from the book:
“Life isn’t simply made of the things we do, but the things we don’t do too”
“We have all these metrics that we try and reach. When really success isn’t something you measure, and life isn’t a race you can win.”
“Sometimes just to say your own truth out loud is enough to find others like you”

(Pg 118 of 280 - Reading on iPad)
“Want” is an interesting word. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely.

Sometimes regrets aren’t based on fact at all.

You can choose choices but not outcomes.

Never underestimate the importance of small things.

(Pg 35 of 280 - Reading on iPad)
“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices…Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

(Pg 94 of 94 - Reading on iPad)
What makes a place or a scene hold significance for oneself are the special moments and memories experienced with someone.
The most important things truly are invisible to the eye, but felt with the heart.

(Pg 79 of 94 - Reading on iPad)
The fox’s secret:
“You only see clearly with your heart. The most important things are invisible to the eyes.”

(Pg 69 of 94 - Reading on iPad)
The little prince found his way to Earth after encountering various strange grown-ups.
He misses his planet’s rose dearly.

(Pg 23 of 94) - Reading on iPad

Boa and Elephant, meeting the little prince

(Pg 196 of 196) - Reading on Mobile.
Been quite a while since I read a children’s fiction book. Pretty enjoyable story overall.
Young Simon Thorn has the ability to speak with animals, lives a normal life, is bullied in school and yearns for time with his mom who is always traveling for work. His life is turned upside down as he uncovers the secret world of animalgams & his birth right as beast king’s heir.

(Pg 374 of 374) - Reading on Mobile.
Beautifully written piece of work that is part science fiction, thriller and part love story. Blake Crouch weaves an intriguing tale of the path not taken around broad concepts of quantum mechanics. A wonderful page turner that raises though provoking questions and invites readers to explore topics beyond the book itself.

(Pg 256 of 374) - Reading on Mobile

(Pg 213 of 213) - Reading on Mobile.
Picked the book up again halfway through after quite a long break from reading in 2020.
Pretty interesting read to gain insights about how our brain functions, the current areas of research - how there is so much more to learn about our complex brain and lastly the author’s speculations of future possibilities as technology and research on the human brain progresses.

(Pg 637 of 638) - Reading on Mobile.
A thrilling page turner with intriguing references to real-world scientific theories woven into the story. A wonderful exploration of memory, second chances and the flawed nature of human behaviour.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

(Pg 413 of 638) - Reading on Mobile.
Captivating premise - starting off with isolated false memory incidents, the story develops into an exploration of memory, time and morality of actions taken to prevent/progress a breakthrough that could alter reality as we know it.

(Pg 273 of 274) - Reading on Mobile.

“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving”
-Paul Kalanithi

(Pg 273 of 264) - Reading on Mobile.
A beautifully written book - offering a glimpse into the life of a man as he explores the inextricability of life and death, traverses the journey of coping with terminal illness and finds meaning in being a neurosurgeon, a writer and a loving father and husband.

(Pg 128 of 274) - Reading on Mobile.

(10 of 10 Short Stories) - Reading on Mobile.
An enjoyable read through and through. It was refreshing to follow Simon’s perspective as he rediscovers himself and learns (with the help of some familiar allies) to what it truly means to be a hero in his own right and to stand up for his own beliefs.

(2 of 10 Short Stories) - Reading on Mobile.
Just completed the first 2 short stories.
The first picks up from the epilogue of the mortal instruments series, Simon joins the shadowhunters academy and takes his own stand on shadowhunters v mundanes. The second details his first combat encounter and the story of Tobias Herondale told by different sides with different perspectives.

(Pg 1218 of 1219) - Reading on Mobile.
11 short stories that detail different adventures in Magnus Bane’s life, each was unique but not all were of the same quality, some stories were more intriguing and well written.

Rating: 3.5/5.0