Trying to find a better way to track books I want to read than a random spreadsheet. I had used readinglog.info which was provided by my local public library until they shut down the program. Luckily, I regularly backed it up via their CSV export. I've used Library Thing for years, but adding books for "To Read" really screwed up a lot of the other features of the website, like recommendations, etc. I really love Free Software & the Fediverse particularly. My primary social media account is on Friendica @fu@libranet.de for now everything I post here is automatically "re-tooted" there.
Institutes of the Christian Religion" is the world-changing book of Christian theology by John Calvin, …
A second rule is, that in reading the Scriptures we should constantly direct our inquiries and meditations to those things which tend to edification, not indulging curiosity, or in studying things of no use.
Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of …
Old Science fiction pointed toward young adults
3 stars
Probably was one of my least favorite in Heinlein's "Scribner's Juniors" "series". Like the others it's really a stand-alone story amongst a series of similar tales. (Young adults leading scientific adventures).
This one is about two teenage twin boys finishing school and invited to a symposium by the "long range foundation" a private non-profit company that can focus on funding endeavors that don't have to make investors happy with quick returns, nor be at the will of fickel politicians, they can work on projects that will be years, decades or centuries before a return, if any occurs.
The project the LRF is now working on is to deal with the overpopulation of the planet. The 1954 written book is very concerned that in the future (maybe 200 years from now?) the world population is unsustainable with over 4.5 billion people (never mind that 75 years from when ti …
Probably was one of my least favorite in Heinlein's "Scribner's Juniors" "series". Like the others it's really a stand-alone story amongst a series of similar tales. (Young adults leading scientific adventures).
This one is about two teenage twin boys finishing school and invited to a symposium by the "long range foundation" a private non-profit company that can focus on funding endeavors that don't have to make investors happy with quick returns, nor be at the will of fickel politicians, they can work on projects that will be years, decades or centuries before a return, if any occurs.
The project the LRF is now working on is to deal with the overpopulation of the planet. The 1954 written book is very concerned that in the future (maybe 200 years from now?) the world population is unsustainable with over 4.5 billion people (never mind that 75 years from when ti was written we are doing just find with 8 billion).
In order to explore what planets beyond or solar system may be suitable for habitation they need to find a way to communicate back to earth that is faster than the near light speeds of the ships. Ta-da the proof of telepathy that distance cannot substitute, primarily available between identical twins.
A little far-fetched but certainly interesting. I appreciate how Heinlein brings about theoretical ideas including those like over taxing large families etc.
Some of the story is pretty unbelievable though, like giant sea monster attacks in space, that could have been prevented with encoded messages from light years away being approved to be sent 2 days earlier.
The ending was anticlimactic to say the least, but all and all I still liked it.
Are you looking for an easy way to teach your young children how to talk …
Kids book that wasn't liked by my kid.
3 stars
Religous themed children's books are frequently a crap shoot. I felt this book was well intended and I liked it. Good theology, multi-racial, lively examples.
Religous themed children's books are frequently a crap shoot. I felt this book was well intended and I liked it. Good theology, multi-racial, lively examples.
In the North American Confederacy . . . People are free—really free. Free to do …
"I observed--" Wilhelmsohn went on, "quite casually, mind you, not making a point of it--that it has been my observation that girls who don't believe in pre-marital sex usually don't believe in sex AFTER the wedding, either."
Institutes of the Christian Religion" is the world-changing book of Christian theology by John Calvin, …
Profane men think that religion rests only on opinion, and, therefore, that they may not believe foolishly, or on slight grounds desire and insist to have it proved by reason that Moses and the prophets were divinely inspired. But I answer, that the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit.
The surprising story of how wrestling superstar Glenn "Kane" Jacobs beat all the odds to …
Good Wrestling stories, bad politics.
3 stars
I'm a Libertarian and a wrestling fan, so this should have been just up my alley. The wrestling stories where good, even if I had heard some of them before. I appreciated Kane's story about meeting Ron Paul with regards to him having been around famous people most of his life, but that was the only time he was ever actually nervous about meeting someone.
I was disappointed in the life in politics side of it. Kane talks about being influenced by von Misses and Harry Browne, not to mention Murray Rothbard, but then spends nearly a quarter of the book talking about how great Trump is. A politician that is the antithesis of libertarianism.
This audiobook was read by the author, but it may be the one time I would have rather someone else did it. Glenn stumbles over his own words and his reading voice is …
I'm a Libertarian and a wrestling fan, so this should have been just up my alley. The wrestling stories where good, even if I had heard some of them before. I appreciated Kane's story about meeting Ron Paul with regards to him having been around famous people most of his life, but that was the only time he was ever actually nervous about meeting someone.
I was disappointed in the life in politics side of it. Kane talks about being influenced by von Misses and Harry Browne, not to mention Murray Rothbard, but then spends nearly a quarter of the book talking about how great Trump is. A politician that is the antithesis of libertarianism.
This audiobook was read by the author, but it may be the one time I would have rather someone else did it. Glenn stumbles over his own words and his reading voice is so different from his wrestling voice I actually had to double check it was him. As an author he also repeats himself. For example, two different locations in the book he talks about when he was courting his wife much of it was done while sitting at her daughter's hospital bedside.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet, born in India, and best …
It's bad
1 star
I got this collection because it contained "With the Night mail" that I had been wanting to read for quite some time. To say I was unfulfilled would be an understatement. Allegedly one of the first science fiction stories, it's so filled with made up techno babble it was practically unreadable. Basically treating a blimp as it it where a ship and needing all the same parts, bilge pumps etc., described in detail, with a story that had no plot to speak of. The addition of letters to the editor and advertisements was interesting but detracted from the story.
The other stories I read from the collection weren't any better, making no sense and barley readable. It was only after reading a bit that I realized Kipling was the same guy who wrote the Jungle Book, which if it wasn't for LibraryThing I wouldn't have even remembered I'd read …
I got this collection because it contained "With the Night mail" that I had been wanting to read for quite some time. To say I was unfulfilled would be an understatement. Allegedly one of the first science fiction stories, it's so filled with made up techno babble it was practically unreadable. Basically treating a blimp as it it where a ship and needing all the same parts, bilge pumps etc., described in detail, with a story that had no plot to speak of. The addition of letters to the editor and advertisements was interesting but detracted from the story.
The other stories I read from the collection weren't any better, making no sense and barley readable. It was only after reading a bit that I realized Kipling was the same guy who wrote the Jungle Book, which if it wasn't for LibraryThing I wouldn't have even remembered I'd read before, as it was equally poor. Unlike Jungle Book though, this one ended in my 1 star so bad I didn't finish it pile.