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Sam Firke Locked account

samfirke@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 2 months ago

Dad, data analyst, novelist, nature lover. Living in Ann Arbor, MI.

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2024 Reading Goal

Success! Sam Firke has read 25 of 20 books.

finished reading Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow: Walkaway (Blackstone Publishing) 4 stars

Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie …

Content warning Plot point discussed

Cory Doctorow: Walkaway (Blackstone Publishing) 4 stars

Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie …

"We are well and truly at vuko jebina now," Tam declared. She'd learned the phrase from Kersplebedeb, who said it was Serbian for deepest boonies, literally, "where wolves fuck." Tam loved this phrase, to no one's surprise.

Walkaway by  (Page 229)

I want more phrases like this in my life.

avatar for samfirke Sam Firke boosted
Francis Spufford: Red plenty (2010) 4 stars

Review of 'Red plenty' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book is pretty unique, both in style and topic, and almost certainly not for everyone. But if you're in that weird niche of people seriously fascinated by the intersection of technology and high politics, it is a unique read you'll remember for a long time.

You can follow up afterwards by reading the Red Plenty Seminar from Crooked Timber, featuring the best serious analysis of "the optimization problem" that I've ever seen, as well as lots of other interesting material.

avatar for samfirke Sam Firke boosted
Francis Spufford: Red plenty (2010) 4 stars

Review of 'Red plenty' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is a story of how a dream is born and how it dies.

The book is written as a novel, but it is definitely nonfiction, or maybe better, it is a dramatization. Yes, this is a dramatization of a usually dry and academic subject of planed economy and creating true Communism in the 50s and 60s. It starts with glorious optimism that came with the death of Stalin and the Khrushchev takeover (this is quite relative) and launch of Sputnik. With the demonstration of Sputnik, Khrushchev puts all of his hopes into matching and surpassing the Americans with the use of science and technology. The Universities flourish (if you are an engineer), information sciences are of the ground and cyberneticians are brave enough to question party s economic dogma and solve the problem of making true utopia. With this our main characters, some real people, some emagined embark to …

reviewed Red plenty by Francis Spufford

Francis Spufford: Red plenty (2010) 4 stars

Strange but good

5 stars

Unlike anything I've read. The strong writing kept me moving, for instance the chapter describing how a cancer came to be was excellent even though the contribution to the overall plot was minimal. Same with Galina in labor.

On its surface, a collection of short stories. Too late I realized that some characters recurred. And underneath, the story of the attempt at a planned, fully computerized economy and its demise.

I imagine long textbooks have explored that subject. Spufford illustrates it with just a few brush strokes.