#finishedreading — Public Fediverse posts

Finished reading India Is Broken, A People Betrayed, Independence to Today by Ashoka Mody

#FinishedReading #Book #Books #India #Politics #Corruption #Democracy #Oligarchy

Hardcover #ISBN9781503630055
Paperback #ISBN9781503642010
Ebook #ISBN9781503634220

Finished reading India Is Broken, A People Betrayed, Independence to Today by Ashoka Mody

#FinishedReading #Book #Books #India #Politics #Corruption #Democracy #Oligarchy

Hardcover #ISBN9781503630055
Paperback #ISBN9781503642010
Ebook #ISBN9781503634220

Finished reading India Is Broken, A People Betrayed, Independence to Today by Ashoka Mody

#FinishedReading #Book #Books #India #Politics #Corruption #Democracy #Oligarchy

Hardcover #ISBN9781503630055
Paperback #ISBN9781503642010
Ebook #ISBN9781503634220

Just finished: If Russia Wins
A Scenario

[2025]

#FinishedReading #Audiobooks #Books #NonFiction #Politics #History #War

Just finished: How to Sell a Genocide
The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza

[2026]

#FinishedReading #Audiobooks #Books #NonFiction #Politics #History #War

Just finished: There Is No Antimemetics Division
A Novel

[2020]

#FinishedReading #Audiobooks #Books #Fiction #ScienceFiction #Horror #Fantasy

Just finished: Cynical Theories

[2020-10-18]

#FinishedReading #Audiobooks #Books

#FinishedReading a 1950s vampire novella which, thanks to George A. Romero, ended up setting the blueprint for dozens of zombie movies. The main character, alone amongst the shambling hordes for almost the whole story, is sometimes pretty unpleasant company, but his dark sides, and even his outbursts of bigotry, pay off as we hit the ending of this thematically deep little masterpiece. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #RichardMatheson

#FinishedReading this surrealist psychological novel, in which a delusional amnesiac is hospitalized, with a narrative flicking back and forth between his elaborate fantasies and the attempts of doctors to treat / pacify him. This strange novel swings widely in tone and sometimes has very strong 'person describing their dream to you' energy. At its best, as in the 'briefing' of the title, it is a weirdly compelling blend of environmental panic, mysticism, extreme scepticism about science, and many more things that #DorisLessing throws into the mix. I didn't love it and it is not exactly a book that tries to be loved - at times deliberately repetitive, alienating, or deflating - but it was definitely interesting. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this surrealist psychological novel, in which a delusional amnesiac is hospitalized, with a narrative flicking back and forth between his elaborate fantasies and the attempts of doctors to treat / pacify him. This strange novel swings widely in tone and sometimes has very strong 'person describing their dream to you' energy. At its best, as in the 'briefing' of the title, it is a weirdly compelling blend of environmental panic, mysticism, extreme scepticism about science, and many more things that #DorisLessing throws into the mix. I didn't love it and it is not exactly a book that tries to be loved - at times deliberately repetitive, alienating, or deflating - but it was definitely interesting. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this surrealist psychological novel, in which a delusional amnesiac is hospitalized, with a narrative flicking back and forth between his elaborate fantasies and the attempts of doctors to treat / pacify him. This strange novel swings widely in tone and sometimes has very strong 'person describing their dream to you' energy. At its best, as in the 'briefing' of the title, it is a weirdly compelling blend of environmental panic, mysticism, extreme scepticism about science, and many more things that #DorisLessing throws into the mix. I didn't love it and it is not exactly a book that tries to be loved - at times deliberately repetitive, alienating, or deflating - but it was definitely interesting. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this surrealist psychological novel, in which a delusional amnesiac is hospitalized, with a narrative flicking back and forth between his elaborate fantasies and the attempts of doctors to treat / pacify him. This strange novel swings widely in tone and sometimes has very strong 'person describing their dream to you' energy. At its best, as in the 'briefing' of the title, it is a weirdly compelling blend of environmental panic, mysticism, extreme scepticism about science, and many more things that #DorisLessing throws into the mix. I didn't love it and it is not exactly a book that tries to be loved - at times deliberately repetitive, alienating, or deflating - but it was definitely interesting. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this surrealist psychological novel, in which a delusional amnesiac is hospitalized, with a narrative flicking back and forth between his elaborate fantasies and the attempts of doctors to treat / pacify him. This strange novel swings widely in tone and sometimes has very strong 'person describing their dream to you' energy. At its best, as in the 'briefing' of the title, it is a weirdly compelling blend of environmental panic, mysticism, extreme scepticism about science, and many more things that #DorisLessing throws into the mix. I didn't love it and it is not exactly a book that tries to be loved - at times deliberately repetitive, alienating, or deflating - but it was definitely interesting. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading #PGWodehouse 's 1915 farce of the unflappably loquacious toff Psmith tangling with New York street gangs. It should be entertaining froth, but it's so, so racist. Read one of his (many) other books instead. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading my first of a subscription to #AsimovsScienceFiction magazine. With its wonky printing (page margins randomly shifting, print changing darkness across each page) it feels a bit like samizdat; I don't mind that, but surely they could have done better with the cover (credited only to image corporation Shutterstock). More importantly the stories were solid and entertaining, although not top tier. My favourites were 'The Hidden God' by #TRNapper and 'On the Night Shift' by #ZoharJacobs , one a satirical thriller of AI attaining sentience and declaring class war, the other a fairly realistic story of mission control for a Mars landing trying to work through a climate change induced superstorm on Earth. #NancyKress , one of my favourite short story writers, has part 1 of a 2 part story so I'm intrigued to see where that goes next issue! @scifi

