(3.5) X-Men, though for me, more appealing. Plus strange vintage photographs—which may or may not enhance the enjoyment.
Enjoyable, though was disappoi(3.5) X-Men, though for me, more appealing. Plus strange vintage photographs—which may or may not enhance the enjoyment.
Enjoyable, though was disappointed to learn that the photographs kind of came first as inspiration, then the individual characters (and plot?). Riggs admits in after-content that he needed to find ways to incorporate the photos he liked best.
(3.5) Minor is certainly more than a footnote to the OED, but not sure it's a whole book. The OED process itself, however, is mind-boggling and I'm in(3.5) Minor is certainly more than a footnote to the OED, but not sure it's a whole book. The OED process itself, however, is mind-boggling and I'm in awe.
Liked that each chapter began with the definition of an appropriate word. Enjoyed reading about the process of compiling the words, the definitions, the quotations and how it was a world-wide affair with devoted volunteers of old-book readers, searching for the right quotations for the words most in demand (as they compiled the dictionary A->Z and had words queued up to get ready for typesetting).
Minor played a huge part in making the OED come to be, and it certainly is interesting that he was a committed madman (criminally so, as he had murdered a local man out of his paranoia--perhaps stemming from trauma experienced in the Civil War as a surgeon/brander/punisher). But there's not that much more this story than this. I realize that it took place quite some time ago, so the data to draw on is limited, but there must have been more drama to the OED compilation itself (apart from Minor's part), that we could have delved deeper into. I bet Erik Larson could've done it! :)...more
Terry Jones is no novelist, but the storyline plane that is one of the pillars of great Adams writing is (2.5) Fun concept, not Terry-bly well written
Terry Jones is no novelist, but the storyline plane that is one of the pillars of great Adams writing is still present (others being satire and witty wording/dialogue), and delights despite the nonstop narrative in place of dialogue/inner monologue. Maybe the game makes more sense now? (I never made any headway whatsoever—must’ve needed to work on that second class upgrade first...)
[pre-reading:] Played the computer game based on this (or I guess the other way around) a long, long time ago. As I recall, I failed to make any appreciable progress whatsoever. Was that the joke? Maybe this novel will shed some light on what we were supposed to do... :)...more
(4.5) fun, quick read that can astound, amuse and spark interest. Definitely deserved the Goodreads Choice Award! :)
I definitely learned some fun tidb(4.5) fun, quick read that can astound, amuse and spark interest. Definitely deserved the Goodreads Choice Award! :)
I definitely learned some fun tidbits (there is a lot of technetium surrounding some red stars that are far older than the half-life of the most stable form of it—so we have no idea how that happened!) as well as some stuff I probably should have remembered (Iron is such a low energy state that fusing iron nuclei actually consumes energy (vs H -> He, which releases tons of it), so many stars run out of fuel and turn into giant balls of iron). And mind-blowing stuff: in a few trillion years, space will have expanded so much that galaxies will be torn apart and we’d only be able to see a few local stars: everything else will moving too fast away from us for the light to ever reach us. How lucky we are to love so ‘early’ in the universe to see such dazzling things as constellations and galaxies!
I appreciated the discussion of dark matter and energy and didn’t feel insulted by his analogies. He did breeze through it all (these came from discrete essays so he didn’t spend multiple chapters on them, which I probably would’ve enjoyed even more).
But overall, the tone was perfect: excited, humble, willing to speculate but never claiming to know what we don’t. He presents enough historical perspective to show just how many times scientists have been wrong in the past, and that that’s a good thing: disproving long-held beliefs is what real scientific progress is all about.
Definitely hope to discuss with my kids when they get a little older. And really hope a bunch of this becomes out of date in the next decade or so as we learn so much more....more
(3.0) I dunno, felt like there was more promise than delivery.
There's lots of good opportunity for empathy for a woman making her way in a world const(3.0) I dunno, felt like there was more promise than delivery.
There's lots of good opportunity for empathy for a woman making her way in a world constructed to exclude her, but she just sounds frazzled and I'm not sure she really knows what was going on around her beyond the scheduling insanity (which I can only imagine really was insane, but still not really directly involved in Obama's decision-making etc). A few anecdotes were fun though. And I certainly give her a ton of credit for getting it done time and time again. Maybe all of the good stuff is classified or withheld to avoid embarrassing Obama and his cabinet?...more
(4.0) Good framework for the roles/personalities that lead to innovation
A bit forced at times (eg Collaborator—he essentially argues that it needs to (4.0) Good framework for the roles/personalities that lead to innovation
A bit forced at times (eg Collaborator—he essentially argues that it needs to be a pillar of culture that everyone collaborated), but overall cool way to think about the type of people you want to assemble in your centers of innovation. I’ll probably refer back to this in future....more
(4.5) May change your life if you really adopt the lessons here. Might've been 5.0 if the tone were a little less boasty, false self-deprecating.(4.5) May change your life if you really adopt the lessons here. Might've been 5.0 if the tone were a little less boasty, false self-deprecating....more
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