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Stung Eye

The eye of the bee holder.

Reading and Listening in 2014

I read twenty-five books this past year. Six more than 2013, seven more than in 2012, and nine more than in 2011. Only one of the books was read on my Kobo, the rest were deadtree. Nine of them were non-fiction and sixteen of them were fiction.

Fiction Read in 2014

Read in that order. No duds this year, although I’ve got two incompletes:

I can normally savour a slow journey but Sterling & Gibson’s creation story for the Steampunk genre lost my interest. The stories in Friend, Follow, Text were harshing my mellow, so I’ve taken a break.

Top Three Fiction Reads

The Remains of the Day

We are a story we tell ourselves, parts of which we try to forget. A gentleman butler of World Ward Two-era Britain remembers so much but admits so little.

This book was full of comments penciled in by a previous reader that shaped the way I interpreted the story.

Ishiguro wrote the first draft of this novel in four weeks.

An Instance of the Fingerpost

A murder at Oxford in the 1660s told four times by four unreliable narrators. Each telling reveals more details and yet introduces more bias.

Shares many historical characters with Stephenson’s The System of the World (up next). It also shares this theme:

Early science is messy and pious. Early medical science more so.

System of the World

I feel like I know Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, Caroline of Ansbach and the rest of them. I feel like I’ve witnessed the Great Plague, London’s Great Fire, the end of Britain’s Stuart Dynasty, and the birth of modern thinking in science, religion, politics, and business.

I know I shouldn’t trust these feeling but I do.

Some 300 years ago Newton discovered a new System of the World. The predictive power of his three laws of motion made credible the scientific method. The twin calculus methods of Newton and Leibniz gave the scientific revolution it’s analytic strength.

This book is the third and final tome in Neal Stephenson's historical sci-fi trilogy the Baroque Cycle. It is also a tale about swashbuckling pirates, currency, coinage, courage and computation.

Non-Fiction Read in 2014

I fulfilled my goal of reading more non-fiction books. Many of these were inspired by a series of audio lectures on the Eastern intellectual tradition, others were inspired by parenthood as well as our work at Open Democracy Manitoba. They were read in this order:

Audio Lectures in 2014

Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition - TGC - Grant Hardy - 17hrs - The best series of lectures I’ve listened to, ever. The content was mind expanding. The lecturing was enthralling.

Consciousness and It’s implications - TGC - Daniel N. Robinson - 6hrs - Difficult and at times even disturbing.

Headspace - Take 5 - A Guided Introduction to Meditation - I’ve been meditating on and off since 2000 (when I took a meditation course in the rain forest near Cape Tribulation, Australia). I’m 25 days into the program and I cannot recommend it enough. Try Take 10 on the Headspace app for free. It’s 10 days of 10 minute meditation sessions. You’ll thank me.

Currently Reading and Listening

Simon SwainEmergence as a game mechanic.

Simon demos a game programmed to play itself. The game involves flocking, resource management, colonization, economics, war and the exploration of deep space. Really.

Explore Simon Swain’s Deep Space.