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Here are some more mini reviews of books. I’m going in order of when I read them.

First up: Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson

I wanted to try something other than middle-grade fiction for a change, and this book caught my eye at the library.

It was a decent book but it was a little too far-fetched for my tastes. I have no problem with far-fetchedness in general – a lot of the fiction I read is not realistic (see “The Rithmatist” below, or any number of the fantasy/sci-fi stuff). My problem is this book was written to be realistic but it wasn’t.

I’ve seen both the Volcano and Dante’s Peak movies (tip: watch Volcano and skip Dante’s Peak). Same concept, came out at the same time, but I prefer Volcano because it wasn’t as cliche and also didn’t have a romance angle.

Anyway, this book seemed to do too much – it was action plus suspense plus a volcano plus a worldwide health disaster. It could have worked but it seemed generally too shallow. Plus the resolution of the problem was rather abrupt, unlikely, and made it seem like they ran out of ideas and just wanted to end the book.

This was a draft started by Crichton and then completed by Patterson well after Crichton’s death. I wasn’t sure how much of it was Crichton and how much was Patterson so I decided to get a book that was Crichton only – see Pirate Latitudes next.

Next up: Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Flipping through Crichton books at the library, this was the one that looked most interesting by its cover and blurb inside the cover. I checked it out and read it and only after finishing it did I realize this one was not published during his lifetime. With no one else listed as co-author I have to assume it was all Crichton, not sure if he would have changed anything had it been published while he was alive.

I would say this one is not worth reading, mainly because of the adult content. If you watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies then you cover most of the plot points of this book. But the book adds a lot more bawdiness.

Next up: Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Disclosure: I didn’t read this book. I am putting its review here so you’ll know why I didn’t read the book. My wife read the book and said I wouldn’t like it.

It apparently has a lot of objectionable material. It sounded like an interesting premise and I would have like to read it, but I didn’t want to read all that other stuff like “romance” and bad words. So I don’t know how well the premise was implemented, but it doesn’t matter because it was marred by so many problems that didn’t have to be there.

And that’s why I stick with middle-grade fiction.

Next up: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Ok, so I should have said I mostly stick with middle-grade fiction. My wife picked up this book, and I had seen the trailers for the TV show based on it, so I was interested enough to try it.

It started off well. My wife may have looked over at me a couple times to see what I was laughing at. But as the book went on it was no longer funny and more sad. I don’t regret reading the book but my thoughts on it were underwhelming enough that my wife skipped reading it. And much of it is written as a script, so it takes a little getting used to.

Last up: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

I was looking for another Brandon Sanderson book, but our library didn’t have it in stock. Not feeling like putting it on hold and waiting for it to come in, I grabbed one of his books that was on the shelf and that looked interesting to me.

The idea of the book, as portrayed on the opening flap, looked good. Once I started reading it, it was a bit much. I was not a fan after a few pages, I didn’t feel like learning another world setting. I don’t think the author did anything wrong – I just wasn’t in the mood.

But I stuck with it and after a few chapters it was worth it. It ended up being a very good book and I would have recommended it with no qualms, except that it is the first book of a series and no other books exist yet. And it’s been many years so at this point I don’t know that we’ll see the sequel(s).

I still recommend it, just with an asterisk that if you like it then you’ll be disappointed that the story is unfinished. The book is mostly self-contained, but it ends with a major plot point open.

That’s it for this review. More book reviews coming up later this year.

There’s a scene in the movie Wall-E where the guy is explaining that after so many generations in space, human bodies experience loss of bone density – some skeletal changes. If you’re not using something, it wastes away. Like if you’re bedridden for a while, your muscles atrophy.

Here’s a still from the movie. If you’re looking for it, it’s at time 48:17 into the movie, if you’re looking at the progress bar in Disney+.

And each time technology progresses, there’s a study that shows how humans are using their brains less. For example, everyone used to know many phone numbers. Now with cell phones doing all the remembering for you, people don’t know anyone’s phone number anymore. I know my wife’s phone number because she’s had that number before smartphones existed so I had to know it. But I don’t know any of my children’s phone numbers because I never have dialed their numbers. Since phones remember things for people, people are losing their memorization capability.

Phone numbers was an early indicator. Next thing that comes to mind is navigation. People used to be able to read maps. Now they just know how to follow the line and the instructions that come up on the screen. Being the navigator in the car these days means selecting the destination on the nav unit, not actually knowing where you are. So people are losing their navigation/direction/way-finding abilities.

