User Profile

Ji FU

fu@millefeuilles.cloud

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

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.

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Ji FU's books

To Read (View all 7)

Currently Reading

quoted Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin (Great Books of the Western World (60 Volume Set), #20)

Jean Calvin: Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion (Hardcover, 1996, Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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.

Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion by  (Great Books of the Western World (60 Volume Set), #20) (Page 63)

It certainly could be argued that Calvin is doing exactly what he is forbidding others to do.

reviewed Time for the Stars by Robert A. Heinlein (Heinlein Juveniles, #10)

Robert A. Heinlein, Barrett Whitener: Time for the Stars (AudiobookFormat, 2011, Blackstone Audio, Inc.)

Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of …

Old Science fiction pointed toward young adults

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 …

Gregory K. Popcak, Jacob Flores-Popcak: How Our Family Prays Each Day (Hardcover, 2022, Ave Maria Press)

Are you looking for an easy way to teach your young children how to talk …

Kids book that wasn't liked by my kid.

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.

quoted The American Zone by L. Neil Smith (North American Confederacy, #9)

L. Neil Smith: The American Zone (Paperback)

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."

The American Zone by  (North American Confederacy, #9) (Page 325)

quoted Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin (Great Books of the Western World (60 Volume Set), #20)

Jean Calvin: Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion (Hardcover, 1996, Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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.

Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion by  (Great Books of the Western World (60 Volume Set), #20) (Page 20)

quoted Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin (Great Books of the Western World (60 Volume Set), #20)

Jean Calvin: Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion (Hardcover, 1996, Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Institutes of the Christian Religion" is the world-changing book of Christian theology by John Calvin, …

Glenn Jacobs: Mayor Kane (AudiobookFormat, 2019, Hachette Book Group and Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition)

The surprising story of how wrestling superstar Glenn "Kane" Jacobs beat all the odds to …

Good Wrestling stories, bad politics.

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 …

reviewed Actions and Reactions by Rudyard Kipling (Rudyard Kipling Collection Volume, #XXIV)

Rudyard Kipling: Actions and Reactions (Hardcover, 1909, Charles Scribner's Sons)

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet, born in India, and best …

It's bad

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 …