2023 Reading Highlights

The following is some of the books I read in 2023 that I thought were pretty good. Science Fiction Wool by Hugh Howey was excellent. It’s the first book in the Silo series of books. Lots of mystery and surprises. A Call to Duty and A Call to Arms by David Weber: Are the first two books in the Manticore Ascendant series, a prequel to the Honor Harrington books. Upgrade by Blake Crouch ...

July 23, 2024 · 2 min · 256 words · shakiestnerd

Where eReaders Are Better

The big reason to use an eReader is portability. eReaders let you carry a bunch of books around in a very small package. It sure beats a backpack full of books. For my use case, the smaller size eReaders (6"-7") hit the sweet spot between price and portability. Once you get bigger than that, they are harder to carry and the price is infringing on tablet prices. So, at that point, you might as well carry a tablet with eReader software installed on it. ...

June 16, 2023 · 3 min · 495 words · shakiestnerd

2021 Reading Highlights

It just occurred to me that I did not write up my reading highlights for 2021. I finished the year having read a total of 56 books. Science Fiction and Fantasy As usual, sci-fi dominated my reading last year. Stand outs include: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - Much better than expected. The ending was special. Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey - The final book in the Expanse series. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan - Put off reading any of these until I had more time. Really enjoyed it. The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi - A different take on a galactic empire. Other favorite authors from the year’s reads included C. J. Box, Tony Hillerman, and Terry Pratchett. ...

June 12, 2022 · 1 min · 167 words · shakiestnerd

Word List Dictionary in Linux

Learned something interesting today. There is a wordlist text file on my Linux Mint computer that contains over 100,000 English words. In fact, there are several word files for some common languages. Your word files may vary based on your Linux distribution or locale. The files are in the /etc/share/dict/ folder. This file could come in very handy for some python word utilities that I have in mind. List of word files on my computer: ...

June 1, 2021 · 1 min · 107 words · shakiestnerd

2020 Reading Highlights

2020 was a banner year for reading since I spent a lot more time at home. I ended with a personal high of 84 books read during the year. I am usually a big reader of science fiction. Not last year. My favorite science fiction of the year was the Tao books by Wesley Chu and Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. I also continue to enjoy books in the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. ...

January 26, 2021 · 1 min · 195 words · shakiestnerd

Around the turn of the century

For the first time, I ran into a quote where the phrase “around the turn of the century” was referring to the year 2000 instead of 1900. Up until now, I have always associated that phrase with the change from the 1800’s to the 1900’s. Sorry, I did not capture the source where I read that. But, I like it… even though it makes me realize I’m getting old.

February 2, 2020 · 1 min · 69 words · ShakiestNerd

2019 Reading Recap

Thoughts on the last year of book reading. Read more to find out the highlights for 2019.

December 30, 2019 · 2 min · 365 words · ShakiestNerd

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis

I’ve just finished reading “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis. This novel was first published in 1983. I have not read any of his other works previously. This is the best book that I have read in a very long time. I’m not here to review it, or give out plot details. If you are looking for a book that will move you, I highly recommend reading this one. Look into reading this book. Here are some links to more info. ...

June 30, 2019 · 1 min · 86 words · ShakiestNerd

2018 Reading Recap

Thoughts on the last year of book reading. Read more to find out the highlights for 2018.

February 2, 2019 · 2 min · 347 words · ShakiestNerd

Splitting a Calibre Library

If you have a collection of eBooks, you may already be a Calibre user. Calibre is a powerful ebook manager that helps organize your collection of electronic books. It supports every major ebook format that I have ever thrown at it. If you have any ebook or document collection that you need to manage, definitely check out Calibre. It does a ton of stuff. Visit the calibre-ebook.com web site to learn more about this amazing, free, and open source software. ...

May 30, 2018 · 3 min · 480 words · shakiestnerd