Recent reading

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software (2020): I skimmed this book as parts about the technicalities of open source weren’t of interest to me. Parts about the (dis)incentives faced by open source developers – and other online creators – were worth reading, though.

Snow (2020): This book started really well – a whodunnit in an Anglo-Irish country estate is a good premise. It’s well-paced and the charaters are entertaining. I was totally gripped by the halfway point, but soon after it lapsed into cliche and finished disappointingly.

Narconomics: How To Run a Drug Cartel (2016): A good, fun book that could have been a great one: my detailed review is here.

Currently reading:

Indonesia Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation (2015): pretty good so far, although the author has a habit of jumping around chronologically which can make things slightly disorienting at times. She can’t be blamed, though, for the two key leaders of Indonesia having similar-sounding names, or for the sheer number of islands the country has. Might write a review of this at some point.

The Economist: Economics: Making sense of the Modern Economy (2011): I got this a while ago so it’s a bit out of date, but it has lots of handily-sized articles that have aged fairly well.

Station Eleven (2015): only a few chapters in and it’s great. Although I’m not sure a novel about a pandemic, with such a well-conveyed sense of panic in at least one instance already, is good bedtime reading at the moment…


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