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Reviewing my book pile of shame
I have finally achieved the ambition of any literary person: to finish reading every book in my house*. Most prominently, what I call the ‘pile of shame’: a teteering stack of random books purchased from charity shops. Second-hand books are one of the cheapest things you can buy in London, at about £1 each. When… — read more
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We Need to Talk About Kevin: I don’t buy it
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver’s 2003 pitch-dark thriller about a killer child, is a fascinating puzzle because of its unreliable narrator, Kevin’s mother, Eva. In the book, Eva is a successful travel guide writer who was always uncertain about becoming a mother. After a tough pregnancy and birth, she struggles to connect… — read more
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This is the best AI will ever be
One cliche in the pro-AI community is that you should invest as soon as possible, because: ‘this is the worst the models will ever be.’ As a talking point, that isn’t very persuasive- you could also make the claim that you should invest in a chair company, because chairs are also ‘the worst they’ll ever… — read more
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Trump and Hanlon’s Razor
I tend towards the ‘Hanlon’s Razor’ version of Trump. 1) He wants a ‘win’ before the midterms, and doesn’t care about the consequences in a few years because a Democrat will probably be in power. 2) He is very stupid and doesn’t understand deterrence or geopolitics. 3) He’s thin-skinned and lashes out at anyone who… — read more
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Ishmael is the main character
Moby Dick is difficult to summarise in a review because its exuberance seems to overflow the page. The book is the travelogue of an adventurous whaler named Ishmael in the mid-19th century. It describes his search for a ship, encounter with a Polynesian cannibal named Queequeeg, and fateful voyage with Captain Ahab to seek the… — read more
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Harry Potter is not for adults
Harry Potter is not and never has been for adults. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I read the first three books in about 1999 when I was eleven. They were fine- superior to most books aimed at children at the time. If you wanted to graduate from Goosebumps and Dick King-Smith, they were… — read more
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Bojack Horseman season 6 *****
Bojack Horseman’s final season feels like a turning point for modern animation. The show is one of the highlights of the current golden age of TV, but despite critical acclaim hasn’t been taken quite as seriously as live action dramas like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and The Wire. By bringing it to such a successful… — read more
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Rick and Morty Season 4 ****
Rick and Morty has begun to feel middle-of-the-road, which is odd for such a nihilistic program. The season is filled with recurring characters like Tammy, the Time Police, and Mr Poopybutthole, and callbacks to earlier episodes which show its absorption into the comedy mainstream. Part of the reason Rick and Morty is nonthreatening is that… — read more
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American Horror Story season 1 review
It’s a show with big tonal problems, no clear direction to its story, weird and unlikable characters and an overemphasis on big, shocking moments with nothing to string them together. — read more
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Chris Barker 