Book 64 of 2022

I just posted a brief review of Babel by RF Kuang on the Discord of a Booktuber I enjoy/support. Here is the non spoilery version:

Some more thoughts from me about Babel. Note I haven’t watched Christy’s video about it yet. I found it a really compelling page turner of a historical novel, raising so many important issues about colonialism. But also about language, and words, and movement of ideas. It felt almost Dickensian for much of the plot, but in a much more dynamic way than Dickens usually is. There were also academia elements that felt familiar from even Harry Potter. The worldbuilding was superb, and the characters were well defined. I really liked some of the narrative tricks, including at times looking back and foreshadowing. To get a little more into spoiler territory <REDACTED HERE>.

Current reading

Current reading, mid Nov 2022. For fiction The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo and Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. Non fiction Terry Pratchett bio by Rob Wilkins, Geographies of Enlightenment Edinburgh by Phil Dodds, Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince, and Hello, World! by Brian Kernighan.

Mastodon progress

Reached 300 followers on #Mastodon where my handle is vivdunstan@mastodon.scot Finding it welcoming, after the initial hurdle of which server to choose! (it doesn’t matter) Use hashtags liberally. I recommend pinning an #Introduction post on your profile via the web interface.