Observations

What I'm Reading, April 2021 Edition

Apoorv Upreti -

You can find the March 2021 Edition here.

Books

Ducks, Newburyport; Lucy Ellmann. Critically acclaimed novel written as a single sentence in a stream-of-consciousness style. Read a dozen pages before I realized there was no way I'd be able to read 1000 more pages of this. Abandoned.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell. Alvaro de Mernard's great essay on James Boswell drew me to this book. Interesting so far, but given that it's 1300 pages long I have quite a lot to get through.

Also read more Agatha Christie:

  • Hercule Poirot's Christmas. Ok 3/5. Deus ex machina.
  • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. Ok 3/5.
  • Dead Man's Folly. Ok 3/5.
  • Sad Cypress. Great 5/5.
  • A Caribbean Mystery. Good 4/5.
  • 4:50 From Paddington. Great 5/5.
  • Cat Among The Pigeons. Ok 3/5.
  • Five Little Pigs. Great 5/5. Didn't love the ending, but otherwise the story is good throughout.
  • The Unexpected Guest. Great 5/5. Twists and turns unexpectedly and ends well.

Essays

Two Paths to the Future, Alvaro de Mernard.

How far away AGI is and what to do about it. Transhumanism doesn't really appeal to me but I agree with Alvaro that it may be the only option if humans want to compete with intelligent machines.