Sunday, December 1, 2024 →

Finished reading: 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson; 📚

While not quite as thought provoking as the Mars Trilogy or Ministry of the Future, which may have shifted some of my own politics, Kim Stanley Robinson still impressed me with his world building and his ability to combine science with politics.

In this book, I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of the terraria, or hollowed out asteroids spun to simulate gravity on their hollowed-out insides, and each populated with its own complete biome, complete with flora and fauna. Many were a love note to different biomes on earth.

Saturday, November 23, 2024 →

Finished reading: Villa and Zapata by Frank McLynn 📚

I’d previously listened to the excellent Revolutions Podcast series on the Mexican Revolution, which peaked my interest in learning more.

I was fascinated to learn more about the conditions during the Porfiriato that lead to the Mexican Revolution. Both the role the Haciendas played as a conservative, planter-class aristocracy, as well as the destructive role American and British oil investments played in capturing the state. I can’t point to any contemporary parallels at all.

Anyways, the sticker I have of Emiliano Zapata riding a bike on my own bike finally feels earned. I read his biography.