Category: Book

📚 Well, that was most of the books I’ve read in the last 2-3 weeks. I cut back a bit on the podcasts I listen to, which freed up some listening time for audiobooks. I’ve been enjoying this.

📚 Finished reading: Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam, ISBN: 9780385333214

How could I not love non-fiction about winning the national science fair by blowing shit up? We watched October Sky many years ago. Apparently I liked it enough my wife bought me this (hardcover) book that was the basis for the movie. I never read it. A couple years ago I donated it to the public library. I came across the audiobook on Hoopla and finally read (listened to) it. Good stuff.

📚 Finished reading: Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki, ISBN: 9780393609042

This is more of a personal journey than a how-to. Mildly interesting. Short read.

Audiobook available free on Hoopla.

📚 Finished reading: Let It Go by Peter Walsh, ISBN: 9781623367800

Fine, I guess. This is clearly aimed more at people who are dealing with parents’ estates than with downsizing their own stuff. The author is far more lenient with recommendations on what to keep and what to discard, so this might appeal to some people more than others.

Available available free on Hoopla.

📚 Finished reading: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, ISBN: 9781607747314

Not for everyone. Quick read. I wanted to like this more than I did. There are some good nuggets in here, but there’s also staggering hubris (e.g. “None of my clients have ever relapsed”… bullshit). I also could have done without all the anthropomorphising (the things and the home don’t have feelings). The nuggets can be summed up easily:

  1. Decide what to keep.

  2. Decide where to keep it.

Audiobook available for free on Hoopla.

📚 Finished reading: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, ISBN: 9780486784755

Great book, not at all what I expected based on film and TV depictions. I got the audiobook free from Apple Books a while back.

📚 I finished reading (listening to) The Hobbit over the weekend. The narrator did a great job with the songs. I kept wondering how they turned 7 hours of reading material into 7 hours of film material, and it was by adding a ton of extra stuff that wasn’t in the book.