.. but over time, whether consciously or unconsciously, I suspect that the intrinsic anti-male message, even being as usual as it is now, will work in the back of men’s minds, making them at least a little more cautious about the next book.
Jerry Pournelle, RIP
I remember reading once the contention that there are, at any given time in history, only about four hundred really influential people in the world, and that as such it’s really not too surprising that there are a lot of direct and indirect connections between them. Jerry Pournelle was indisputably one of those four hundred for our times.
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
I mean, you have to love any story that has Max Headroom piloting an Firefly-class freighter, right? Still, that is also one of my minor complaints, that and a thousand other references in the book are amusing but just throw-aways that are not really developed in the book and not really relevant to the plot, they’re just sort of mentioned in passing.
The Wombat’s Current Reading List
Just whatever reading material I’m into at the moment…
Book – Survival Hacks by Creek Stewart
In the 21st Century it is spectacularly difficult to get completely away from trash. If you’re in the suburbs, or rural areas, or even the trails and parks that pass for wilderness in most people’s experience you’re bound to have access to some of the junk that these hacks utilize, and might be very, very grateful for some clues as to how to use it someday.
Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools
I subscribed to the mailing list as soon as it started, and while the quality has varied somewhat and there have been times when I felt that it wandered too far into non-utilitarian (non-useful) selections, I’ve never been tempted to un-subscribe, and I’ve learned of a great many useful things from it that I wouldn’t have otherwise known about.
The Martian – Survival Stories Transcend the Campfire, and the Planet
The movie “The Martian” starring Matt Damon is a success. That’s encouraging, but the book it’s based on is MUCH better. It’s a classic “shipwrecked” survival story, but the protagonist is on Mars. Still… can a fictional survival story set
Tunnel in the Sky
It may seem odd to include a 1950’s Science Fiction novel written for “juveniles” in a survival discussion. It’s not.
Hatless Jack by Neil Steinberg
Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora and the Death of the Hat by Neil Steinberg This is another one of those books that can change the way you look at things forever. I see that it’s now out-of-print and that’s
Men on Strike
Men on Strike, Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream – and Why It Matters by Dr. Helen Smith, PhD This was a pivotal book for me, and I’m actually having some difficulty now, still, in sorting
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham
We are cyborgs. More than a metaphor in this case, I think. Objectively, any species that has evolved a dependency on its own artifacts to the degree where it cannot thrive in the very environment in which it evolved without