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jonn

jonn@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years ago

That doma.dev guy.

Also on: @jonn@social.doma.dev

I don't like cringe stuff.

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jonn's books

Currently Reading

2025 Reading Goal

54% complete! jonn has read 29 of 53 books.

@mikerickson that’s my recent shower thought. Guardian et al. are great at pointing out the direction where stuff is going for those in the back of the class (no pun intended). The question is — what to do. I think there should be a platformed way to protest, like protest orchestration-as-a-service almost. I don’t know… I think it is too late for trying to propose institutional solutions.

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Manuel Arriaga: Rebooting Democracy: A Citizen's Guide to Reinventing Politics (Paperback, Thistle Publishing)

Unless you are a banker, by now you must have realized that politicians don’t serve …

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You know what? Kudos to this book for actually saying something with its full chest. I frequently come across political books that read like, "everything sucks and here's why," but this goes a step further with tangible and direct suggestions for what to do about it; it really is a guide of sorts.

Of course there's the standard solutions like ranked-choice voting and campaign finance reform, but this also discussed a concept of "citizen deliberation" (think of a souped-up round of jury duty except the results get pushed to a public election as a referendum question) that I'd never even heard of before. It even laid out real-world examples of how these have operated in the (then) recent past. There's also discussions on how to tweak recall election rules to better hold politicians accountable in between elections, and just an overall grab bag of specific things that foreign countries do. …

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Anne Applebaum: Autocracy Inc (AudiobookFormat, 2024, 23 juli 2024)

We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader …

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Well it's a day that ends in 'Y', which means it's a beautiful day to despise the Russian government with every fiber of my being!

This is a powerful argument for asking Western governments to stop treating powerful heads of state as one-off, case-by-case studies; the Francos and Mugabes of the 20th century no longer provide the model of authoritarianism. Seemingly diverse countries with little in common beyond a desire to stay in power in the face of Western pressure (Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe to name a few) are all interconnected now in an effort to provide an air of legitimacy to each other. The overwhelming message they convey to their populaces is, "yes we're bad, but it could be worse, so don't fight to change things."

Rather than acting as a bridge to bring these oppressive regimes into the Western fold, post-Cold War economic overtures have instead acted as a …

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Neal Stephenson, Juanma Barranquero, Neal Stephenson, Juanma Barranquero Ríos: Snow Crash (Paperback, español language, 2008, Ediciones Gigamesh)

30 años del Metaverso, y sumando. En un futuro cercano, los americanos solo destacan haciendo …

Review of 'Snow Crash' on 'Goodreads'

I was starting to enjoy this book, until a sex scene between a 30-40 year old and a 15 year old killed pretty much all my enjoyment and left me feeling gross after.

Jasper Fforde: First Among Sequels (Paperback, 2008, Hodder & Stoughton)

Smooth

Content warning Fan-hypothesis

reviewed Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde: Something Rotten (2005)

Something Rotten is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. It …

Strange character motivations in an otherwise stellar book

I understood one of the mysteries of what happened when the incident happened closer to the end, but I have so many questions as for why.

I can't criticise the book without spoilers, but I will say that the big baddie didn't get anything out of their kindness, the henchperson didn't get anything of their screw-ups, the most resultive evil character, on the other hand, felt really too keen.

That said, it's an extremely astute book, and another study of trumpian fascism.

It was – of course – inspired by German nazism, but it is striking how, if you add a little bit of modernity and neoliberalism to hitler, you get trump.

To solidarity with Danes! (Oh how unintentionally modern)

Finally, there was a proof that the real world in the Next series is happening in the real book world, which has a book world inside it! We know it …

Adania Shibli, Elisabeth Jaquette: Minor Detail (Paperback, 2020, Fitzcarraldo Editions)

Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the …

I was walking down the street yesterday and did my thing where I look up the books people read.

Normally it's an utter disappointment, silly light reads or thrillers (don't get me right, I love silly light reads myself).

This time my expectations were low – a white bald guy, wearing a teal T-shirt, how good could the book be.

Well... It was this one.

Thank you, white bald guy wearing teal t-shirt.

And let's all hope that Palestine shall be reclaimed.