loppear started reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (Monk and Robot, #1)
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; …
Re-read for a bookclub, yay!
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Reading for fun, threads over the years of scifi, history, social movements and justice, farming, philosophy. I actively work to balance out the white male default in what I read, but have a long way to go.
He/they for the praxis.
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loppear's books
2025 Reading Goal
83% complete! loppear has read 67 of 80 books.
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loppear started reading Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his …
loppear reviewed The cult of information by Theodore Roszak
As we devote ever-increasing resources to providing, or prohibiting, access to information via computer, Theodore …
marvelous critique from 1986
4 stars
At the dawn of the Information Age, a prescient rant against conflating information with knowledge, of things that promise everything and so mean nothing, of the political and empirical projects of pushing computers and rational procedural models of thinking into all aspects of education and consumption. Leads to an epistemic argument about the primacy of creative & moral ideas and the role of forgetting in human thinking, but stays grounded as a book of political philosophy opposed to industrial exploitation and social control. Hardly feels dated: though the outlined consumerist and surveillance logic has ground on to deliver us into our late-computer-filled society, so much of what was heralded just around the corner 40 years ago - flourishing of democracy, artificial intelligence, educational wonders - and called out here for the emperor's finery is still relevantly promised to us in exchange for treating trivia as if it were wisdom.
At the dawn of the Information Age, a prescient rant against conflating information with knowledge, of things that promise everything and so mean nothing, of the political and empirical projects of pushing computers and rational procedural models of thinking into all aspects of education and consumption. Leads to an epistemic argument about the primacy of creative & moral ideas and the role of forgetting in human thinking, but stays grounded as a book of political philosophy opposed to industrial exploitation and social control. Hardly feels dated: though the outlined consumerist and surveillance logic has ground on to deliver us into our late-computer-filled society, so much of what was heralded just around the corner 40 years ago - flourishing of democracy, artificial intelligence, educational wonders - and called out here for the emperor's finery is still relevantly promised to us in exchange for treating trivia as if it were wisdom.
loppear reviewed I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
A storyteller “of great humanity and huge heart” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in …
Close to amazing
3 stars
Ultimately I didn't love this, nearly gave it another star for Lake Superior and the slow-apocalypse vibe. Turns darker again and again and I couldn't recover the sense of stubborn hope I think was intended in this mostly endearing tale of getting along with what's right in a world of wrong.
Ultimately I didn't love this, nearly gave it another star for Lake Superior and the slow-apocalypse vibe. Turns darker again and again and I couldn't recover the sense of stubborn hope I think was intended in this mostly endearing tale of getting along with what's right in a world of wrong.
loppear reviewed Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut (Delta book)
The book explores one of Vonnegut's favorite recurring themes, which is his belief in our …
very Vonnegut
3 stars
Grotesque and hilarious, on family and demise and care and the absurdity of humanity, in a decayed future or ever present. Not a favorite, but memorable lines and sets of course.
Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning …
well-told
4 stars
Tracing language's past through archaeology, genetics, and linguistics, reconstructing the unlikely-seeming breadth of similarities and ecological-driven differences and additions over millennia. A well-crafted and word-loving history.
Tracing language's past through archaeology, genetics, and linguistics, reconstructing the unlikely-seeming breadth of similarities and ecological-driven differences and additions over millennia. A well-crafted and word-loving history.
loppear started reading Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall
Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall, Phillip Berman
Dr. Jane Goodall's revolutionary study of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe preserve forever altered the very, definition of humanity.Now, in a …
loppear started reading Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
loppear started reading The Book of Records by Madeline Thien
The Book of Records by Madeline Thien
A novel that leaps across centuries past and future, as if different eras were separated by only a door.
…
loppear reviewed The redshifting web by Arthur Sze
earthy and untethered
4 stars
Nature, accident, emptiness, vastness collide in shattered moments, finding a letter in the stars or watching war correspondence or dancing with a sunflower bending to the light. Real growth over this collection, unsteady in the '70s and engrossed by the '90s.
Nature, accident, emptiness, vastness collide in shattered moments, finding a letter in the stars or watching war correspondence or dancing with a sunflower bending to the light. Real growth over this collection, unsteady in the '70s and engrossed by the '90s.
loppear reviewed The Age of Insecurity by Astra Taylor
Writer, filmmaker, and organizer Astra Taylor takes a curious, critical, and ultimately hopeful look at …
insecurity as the tie that binds
4 stars
The thesis - that the modern state and capitalism has brought us to crisis by manufacturing and maintaining insecurity across classes - is articulately threaded with considerations of roots - in language, history, myth, and rights - of care, securitization, commons, insurance, obligation, and possibility.
loppear reviewed A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #2)
Once, Lovelace had eyes and ears everywhere. She was a ship's artificial intelligence system - …
yes
4 stars
As usual for Chambers, beautiful consideration of persons and belonging in chosen family, uplifting over darker themes of outcasts and refuge.
loppear started reading I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
A storyteller “of great humanity and huge heart” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace …
loppear reviewed Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of …
superb musician's biography
5 stars
A superb musician's biography, beautifully researched threads of musicology, Detroit, influences and connections. I wasn't aware of J Dilla prior to reading, appreciated the tour of 90s and 00s performers I do recognize and the technical transitions in electronic music capability and performance expressed through JD's explorations and legacy. Wonderfully extensive supporting youtube playlist.
A superb musician's biography, beautifully researched threads of musicology, Detroit, influences and connections. I wasn't aware of J Dilla prior to reading, appreciated the tour of 90s and 00s performers I do recognize and the technical transitions in electronic music capability and performance expressed through JD's explorations and legacy. Wonderfully extensive supporting youtube playlist.
loppear started reading Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut (Delta book)
Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut (Delta book)
The book explores one of Vonnegut's favorite recurring themes, which is his belief in our need to belong extended families …