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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
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Ji FU replied to Hank G (BookWyrm)'s status
Ji FU replied to Hank G (BookWyrm)'s status
Ji FU started reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted …
Ji FU started reading Creator and Creation by Mary O. Daly

Creator and Creation by Mary O. Daly
Neither Darwinian nor Creationist, this discussion of the concepts related to creation ranges from the doctrinal, through the scriptural, the …
Ji FU reviewed Lamar Hunt by Michael MacCambridge
A fascinating book about a fascinating man
5 stars
I didn't know that much about Lamar Hunt prior to reading this biography. I knew him primarily as the guy the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup soccer tournament and trophy is named after. I knew they had re-named the Open Cup after him due to his work to bring soccer to main stream USA, but I didn't realize just what impact he had on American Spector sports that take up so much entertainment time/value of so many people.
Turns out Hunt was the of an oil Barron who could have done most anything he wanted to. Most of what he wanted to do was play American football.
Ji FU wants to read Creator and Creation by Mary O. Daly
Ji FU replied to Hank G (BookWyrm)'s status
@hankg@bookwyrm.social what's it about?
Ji FU finished reading Lamar Hunt by Michael MacCambridge

Lamar Hunt by Michael MacCambridge
The definitive and official biography of one of the 20th century's most important and beloved sporting figure, Lamar Hunt, who …
Ji FU rated Lamar Hunt: 5 stars

Lamar Hunt by Michael MacCambridge
The definitive and official biography of one of the 20th century's most important and beloved sporting figure, Lamar Hunt, who …
Ji FU quoted Fresh Floods by Kalki Krishnamurthy
The boat reaches the opposite banks. "Go to hell!" The Saivite hurled a last, liberal curse at Azhwarkkadiyaan's head and went his way.
— Fresh Floods by Kalki Krishnamurthy, Pavithra Srinivasan (Page 112)
So far in this story we have been introduced to Hindus, Buddhists and Jaynes. To my knowledge none of them believe in hell, so it's interesting that such a curse would be used.
"Manuel, you asked us to wait while Mike settled your questions. Let's get back to the basic problem: how we are to cope when we find ourselves facing Terra, David facing Goliath." "Oh. Been hoping that would go away. Mike? You really have ideas?" "I said I did, Man," he answered plaintively. "We can throw rocks." "Bog's sake! No time for jokes." "But, Man," he protested, "we can throw rocks at Terra. We will."
Took time to get through my skull that Mike was serious, and scheme might work. Then took longer to show Wyoh and Prof how second part was true. Yet both parts should have been obvious. Mike reasoned so: What is "war"? One book defined war as use of force to achieve political result. And "force" is action of one body on another applied by means of energy. In war this is done by "weapons"--Luna had none. But weapons, when Mike examined them as class, turned out to be engines for manipulating energy--and energy Luna has plenty. Solar flux alone is good for around one kilowatt per square meter of surface at Lunar noon; sunpower, though cyclic, is effectively unlimited. Hydrogen fusion power is almost as unlimited and cheaper, once ice is mined, magnetic pinchbottle set up. Luna has energy--how to use? But Luna also has energy of position; she sits at top of gravity well eleven kilometers per second deep and kept from falling in by curb only two and a half km/s high. Mike knew that curb; daily he tossed grain freighters over it, let them slide downhill to Terra. Mike had computed what would happen if a freighter grossing 100 tonnes (or same mass of rock) falls to Terra, unbraked. Kinetic energy as it hits is 6 .25 x 10^12 joules--over six trillion joules. This converts in split second to heat. Explosion, big one! Should have been obvious. Look at Luna: What you see? Thousands on thousands of craters--places where Somebody got playful throwing rocks. Wyoh said, "Joules don't mean much to me. How does that compare with H-bombs?" "Uh--" I started to round off in head. Mike's "head" works faster; he answered, "The concussion of a hundred-tonne mass on Terra approaches the yield of a two-kilotonne atomic bomb."
— The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein, Lloyd James (Page 57 - 58)
"Correct, Manuel. A revolutionist must keep his mind free of worry or the pressure becomes intolerable." "I don't believe a word of it," Wyoh added. "We've got Mike and we're going to win! Mike dear, you say we're going to fight Terra--and Mannie says that's one battle we can't win. You have some idea of how we can win, or you wouldn't have given us even one chance in seven. So what is it?" "Throw rocks at them," Mike answered. "Not funny," I told him. "Wyoh, don't borrow trouble. Haven't even settled how we leave this pooka without being nabbed. Mike, Prof says nine guards were killed last night and Wyoh says twenty-seven is whole bodyguard. Leaving eighteen. Do you know if that's true, do you know where they are and what they are up to? Can't put on a revolution if we dasn't stir out."
— The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein, Lloyd James (Page 53 - 54)
Ji FU reviewed Taking Wing by Michael A. Martin
Taking Wing wasn't the best Star Trek book out there.
3 stars
If you want to read this I highly recommend [re]watching Star Trek Nemesis. So much of what goes on in this story is related to that practically immediate predator in the Star Trek universe. The book focuses on the beginning of Riker's next part of his life journey after TNG as the captain of a new starship Titan. Much of the story is focused on his relationship with one Admiral Akaar and his judgment of Riker's new role with more than one person upset that he made his wife part of the senior officers.
I didn't realize how much say a Star Fleet captain gets a say in the makeup of his crew, but there was much emphasis about Titan, at Rikers' request, having the most diverse crew in star fleet history. About 30 characters are brand new to the universe, and many of them belong too species never seen …
If you want to read this I highly recommend [re]watching Star Trek Nemesis. So much of what goes on in this story is related to that practically immediate predator in the Star Trek universe. The book focuses on the beginning of Riker's next part of his life journey after TNG as the captain of a new starship Titan. Much of the story is focused on his relationship with one Admiral Akaar and his judgment of Riker's new role with more than one person upset that he made his wife part of the senior officers.
I didn't realize how much say a Star Fleet captain gets a say in the makeup of his crew, but there was much emphasis about Titan, at Rikers' request, having the most diverse crew in star fleet history. About 30 characters are brand new to the universe, and many of them belong too species never seen before on T.V., such as the ships surgeon Ree, a Pahkwa-thanh, who basically looks like a dinosaur, a raptor who eats raw meat only. It's a little hard to keep track of. Certainly not enough to be meaningful for this story. I know its the start of a new series but a good book should be well enough to stand on its own.
The beginning is pretty good, and the ending is very good, but the middle is a real drag. The intricoes of Romulan politics isn't for everyone. If there was an easy way to get you to skip it, I'd recommend. Still, it's enough for me to put the next book in my library book queue. Lets hope for more in Red King (Star Trek Titan #2).