Update reading list (#13)

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Patrick Stevens
2024-05-27 22:16:46 +01:00
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@@ -43,14 +43,13 @@ This page holds a list of the books I am reading, and a list of books I have rea
# Currently reading
* Now It Can Be Told, by General Groves
* Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, in translation by Ursula Le Guin.
# Bought and ready to read
* The Attention Merchants, by Tim Wu
* American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
* 84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff
* Impro, by Keith Johnstone
* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
# To read
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* Linked, by Albert Lazlo Barabassi (study of networks)
* Libriomancer, by Jim C Hines (fantasy fiction)
* Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut (fiction of some sort)
* Nature via Nurture, by Matt Ridley (study of interaction of genes and environment and development)
* The Culture series, by Iain M Banks
* A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel
* So Good They Can't Ignore You, by Cal Newport
@@ -79,12 +77,15 @@ This page holds a list of the books I am reading, and a list of books I have rea
# Read some of and then put down
* [The Complete Cosmicomics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Cosmicomics), by Italo Calvino. Whimsical indeed, but oddly enough I started finding them rather samey after about a third of the way through. Worth reading a couple of them (no particular ones seemed better than the others to me).
* [Legal Systems Very Different From Ours](http://web.archive.org/web/20220806200919/http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsContents.htm): it's all in the title, really. Case studies of different legal systems, by the economist David Friedman. I read the first third or so of this, and it was a very interesting set of things to think about. How can a civilisation run itself without our systems of law courts? There have been many answers through the centuries.
* [Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds), by Charles Mackay - nonfiction about the ways in which the crowd can get things wrong. This book is very, very long; I made it through the first half of the first volume before giving up. A pretty eye-opening book, though: Mackay's description (from the year 1841!) of the South Sea Bubble is almost indistinguishable from the recent cryptocurrency crazes, right down to an extensive list of some of the crazy companies that were eventually made illegal ("for improving the art of making soap", "for a wheel of perpetual motion", "for extracting silver from lead", "for a grand American fishery") - all very reminiscent of the various shitcoins.
* [Quantum Computing for the Very Curious](https://quantum.country/qcvc): essay to teach the fundamentals of quantum computing, with embedded spaced repetition cards.
# Have read
* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke. Wonderful. Ethereal (but in a sort of grounded way), beautiful.
* Impro, by Keith Johnstone. The first half of this book is very interesting, easy reading, and I suspect rather useful; I believe it's been helpful in my introductory improv lessons. (I don't know how useful it will be without practice of some sort, but I also suspect it's possible to practise without going full improv-classes.) The second half is an exploration of mask work, Commedia dell'arte, trance states, and possession, and I found that much less worth reading.
* Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E. M. Delafield. Hilarious. I was laughing out loud every few pages. Strong recommend. This was so like real life.
* [Folding Beijing](https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/folding-beijing-2/), by Hao Jingfang. Interesting short story, although really I think it could have been half the length without losing much; the premise is not exactly complicated, and the story is really just a brief exploration of the premise.
* Permutation City, by Greg Egan. Cool book! It's interesting to think about why I find the core premise implausible, but it certainly seemed novel to me. Pretty gripping. It seems to pair quite nicely with Robin Hanson's _The Age of Em_, which would be a nonfiction accompaniment.