Mark Sutherland > Recent Status Updates

Struggling to get invested in this one, I suspect I'd DNF if it weren't for the precedence of TPotOT.

Really good stuff, but shelving for now as it's mostly just making me anxious about work for some reason...

Giving up at the end of the first part. While there are some good ideas in the mix, it feels like the world building has gotten out of hand, so it's all jargon and clichés. While there is a dash of Scottish place names and scenery, it's seasoning at most, which is a bit disappointing. Ultimately I'm not convinced this book has anything substantial to say and it's not much fun either.

Shelving this again, but I will get back to it. It's a fairly thorough history of the research of autism, which seems to be the story of initially well meaning psychologists exploiting autistic people for prestige, often without brutal and disastrous results. Thankfully I think I'm through the worst of it but time for something easier like a 500 page fantasy epic.

Taking a quick break as this has turned out to be heavier than expected:
Chapter 1: Enlightenment Scientists, cool
Chapter 2: Anti-vaxers, alternative medicine shills :/
Chapter 3: Eugenics and Nazis /o\

Shelving this as I didn't really make much progress last year, and even given the circumstances that's not a great sign. It's a very thorough textbook on the subject that I will hopefully get back to, but it's time for something different.

While I am enjoying this, I'm starting to skip days and finding it a chore to go through. Not the book, me. I maybe need some extra incentive to get me through non-fiction these days.

Shelving for the moment as I'm not making progress, because I clearly need some escapism rather than the worrying dose of "there but for the grace of God go I" this book is delivering

Not a particularly enjoyable read so far but I may come back to this once I've read something less grim.

Back on the wagon. Hopefully i can see this through.

It's hard not to compare this to marvel's civil war, but with the key roles reversed. Waid brings an apocalyptic reverie instead of Millar's nihilistic grunge which is so far an improvement. Not yet sure it deserves its legendary status but I'll find out soon enough.

A fascinating critique of the internet from a media studies perspective. Contains one of the best laymans introductions to the internet I've seen. Some of the comparison and metaphors are laughably esoteric ('fonts are the chivalry of the internet' for example) but in context it all works quite well.

A little too fast and easy to churn through. Rather frustrating as there is some interesting content in here, but there's a lot of nonsense as well. Not sure the pattern form helps, or if it's just a crutch. Can't help the whole book would be much more valuable if tackled one question more seriously: what if you're wrong?

So far a pretty decent moden detective tale with interesting characters. Despite this, I'm not finding myself making much progress, and I'm not sure why.

The two things that stick out so far are the use of pronouns and some passages that are told from multiple perspectives at the same time. This is pleasingly mind bending and I'm intrigued to see how the story develops and the interleaving timelines merge.

How did I not notice the colour thing.

I've had this sitting in my bookshelf for years but it's only hearing that there's a movie that's inspired me to read it. So far it seems like a well characterized coming of age story set in a pseudo fascist dystopia, viewed from a child's perspective. I'm guessing it's going to turn out to be a lot less pleasant than it appears to be, and I'm intrigued by the history of the setting.

I've had this sitting in my bookshelf for years but it's only hearing that there's a movie that's inspired me to read it. So far it seems like a well characterized coming of age story set in a pseudo fascist dystopia, viewed from a child's perspective. I'm guessing it's going to turn out to be a lot less pleasant than it appears to be, and I'm intrigued by the history of the setting.

I've made our to the third chapter, enough to get a feel for what's going on. It's a bit like a catch 22 with a sci-fi angle it's hard to tell if we're supposed to take seriously or not. The morbidity is putting me off going back to it a bit, but given how short the whole thing is I'll probably much my way through it soon enough.