User Profile

Courts

courts@bookwyrm.social

Joined 11 months, 3 weeks ago

Mostly Sci-fi and Fantasy, with a dash of "classic" literature sprinkled through.

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Courts's books

Currently Reading

2024 Reading Goal

66% complete! Courts has read 28 of 42 books.

Rebecca Giblin, Cory Doctorow: Chokepoint Capitalism 4 stars

Good Explanation of Chokepoint Capitalism

4 stars

Rebecca and Cory did not fail to meet my expectations with this book. It's a concise, albeit sometimes lengthy, overview of how wealth concentration happens and how we could solve some of the problems on a global level.

For me personally however, it was largely a way to see what we need to prevent here in Europe to be exported into our own systems from the US (which unfortunately happens quite fast and is already happening, in addition to our own problems in the EU). The book is written mainly for a US-based audience of creative workers. Still, the big chokepoint-creating corporations like Amazon, Spotify and the likes of course are also huge here, too.

qntm: There Is No Antimemetics Division (Hardcover, 2021, Independently Published) 4 stars

An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties ; an idea which, by its intrinsic …

What Antimemetics Division?

5 stars

This was a wild read. I didn't know about the SCP wiki before, I found this book by chance via a Mastodon review someone posted. It sounded interesting enough, a little bit like the John Dies At The End novels, maybe without the humor.

The premise of ideas invading human space and these "beings" (if you can call them that) being all around us, just invisible, is pretty interesting. Deliberately purging your memory so these ideas cannot invade your brain while simultaneously trying to solve the problem of how to save humankind, even more so. An enjoyable read if you like sci-fi with more than a touch of horror mixed in.

J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (Paperback, 2001, Back Bay Books) 4 stars

Holden Caulfield, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He …

Classic Book About The Woes of Adolescence

5 stars

Im not sure if I would've liked this book 25 years ago. But now, I can appreciate the feelings Holden talks about, with nothing making sense and everything being depressing at his age and current path in life. He doesn't know where he belongs yet. His life goes to pieces.

Yes, the language is dated and yes, there are parts that are highly controversial today, so you need to take into account the time it was written, as trite as it sounds. I'm glad I read it at an older age. Things get better.

Becky Chambers: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (2021, Hodder & Stoughton) 4 stars

With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The …

Social Commentary

5 stars

Again, a typical Wayfarers book. Not much plot but a lot of social commentary. A group of sapients from different species that is forced to live together for a couple of days. More or less a thinly veiled wrap around societal problems and challenges we are facing here on earth.

reviewed Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #3)

Tamsyn Muir: Nona the Ninth (2022, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 4 stars

No One Expected Nona To Exist

5 stars

...is what the back of the book says. And Tamsyn Muir again successfully makes you guess what the everlasting fuck is happening, excuse my language. I was prepared after Harrow, but it's still such a mindfuck. You think you're getting new information about the Locked Tomb universe and how it happened, but at no point are you certain that things are what they are. I absolutely love it. Can't wait for Alecto to be published.