A collection of 45 posts
Before there was money, there was debt. Since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods. It is in this era that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.
Read more
A powerful illustration of how past actions, both well-meaning and ill-intentioned, have created the inequalities and racial disparities we see today.
Read more
I don’t remember the exact year I was introduced to The Shadow of the Wind. 2006? 2007? But I do remember what I was doing.
Mowing the lawn. Didn't see that coming, eh?
It was a hot summer day. My cheap MP3 player pumped an audiobook through earphones barely loud enough to hear over the roaring mower engine. Audiobooks weren’t my thing, but I wanted to give them another try. That’s when the voice of narrator Jonathan Davis read the opening chapter of a haunting, beautiful tale I immediately loved.
I still remember the day my father
TLDR Summary: Google Play Audiobooks is fantastic and every bit as great as Audible. I noticed a small syncing inconvenience with Android Auto, but that's easy to fix. Google Home integration is lovely. The big negative: content. Google needs more Audiobooks. I'm sure they'll get more eventually. Until then, we'll struggle with wanting the ecosystem benefits of Google Play but preferring the book selection of Audible.
At long last, Audible has a worthy competitor. It’s called Google Play Books.
In most ways, Audible is a fantastic service. Great selection. Great features. The subscription plan is reasonable for my usage
2016 felt like a slow reading year. That's mostly because I read so many long books. I also read a few books purely out of obligation (ahem, Harry Potter). But major life changes filled the year, and their emotional aspects had my brain frequently too distracted to read for long. But I persevered and found a few gems along the way. So here's my 2016 reading list, along with a quick thought on each book. I don't do reviews, so these aren't reviews. In no particular order:
Years ago I promised my daughter
