From b696f1911aab41fd73fce6207b9b5677b44d71b2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: bnewbold Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2017 12:07:13 -0800 Subject: (partial) reading from 2016, 2017 --- books/2016.page | 40 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ books/2017.page | 16 ++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 56 insertions(+) create mode 100644 books/2016.page create mode 100644 books/2017.page (limited to 'books') diff --git a/books/2016.page b/books/2016.page new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53bd8a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/books/2016.page @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ + +The Good Terrorist, by Doris Lessing (1985) + +Reinventing Discovery, by Michael Nielsen (2011) + +Collapse, Jared Diamond (2005) + +Whole Earth Discipline, Steward Brand (2010) + +The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2, by Jane Pynter (2006) + + One of my favorite reads of the year! + History of the project is fascinating. Sounds like the habitat itself was + amazingly ambitious and well constructed, but the social organization fell + apart after that and there wasn't discipline in running the experiments. + Disapointed to learn how exogenous the habitat was regarding air + conditioning and electricity, really only focused on mass transfer. I don't + really consider the first run a "failure" due to air exchange; seems like a + lot was learned, especially regarding social cohesion, which I would + consider part of the experiment. + The first large chunk of the book is very autobiographical, and it's an + interesting life story. Sort of orthogonal to the experiment itself, though + it does give context for how the whole thing got off the ground as a hippie + collective, which I found pretty inspiring. + Crazy historical detail: Steve Bannon (Breitbart editor and Trump + presidential advisor) was involved in a repossesion of the Biosphere + facility! + +Death's End (Three Body Problem), Liu Cixin (刘慈欣). + +Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs + +Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie (Rilke translation, 2002) + +On the Shortness of Life, by Seneca + +Not cover to cover: +* Manufacturing Process for Design Professionals +* Payment Systems in the US +* Google SRE Book diff --git a/books/2017.page b/books/2017.page new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7508d7a --- /dev/null +++ b/books/2017.page @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ + +Vineland, Thomas Pynchon + +Assembling California, by John McPhee (1993) + + Part of a series on geology of the USA, covering the California section, as + well as some history of plate tectonics in the 20th century. + Good intro to the history and current geography of California on human + timescales as well: the 1989 earthquake, gold mining in the Sierras, Napa + valley wine country, the story of the Davis campus, etc. + The last chapter, about earthquakes in the SF bay area, was as powerful as + the July 2015 New Yorker article ("The Really Big One") about tsunamis in + the Pacific Northwest. + +Not cover to cover: +* Engineering a Safer World -- cgit v1.2.3