Automata's bookshelf: read en-US Sun, 11 May 2025 16:46:40 -0700 60 Automata's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life]]> 34946912 Life's Missing Instruction ManualEpictetus (c. 50-135 CE) was brought as a slave to Rome, where he became a great teacher, deeply influencing the future emperor Marcus Aurelius among many others. His philosophy, Stoicism, was practical, not theoretical--aimed at relieving human suffering here and now.And Epictetus knew suffering. Besides being a former slave, he was lame in one leg and walked with a crutch. After a decade of teaching in Rome, he was banished by Emperor Domitian; undaunted, he established a school in Greece. The Manual is a collection of Epictetus' essential teachings and pithy sayings, compiled by his closet student. It is the most accessible and actionable guide to Stoic philosophy, as relevant today as it was in the Roman Empire.This new edition is rendered in contemporary English, with a foreword, by Sam Torode (based on a translation by Thomas Wentworth Higginson). A companion volume, The An Emperor's Guide to Mastery by Marcus Aurelius, is also available from Ancient Renewal. A revised and further simplified edition of this book is now available, The 21st Century Edition (ASIN B09HP7C1M6). Read the sample pages of each translation to see which you prefer. ]]> 70 Epictetus Automata 4 4.38 125 The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life
author: Epictetus
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]]> <![CDATA[Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics]]> 117249 Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.

For Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), art almost ranked with religion and philosophy in its power to reveal the fundamental nature of existence. But although he lived in the German golden age of Goethe, Schiller and Mozart, he also believed that art was in terminal decline.

To resolve this apparent paradox, as Michael Inwood explains in his incisive Introduction, we must understand the particular place of aesthetics in Hegel's vast intellectual edifice. Its central pillars consist of logic, philosophy of nature and philosophy of spirit. Art derives its value from offering a sensory vision of the God-like absolute, from its harmonious fusion of form and content, and from summing up the world-view of an age such as Homer's. While it scaled supreme heights in ancient Greece, Hegel doubted art's ability to encompass Christian belief or the reflective irony characteristic of modern societies. Many such challenging ideas are developed in this superb treatise; it counts among the most stimulating works of a master thinker.

Table of Contents
Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics Introduction A Note on the Translation and Commentary
INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON AESTHETICS

Chapter I: The Range of Aesthetic Defined, and Some Objections against the Philosophy of Art Refuted
[¦Á Aesthetic confined to Beauty of Art
¦Â Does Art merit Scientific Treatment?
¦Ã Is Scientific Treatment appropriate to Art?
¦Ä Answer to ¦Â
¦Å Answer to ¦Ã]

Chapter II: Methods of Science Applicable to Beauty and Art
[1. Empirical Method - Art-scholarship
(a) Its Range
(b) It generates Rules and Theories
(c) The Rights of Genius
2. Abstract Reflection
3. The Philosophical Conception of Artistic Beauty, general notion of]

Chapter III: The Conception of Artistic Beauty
Part I - The Work of Art as Made and as Sensuous
1. Work of Art as Product of Human Activity
[(a) Conscious Production by Rule
(b) Artistic Inspiration
(c) Dignity of Production by Man
(d) Man's Need to produce Works of Art]
2. Work of Art as addressed to Man's Sense
[(a) Object of Art - Pleasant Feeling?
(b) Feeling of Beauty - Taste
(c) Art-scholarship
(d) Profounder Consequences of Sensuous Nature of Art
(¦Á) Relations of the Sensuous to the Mind
(¦Á¦Á) Desire
(¦Â¦Â) Theory
(¦Ã¦Ã) Sensuous as Symbol of Spiritual
(¦Â) The Sensuous Element, how Present in the Artist
(¦Ã) The Content of Art Sensuous]

