It turned out that Murakami is actually a sexist. I revoke my rating to a 3* and not suggest anyone reading any of his works.
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2024 Reading Goal
26% complete! jonn has read 14 of 53 books.
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jonn reviewed Return to the Neverhood by Doug Tennapel
Terry Scott Taylor writes down his dream about Neverhood.
American Psychedelia
5 stars
I absolutely adored the interlude where the author conveys the feeling of early morning after a night of creative work and all that comes with it.
It's amazing to be able to feel it as if lived, through straightforward contemporary prose.
Just as everything that Terry Scott Taylor has done, this short story is a rough diamond, with immense amount of love and work put into displaying it in the most captivating environment.
Accompanying music can be found on bandcamp or spotify.
Stand-out quote:
SORRY I HAD TO STOP MID SENTENCE THERE... HAD TO GO SEE A MAN ABOUT A HORSE.
OKAY, WHERE WAS I? I'M LOOKING OUT MY WINDOW AND TRYING TO GATHER MY THOUGHTS, AND NOW MY EYES HAVE FALLEN UPON A FAMILIAR SIGHT; THERE IN THE NEAR DISTANCE AND SURROUNDED BY RELATIVELY LESSER TREES, LOOMS MY OLD FRIEND THE ELM-PROUD, MAJESTIC, AND PROTECTIVE AS HE FAITHFULLY KEEPS …
I absolutely adored the interlude where the author conveys the feeling of early morning after a night of creative work and all that comes with it.
It's amazing to be able to feel it as if lived, through straightforward contemporary prose.
Just as everything that Terry Scott Taylor has done, this short story is a rough diamond, with immense amount of love and work put into displaying it in the most captivating environment.
Accompanying music can be found on bandcamp or spotify.
Stand-out quote:
SORRY I HAD TO STOP MID SENTENCE THERE... HAD TO GO SEE A MAN ABOUT A HORSE.
OKAY, WHERE WAS I? I'M LOOKING OUT MY WINDOW AND TRYING TO GATHER MY THOUGHTS, AND NOW MY EYES HAVE FALLEN UPON A FAMILIAR SIGHT; THERE IN THE NEAR DISTANCE AND SURROUNDED BY RELATIVELY LESSER TREES, LOOMS MY OLD FRIEND THE ELM-PROUD, MAJESTIC, AND PROTECTIVE AS HE FAITHFULLY KEEPS WATCH OVER ME AND MY SURROUNDINGS LIKE A FAITHFUL SENTRY [..]
jonn finished reading Return to the Neverhood by Doug Tennapel
Return to the Neverhood by Terry Scott Talyor, Doug Tennapel
Terry Scott Taylor writes down his dream about Neverhood.
jonn commented on How Linux Works by Brian Ward
Skimmed through it. Seems fine.
jonn reviewed Understanding the Linux Kernel by Daniel Bovet
Re-read this book while working on an article.
5 stars
The best intro into navigating Kernel source that exists. Even outdated by 20 years, the general principles still hold. Writing is clean and concise.
jonn finished reading Understanding the Linux Kernel by Daniel Bovet
jonn reviewed Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, #19)
There's a werewolf with pre-lunar tension in Ankh-Morpork. And a dwarf with attitude, and a …
NO MASTER
5 stars
As a Jewish person, I don’t know how to feel about the ending.
But then again, Pratchett was notorious for overgeneralizations and ethnic stereotypes in his books (take the whole inverse asians, who travel to Ankh-Morpork to study at the feet of a regular Morporkian housewife or Time Monks from the same book, some examples from forthcoming Jingo). However these overgeneralizations for me hitting just the right left-centrist note to not sound ethnicitist.
That said, if I would had to formulate an outtake of this book in one phrase, I would say “you can’t spell nobility without knob… even if you do”.
jonn finished reading Maskerade by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, Book 18)
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, Book 18)
The show must go on, as murder, music and mayhem run riot in the night...
The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork...a huge …
jonn reviewed Maskerade by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, Book 18)
The show must go on, as murder, music and mayhem run riot in the night... …
Everything I wish “The Phantom of the Opera” was. A seriously good detective story.
5 stars
It’s almost impossible not to spoil this one by reviewing, but I’ll say that when I was watching the Phantom of the Opera, I was hoping for non-mystical resolution.
This book is an exemplar detective story, Mrs. Plinge could have just as well be written by Dame Christie and screenplayed by Mr. Horowitz.
Maximum points for detective story and half-a-point extra for, again, keen philosophy and cinematic writing.
Content warning His soldiers did (a.k.a. Not Just $DictatorName)
“Excuse me, Lord Hong,” said the apparition, “but do you by any chance remember Bes Pelargic? About six years ago? I think you were quarreling with Lord Tang? There was something of a skirmish. A few streets destroyed. Nothing very major.”
Lord Hong blinked.
“How dare you address me!” he managed.
“It doesn’t really matter,” said Twoflower. “But it’s just that I’d have liked you to have remembered. I got…quite angry about it. Er. I want to fight you.”
“You want to fight me? Do you know who you are talking to? Have you any idea?”
