Shawn > Recent Status Updates

Finally, after two years on my previous book that I didn’t choose myself, it was so long, now I can read a simple and short novel, relief! And I chose this myself.

unquestionably an informative, informing book, surely it won't disappoint, but what I can say thus far, already, is that it isn't oh-so-eloquently written (I'm thinking of "The Civil War" volumes by Shelby Foote, or of "Blood & Thunder", on Kit Carson and the American West). I can just take in the information and knowledge, the history, and not be distracted by how impressive the actual writing is.

"It is Sa'di's whole approach to life and the problems that engage him which rather strike us as significant. Writing under an absolute monarchy, he was confronted with what we would nowadays call a totalitarian state....Sa'di realized the importance of living, and saw little point in combating a system which so far as he could judge was quite unchangeable."

Ready to be done w/this. The AI, Owen, is terrible, like, like that Star Wars movie w/Jar Jar Binks character. Stilted, stereotypical, unimagined AI robot. And the AI robot features so heavily in this novel. It's like, what was the purpose of making this AI robot as an interactive character if you're just gonna make it no different from a humdrum human?! An anthropomorphised robot, fun. 2022, and we still need this?

The AI, Owen, is so lame. Why create an AI as a character?

Ugh: when a book has no likeable people. Even the author will admit that the MC is not likeable. And then there's the AI. It is so cheesy and humanlike, and when it's convenient, it whips out AI powers, but for the most part, it's indistinguishable from a regular human. Not inventive, original, or interesting. Yawn. And then there's this caper story that is just silly & small, and pointless.

This is turning into a dry, cardboard story about a dull, bureaucrat man and his relationship with an AI robot. The AI has all the cheesy quirks that an AI adjusting to a human partner would have. Again, the whole premise is intriguing but it went out the window after the first ten pages.

This is turning into a very ordinary novel. I liked the premise: that cities are receiving more attention & political power than federal entities. I like the notion that city planners who streamline the workings of a city receive due attention & acclaim. But, this novel is slogging, and there is an annoying 2D AI personality, and the expressions are all too current & modern to THIS period (self-driving cars, blah bla

Still not sure about this one, there's some detective stuff going on, some intrigue & plotting, but the MC is kinda dull, it has a sort of WASP tone w/the author, and there's not enough of the wider world, like, there are some cool ideas but the author is keeping them on the peripheral and sticking to a conventional plot. I'd like to hear about the new & improved sewage system, or solutions to traffic congestion.

"The Gulistan of Sadi has attained a popularity in the East which, perhaps, has never been reached by any European work in this Western world. The schoolboy lisps out his first lessons in it; the man of learning quotes it; and a vast number of its expressions have become proverbial. When we consider, indeed, the time at which it was written--the first half of the thirteenth century--a time when gross darkness..."

Not bad (as an audiobook), best parts are when it gets in to city planning, traffic & commutes, sewage systems, and when it paints a behemoth bureaucracy

gonna be toggling this between audio & paperback, expecting a lite read, something to possibly read-listen while hitting auto-pilot at my side job.

Woohoo, walked into an actual bookstore many weeks ago and wondered what it’d be like to buy this book—,—so I borrowed it from the library! Ot’s been staring at me for some time now as I’ve coursed thru other books on The List, but now we’re here, the moment, the time of reading it, and it looks like a beast of fascinating facts, and I grew up in a Navy household so, it’s gonna be a learning thing too.