Now with AI doing a lot of things, people are losing those abilities too – writing essays, putting thoughts together, putting lists together, drawing pictures of themselves as Star Wars characters, etc. More skill atrophying. But at least we humans are retaining the ability to identify all stoplights and crosswalks in various photos, thanks to captcha for honing those skills.

I’m sure there are some more examples, but that’s just what I came up with quickly. The point of this blog post is not to make a list of everything that’s atrophying, rather I just wanted to show the results of all such degradation in the style of Wall-E.

Here it is:

That’s all really. Keep using your brain – exercise it – so that you don’t lose functionality.

One of the amusing clips from the Pixar movie Onward had the sight of unicorns rummaging through garbage cans. Sometimes when I see how woodland creatures are portrayed in movies, especially animated movies, where they are whatever the opposite of villainized is – made to look cute and cuddly and harmless – I want to invite the writers over here.

Earlier this week I almost tripped over a muskrat because he ran across the driveway right in front of me. I had groundhogs chewing through my extension cords (no, they were not plugged in at the time) and rabbits eating flowers I planted in my flower bed (begone with you Peter Cottontail). And if a car sits for several days without being driven then the squirrels store walnuts in the engine bay and mice chew throgh wires.

It was amusing though one time when I started down the driveway and the now-disturbed mouse tried to escape by running for the nearest light, which happened to be the cowl so he ended up on the bottom of my windshield and didn’t know where to go next since he couldn’t scale the glass.

I’m not complaining though, I just make sure to plant things like daffodils and marigolds that rabbits and deer don’t like. And garlic and hot pepper on things I don’t want groundhogs and squirrels to touch. I leave the muskrats alone – they’re fun to watch. Deer and Canada geese on the other hand – I actively chase them away. My family doesn’t like it when I chase them while we’re in the car and I’m driving though.

Here are some more mini reviews of books. I’m going in order of when I read them.

First up: Simon Thorn Series by Aimee Carter

This was a good book, but I recommend against reading it, unless you read German. Because it is a 5-book series, but only books 1-3 are in English. I read book 1 then book 2 and liked them. We have book 3 but it was while reading book 2 that I realized I could not get books 4 and 5, so I didn’t bother reading book 3 because then I would have been farther into the story. So I decided to cut my losses.

If you do read the first book, which is the Wolf’s Den, then just stop at that because you get enough to appreciate the story. Save books 2-3 until books 4-5 come out. Or learn German.

Next up: In the Blink of a Screen by Terry Pratchett

I was wondering what Terry Pratchett book to start with to introduce me to his writing, when I saw this book at our library. It’s a collection of short stories, so I figured that was a good way to dip my toes in the water.

For the most part, the stories were engaging and not objectionable. I do remember thinking that one or two of them were inappropriate, but I don’t remember any details of what or why at this time, so maybe they weren’t that bad.

Next up: Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Our library website shows recommended books to its patrons. I’m not sure if it is personalized based on your reading history, or if it’s just whoever paid to have their books promoted, or just randomized. But we got a thing touting the book Starter Villain by John Scalzi. It looking interesting enough that I looked into John Scalzi a tiny bit, and people seemed to prefer his earlier book Kaiju Preservation Society better, so I thought I’d start with that.

The book had an interesting premise and clever writing and a good story. Everything you would want in a book.

Except it was full of foul language and the characters seemed to have come from a DEI checklist. It wouldn’t have been so bad except the one person who was a “they” but I didn’t realize it so I read a whole chapter thinking it was about a group of people but no, the “they” was one person, so I had to re-read that chapter and then pay extra attention in subsequent chapters.

Anyway, the very many bad words is the reason I recommend against this book. And then I looked up John Scalzi’s other work, and some of the reviews mention the language. Normally sci-fi writers seem to avoid a lot of objectionable content, but that is apparently Scalzi’s calling card that he wants to be known for so, as best I can tell, all his books have foul language and so I will not be reading anything else by him. I returned Starter Villain to the library unopened.

What would be good is if we could get like the TBS or USA Network version of this book. They are famous for editing out bad words when they broadcast a movie – making the movie more family-friendly when they air it. Someone should do that for Scalzi’s work. He might disagree, but I don’t think the story would be harmed at all by replacing bad words with milder words.

Last up: I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

This one I think I saw in a review by World Magazine. I wish they would have a section on their website with all the books they’ve reviewed. With not much to go on and never hearing of Peter S. Beagle before, I just jumped in.