“Er. Yes. Oh, yes,” said Twoflower.
Lord Hong’s attention finally focused. It had not been a good day.
“You foolish, stupid little man! You don’t even have a sword!”
“Oi! Four-eyes!”
They both turned. Cohen threw his sword. Twoflower caught it clumsily and was almost knocked over by the weight.
“Why did you do that?” said Mr. Saveloy.
“Man wants to be a hero. That’s fine by me,” said Cohen.
“He’ll be slaughtered!”
“Might do. Might do. Might do. He might do that, certainly,” Cohen conceded. “That’s not up to me.”
“Father!”
Lotus Blossom grabbed Twoflower’s arm.
“He will kill you! Come away!”
“No.”
Butterfly took her father’s other arm.
“No good purpose will be served,” she said. “Come on. We can find a better time—”
“He killed your mother,” said Twoflower flatly.
“His soldiers did.”
“That makes it worse. He didn’t even know. Please get back, both of you.”
jonn reviewed Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
Interesting Times is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the seventeenth book in …
Book I wish all the western leftists would have read #59 // Rincewind’s Crescendo
5 stars
Of exploits of: - daring barbarians on a quest for something that no barbarian has quested before, - information autocrats, manipulating and defusing the protest, - lady Luck, world’s least wizzardly wizzard and… Butterflies.
“We sent the message,” said the visitor. “No one saw us.” [..] “I don’t understand, o lord,” said the visitor, whose name was Two Fire Herb.
“Good.”
“[..] they believe in the Great Wizzard and you want him to come here?”
“Oh, certainly. I have my…people in”—he tried the alien syllables—“Ankh-More-Pork. The one so foolishly called the Great Wizzard does exist. But, I might tell you, he is renowned for being incompetent, cowardly, and spineless. Quite proverbially so. So I think the Red Army should have their leader, don’t you? It will…raise their morale.” He smiled again. “This is politics,” he said.
“The Great Wizard will come. We sent the message, at great personal risk.”
“How …
Of exploits of: - daring barbarians on a quest for something that no barbarian has quested before, - information autocrats, manipulating and defusing the protest, - lady Luck, world’s least wizzardly wizzard and… Butterflies.
“We sent the message,” said the visitor. “No one saw us.” [..] “I don’t understand, o lord,” said the visitor, whose name was Two Fire Herb.
“Good.”
“[..] they believe in the Great Wizzard and you want him to come here?”
“Oh, certainly. I have my…people in”—he tried the alien syllables—“Ankh-More-Pork. The one so foolishly called the Great Wizzard does exist. But, I might tell you, he is renowned for being incompetent, cowardly, and spineless. Quite proverbially so. So I think the Red Army should have their leader, don’t you? It will…raise their morale.” He smiled again. “This is politics,” he said.
“The Great Wizard will come. We sent the message, at great personal risk.”
“How will we know when he arrives?”
“If he’s the Great Wizard, we’ll hear about it. And then—”
“Gently Push Over The Forces Of Repression!” they chorused.
Two Fire Herb looked at the rest of the cadre. “Exactly,” he said. “And then, comrades, we must strike at the very heart of the rottenness. We must storm the Winter Palace!”
There was silence from the cadre. Then someone said, “Excuse me, Two Fire Herb, but it is June.”
jonn finished reading Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
Interesting Times is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the seventeenth book in the Discworld series, set in …
Content warning Bag of sweets quote
In the beginning of the book, when Granny Weatherwax was challenged to a witches duel by Diamanda, Nanny Ogg has used the bag of sweets for a little boy to charge into the “magic” circle.
Queen Margrat has noticed it, so did the Elvish Queen.
jonn
boosted
Erik: You descend into a 30-foot-wide mining tunnel, with wooden beams reinforcing the walls and ceilings. You don’t see any traps, but a reptilian face with large eyes peeks out from behind a mine cart. At a closer look, it’s a kobold in a leather miner jacket.
Valeros (Luis): I’ll follow Merisiel down the ladder.
Kyra (Jessica): Me too.
Erik: As the sound of your footsteps on the iron ladder echoes through the mine, the kobold jumps out in panic! She takes a few steps further into the mine, then stops, as if she’s more frightened of whatever is deeper in than of you.
Kyra (Jessica): Oh no! Poor kobold!
Merisiel (Shay): Can someone calm her down? I’m terrible with people!
Valeros (Luis): I have a +3 Diplomacy. I’ll call out to her.
Erik: What do you say?
Valeros (Luis): “Hello friend! Don’t be scared, we’re here to help!” I rolled a 15 on my Diplomacy check.
Erik: Okay! The kobold seems startled, but then runs to you for safety. “Oh! Thank Torag you’re here!”
I realize hardly any veteran #ttrpg player reads "Examples of Play" anymore, but I am impressed here. The authors nicely set a tone of: "People who look different are people, too!" - even people who would have been designated cannon fodder in earlier editions of #DnD and #Pathfinder .
Well done, Paizo. Well done. The "evil races" whom it was okay to kill on sight was always highly problematic, and I am glad that this game is moving away from it.