Fritz
Interesting take on some stuff. A lot of other stuff felt disconnected.
Especially the part about the Hadzabe felt like it was very much removed from our world. Sure. We can learn from these societies. But the author is in a very different wealthy environment where she can fly in. Learn some stuff and go back.
Anyways. Interesting. But not a must read.
I liked the part about sharing responsibilities
Beautiful ink drawings of a boat journey. Story sort of revolves around storms and meeting people. However interesting and fascinating the journey must have been, it doesn't really transfer well into this story.
You do learn a lot about boats though.
I have never read a book like this. It is weird and has little punctuation. It's about politics but not in a way that describes a certain conflict or a strong cast of characters. But rather it is very abstract, using a party on the left, party on the right and party in the middle. None of the characters have names. They are only described by their title or their relation to others: e.g. the doctor's wife.
The book describes what can happen when the majority of the people legitimately cast a blank vote during elections. It displays a democratic multi-party government as obsolete. What does happen when there is no majority voting for parties. Do riots happen, or does life as usual run its course?
The first 100 pages are filled with conversations between the cabinet members of government, the party leaders and their direct subordinates. Silly debates, and pretentious arguments hold sway for that part of the book. Personally I found this part extremely tedious, and it was only the second try that got me further than page 55.
Conversations are stringed along sentences that can run for half a page, in the way a conversation is directly transcribed. Some conversations can ramble on without even taking place in real life and are just a what-if scenario described by the character that at that moment takes centre stage.
Looking back I might have caught on to the central part of this book earlier on in the book instead of the final stages of it. It's the small conversations that matter in the way that Coen Brother's movies are more about the dialogue than about just the storyline. I was looking for a plot, but found a very flimsy one. I was looking for engaging characters, but found abstract archetypes. However, I did find a very unique writing style and a book I might have to get back to, when I'm wiser and less restless. For that it deserves an extra star to what I initially wanted to give it.
Kerouac's nervous breakdown, takes you up and down into the twists and turns of his inner most honest thoughts. Thoughts of death and dying and life and living. The triumphant beat generation comes to an end. The bouts of drinking and madness turned to thinking and sadness.
A requiem for the kind of life that takes no no for an answer that never stops to think, but just cruises down the highway at a 100 mph.
It is uncanny, the amount of effort to break the madness and the futility of it all and to have the feeling that this book could have been written now. In a world of sad millennials who are dissapointed about their life and opportunities and the people who try to break the mould.
I loved it and binged it, as my generation does.
Dit prachtige boek is een soort ode aan de millenial die van de klassieke kunsten houdt: klassieke muziek, schilderkunst, poëzie en literatuur. Het heeft humor en beschrijft de eenzame mens die schouderklopjesbehoeftig is. Sterke proza en referentiele taal beschrijft in prachtige woorden het leven van igor, bekeken vanuit 2 protagonisten. De een verloren in zijn kunst (viool), de ander verloren in het gebrek daaraan (schilderkunst). Beiden zijn ze weg van igor, de man die alles kan. Die hun laat twijfelen aan de manier waarop zij hun kunst uitoefenen.
Een prachtig boek over mensen die als succesvol beschouwd worden, maar gevangen zijn in hun talent of in hun kunstvorm.
Het is prachtig, prozaisch en blijft op het randje van menselijk, terwijl het toch over een elitaire wereld gaat. Die van de klassieke muzikant. Een wereld die in het boek ook geridiculiseerd wordt, omdat zij zo hautain is. Een aanrader.
Het eerste gedeelte is fantastisch, het tweede gedeelte is goed. Daarom 4/5 sterren.
This was a very interesting book. The language and the kind of static archaic dialogue takes some getting used to. But on the whole it's a good “knight” story, about the classic themes like honour and power.
But to say that it stands out a lot? Just like the main characters, I'm left with a fog of forgetfulness.
This book was marvelous, fantastic and legendary characters, great build up. Wonderful storytelling.
I should read this again in English (they didn't have it at the local library in English). Perhaps it will gain 5 stars then.
Wonderful prosaic and poetic phrases that twist and turn about. Uncommon use of punctuation, which reminded me of Jose Saramago. I gave it two stars, because the story itself was sort of stupid. And also incest. That never works for me in a story.
A gruesome story. With the setting and the topic of mutilation and revenge and it being set in the arid lands of Namibia I imagined a Charlize Theron from Mad Max rampaging on the German forces. It was horrid but splendid.
Some really cool ideas and concepts. But so verbose and some chapters are just devoid of content.
My notes:
Reality is broken - Jane mcgonigal
Unnecessary obstacles
A goal
Voluntary participation
Happiness that is intrinsically motivated is much more resilient. External motivation is prone to hedonistic adaptation. Law of diminishing returns.
1. We crave satisfying work daily
2. Experience success
3. Social connection
4. Meaning
Reality is unproductive and unclear
Many of us do work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any given day? Where the chain of cause and effect is opaque and responsibility diffuse, the experience of individual agency can be elusive.
