81–90 of 651 posts
438 days. A memoir of a Mexican fisherman that spent over a year drifting across the Pacific Ocean. I’m a sucker for a good survival story and finished it in a day.
Given you like survival stories, I'm guessing you've also read Unbroken. But on the off chance you haven't, definitely check it out!
The origins of reasonable doubt: theological roots of the criminal trial by Whitman
Ah, found the post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27593462
If you read any of that and think it feels really familiar, I can't suggest Delivered From Distraction enough.
I just finished a re-read of the "Commonweal" series by Graydon Saunders, which begins with The March North : https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=MoIOAwAAQBAJ I've never been sure how to sum up these books. They're thoroughly strange fantasy books, oddly written and frequently chewy reads. They have an interest in politics and metaphysics; but they also have magical railguns, the sorcerous application of F…
Throughout the overwhelming majority of the year, I wasn't in a position where I had a lot of "sit down with a good book and a good drink" reading time, but I've gotten some in during the winters at each end. I think best overall was one of the ones I read way early in the year, Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche. I had been saving The Pale King by David Foster Wallace for an "in case of emergency break glass" book be…
I read Sapiens by Yuval Harari this year. It was long and fascinating, incredibly well researched, and easy enough for "light reading" that I had time for between writing research papers. A couple things that stuck with me were stories of giant land mammals that used to exist, many more than I realized, alongside humans. Wherever humans colonized, the large mammals were killed off soon after. This happened in Austral…