User Profile

"Dune: The Butlerian Jihad" chronicles the fight of the humans against the machines. It explains the reasons why AI (thinking machines) is almost completely absent in the Dune universe. It's a real cornerstone in the universe, so this book is an important one.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It fills in a lot of voids that I was wondering about when I read the Frank Herbert Dune books. It's full of new characters and many recognizable events and history. It never gets boring even though it is one of the longer books in the series.

On the flipside, while I liked this book, I can understand that some people would prefer to keep these historic events a mystery and prefer not to know the details and fill them in for themselves. The writing style is also absolutely different from the original books. While the original books relied more on the reader and have them fill in the voids, the new books (this one too) tend to explain everything in detail.

Overall, I think my (highly subjective) rating is really all you need to know. If you enjoy the Dune universe, there is a very high chance you will enjoy this book too.

In FIRE, Charlotte Van Brabander talks about all things FIRE. Which is pretty much exactly what you would expect from the cover. The book covers an extremely broad range of topics like setting goals, budgeting, investing, the origins of money and cryptocurrencies.

It is a long list and only a pretty short book, so none of it is covered in any depth, which I think is a pity. I'm not sure who this book is for. On the one hand, it has a lot of interesting introductory information, for people that have never heard of FIRE, but on the other hand, it tries to explain some very complex topics, that are interesting, but not really needed (mostly the chapter on money creation was totally unnecessary in my opinion).

Altogether, it's an ok book, that I may recommend to some one who wants to get some idea of what this movement is all about. But on the other hand, I think I would probably recommend "Rich dad, poor dad" to them before this book. That one is all about mindset, which, at least for me, is the important thing with regards to FIRE.

Note that I am using the star scale the way GoodReads suggests it. 2 stars is still a book worth reading, there's still good content in there. I just think there are better alternatives.

In Winds of Dune, the focus is on the period between Paul's disappearance (Dune Messiah) and the time when his children come into power (Children of Dune).

On top of that, you also get some flashbacks to the period between "Paul of Dune" and "Dune Messiah".

With Paul gone, Alia is now in power of a shaky empire that is recovering from Paul's Jihad. Alia gets support of her mother and some other characters we have encountered in previous book (most importantly Gurney and Duncan).

A new intrigue develops as one of Paul's previous best friends is now attacking his legacy.

I'm really enjoying these "inbetween" books. They give a lot background to some of the things happening in the main Frank Herbert books, but they also stand on their own.

On the other hand, I can also understand some of the critics. By reading these books, some of the mystery that was created in the Frank Herbert books is gone.

If you are a fan of the Dune universe, I'm sure you will enjoy this book, but on the other hand, if you want to keep the mystery, it's maybe a good idea to first read the original books before plunging into this one.

I was a bit hesitant to give this book 4 stars, but looking back at my other Dune reviews, I think this one is certainly as good as Dune Messiah.

The book is two stories in one that both deal with Paul. One is about his early years on Caladan and the other is in between the original Dune and Dune Messiah.

I really enjoyed getting some deeper insights into some of the characters. Especially Irulan was the star of the book in my opinion. It almost feels like this book is really about her.

While the book spans the entire known universe, for some reason, it fails in conveying this grand scale. Other books in the series do this much better. I can't quite put my finger on why I got this feeling, but it is my main critic for this book.

I would suggest any Dune fan to read this book, it really fills a hiatus in the story. It's probably best to read this after you've read at least Dune and Dune Messiah and probably the entire original series (although, I do not think there are any spoilers in the book)

In "Deep Work", Cal Newport discusses how it has become difficult to perform work that requires a long attention span. He furthermore explains why he (and many others) believe that this is exactly the important work that will help your career, the company your working for and humankind in general.

This is certainly not the only or the latest book that discusses this material. This book has a little less scientific discussion on the matter and much more practical advise.

There were some tricks that you will find in many books (eg "reduce the amount of time you spend answering email") but there are also many great and useful insights.

I think every one should read this book or similar ones (for instance, [b:Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again|57933306|Stolen Focus Why You Can't Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again|Johann Hari|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1626718328l/57933306.SY75.jpg|90770433] that I recently read) from time to time. Just to get a refresher so you can focus back on what really matters.

In Stolen Focus, Johann Hari discusses reasons and possible solutions why people seem to be having a much harder time focusing than they used to in the past.

Hari starts out by sort-of disapproving his entire thesis. Most of the evidence that supports the fact that people have shorter attention spans and can't focus as long as they used to is anecdotal. There's fairly little long term scientific research regarding the issue. One thing is for sure: many more children are now diagnosed with ADHD.

Even if the scientific research is still lacking, the rest of the book gives an interesting and sometimes surprising insight into what factors may be leading to our lack of attention and our inability to solve big problems. It most certainly is cause for concern.

The final chapters of the book focus more on children and what is happening to them. Hari interviews different scientists with different opinions on different, sometimes conflicting research. It is clear what his opinion is, but I was glad that he talked about the opposing views.

Overall, this was a very insightful book. No big solutions are provided. It is a very nuanced problem with many causes and possible solutions.

I think the book managed to nicely achieve its goal, which is to make me more aware of everything around us that is impacting our focus.

In How Music Works, David Byrne discusses his thoughts on music. He comments on a wide variety of topics. Starting with how location influences the music going all the way to the business of music.

All chapters are pretty independent and can be read in isolation. Different people will probably find different chapters more or less interesting.

Personally, I really loved the chapter where he describes how many of the Talking Head songs came to be and how their creative process evolved over time. As a hobby musician myself, I found it really insightful and it has given me some good ideas.

I was a bit disappointed by the business chapter. I felt it was a bit messy and I still don't fully understand what kind of payments a musician will receive (stuff like mechanical rights is mentioned, but it was not described very clearly for me). People with a little more history in selling music will probably learn more from this chapter, but the general idea was clear.

I read the Dutch translation, so I'm not sure if this holds for other versions of the book, but I felt that the layout was not optimal. Some of the images where not very clear and there was just too much text on one page. Although the book is about 300 pages, it really should have been a 500 page book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this look into the mind of David Byrne.

As you can see by my rating, I think this was the perfect end to the trilogy.

In this last part, Liu Cixin writes the story of what happens after a truce has been established with an alien race set on invading earth. Let's just say they didn't live happily ever after. Or maybe they did. In some strange way. It's up to you to decide.

One thing I loved about the series is that each of the books is really a completely different book. The story is somehow completely different, yet it is a perfect continuation of the previous one (if you want to read the books, you should definitely read them in order)

If there would be one thing to annoy me, it is the men/women stereotype that is used throughout the book. Men are the strong fighters while women are the caring mothers. I usually don't notice these things, so the fact that I did, may mean that it could be a turn-off for some readers.

Overall, this doesn't change my mind on the trilogy. It's very imaginative science fiction that any fan should read.