Part II - The End of Art
3. [The Interest or End of Art
(a) Imitation of Nature?
(¦Á) Mere Repetition of Nature is -
(¦Á¦Á) Superfluous
(¦Â¦Â) Imperfect
(¦Ã¦Ã) Amusing Merely as Sleight of Hand
(¦Â) What is Good to Imitate?
(¦Ã) Some Arts cannot be called Imitative
(b) Humani nihil - ?
(c) Mitigation of the Passions?
(¦Á) How Art mitigates the Passions
(¦Â) How Art purifies the Passions
(¦Á¦Á) It must have a Worthy Content
(¦Â¦Â) But ought not to be Didactic
(¦Ã¦Ã) Nor explicitly addressed to a Moral Purpose
(d) Art has its own Purpose as Revelation of Truth]

Chapter IV: Historical Deducation of the True Idea of Art in Modern Philosophy
1. Kant
[(a) Pleasure in Beauty not Appetitive
(b) Pleasure in Beauty Universal
(c) The Beautiful in its Teleological Aspect
(d) Delight in the Beautiful necessary though felt]
2. Schiller, Winckelmann, Schelling
3. The Irony

Chapter V: Division of the Subject
[1. The Condition of Artistic Presentation is the Correspondence of Matter and Plastic Form
2. Part I - The Ideal
3. Part II - The Types of Art
(¦Á) Symbolic Art
(¦Â) Classical Art
(¦Ã) Romantic Art
4. Part III - The Several Arts
(¦Á) Architecture
(¦Â) Sculpture
(¦Ã) Romantic Art, comprising
(i) Painting
(ii) Music
(iii) Poetry
5. Conclusion]

Commentary

]]> 197 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 014043335X Automata 0 to-read 3.90 Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics
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]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 48484 Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune¡¯s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever¡¯s out there isn¡¯t talking to us. It¡¯s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn¡¯t want to meet?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees X-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won¡¯t be needed, and a fainter hope she¡¯ll do any good if she is needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called ¡°vampire,¡± recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist ¨C an informational topologist with half his mind gone ¨C as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they¡¯ve been sent to find.

But you¡¯d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them¡­]]> 384 Peter Watts 0765312182 Automata 0 to-read, transhumanism 4.01 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
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]]> Le Horla 41188072 Le th¨¨me de la folie court comme un motif effrayant chez Maupassant. Mais Le Horla, journal d'un fou, demeure l'?uvre d'un artiste au sommet de son art, une des plus troublantes de la litt¨¦rature fantastique.]]> 240 Guy de Maupassant 233501000X Automata 3 3.80 1886 Le Horla
author: Guy de Maupassant
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rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us]]> 56898187 A look at what power is, who gets it, and what happens when they do, based on over 500 interviews with those who (temporarily, at least) have had the upper hand¡ª´Ú°ù´Ç³¾ the creator of the Power Corrupts podcast and Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas.

Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are tyrants made or born? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the result of poorly designed systems or are they just bad people? If you were suddenly thrust into a position of power, would you be able to resist the temptation to line your pockets or seek revenge against your enemies?

To answer these questions, Corruptible draws on over 500 interviews with some of the world¡¯s top leaders¡ª´Ú°ù´Ç³¾ the noblest to the dirtiest¡ªincluding presidents and philanthropists as well as rebels, cultists, and dictators. Some of the fascinating insights include: how facial appearance determines who we pick as leaders, why narcissists make more money, why some people don¡¯t want power at all and others are drawn to it out of a psychopathic impulse, and why being the ¡°beta¡± (second in command) may actually be the optimal place for health and well-being.

Corruptible also features a wealth of counterintuitive examples from history and social science: you¡¯ll meet the worst bioterrorist in American history, hit the slopes with a ski instructor who once ruled Iraq, and learn why the inability of chimpanzees to play baseball is central to the development of human hierarchies.
]]> 320 Brian Klaas 1982154098 Automata 0 to-read 4.17 2021 Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us
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]]> A Grief Observed 26077627
Written in longhand in notebooks that Lewis found in his home, A Grief Observed probes the "mad midnight moments" of Lewis's mourning and loss, moments in which he questioned what he had previously believed about life and death, marriage, and even God. Indecision and self-pity assailed Lewis. "We are under the harrow and can't escape," he writes. "I know that the thing I want is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace." Writing A Grief Observed as "a defense against total collapse, a safety valve," he came to recognize that "bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love."

