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Reading list, 2023

  1. Eyes of the void, Adrian Tchaikovsky (sci fi)
  2. In Search of Database Nirvana, Rohit Jain (nonfiction)
  3. Mismatch; How inclusion shapes design, Kat Holmes (nonfiction)
  4. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien (fiction)
  5. Living Clojure, Carin Meier (nonfiction)
  6. The Hidden Palace, Helene Wecker (fiction)
  7. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (fiction)
  8. The Ramayana, Ramesh Menon’s translation (fiction)
  9. Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and the New Land, Harvey Pekar and others (collected fiction and nonfiction)
  10. Janet for Mortals, Ian Henry (nonfiction)
  11. Q for Mortals; An introduction to q programming, Jeffry A. Borror (nonfiction)
  12. Mastering Dyalog APL; a complete introduction to Dyalog APL, Benard Legrand (nonfiction)
  13. Game Programming Patterns, Robert Nystrom (nonfiction)

Eyes of the void, Adrian Tchaikovsky

I enjoyed the first book in this trilogy a lot; just some real solid space opera stuff. The second one delivers on this, too, but seems to trip over itself in places. I’ve found the story captivating, but the prose overwrought and wantonly complicated. I’m all for a florid use of language, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes the track seems lost amidst it all. The book also has a complicated relationship with disability and ablism. I think the author is trying to be inclusive, but, at times, the mark is missed, and the book falls into a place where disability is a character’s defining trait.

In Search of Database Nirvana, Rohit Jain

Painfully, powerfully, unimaginably boring. Also not heaps relevant to my interests or work. Very focused on the “what” and sometimes the “why” of databases, but rarely the “how,” which is more what I’m looking for these days.

Mismatch; How inclusion shapes design, Kat Holmes

“Mismatches are the building blocks of exclusion” pg. 2

“There are many challenges that stand in the way of inclusion, the sneakiest of which are sympathy and pity. Treating inclusion as a benevolent mission increases the separation between people.

Believing that it should prevail simply because it’s the right thing to do is the fastest way to undermine its progress. To its own detriment, inclusion is often categorized as a feel-good activity.” pg. 4

Holmes contextualizes accessibility by framing it through the lens of exclusion rather than inclusion — by identifying points of exclusion we can begin to understand how to make more inclusive spaces (digital, and physical).