#FinishedReading another brick of best-of-the-year picks of #SF #SciFi short stories selected by #GardnerDozois . These are always good, but the two stories from this 2013 collection that really floored me were both by #NancyKress . I need to seek out more of her work - any fans of her here who can recommend where to start with her longer fiction? #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this novella by #JMCoetzee about an imperial outpost that falls under paranoia about barbarian invasion, torturing and attacking the people beyond its gates. It would have been easy to write the main character as a straightforward hero in his attempts to restrain his own empire's brutality, but Coetzee does not let the 'friendly' face of empire off so easily. The intersection of colonial and sexual politics makes for pretty uncomfortable reading, in particular the protagonist's failure to understand the unnamed barbarian woman he 'saves' as an actual person. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading a fascinating and well written history of the science of black holes, from its pen and paper prediction by Karl Schwarzchild as he lay dying from an autoimmune condition, to its astronomical discovery by Louise Webster (a Canberra connection!) and Paul Murdin, to the extraordinary images patched together by the Event Horizon Telescope team, including of the monster at the centre of our own galaxy. Superior pop science. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #MarcusChown

In 1985 French agents bombed the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour to prevent its travel to Polynesia to protest against nuclear testing, killing one person. #MichaelKing , who I know best as an iconic New Zealand historian, published this journalistic account a year later, detailing the French operation and police investigation. The book is extremely detailed at times but still a vital record of a sleazy and contemptible, but historically important, operation. #bookstodon @bookstodon #finishedReading

According to #TheStorygraph I've passed 20,000 pages read this year, now I've #FinishedReading this relatively early piece of #KimStanleyRobinson #SciFi . An interesting way to approach a utopian setting (Orange County CA after a global eco-revolution), focusing on human-level dramas (corruption in local politics, unrequited love, grief) rather than a grand threat to the utopia. #KSR #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading “Runner’s High: How to squeeze the joy from every step” by Jenni Falconer.

A motivational read (and would highly recommend for new runners or those looking for a nudge). Looking forward to running on Saturday! #RunningIsFunning #Running

#FinishedReading #TimFlannery 's epic story of life in North America, from the continent's formation shortly after the dinosaur-destroying asteroid wiped the slate clean, to the modern industrial economy and conservation movement. Parts are a bit repetitive - there's only so many times an animal can pop into the story, be described as 'odd', then go extinct a few million years later, before I lose track - but I loved the scope and ambition. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading book 1 of #AlexPheby 's Cities of the Weft trilogy, picked up on a random recommendation through #Bookstodon , thanks @oarditi. This #NewWeird #Fantasy of baroque metaphysics and bizarre worldbuilding sometimes reads more like a dark grisly fairy tale or myth than a conventional novel. It is a bit unsatisfying how passive the protagonist is, mostly following the (sometimes magical) orders of others rather than driving the narrative. Highly memorable. @bookstodon

Like everyone else, humans co-evolved with other species, from microbes to intestinal worms to large predators, but many of those species are no longer with us in meaningful numbers. #RobDunn looks at the often negative effects of living around a species mix that is so different from those we evolved with: we might not miss being hunted by leopards, yet parts of our biology do. Fascinating #PopScience but a little prone to wandering off topic. #FinishedReading #bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading #DanielKehlmann 's linked stories of German folk character Tyll Ulenspiegel during the Thirty Years War. Kehlmann presents it as a time of illogic, from witchfinding to politics, sometimes darkly funny but usually tragic in its results. Not a book I'll list as a favourite, but certainly an interesting read. Seems unfilmable, so intrigued to see how the creators of Dark and 1899 on Netflix handle it. Translated by #RossBenjamin . #Bookstodon @bookstodon #HistoricalFiction