It was a good story and was very entertaining. My only complaint is that just before the end of the book, he had to put one bad word in there. There was nothing foul before then, and it seemed out of character for the book. Like she could have used the word “dung” instead and that would have fit better, to me. It’s like how for some reason the ratings people decided a PG-13 movie could have one F-word and still be PG-13. How does that make sense – if the word is bad then it’s bad.

Anyway, if one s-word is enough to keep you away the you have been warned. With kids wearing shirts with bad words on them these days, I feel people in general are desensitized to bad words. But that’s another discussion for another day. Overall, I still enjoyed the book.

That’s it for this review. More book reviews coming up later this year.

Our house came with a fireplace. A typical brick chimney and open hearth meant for burning wood. Due to various reasons, we haven’t used it. But earlier this year we got a wood-burning insert, so we will use it, so now I need to stock up on firewood.

The good news is we have a couple acres of trees that I can harvest. So far I’ve been taking already downed trees. Most died and then fell over but a storm took down two live trees so some of this wood needs to age first.

But I thought the stacks of firewood were scenic, so I took some photos of them and am sharing them with you now. I had a plan for two of the stacks but I ended up with more wood so we basically ended up with random stacks of firewood around the yard. My goal is to consolidate them a bit, maybe next year.

That last one is not as pretty as the first or fourth photos, but some may appreciate the rusticness of it. Those are big logs, so it will turn into a huge pile of firewood once it’s cut and split, and I don’t have a spot for it yet, so that’s waiting.

With a couple different trips this year, I’ve had time to read some books. Half of these I picked and half of these were recommended to me by the kids.

I’m going in order of when I read them.

First up: Exhalation by Ted Chiang

This book was a mixed bag. It is a collection of short stories, and most of them had interesting premises but the stories had objectionable material. Most of the stories could have been saved by changing some of the side topics or characters situations without changing the premise, but my guess is the author was going for pushing a diverse cast of lifestyles.

There were a couple of short stories in there that were fine, but overall there were more things I didn’t need to read.

Next up: Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

This was actually a review of two separate books, Winterhouse and The Secrets of Winterhouse. I read Winterhouse first then when I saw the library had another Winterhouse book I grabbed that.

I liked these books. They are mild mysteries, nice easy reading with nothing bad, meant for lower middle grades I would think.

Next up: Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull

This was tremendous. Out of all the middle grade fiction books I can remember reading, this series was my favorite.

I didn’t come to that conclusion after reading the first book. This is a series of five books. I read the first one and was intrigued enough to read the second one. And then so on.

And then after I finished the last book, I was sad about it. Partly because of how it ended but mostly that it ended. The last time I got so involved in a series was the Little House on the Prairie and that was decades ago.

I will note that Gamma said that Five Kingdoms is his favorite Brandon Mull series. And Beyonders is his second favorite, so that’s in the queue.

Next up: The Land of Elyon: The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman

This one was a random book I found on our shelf. No one seemed to know anything about it, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

It was okay. It’s the first in a series, but it wasn’t interesting enough for me to want to continue with the remaining books in the series. Part of that might have been because I had recently finished the Five Kingdoms series and it would be hard for anything to follow that.

There was nothing wrong with the book, and I assume the rest of the series would be fine too. So if you need something to try, this should be an option.

That’s it for this review. Got some more planned for winter.

I was considering a variety of ballot proposals that have passed in a number of states in the last few elections, and I noticed the common theme of a smaller group getting the votes despite the larger population not being on their side.

The larger population was not necessarily against their side either. But a minority of people wanted something, and it passed, and thus became the law of the land.

Modern democracy caters to the squeaky wheel. And it is due to a lack of moral authority in individual people.

This wasn’t the case in the good old days (not going to get into specific timeframes). People back then knew right from wrong. Maybe they didn’t agree with other people on what right and wrong was, but they had their stance on topics.

People these days are less firm on what is right and wrong, and are more willing to let other people do their thing. So a strong-willed minority that is pushing an issue can get it passed, because the majority of people will take the attitude of “hey, if that’s their thing then who am I to tell them no?”

And so something passes and becomes law even if most people don’t agree with it, because they don’t want to take a stand on what’s good for society or what’s morally right.

I’m not saying you have to care about every issue, but I’m saying do be informed about the ballot proposals to know if you should take a stand on them. All that is needed for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing, and not vote.