monderin > Recent Status Updates

"theres something in the POLLEN making the men GAY" is like a perfect analogue of todays "theres estrogen in the tap water" so i think le guin was either super prescient or the same phenomenon still existed in the 70s or perhaps both. anyway i liked this even though it only really wowed me near the end with the "you gave me death, i give you life" :'(

all i think abt lately is genocide and climate change so i needed to consume trash and i picked this for some reason. anyway this is a truly fascinating time capsule or like a study of millenial optimism 2015 was absolutely bonkers was this avg conception of american politics before trump?? the "he was a republican, she was a democrat uwu" is WILDDD

i fucking loved this i almost cried it's so funny i havent read an actual funny book in soooo long !!

done the introduction im already screaming crying throwin up

i need to unpack why her cynical tone is bothering me, because aren't i just as cynical about the "state of science"? is it just because i disagree with her? the further i've gone into academia the more i've realized it's sociologically just evangelists and skeptics for this or that theory; but hossenfelder's essentially sociological critique masquerades as almost a metaphysical one, despite her dunks on philosophy

somehow in the 7(?!) years since i first read this i have gained what one might call a mature adult perspective hehe haha and now i am not the same age as the characters somehow everything in it is just much more heartbreaking like wtf?? it's hitting so much harder?

european heatwave baybeeeee

2026 be rewiring my brain somehow i never thought i'd voluntarily buy poetry w my own money :D!

in his other book i found slobodian's analysis of cybernetics and capitalism rly fucking fascinating but this one had me slogging thru one too many breakdowns of musk tweets .. bit too soon

better than watching uofT study vlogs

i am thriving

idk i thought i'd love it but i just can't get into it it's so soppy and cheesy i might hate romance now idkkk

this book is fking weird and old but i like the whimsical style and some of the quotes:
“a mathematics teacher who remembered his subject was a discipline but forgot that it was also a freedom”
“scientists were traditionally regarded as eccentric cranks until it was discovered you can use science to blow up people”
have me SCREAMIN

i love their coined term “algebraic bureaucracy” 🤣 i really feel the disdain and SAME

im actually on the moon this is so exciting………

holy shit

the vibe is to fall asleep to this and dream about red tailed deer in banff national park

went into this totally blind and i have to say it’s like a bad yt video essay that also got him a medal from ronald reagan ?? lmaooo dnf

was grad school a mistake.epub lol this stupid book is unearthing feelings of self hatred i forgot i possessed holy MOLY 🤣🤣

WOW i really enjoyed this, hessler is very adept at humanizing his subjects and portraying the gentle and melancholic feeling u get when you think of our helplessness to the passage of time. i am so into narrative nonfiction lately. i want more like this😭

a few years ago i wouldve found it completely unrelatable, actually i still find it unrelatable, but it wasn’t really a bore, i found it sweet and genuine. i also liked her narration, i think more authors should read their own audiobooks tbh….

I am sooooo tired of the word tariff but this is very very fascinating

it’s mostly long cuz he repeats himself a lot, but it’s still very clear, honest and very very thorough. i learned a lot! but since i didnt take notes im liable to forget it all in a week

cannot BELIEVE the nervous system is a vector space

at first it was almost too muted/unsentimental but the last act made me so EMO 😭 toibin has always been on my radar cuz he’s described as a lowkey writer & ive been into migration/displacement stories lately so this rly hit. growing more attached to this book the more i think about it (it’s the opposite for some books…) its like if kikis delivery service was irish, or what if Past Lives was less dumb!!

the whiplash between “download my app so i can collect your health data ^_^” and “your microbiome is basically your SOUL” is wildddd, i think her claims are generally ok but the messaging is all over the place, maybe she spent too much time with the tech bros at stanford

Really enlightening, very interesting to see how these people navigated the balance between personal integrity and bureaucracy/authority. Very good storytelling also. Above all extremely scary and heartbreaking that the stories are REAL WTFFF 😥

I think the reviewers that don’t get it and call it too young also just don’t remember what it was like to be 15 and completely alone lol, this is like what if catcher in the rye was set in a Chinatown and shot by wong kar wai it’s SO GOOD literally made for me 🤗

Must Stop the trend of giving books pretty and interesting covers when the inside is the most bland sawdust cereal I was so looking forward to trying this but dnf