The Case for Working With Your Hands - The New York Times
Failure is necessary to keep the fun going. It increases our sense of agency
Use it in real life. Alternate reality games help make mundane tasks fun: Chore Wars
Or helps recovery from chronic illness etc: SuperBetter
Een bizar boek wat met verve en een soort manische drift geschreven lijkt. Ogenschijnlijk zonder samenhang en ratelend van associatie naar associatie.
Wel gaaf en vermakelijk. Benali is een erudiete geest en dit boek maakt weer eens duidelijk wat gegoochel met woorden teweeg kan brengen
This felt a bit like a Coen Brothers story set in Soweto. I really enjoyed the slang, the pace and the setting. That together with the inevitability of a cluster fuck looming over the protagonist Bafana's head made this worthwhile.
Young Ferguson is defined by how his Father takes care of his business. And a dramatic event takes 4 different shapes to create 4 different storylines.
It was big. Dense. And times a bit tedious. But it was a good read.
This book, like Blue Like Jazz, packs a narrative and a punch.
What is left when the factualness and literal interpretation of Christianity lose meaning? Do we toss everything out? Or do we learn to see a benefit and a hope without depending on the “holy scripture” to be without fault (which is just silly isn't it?)
Anyways I really enjoyed how Mike let himself combine his scientific approach his atheism and the practices of faith and it's benefits.
Very simple style of writing. But a depth in the meaning of being a knight. What is honour etc.
Lovely play with words as well
What an amazing story. Best book in a while. Images of South Sudan running through my mind
This is a good book, full of useful recipes, practical tips. It lacks a bit of background information, if you're into that.
But it makes up for that with novelty bread recipes, as well as traditional recipes.
The recipes are straightforward and not too difficult.
I'm especially pleased with how my croissants came out.
Aardige novelle over de grillen social media en de content moderators die het mogelijk maken.
Bervoets weet de sfeer van een kantoorbaan die het leven uit je zuigt giet te portretteren (kan ik uit eigen ervaring bij callcenter zeggen).
De verhaallijn is oké. Maar start en conclusie lijken niet sterk met elkaar in verband te staan.
Hoe dan ook een aardig boek. Het boek is op zijn sterkst wanneer het het opneemt tegen de flat earthers en holocaustontkenners.
Steengoede behandeling van onze crisis met het coronavirus, de herkomst hiervan en de samenhang met de economische groei waarvoor alles moet wijken in onze huidige neoliberale kapitalistische hegemonie.
Zowel de rechtse partijen als de linkse wordt verweten binnen een bepaald model en gesprek te blijven in plaats van de overkoepelende thema's te bespreken. Wat is onze strategie en waarom? Is groepsimmuniteit een strategie of altijd een bijproduct geweest? Zijn de maatregelen reëel en eerlijk voor alle lagen? Zo worden er geen handvaten geboden om de maatregelen toe te passen en leggen we alles bij het individu en “eigen verantwoordelijkheid”.
Ondertussen zijn er bailouts voor de grote bedrijven. Terwijl de zwakkere in de samenleving weer de consequenties zelf moeten dragen.
Schinkel is ijzersterk en scherp in de analyse. Zijn conclusies van ecosocialisme en pandemocratie als oplossing zijn bijzonder anders dan het heersende gedachtegoed. Of dit echt de oplossing is, dat weet ik niet. Maar ik wil er graag over nadenken.
Thought provoking but I presume a fictional correspondence between Lewis and a certain Malcom. The two do not agree on how prayer works or how it is supposed to be done. Not even on the outcome or anything at all.
Where it becomes interesting though is in both their struggles with prayer and when one of the two has quite grief to deal with. Then the differences are laid aside comfort is given to the other
Not a particularly good book. Not badly written and actually quite witty. But little reality comes back in the book.
The front cover is just as ghastly as the table of contents. An introduction comprising 100 pages. It is badly organized and comes across as pseudoscience..
That said, it does give a good overview of techniques that might be useful for Augmented Reality. But after a while the would, should, could get's old. And you just want a practical example. But in the words of the author, there is no real handbook on this, so “I had to write this”. In all fairness, thank you for that.
But seriously, don't buy it.
Perverted, dirty and perverted, I thought when reading the first four chapters. The book starts out with a man laying in bed with other women not having the cleanest of thoughts.
But there is a sadness that speaks through it. An incapability of doing better. I read on, a bit reluctantly. As I wasn't very keen on reading someone's perverted thought for 210 pages long.
But the air changes. The professor David Lurie is filed a complaint against because of getting intimate with one of his students. He goes his daughter in the countryside to .. do something else. There is no real reason to his going. It is just his going there that tells the story.
This book as so many other books is about redemption. A man lost in his own ways is looking for a way out. He sees his daughter and thinks what a bad guide he has been for this world. He sees himself and wonders if all the poets, that have been his guide, have been such a good guide.
It's good. Sad, granted. But good.