Lewis writes his statement of faith with precision, humor, and grace. Yet neither is Lewis reluctant to confess his continuing doubts and his awareness of his own human frailty. This is precisely the quality which suggests that A Grief Observed may become "among the great devotional books of our age."]]> 76 C.S. Lewis Automata 0 to-read 4.31 1961 A Grief Observed
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Carry What Can't Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief]]> 45439537
With her breakout book It¡¯s OK That You¡¯re Not OK, Megan Devine struck a chord with thousands of readers through her honest, validating approach to grief. In her same direct, no-platitudes style, she now offers How to Carry What Can¡¯t Be Fixed ¨Da journal filled with unique, creative ways to open a dialogue with grief itself. ¡°Being allowed to tell the truth about your grief is an incredibly powerful act,¡± she says. ¡°This journal enables you to tell your whole story, without the need to tack on a happy ending where there isn¡¯t one.¡±

Grief is a natural response to death and loss¨Dit¡¯s not an illness to be cured or a problem to be fixed. This workbook contains no clich¨¦s, timetables, or checklists of stages to get through; it won¡¯t help you ¡°move past¡± or put your loss behind you. Instead, you¡¯ll find encouragement, self-care exercises, and daily tools,

? Writing prompts to help you honor your pain and heartbreak
? On-the-spot practices for tough situations¨Dlike grocery store trips, the sleepless nights, and being the ¡°awkward guest¡±
? The art of healthy distraction and self-care
? What you can do when you worry that ¡°moving on¡± means ¡°letting go of love¡±
? Practical advice for fielding the dreaded ¡°How are you doing?¡± question
? What it means to find meaning in your loss
? How to hold joy and grief at the same time
? Tear-and-share resources to help you educate friends and allies
? The ¡°Griever¡¯s Bill of Rights,¡± and much more

Your grief, like your love, belongs to you. No one has the right to dictate, judge, or dismiss what is yours to live. How to Carry What Can¡¯t Be Fixed is a journal and everyday companion to help you enter a conversation with your grief, find your own truth, and live into the life you didn¡¯t ask for¨Dbut is here nonetheless.]]> 216 Megan Devine 1683643704 Automata 0 to-read 4.46 How to Carry What Can't Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief
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]]> <![CDATA[Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices]]> 7779696 265 Mosab Hassan Yousef 1414333072 Automata 0 to-read 4.20 2011 Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices
author: Mosab Hassan Yousef
name: Automata
average rating: 4.20
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]]> Siddhartha 52036 152 Hermann Hesse Automata 0 to-read 4.07 1922 Siddhartha
author: Hermann Hesse
name: Automata
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]]> Ra 57891607
Discovered in the 1970s, magic is now a bona fide field of engineering. There's magic in heavy industry and magic in your home. It's what's next after electricity.

Student mage Laura Ferno has designs on the future: her mother died trying to reach space using magic, and Laura wants to succeed where she failed. But first, she has to work out what went wrong. And who her mother really was.

And whether, indeed, she's dead at all...]]> 543 qntm Automata 0 to-read 4.14 2014 Ra
author: qntm
name: Automata
average rating: 4.14
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]]> Flowers for Algernon 18373 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
?
Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence ¨C a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]> 311 Daniel Keyes 015603008X Automata 0 exurb1a-books-recommendation 4.19 1966 Flowers for Algernon
author: Daniel Keyes
name: Automata
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1966
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]]> Tr¨¨s intime (French Edition) 34092553 Les moments o¨´ elles pr¨¦f¨¦reraient ne pas, ceux o¨´ elles se sentent palpiter en profondeur, les joies magiques du cunnilingus, les mecs bons et les nuls, la qu¨ºte du "dragon de l¡¯orgasme fou"¡­ Elles ont entre 18 et 46 ans. Solange s¡¯invite dans leur chambre ¨¤ coucher. Elle leur demande comment ?a se passe, concr¨¨tement, dans leur vie sexuelle et affective. Directes, caustiques, r¨¦jouissantes, lucides, elles n¡¯¨¦ludent ni les libidos en berne, ni les petits arrangements avec soi-m¨ºme, ni les abus. Elles disent tout, elles le disent bien, avec les vrais mots, et ?a secoue. Un livre qui fait entendre une parole f¨¦minine et f¨¦ministe, une parole lib¨¦ratoire, d¨¦culpabilisante, qui r¨¦sonne comme un manifeste contre la victimisation des femmes.