#FinishedReading a trilogy of #Batman collections by #TomKing and artists #DavidFinch and #MikelJanín . King is full of invention and technical tricks to keep things lively, but this was still the least interesting Tom King I've read; especially towards the end, its themes put me in mind of Alan Moore's famous self-criticism of The Killing Joke, pictured (substituting Bane for The Joker). #Bookstodon #Comics @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this remarkable nature writing by #NanShepherd about her walks in the #Cairngorms in Scotland. In the 40s, well before anyone was talking about mindfulness, this book is an ode to minute observation both of the world around you and of its effect on your senses and body. There is a whole chapter on the feeling of falling asleep and waking on a mountain. Read the perceptive foreword by #RobertMacfarlane and avoid the facile afterword by Jeanette Winterson! #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this truly original story of 19th century magicians and the strange legacies they leave for their 20th century descendants. Their twisted deceptions lead to some pretty remarkable sentences: "I apologise if I think I was deceiving me, and meant no harm". #ChristopherPriest #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading Nobel winner #GeorgeSmoot 's story of the search for structure in the cosmic background radiation, with co-author #KeayDavidson . A quite accessible story of the challenges of conducting experiments in increasingly ludicrous and expensive places: high altitude balloons, U-2 spy planes, the South Pole and, of course, outer space, in an attempt to get a clear view of the echo of creation. #Bookstodon #PopScience @bookstodon

@bookstodon #FinishedReading this engaging #popScience look at the (mostly microscopic) life that shares our houses. There are gross parts of course, but this is largely a celebration of the value of living amidst invisible biodiversity, which makes me feel better about my well loved but very far from sterile home! #RobDunn #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading this rather large novel of interlocking stories, set in 15th century Constantinople, 20th-21st century Idaho, and aboard a spaceship fleeing a ruined Earth, bound together by the characters' fascination with a half-preseved Ancient Greek comedy. I didn't love the whole book - the character of Seymour never rang true to me - but it does wrap together beautifully in the end. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #AnthonyDoerr

#FinishedReading this rather large novel of interlocking stories, set in 15th century Constantinople, 20th-21st century Idaho, and aboard a spaceship fleeing a ruined Earth, bound together by the characters' fascination with a half-preseved Ancient Greek comedy. I didn't love the whole book - the character of Seymour never rang true to me - but it does wrap together beautifully in the end. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #AnthonyDoerr

#FinishedReading this rather large novel of interlocking stories, set in 15th century Constantinople, 20th-21st century Idaho, and aboard a spaceship fleeing a ruined Earth, bound together by the characters' fascination with a half-preseved Ancient Greek comedy. I didn't love the whole book - the character of Seymour never rang true to me - but it does wrap together beautifully in the end. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #AnthonyDoerr

#FinishedReading this rather large novel of interlocking stories, set in 15th century Constantinople, 20th-21st century Idaho, and aboard a spaceship fleeing a ruined Earth, bound together by the characters' fascination with a half-preseved Ancient Greek comedy. I didn't love the whole book - the character of Seymour never rang true to me - but it does wrap together beautifully in the end. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #AnthonyDoerr

#FinishedReading this rather large novel of interlocking stories, set in 15th century Constantinople, 20th-21st century Idaho, and aboard a spaceship fleeing a ruined Earth, bound together by the characters' fascination with a half-preseved Ancient Greek comedy. I didn't love the whole book - the character of Seymour never rang true to me - but it does wrap together beautifully in the end. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #AnthonyDoerr

#FinishedReading #MichaelKing 's biography of Te Puea Herangi, indefatigable organiser of the Māori King movement in the first half of the 20th century. Her forceful charisma, flaws and all, pops off the page in the hands of NZ's most iconic historian. The scale of change in her lifetime for Waikato Māori and NZ is fascinating, as are the insights into other prominent figures like Apirana Ngata and Gordon Coates. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #NZHistory

