Stephen > Recent Status Updates

(sci-fi research/inspo) I was regretting buying this after Physics of the Future turned out to be Jules Verne in the 21st Century, but this has actual science.

Enjoying our current book club read, except one thing that's bothering me, perhaps out of ignorance, but...

If you were going to publish new mathematical/scientific algorithms in their raw form, would you publish them...

a) in a peer-reviewed journal
b) in a memorandum of invention with a private organization
c) on a repository like GitHub
d) in a book meant for popular consumption? (Egan's choice)

First book club read of the year! 🤩

Oh, interesting. The shift from present perfect to present progressive in popular literature is measurably enhancing the readers' sense of embodied perspective – the experience of reading from the POV of the character as opposed to an external perspective. Which means the present perfect can probably be used to manipulate objectivity in a way that the present progressive can't. Useful for mystery writing?

Oh, wow. I didn't realize before, but yeah. The Bennets from Pride and Prejudice were an awful mess of favoritism.

This is literally just Cinderella in the Bridgertons’ universe, but it’s working for me. Maybe best in the series so far? I’m actually kinda invested in the romance, despite knowing exactly how this is likely to play out. Sophie is likable, and Benedict is at least more charming than the last two heroes.

So far, tonally humorous and appeals to my family-oriented side. Different from most familial stories that I’ve read by Asian/Asian-American women writers, about the complexities of intergenerational relationships between women. slightly disagreeable to see how sex-centric Chang imagines men’s thoughts to be. I haven’t even gotten to they mystery/thriller elements yet, and I’m quite enjoying it.

The first book had a clear set of arguments about the moral philosophy of science, meriting some of the slower sections of dialogue between the heavily opinionated characters. This one has comparatively little substance, either parroting the themes of the first book without advancing the discourse, or devoting long sections to speculation about the function of dinosaur anatomy. It may prove relevant, but seems silly.

nowhere near as good as the first one, so far. very obviously intended as more of a sequel to the first movie than the first book seeing as the main character of this survived the movie, but definitely, uh, died in the first book.

the way crichton explains it is satisfactory, but it's not much more than "thought you were dead!" "...nope!"

the hard sci-fi horror seems to have been severely diluted for the pg-13 adventure. great movie, but a very different book, that i'm loving, so far. first 1/2 is set-up, assembling the elements of a perfect storm of machine and human errors, and underestimated animal ingenuity. slow, technical, but well done. fascinating, chilling blend of fact and fiction has created a monument to hubris which now must fall.

nothing groundbreaking, but definitively captures something of the tender excitement and trepidation that comes with the transition from boyhood to adulthood, while meditating on the importance of gender and ethnic identity in navigating that epoch of life. cute.

charming and full of well developed characters that quickly win sympathy through the detail given to their backstories. rather than a single romance, i feel a world of love coalescing to fill the central loss that ties the stories together

Different book club read