reading, gayly
I’ve been having a hard time reading and this is technically not a book, but I’ve been reading a speculative evolution project called Serina: A Natural History of the World of Birds
It’s fascinating and has great illustrations, I recommend it
I decided that the best way to motivate myself to read again is to read something short, so I just read Rabbit Test by Samantha Mills. It’s very good and I wasn’t expecting the history aspect of it, which I also loved!
Definitely true!
After I finish this book I’m going to pick up some novellas, that’ll at least give me the satisfaction of finishing something
I’ve been struggling to motivate myself to read lately, so I’m still reading The Bright Ages
I finally finished The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins, a very depressing book about the US and its role in the 1965 coup in Indonesia, as well as the massacres that followed it. I was expecting it to be pretty specific to Indonesia but I came out of this book with a broad sense of what was going on in the Cold War (from the American perspective) in the third world.
For example, we hear about how domino theory was used to justify the Vietnam War, but the main country that they were afraid would fall to communism after Vietnam was Indonesia. When Sukarno was overthrown in Indonesia, it was like the Americans didn’t need to win Vietnam anymore, because they had won a bigger prize in the region. Also, the events in Indonesia were used to justify other massacres across the third world, with US backing. It’s depressing because, as the book notes, there is no way that Indonesia will acknowledge those massacres anytime soon, and most people still believe propaganda.
I’ve started reading The Bright Ages by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry. It’s a revisionist history of the “Dark Ages” that tries to address misconceptions that people have about that era of history. So far it’s really interesting! I’ve just started my master’s degree so it’s very likely that the next book I read will be a textbook, so I’m going to enjoy this while I still can 😅
I’m (still) reading The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins and Barack Obama just showed up
I had to read that paragraph again, it surprised me that much! Apparently his stepfather was Indonesian so he lived in Jakarta for a bit in the early Suharto years
Thanks for the recommendation! 😊
I guess this is a small reason to not like him, but in 2021 he wrote an article where he compared the Extinction Rebellion to the English Peasants’ Revolt in a way that suggested both of them were apocalyptic and wanting the end of the world, like mobs riled up by apocalyptic preachers.
This guy is a historian but that article was so sus to me, like the only people who think that way about the Peasants’ Revolt are the ones who look back at history and think they would be the nobles enslaving end indebting people.
So yeah I was planning on reading his book on the Peasants’ Revolt but I guess I’ll pass on it and find one by a better historian
Nevermind, I found out Dan Jones is kinda cringe
I don’t usually buy physical books anymore, since I realised that I’d get better value for my money if I only get books that don’t really work on a Kindle, like illustrated books. So recently, I bought The Middle Ages: A Graphic History by Dr. Eleanor Janega and it’s pretty good! It’s basically an introduction to the Middle Ages and it does a pretty good job at providing a overview of about 1000 years of history. This book got me interested in the Middle Ages enough that I feel like reading all of the Dan Jones books I’ve had in my TBR for ages now.
I’m reading Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappé (an Israeli academic), it’s pretty interesting so far. I think it’s supposed to be an introduction to Israel and Palestine and aimed at people who don’t know anything about it, so if anyone’s curious, I might recommend it (I haven’t finished it yet so I can’t say if it’s good or not).