#FinishedReading This odd little #CarloRovelli book starts as a quite nice pop sci glance at time in 20th century physics, then shifts to speculations in philosophy of science. It comes with ecstatic blurbs from e.g. Phillip Pullman and Nick Hornby, who (like me) lack expertise to judge the meat of the book. Is it bullshit? Is it original? The whole package, including its sometimes strange language choices (who still uses 'Peking'?) left me intrigued but sceptical. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading comedian #FernBrady 's autobiography. Don't be fooled by her day job and the silly Frankie Boyle blurb on the cover; although there's a lot of wit, this is a traumatic story about being an undiagnosed autistic girl and woman in a society that is often hostile to both autism and women. Not a light read but eye opening for an allistic dad of (thankfully, diagnosed) autistic kids, and definitely recommended. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Autism

#FinishedReading #Boole 's Laws of Thought, whose final chapters partly shift attention from #logic to #probabilityTheory and #philosophyOfScience . I don't have a strong sense of his historical standing in either discipline, although for probability there is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boole%27s_inequality . The attraction of probability is clear, with its range of values from 0 to 1, use of '1 -' for negation, multiplication for conjunction (of independent events) etc. There are rhymes here with his logic at least

#FinishedReading #Boole 's Laws of Thought, whose final chapters partly shift attention from #logic to #probabilityTheory and #philosophyOfScience . I don't have a strong sense of his historical standing in either discipline, although for probability there is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boole%27s_inequality . The attraction of probability is clear, with its range of values from 0 to 1, use of '1 -' for negation, multiplication for conjunction (of independent events) etc. There are rhymes here with his logic at least

#FinishedReading #Boole 's Laws of Thought, whose final chapters partly shift attention from #logic to #probabilityTheory and #philosophyOfScience . I don't have a strong sense of his historical standing in either discipline, although for probability there is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boole%27s_inequality . The attraction of probability is clear, with its range of values from 0 to 1, use of '1 -' for negation, multiplication for conjunction (of independent events) etc. There are rhymes here with his logic at least

#FinishedReading #Boole 's Laws of Thought, whose final chapters partly shift attention from #logic to #probabilityTheory and #philosophyOfScience . I don't have a strong sense of his historical standing in either discipline, although for probability there is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boole%27s_inequality . The attraction of probability is clear, with its range of values from 0 to 1, use of '1 -' for negation, multiplication for conjunction (of independent events) etc. There are rhymes here with his logic at least

#FinishedReading #Boole 's Laws of Thought, whose final chapters partly shift attention from #logic to #probabilityTheory and #philosophyOfScience . I don't have a strong sense of his historical standing in either discipline, although for probability there is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boole%27s_inequality . The attraction of probability is clear, with its range of values from 0 to 1, use of '1 -' for negation, multiplication for conjunction (of independent events) etc. There are rhymes here with his logic at least

#FinishedReading this (pop science) biography of #Erdős . I laughed out loud several times, as Erdős was both a unique individual and almost the archetypal obsessed / absent-minded mathematician. My favourite story was when surgery on one of his eyes was delayed because he was adamant he wanted to read a mathematics journal with his other eye during the operation. The mathematical content is very accessible but fortunately not completely absent. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading a cosy organic farming postapocalypse is visited by a sinister figure in a giant nuclear powered vehicle... and what a great cover by #DexterMaurer . Book was fine but running with a passive and disengaged main character was an odd choice. #JonathanLethem #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi

#FinishedReading a cosy organic farming postapocalypse is visited by a sinister figure in a giant nuclear powered vehicle... and what a great cover by #DexterMaurer . Book was fine but running with a passive and disengaged main character was an odd choice. #JonathanLethem #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi

#FinishedReading a cosy organic farming postapocalypse is visited by a sinister figure in a giant nuclear powered vehicle... and what a great cover by #DexterMaurer . Book was fine but running with a passive and disengaged main character was an odd choice. #JonathanLethem #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi

#FinishedReading a cosy organic farming postapocalypse is visited by a sinister figure in a giant nuclear powered vehicle... and what a great cover by #DexterMaurer . Book was fine but running with a passive and disengaged main character was an odd choice. #JonathanLethem #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi

#FinishedReading a cosy organic farming postapocalypse is visited by a sinister figure in a giant nuclear powered vehicle... and what a great cover by #DexterMaurer . Book was fine but running with a passive and disengaged main character was an odd choice. #JonathanLethem #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi

Today I #FinishedReading Harrow the Ninth by #TamsynMuir. Another phenomenal book in this series. This may sound weird, but loved being confused all over again for most of the book. When everything came into focus and clicked it was an incredibly satisfying experience.

Also, this is now among the books that made me laugh out loud - not due to an effort at comedy in the book, but from sheer enjoyment.

I think I’m going to fit some other reading in before I continue to Nona the Ninth.