Well, I've finished reading all of the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series that's available to date. Not bad, although a little tortuous. But now I need to find something else to read.

I could always reread something, of course. I'm overdue to reread "The Lord of the Rings", for example. But I need to find something that I actually have more of an urge to read. Probably something new.

Any suggestions?

#books #bookstodon #bookrecs #BookSuggestions

Where should I start with Brandon Sanderson? I just read Tress and really liked it. Hmm..

#BookSuggestions #bookstodon

A book recommendation: Parmy Olson's Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in AI. The book tells the origin stories behind the familiar names: how ChatGPT came to be, how DeepMind ended up under Google, how Anthropic and Claude were born as a reaction to OpenAI's shift in direction, and how GitHub Copilot and Gemini entered the picture.

What I found especially fascinating is the massive amount of research behind OpenAI and how open and idealistic the starting points were for everything until business took over. Musk, Altman, Hassabis and the other key figures have been on completely different pages: some care deeply about ethics and safety, some couldn't care less. At the same time, everyone acknowledges the risks and talks about them openly, yet they all act differently.

I've been tinkering with chatbots since the MegaHAL days and as a developer I use all of these tools often, so reading the behind-the-scenes story was captivating. Won the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2024, and deservedly so.

PS. If you're planning to guilt trip me about using AI or being interested in it, I'll just block you.

#AI #Claude #ChatGPT #OpenAI #Anthropic #Books #Bookstodon #BookSuggestions

Okay all. I’m looking for my next read. I just finished a re-read of Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History”. Before that, re-read Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy. Did some rereading after disappointments. Lastly, The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. Awful.

So, putting it to the Fediverse, what should I read next

P.S. Mistborn and Stormlight: not on the table

Favored genres: #highfantasy #cyberpunk, #dystopian #wheeloftime #nealstephenson #kingkillerchronicles #cyberpunk #williamgibson #booksuggestions

What are some books that have helped you with feelings of alienation or estrangement?

I'm looking for recommendations for books to return to when I feel lonely, intentionally misunderstood, gaslit and/or bullied. For those tough moments when I feel like there's no place for me on earth.

A few examples of books that mean a lot to me:

- Lonely Castle in The Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura: made me feel less alone with my experiences of being bullied and being an outsider. There's hope for finding community elsewhere. Gave me the same feeling of coming home on a close-knit phpBB forum in the past.

- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman: speaks to me in a sense that when life is difficult, resilience and curiosity will always get you through. Why not stick around to see what changes, to see what's out there, even if you will never be able to understand? Others don't need to understand you and they don't need to feel the same as you, for life to be worth living and for things to be meaningful to you as an individual.

- Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko: made me believe that even with threatening people around you controlling your life, there are ways to push back, to change yourself, to resist and to focus on other things than only mourning the life you thought you would have. You can experience growth within yourself, not only forced destruction.

- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: you can be lost, you can be chronically ill, you can be confused, you can be alone, but you can still live on. You can wonder about everything.

- Earthlings by Sayaka Murata: I don't think there's anything heartwarming in here, but I feel such a sense of comfort that there are characters out there completely disconnected from the world around them because society makes no sense and is cruel.

- Pew by Catherine Lacey: It's not you. It's them.

- Among Others by Jo Walton: has a good message that books will always be a companion.

Any books you'd recommend to me? Any books that have the same vibes as any of the above? Any books that have given you comfort over the years?

#books #bookstodon #BookRecommendation #BookSuggestions #BookLover #AskFedi

Stop quoting Orwell memes. Forget 1984 and Brave New World. The real mirror of our times is Zamyatin’s We (1921): a world where we happily surrender ourselves to the algorithm.

https://ridleypark.blog/2025/09/17/the-wrong-dystopias-why-we-may-be-the-book-for-now/

#Dystopia #Orwell #Huxley #Zamyatin #We #1984 #BraveNewWorld #CriticalTheory #Books #booksuggestions #AmReading #Philosophy #ReadingCulture #BigTech #Surveillance #surveillancecapitalism #BigBrother #Culture #Reading #Dystopian #WritingCommunity #History #perspective