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FINISHED:
**A Scent of New Mown Hay, by John Blackburn**
Continuing with *The Last of Us* “fungal pandemic” theme. The above was published in 1968. Compared to Harry Adam Knight’s *The Fungus*, which was rather graphic, I found Blackburn’s book a far more compelling and atmospheric read, despite it being a little dated and predictable. Speaking of graphic… I just love the difference between the two books. Whilst *The Fungus* was almost gratuitously explicit, this one had the most adorable censorship slip, where one of the side characters exclaims, at hearing the shocking news, “God! the devil, the filthy, bloody, *unprintable* devil.”
**No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy**
I enjoyed it a lot but this was probably my least favourite of McCarthy’s books so far. I loved the characters and McCarthy’s insights into their world but I preferred the grit and the despondency of his other works to what to me came across as an unwinnable battle between the reverent good and secular nihilism as evil incarnate. I don’t mind not having resolutions, but this was too stark a conflict, to simply peter out into day-dream of paradise. Still, the writing was gripping as hell.
**Forever Free, by Joe Haldeman**
It’s been a while since I’ve read *Forever War*, and I can’t be sure, but I think I’ve enjoyed this a little bit more than the first book in the series. The order of the series was a bit confusing, so I’ve skipped Forever Peace.
**Geneva, by Richard Armitage**
This was Thorin Oakenshield’s debut novel, and, to give him credit, not at all badly written; I just felt like I’ve seen or read this story many a time before.
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STARTED:
**Forever Peace, by Joe Haldeman**
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CONTINUING:
**A People’s Tragedy, by Orlando Figes**
**South, by Ernest Shackleton.** The *Endurance* expedition and everything that happened, told by the man himself. Holy fucking hell.
**100 Poems, by Seamus Heaney.** Some real beauties in here
**One Fourteenth of an Elephant, by Ian Denys Peek.** The author has just ended up at Tarsau in the back end of 1943. He intentionally doesn’t use very many real names (only really his own and his brother’s) but he keeps talking about a “big Australian medical officer“, left unnamed, who sounds very familiar. G’day Weary.
* Mýty a naděje digitálního světa, by Patrick Zandl
Supposedly an explainer on hyped-up tech such as crypto or AI, by a respected writer and business guy. I was hoping to finally learn what Web3 is supposed to be. But it’s apparently a cleaned up compilation of blog articles that are all over the place. The section on AI ethics starts with the firing of Timnit Gebru from Google and touches on the main issues with bias in machine learning, but then digresses into Chinese policy on subsidies for electric cars. What the hell. I still don’t know what Web3 is supposed to be either. Other than another facet of scam economy.
* On Palestine, by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, Frank Barat (Editor)
Discussions focused mainly on framing, activist tactics, including parallels to ending South African apartheid, and reality inside Palestine, as Israel is getting closer to full colonization of the Greater Israel.
* Ulysses, by James Joyce
Very slow progress, only one or two chapters a week. Thankfully it’s not disruptive, this might as well be a collection of short stories. Those are still fun though.
* Hebrejky. Biblické matky, démonky, královny i milenky, by Jan Fingerland
A sort of an (incomplete) encyclopaedia of women in the Bible, discusses various interpretations of the characters, from various traditions in Judaism to modern anthropology.