this was shared with me by a friend. As someone who'd like a radical suburb, this is an interesting read.
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Seeking a Solarpunk Future
Sci Fi | Cozy Fic | Sustainable Living | Classics | Green Energy | He/Him/His.
Ši nuoroda atsidaro kitame langelyje
Derek Caelin pradėjo skaityti Amanda Kolson Hurley knygą Radical Suburbs
Derek Caelin baigė skaityti Fragile Things
Neil Gaiman is wonderful.
Derek Caelin pabaigė skaityti Ruthanna Emrys knygą A Half-Built Garden
Derek Caelin pakomentavo autoriaus Jason Hickel knygą Less Is More
Proposals from this: - Mandatory extended warranties for products - right to repair legislation
"If washing machines and smartphones lasted four times longer, we would buy 75% less of them."
- introduce quotas for advertising
- shift from "ownership" to "usership" models, especially with transportation
- end food waste
- scale down ecologically destructive industries (beef, arms, private jets, single use plastics , SUVs...)
Proposals from this: - Mandatory extended warranties for products - right to repair legislation
"If washing machines and smartphones lasted four times longer, we would buy 75% less of them."
- introduce quotas for advertising
- shift from "ownership" to "usership" models, especially with transportation
- end food waste
- scale down ecologically destructive industries (beef, arms, private jets, single use plastics , SUVs...)
Derek Caelin pabaigė skaityti Naomi Novik knygą A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
I read this at the recommendation of @mara@glammr.us. Pretty good. :)
Derek Caelin įvertino The Midnight Library: 4 žvaigždutės

The Midnight Library Matt Haig
Nora’s life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on …
Derek Caelin apžvelgė autoriaus Amal El-Mohtar knygą This Is How You Lose the Time War
a teapot in a tempest
5 žvaigždutės
"This is How You Lose the Time War" asks the reader to perch on the shoulders of two operatives on opposing sides of a time-traveling war.
Each chapter follows "Red" or "Blue" as they scurry up and down timelines and across dimensions. The book is both sweepingly broad and extremely contained and personal.
The settings flit by, dizzying: a temple for mechanized humans, an ancient holy cave, the assassination of Caesar - each sketched with broad, emotional strokes to give the setting an aesthetic. One gets the sense that a great web of cause and effect is being constantly constructed, altered, and destroyed, without ever seeing the full picture.
Against these backdrops, the characters "Red" and "Blue" write to each other - as nemeses, then as friends, ever deeper entangled even as they demolish each other's plans and forces. The letters make up an enormous part of …
"This is How You Lose the Time War" asks the reader to perch on the shoulders of two operatives on opposing sides of a time-traveling war.
Each chapter follows "Red" or "Blue" as they scurry up and down timelines and across dimensions. The book is both sweepingly broad and extremely contained and personal.
The settings flit by, dizzying: a temple for mechanized humans, an ancient holy cave, the assassination of Caesar - each sketched with broad, emotional strokes to give the setting an aesthetic. One gets the sense that a great web of cause and effect is being constantly constructed, altered, and destroyed, without ever seeing the full picture.
Against these backdrops, the characters "Red" and "Blue" write to each other - as nemeses, then as friends, ever deeper entangled even as they demolish each other's plans and forces. The letters make up an enormous part of the experience, and they are comic, intimate... poignant. I didn't give a damn about the war - I just wanted these two characters to be alright.
I loved it. I stayed up past midnight every day I was reading, which wasn't long because I had to see what came next and kept reading.
Derek Caelin pakomentavo autoriaus Amal El-Mohtar knygą This Is How You Lose the Time War
It's been a while since I've gone to bed late reading a book. The format is straight up mean to the reader. Each chapter begins with one of the two main characters writing a letter to the other, so if you want to see the other character's reaction to what just happened... gotta keep reading.
I'm enjoying this!
It's been a while since I've gone to bed late reading a book. The format is straight up mean to the reader. Each chapter begins with one of the two main characters writing a letter to the other, so if you want to see the other character's reaction to what just happened... gotta keep reading.
I'm enjoying this!
Derek Caelin pradėjo skaityti Amal El-Mohtar knygą This Is How You Lose the Time War
Derek Caelin pabaigė skaityti Rainer, Thomas (Landscape architect) knygą Planting in a Post-Wild World
Takeaways: - I am uninterested in the sort of maintenance described by these designers - I may have made my flower garden too dense and crowded out some species - I have no idea what kind of soil I have - Clover is a good cover crop - Hard edges to wild spaces made a pleasing aesthetic
Takeaways: - I am uninterested in the sort of maintenance described by these designers - I may have made my flower garden too dense and crowded out some species - I have no idea what kind of soil I have - Clover is a good cover crop - Hard edges to wild spaces made a pleasing aesthetic
astounding
5 žvaigždutės
Įspėjimas dėl turinio Spoilers
I wasn't sure what I expected when I started reading this book, but I was astounded by how explorations of philology, patricide, colonialism, and revolution were all elegantly tied together. How the author managed to write this and work on her PhD is beyond me.
Įspėjimas dėl turinio Comments on the story's midpoint, comparisons to 1984 and hypocrisy
There's a point where Robin is caught and hauled before his father that reminds me of 1984, when O'Brian is interrogating Winston. In both books, the protagonist tries to argue with a more powerful, more ideologically grounded captor, and in both, they are unable to match wits with their foe.
In Babel, Professor Lovell is able to defeat his son by playing on the fact that the Hermes society has blood on their hands, and by praying upon his son's own dependence on Babel. Robin is unable to reconcile the fact that he revels in the privileges he has a Babel scholar, even as he wants to spread access.
There's a great Bill McKibben quote that lives rent free in my head. When critics pointed out that McKibben, an environmentalist, owned a car and flew in airplanes, despite these things producing carbon, he points out that purity is not the point of activism - it's changing the system.
"My house is covered in solar panels, and I plug my car into a socket those panels power. But environmentalists also live in the world we’re trying to change: We take airplanes and rent buses for rallies; we make a living, shop for groceries.None of this should demand an apology. Changing the system, not perfecting our own lives, is the point. 'Hypocrisy' is the price of admission in this battle."
Hypocrisy is the price of admission in this battle. Expecting purity from ourselves is not the point, whether we are trying to head off the worst of climate change or participating in some other revolution.
So, as I look forward to the second half of this glorious book, I say "chin up, Robin". Don't expect a perfection in conduct and creed that was never possible for you to embody.
Derek Caelin įvertino Annihilation: 5 žvaigždutės

Annihilation Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges …
Derek Caelin pabaigė skaityti Jeff VanderMeer knygą Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)
astounding. I don't know what I expected, but I was totally hooked throughout. The slow realization of obscured facts, the constant speculation about what was happening, all of it was totally engrossing.
astounding. I don't know what I expected, but I was totally hooked throughout. The slow realization of obscured facts, the constant speculation about what was happening, all of it was totally engrossing.








