Civilian Reader

@civilianreader

Reader of books (biblio-Sisyphus), listener of music, watcher of movies, drinker of coffee & wine. (Same handle on Insta.) I also like basketball. Basically just ricocheting my way through life.

969 Folgt1.107 Follower2.950 Posts

Bluesky

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Civilian Reader@civilianreader· 21d

Ah, LinkedIn, continuing the trend of being useless. 1. Nothing on my profile states I am bilingual. I have never claimed to speak Chinese. (It was my worst grade at college.) 2. Every job suggestion I get now is AI-related. Every. Single. One.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· 22d

Reading AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH by Neil Postman — very good. Still so very relevant. Published by Penguin.

Photo of a paperback copy of Neil Postman’s AMUSING OURSELVSS TO DEATH on a wooden table top.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· 24d

Keep seeing comments like this on my and a work Instagram account. If you want to feature it on your account… write the post yourself? It’s how we’ve done it as bloggers for decades. Lazy buggers.

Screengrab of an Instagram post: “This looks like a book my followers might enjoy. You can send the post to [redacted] if you’d like it featured.”

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Jun 3

Trying to find decent runners for our trip. Basically worn through my current pairs. So. Many. Options. (Too many?) These Nike Pegasus are only available in Women’s sizes. Sigh. Love the colour. (I basically only were black, blues, greys, and greens. But I like a dash of colour in my shoes…)

Picture of a pair of maroon Nike Pegasus running shoes. It’s such a nice colour. Soles are white-to-orange-to-pink. White swoosh on the side.

Picture of the top and side of the maroon, dark red Nike Pegasus shoes. White swoosh.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· May 20

WordPress has added "Achievements"? A little weird. Not sure if this needed to gamified, too. Although, the name for "Publish[ing] a draft that's been collecting dust for over 1 year" is amusing: "necromancer"...

Screengrab from the WordPress Achievement notification, for the "World Domination" achievement: "Receive views from 150+ different countries. The United Nations has nothing on you. Unlocked on Civilian Reader."

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Apr 22

Currently reading Joseph Cox’s excellent DARK WIRE… www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/josep... Out now, pub’d by Public Affairs. Fascinating story.

Photo of a paperback copy of DARK WIRE by Joseph Cox, on a dark wood tabletop. The cover is mostly the title and author information (in red), plus the tagline, “The Incredible Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever”. Black background, and some sound-wave type detailing at top, bottom, and middle.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Mar 22

Waiting for PROJECT HAIL MARY to start! So excited.

Photo of the digital poster for PROJECT HAIL MARY. Ryan Gosling in a space suit, plus trippy space/celestial effects.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Mar 15

Halfway through MEDIUM RARE by A. Natasha Joukovsky… mhpbooks.com/books/medium... Enjoying it. Interesting premise, well-executed so far. Amusing, quite sharply observed. Out now, published by @melvillehouse.bsky.social.

Cover for A. Natasha Joukovksy’s MEDIUM RARE — a classical/biblical painting of a (rather melodramatic) nude gentleman falling towards a basketball hoop. Plus title and author information.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Mar 3

Not encouraging, when the Apple Store App and website only let you compare the 17e to iPhones 11, SE 2nd gen, 12, and SE 3rd gen.

Screen grab from Apple Store website, 17e “compare with” for 11, SE 2nd gen, 12, and SE 3rd gen.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Feb 10

Now the Kobo website doesn’t work on my iPhone, either. Very peculiar. Just suddenly stopped working.

Screenshot of Kobo’s website on iPhone Safari.

“Sorry, something went wrong
Cannot create url, missing value for host
Try Again”

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Jan 26

This footnote was interesting. I worked at a lit agency in 2013, and I observed how much more attention fantasy got among the blogosphere (mostly dwindled, now), but was told that SF still sold much better.

Screenshot of a footnote: “For decades, science fiction was the dominant of the paired genres, and many of its fans looked down on fantasy; some fantasy fans are determined to get in their kicks now that the shoe is on the other foot. Some fans are actively rooting for the death of the science fiction genre.”

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Jan 26

This point was interesting, too. This isn’t the fault of the SF genre, it’s the fault of a considerable number of tech bros with minimal reading comprehension (and probably sociopathic personalities).

Screenshot of text: “We pretend that science fiction is useful, that it serves as a warning system. But as Simon McNeil noted in his essay, “We got to one of the futures Science Fiction proposed, and it sucked.” Dire predictions of corporate hegemony and imminent authoritarian rule had precisely zero impact on the real world. Elon Musk named his rocket booster recovery barges after Banks’ benevolent anarcho-communist starships, showing all the self-awareness of a small damp rock.”

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Jan 2

Most popular posts on CR at the moment...

Screen-grab from CR, showing the "top posts": Two Nick Kyme reviews, Promethean Sun and Vulkan Lives; interview with James Islington; review of David Baldacci's Nash Falls; guest post by Adrian Tchaikovsky about "Writing Guns of the Dawn"

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Jan 1

First novel of the year will be ASHES OF THE IMPERIUM by Chris Wraight… www.blacklibrary.com/the-horus-he...

