BookWyrm

Paul Barker started reading The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

Steve Brusatte: The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs (Paperback, 2018, Macmillan)

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

Paul Barker finished reading The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, #2)

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Two Towers (Paperback, 1999, HarperCollins)

The second part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure THE LORD OF THE RINGS

The Company …

Finished my re-(audio)read of The Two Towers. Andy Serkis' narration is fantastic. His gollum voice is of course great but I also love all the character voices and the orc voices. He puts so much emotion and depth into the reading, it's giving me a fresh appreciation for a series of books which I've read about 5 times before.

Paul Barker started reading The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, #2)

The second part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure THE LORD OF THE RINGS

The Company …

I'm in the middle of a long overdue re-read of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This time I'm listening to the new audiobooks, narrated by Andy Serkis.

Paul Barker started reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (Elantris, #1)

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (Elantris, #1)

Elantris is a fantasy novel written by American fantasy and science fiction writer Brandon Sanderson. The book was published on …

Paul Barker finished reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

Oliver Burkeman: Four Thousand Weeks (Hardcover, 2021, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

The average human lifespan is absurdly, outrageously, insultingly brief: if you live to 80, you have about four thousand weeks …

Paul Barker reviewed Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

The average human lifespan is absurdly, outrageously, insultingly brief: if you live to 80, you …

A good alternative to traditional time management books

3 stars

I read this as the description really spoke to my todo-list overwhelm and feeling that everything needed to be done.

This book reminds you of the obvious - we're all finite, todo lists are always infinite. You were never going to get everything done anyway, so stop worrying about it. Instead, prioritise ruthlessly, choose things that you're willing to let go or fail at, and value the "now" over the unreachable future that you think will exist when you finish your todo list.

Overall, the book does what it sets out to achieve fairly well. Unfortunately it has a narrowly neurotypical view and doesn't really give space for those of us who struggle to let things go and often fall into absolutist thinking about their todo list. It also makes assumptions that everyone wants similiar things in a few places, especially when it talks about relationships - we don't all …

I read this as the description really spoke to my todo-list overwhelm and feeling that everything needed to be done.

This book reminds you of the obvious - we're all finite, todo lists are always infinite. You were never going to get everything done anyway, so stop worrying about it. Instead, prioritise ruthlessly, choose things that you're willing to let go or fail at, and value the "now" over the unreachable future that you think will exist when you finish your todo list.

Overall, the book does what it sets out to achieve fairly well. Unfortunately it has a narrowly neurotypical view and doesn't really give space for those of us who struggle to let things go and often fall into absolutist thinking about their todo list. It also makes assumptions that everyone wants similiar things in a few places, especially when it talks about relationships - we don't all want a life time monogamous relationship with children and a white picket fence. IMHO a book like this should just avoid talk of relationships if it's going to spend too few pages on them to do them justice.

For me, this books has provided a much needed alternative perspective on things and there are some suggestions which I will take away and try to implement.

Paul Barker finished reading Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher: Battle Ground (Paperback, 2021, Ace)

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

"HARRY DRESDEN, CHICAGO'S ONLY PROFESSIONAL WIZARD, COULD BE ITS LAST Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long …

Paul Barker finished reading Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin

Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days (1989)

Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin

Around the World in 80 Days is the 1989 book that Michael Palin wrote to accompany the BBC TV program …

Paul Barker reviewed Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis

Yanis Varoufakis: Another Now (2020, Random House Children's Books)

Imagine a world with no banks. No stock market. No tech giants. No billionaires.

Imagine …

Unnecessary Fiction

2 stars

Another Now compares the structure of the economy and the public sphere as it was when this book was released (just before the pandemic) with an alternative reality where broadly leftist policies were put in place in response to the financial crash of 2008.

I think the fictional framing here actually detracts from Varoufakis' ability to make his argument. Writing fictional characters is clearly not his area of expertise. I would have much preferred this to be another non-fiction book, without the unnecessary fictional elements.

Paul Barker reviewed Hurts So Good by Leigh Cowart

Leigh Cowart: Hurts So Good (Paperback, PublicAffairs)

An exploration of why people all over the world love to engage in pain on …

Painfully good

5 stars

I absolutely loved this book when I read it last year. I highly recommend it to anyone who is even remotely kinky, loves spicy food or extreme endurance sports.

Paul Barker replied to Melisondra [bookish]'s status

@Melisondra Lovecraft collections always have such gorgeous book covers! I've long wanted "The Complete Fiction" collection, both as a physical object to have on a shelf and as a book to occasionally read stories from.