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Reading Wrap-Up: September 2023
Oct. 9th, 2023 06:25 amWhy We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker (nonfiction) -
The author is a neuroscientist working in cutting-edge sleep research. I already knew quite a bit about the basics of sleep mechanics and the dire consequences of sleep deprivation due to trying to understand my own sleep disorder, but this book went into significantly more detail than I'd seen previously and talked about some of the most recent discoveries in the nitty-gritty details of sleep mechanics. I especially liked how he explained chronotypes (the genetic basis for the difference between "early birds" and "night owls"), and the changes in the circadian rhythm people go through as they age.
What I was less of a fan of was his weird dismissiveness towards sleep quality problems in children/teens having causes other than social/behavioral (i.e. caffeine and smartphones). He even flat-out said that while he didn't have any proof he thought most ADHD diagnoses were misdiagnosed sleep deprivation and that, although there is currently only correlational evidence between poor sleep and autism, he thought it was poor sleep causing autism behavior/symptoms, with no possibility given to the causality being the other way around. (This is frustrating to me because I developed a sleep disorder when I was a child before smartphones were even invented and I wasn't allowed to have caffeine until I was a teenager, and while the book did talk about biological causes in poor quality sleep in the elderly it was all "caffeine and smartphones" for the youth).
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson (nonfiction) -
This book is part manifesto on aggressive decluttering/downsizing & minimalism and part memoir of the author's experiences cleaning up after other family members have passed away. I loved it so much I read it twice back-to-back (it's just over 100 pages long, so not that hard to do). It is really comforting and heartfelt, and the only minimalism manifesto I've come across that didn't leave me feeling excessively shamed.
My grandma passed away at the end of August, and I read this while we were in the process of emptying out her apartment. I also have half a bedroom, an entire garage, and several boxes at my sister's house full of stuff left over from my Dad and Nana's passing back in 2021, and this book has given me some real comfort and encouragement in making progress on dealing with it. 10/10, do recommend.
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells (audiobook) -
Gaslamp fantasy in which an anti-villain gentleman-criminal, in the course of attempting to frame a corrupt nobleman for a capital crime in revenge for framing his adopted father for necromancy, stumbles across and ends up investigation a series of thefts and murders that seem to involve real necromancy. There's heists and tragic, mysterious pasts and Sherlock Holmes homages galore, and I loved just about every minute of it.
It's currently only available in audiobook, but it looks like it's being reprinted in physical in February and I desperately want to reread it.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green -
64 giant, motionless robots appear mysteriously in the middle of the night (NYC time, of course) in the 64 most populous cities on Earth, and a 23-year-old art school grad accidentally propels herself into overnight internet fame by being the first to find & post about them online. As the world tries to discover out the robots origin and purpose, she become the face of a political movement in support of the robots, and the center of the Twitter-war against those that fear the mysterious robots and their mysterious purpose. Also there's a viral dream puzzle that is basically an MMO puzzle game, but in everyone's brains.
When I first started reading this I was annoyed by how terminally-online it felt, but as the story went on it became clear that the online-ness was more of the point than the alien robots actually were. It's really about internet fame, Twitter addiction, and the good and the bad of social media (and a little bit traditional media, too). It's a lot of what I expect from Hank Green, optimistic about humanity but aware of the issues we have, and a little bit more obsessed with Twitter than Twitter deserves. (I'm not sure the centrality of Twitter to the story is going to age well). I'm probably going to pick up the sequel at some point, I liked this one more the further I got into it.
2023 Reading Goal Progress: 49 of 50 total books, 17 of 7 nonfiction.
Currently Reading: I'm almost done with My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and about 150 pages into Dune by Frank Herbert for fiction. Listening to The Will of the Empress (The Circle Reforged #1) by Tamora Pierce for an audiobook, and reading What If 2 by Randall Munroe for nonfiction (which is as delightful as always).
The author is a neuroscientist working in cutting-edge sleep research. I already knew quite a bit about the basics of sleep mechanics and the dire consequences of sleep deprivation due to trying to understand my own sleep disorder, but this book went into significantly more detail than I'd seen previously and talked about some of the most recent discoveries in the nitty-gritty details of sleep mechanics. I especially liked how he explained chronotypes (the genetic basis for the difference between "early birds" and "night owls"), and the changes in the circadian rhythm people go through as they age.
What I was less of a fan of was his weird dismissiveness towards sleep quality problems in children/teens having causes other than social/behavioral (i.e. caffeine and smartphones). He even flat-out said that while he didn't have any proof he thought most ADHD diagnoses were misdiagnosed sleep deprivation and that, although there is currently only correlational evidence between poor sleep and autism, he thought it was poor sleep causing autism behavior/symptoms, with no possibility given to the causality being the other way around. (This is frustrating to me because I developed a sleep disorder when I was a child before smartphones were even invented and I wasn't allowed to have caffeine until I was a teenager, and while the book did talk about biological causes in poor quality sleep in the elderly it was all "caffeine and smartphones" for the youth).
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson (nonfiction) -
This book is part manifesto on aggressive decluttering/downsizing & minimalism and part memoir of the author's experiences cleaning up after other family members have passed away. I loved it so much I read it twice back-to-back (it's just over 100 pages long, so not that hard to do). It is really comforting and heartfelt, and the only minimalism manifesto I've come across that didn't leave me feeling excessively shamed.
My grandma passed away at the end of August, and I read this while we were in the process of emptying out her apartment. I also have half a bedroom, an entire garage, and several boxes at my sister's house full of stuff left over from my Dad and Nana's passing back in 2021, and this book has given me some real comfort and encouragement in making progress on dealing with it. 10/10, do recommend.
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells (audiobook) -
Gaslamp fantasy in which an anti-villain gentleman-criminal, in the course of attempting to frame a corrupt nobleman for a capital crime in revenge for framing his adopted father for necromancy, stumbles across and ends up investigation a series of thefts and murders that seem to involve real necromancy. There's heists and tragic, mysterious pasts and Sherlock Holmes homages galore, and I loved just about every minute of it.
It's currently only available in audiobook, but it looks like it's being reprinted in physical in February and I desperately want to reread it.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green -
64 giant, motionless robots appear mysteriously in the middle of the night (NYC time, of course) in the 64 most populous cities on Earth, and a 23-year-old art school grad accidentally propels herself into overnight internet fame by being the first to find & post about them online. As the world tries to discover out the robots origin and purpose, she become the face of a political movement in support of the robots, and the center of the Twitter-war against those that fear the mysterious robots and their mysterious purpose. Also there's a viral dream puzzle that is basically an MMO puzzle game, but in everyone's brains.
When I first started reading this I was annoyed by how terminally-online it felt, but as the story went on it became clear that the online-ness was more of the point than the alien robots actually were. It's really about internet fame, Twitter addiction, and the good and the bad of social media (and a little bit traditional media, too). It's a lot of what I expect from Hank Green, optimistic about humanity but aware of the issues we have, and a little bit more obsessed with Twitter than Twitter deserves. (I'm not sure the centrality of Twitter to the story is going to age well). I'm probably going to pick up the sequel at some point, I liked this one more the further I got into it.
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2023 Reading Goal Progress: 49 of 50 total books, 17 of 7 nonfiction.
Currently Reading: I'm almost done with My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and about 150 pages into Dune by Frank Herbert for fiction. Listening to The Will of the Empress (The Circle Reforged #1) by Tamora Pierce for an audiobook, and reading What If 2 by Randall Munroe for nonfiction (which is as delightful as always).