Cover for ASHES OF THE IMPERIUM by Chris Wraight — Dorn and Guillman growling at each other. Probably disagreeing about procedure, administration, etc. Fully armoured, which is probably not conducive to the work, if I’m honest.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Nov 27

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read it before watching the recent Netflix adaptation — Death By Lightning — but it turned out that I just wanted to read it now, so that’s what I’m doing.

Graphic for Netflix’s DEATH BY LIGHTNING — a stylized mix of American flag, title and actor details, and some of the red bars from the flag morphing into lightning that strike Garfield (played by Michael Shannon).

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Nov 20

Oh, speaking of Automatic Noodle — our ramen box this evening:

Photo of the side of a ramen box, with a robot saying “I ❤️ ramen” and “J’adore le ramen”

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Nov 15

President’s KING OF TERRORS EP is surprisingly good insomnia listening.

Cover for President’s KING OF TERROR EP — solid pink/skin colour field, with a white double-barred cross in the middle. No text.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 31

Next audiobook is Cameron Crowe’s THE UNCOOL — been looking forward to this ever since it was announced. Huge fan of his work. Published in North America by @blackstonepub.bsky.social (audio) and @avidreaderpress.bsky.social (print, eBook); in the UK by Fourth Estate.

Audiobook cover for Cameron Crowe’s THE UNCOOL: A MEMOIR — red background, cover and author information, a single photo at the centre, of the author as a young man, sticking out his tongue.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 24

Season 2 of #Starting5 available on @netflix.com now! Will be starting it later today. Follows Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Durant, Tyrese Halliburton, Jaylen Brown, and James Harden over the course of the last #NBA season.

Graphic for Netflix’s second season of STARTING 5 — central image is a collage of the five players followed in the docuseries (counter clockwise, from top left): Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Durant, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Halliburton, and James Harden. Each wearing their team uniform on the court.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 19

After this, there’s only one more that I want to re-read (for now): THE NIGHT CREW, about some night videographers in LA. (Made me think of the movie Nightcrawler, when I saw the latest cover and synopsis.)

North American cover for John Sandford’s THE NIGHT CREW — mostly black, with an out-of-focus view of downtown LA seen through a chain link fence. Author’s name and book title take up most of the top half of the cover.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 19

Started re-reading John Sandford’s DEAD WATCH a few days ago. First read it when it was published in the UK (maybe a few months or so after US pub?). Not sure I was in the mood for a politics thriller, and it’s not his best, but finally started to get into it again.

North American paperback cover for John Sandford’s DEAD WATCH — a man silhouetted in front of a window overlooking the Washington Monument. Title and author name are large, taking up much of the top half.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 15

Well, that’s one to bring up with the therapist…

Screen shot from an iPhone — text “Family is Full” prominent in the middle.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 6

No more “beardos” in the U.S. military, now…

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 6

I think this was my edition… 👇 (Turns out, the one in my mind before I started searching was actually the Martin the Warrior cover.) Loved this series. Well, looking at a list of the books, it seems I loved the first 6 books (of 22), but I don’t remember any of the others… Huh.

Very old cover of Martin Jacques Redwall — two stoats (weasels?) look out towards a walled town. They are holding weapons, and clearly plotting something terrible and up to no good.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Oct 3

Two recent EPs that I’ve been listening to — both excellent. Apparently minimalist cover design is a thing. Don’t hate it. • Wind Walkers, I DON’T BELONG HERE • President, KING OF TERRORS

Cover for President’s KING OF TERRORS EP — pink/skin-colour background with a simple, white cross glyph at the centre (two cross-bars).

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Sep 28

Started ALIEN: EARTH. Three episodes in, and rather enjoying it.

Graphic for Alien: Earth — a facehugger latched onto the world. (Ew.)

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Sep 21

We’ve been watching season 3 of CSI and it’s weird how much it rains in Las Vegas this season… Also, a number of future Oscar winners just being bit-part characters. (Viola Davis, Mahershala Ali, to name but two.)

Graphic for CSI Season 3 — the core gang are all here, in one of the labs: Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows, Nick Stokes, Jim Brass, Sarah Sidle, and Warrick Brown.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Sep 20

Replacement @otterbox.bsky.social just fell apart. Exact same issue as the case it replaced. Disappointing quality. Switching to a different brand, just need to figure out which is best.

Photo of an Otterbox iPhone case — the rubber edge has separated from the hard plastic backing.

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Sep 20

Continuing our #JurassicPark watch, with JURASSIC PARK III. Not entirely sure if I’ve ever seen this one before…

Civilian Reader@civilianreader· Sep 13

Three Hollywood memoirs I’m looking forward to reading: • Cameron Crowe’s THE UNCOOL (Oct.24, @avidreaderpress.bsky.social) • Michael J. Fox’s FUTURE BOY (Oct.14, @flatironbooks.bsky.social) • Charlie Sheen’s THE BOOK OF SHEEN (out now, Gallery)