@midtsveen@social.linux.pizzaHaving begun reading "Post-Scarcity Anarchism" by Murray Bookchin, I might add it to my "Entry to Left-Wing Anarchist Reading" doc.
📄 Reading list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WuGnU7O_0eyjf9caYJXJn-KbXfsQi3uHE5EYYzQcbD8…
@nemorosa@mastodon.nuNext on my list to read, after I finish Tom Holt "In Your Dreams".
What are you reading? #reading
@stefan@gardenstate.socialTime for video games instead of reading for a bit. I think my plan is:
- Chain of Echoes DLC
- Octopath Traveler
- Pioneers of Pagonia
- FF VI
- Fantasian
- DQ 3 hd-2d
that's a hilariously long list so we'll see.
@al3x@hachyderm.ioTime publishes [Atmosphere: 100 Must-Read Books of 2025](https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329475/atmosphere/).
I am not reading a book every 3.5 days.
Thus I am wondering how I could use this list.
@piger@mastodon.socialadded hn and lobsters to the dns deny list. Firefox "failed to load page" will be my reminder that even staring at the wall will be more useful than reading those 2 sites
@maxheadroom@hub.uckermark.socialSomehow I've got that problem that just reading a book feels like I'm neglecting "important" work. My task list is long and there is always some "productive" stuff I could do. I intellectually understand that reading is important and not just a recreational activity. Also I understand recreation is important. Still there is this nagging feeling when I pick up a book and read.
Do you have the same issue? How did or would you address it?
@jby@ecoevo.socialBefore we walked over to the bar to ring in the new year last night, I polished off MASTERS OF ATLANTIS as my last book of 2025. I'd put it on my to-read list after this review ... whew, back in 2020?
https://slate.com/culture/2020/12/master…
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizzaIf you’re new around here, I maintain an “Intro to Left-Wing Anarchist Reading” list, which you can find here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WuGnU7O_0eyjf9caYJXJn-KbXfsQi3uHE5EYYzQcbD8/edit?tab=t.0
There’s also a mirror availabl…
@dichotomiker@dresden.networkbrauche unbedingt für nächstes Jahr eine funktionierende triage für meine reading list
@gwire@mastodon.socialEnjoying the footnote speculation that LLMs recognise Neal Stephenson novels based on random paragraphs appended to spam to fool content classifiers.
https://nealstephenson.substack.com/p/a-remarkable-assertion-from-a16z
@al3x@hachyderm.ioIs there a known solution to send a link from any non-Safari #macOS browser to Safari's Reading List? This is possible on the iPhone as part of the Share actions.
I'm mostly interested into how to do this from Chrome and Firefox based browsers.
\(^-^)/
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialDay 30: Elizabeth Moon
This last spot (somehow 32 days after my last post, but oh well) was a tough decision, but Moon brings us full circle back to fantasy/sci-fi, and also back to books I enjoyed as a teenager. Her politics don't really match up to Le Guin or Jemisin, but her military experience make for books that are much more interesting than standard fantasy fare in terms of their battles & outcomes (something "A Song of Ice and Fire" achieved by cribbing from history but couldn't extrapolate nearly as well). I liked (and still mostly like) her (unironically) strong female protagonists, even if her (especially more recent) forays into "good king" territory leave something to be desired. Still, in Paksenarion the way we get to see the world from a foot-soldier's perspective before transitioning into something more is pretty special and very rare in fantasy (I love the elven ruins scene as Paks travels over the mountains as an inflection point). Battles are won or lost on tactics, shifting politics, and logistics moreso than some epic magical gimmick, which is a wonderful departure from the fantasy norm.
Her work does come with a content warning for rape, although she addresses it with more nuance and respect than any male SF/F author of her generation. Ex-evangelicals might also find her stuff hard to read, as while she's against conservative Christianity, she's very much still a Christian and that makes its way into her writing. Even if her (not bad but not radical enough) politics lead her writing into less-satisfying places at times, part of my respect for her comes from following her on Twitter for a while, where she was a pretty decent human being...
Overall, Paksenarrion is my favorite of her works, although I've enjoyed some of her sci-fi too and read the follow-up series. While it inherits some of Tolkien's baggage, Moon's ability to deeply humanize her hero and depict a believable balance between magic being real but not the answer to all problems is great.
I've reached 30 at this point, and while I've got more authors on my shortlist, I think I'll end things out tomorrow with a dump of also-rans rather than continuing to write up one per day. I may even include a man or two in that group (probably with at least non-{white cishet} perspective). Honestly, doing this challenge I first thought that sexism might have made it difficult, but here at the end I'm realizing that ironically, the misogyny that holds non-man authors to a higher standard means that (given plenty have still made it through) it's hard to think of male authors who compare with this group.
Looking back on the mostly-male authors of SF/F in my teenage years, for example, I'm now struggling to think of a single one whose work I'd recommend to my kids (having cheated and checked one of my old lists, Pratchett, Jaques, and Asimov qualify but they're outnumbered by those I'm now actively ashamed to admit I enjoyed). If I were given a choice between reading only non-men or non-woman authors for the rest of my life (yes I'm giving myself enby authors as a freebie; they're generally great) I'd very easily choose non-men. I think the only place where (to my knowledge) not enough non-men authors have been allowed through to outshine the fields of male mediocrity yet is in videogames sadly. I have a very long list of beloved games and did include some game designers here, but I'm hard-pressed to think of many other non-man game designers I'd include in the genuinely respect column (I'll include at least two tomorrow but might cheat a bit).
TL;DR: this was fun and you should do it too.
#30AuthorsNoMen