Solange est le pseudonyme de Ina Mihalache, 31 ans, com¨¦dienne et artiste plasticienne, r¨¦alisatrice et vid¨¦aste qu¨¦b¨¦coise install¨¦e en France. Les vid¨¦os de sa cha?ne YouTube Solange te parle ont ¨¦t¨¦ vues plus de 30 millions de fois.

]]> 285 Solange Automata 0 to-read 3.41 Tr¨¨s intime (French Edition)
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]]> The Book of Five Rings 49796488 The Book of Five Rings?(?ÎåÂÖÊé??Go Rin no Sho)?is a text on?kenjutsu?and the?martial arts?in general, written by the Japanese swordsman?Miyamoto Musashi?around 1645. There have been various translations made over the years, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than only that of martial artists and people across?East Asia: for instance, some foreign business leaders find its discussion of conflict and taking the advantage to be relevant to their work in a business context. The modern-day?Hy¨­h¨­ Niten Ichi-ry¨±?employs it as a manual of technique and philosophy.

Musashi establishes a "no-nonsense" theme throughout the text. For instance, he repeatedly remarks that technical flourishes are excessive, and contrasts worrying about such things with the principle that all technique is simply a method of cutting down one's opponent. He also continually makes the point that the understandings expressed in the book are important for combat on any scale, whether a one-on-one?duel?or a massive?battle. Descriptions of principles are often followed by admonitions to "investigate this thoroughly" through practice rather than trying to learn them by merely reading.

Musashi describes and advocates a two-sword fencing style (nit¨­jutsu): that is, wielding both?katana?and?wakizashi, contrary to the more traditional method of wielding the katana two-handed. However, he only explicitly describes wielding two swords in a section on fighting against many adversaries. The stories of his many duels rarely refer to Musashi himself wielding two swords, although, since they are mostly oral traditions, their details may be inaccurate. Musashi states within the volume that one should train with a long sword in each hand, thereby training the body and improving one's ability to use two blades simultaneously

(wikipedia)]]> 61 Miyamoto Musashi 2380371318 Automata 0 exurb1a-books-recommendation 3.83 1645 The Book of Five Rings
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]]> I Am Not Okay with This 34445185 160 Charles Forsman 1683960629 Automata 3 3.13 2017 I Am Not Okay with This
author: Charles Forsman
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average rating: 3.13
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]]> <![CDATA[Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite]]> 52750517 Eleven fresh vampire stories from young adult fiction¡¯s leading voices!

In this delicious new collection, you¡¯ll find stories about lurking vampires of social media, rebellious vampires hungry for more than just blood, eager vampires coming out¨Dand going out for their first kill¨Dand other bold, breathtaking, dangerous, dreamy, eerie, iconic, powerful creatures of the night.

Welcome to the evolution of the vampire¨Dand a revolution on the page.

Vampires Never Get Old includes stories by authors both bestselling and acclaimed, including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida C¨®rdova and Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria ¡°V. E.¡± Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.]]> 272 Zoraida C¨®rdova 1250230012 Automata 3 3.61 2020 Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite
author: Zoraida C¨®rdova
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average rating: 3.61
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]]> Framed Ink 8010707
After a brief discussion on narrative art, Marcos introduces us to drawing and composing a single image, to composing steady shots to drawing to compose for continuity between all the shots. These lessons are then applied to three diverse story lines ¨C a train accident, a cowboy tale and bikers approaching a mysterious house.

In addition to setting up the shots, he also explains and illustrates visual character development, emotive stances and expressions along with development of the environmental setting to fully develop the visual narrative.]]> 128 Marcos Mateu-Mestre 1933492953 Automata 0 to-read 4.35 2010 Framed Ink
author: Marcos Mateu-Mestre
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average rating: 4.35
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]]> <![CDATA[Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence]]> 3396377 202 Rory Miller 1594391181 Automata 0 to-read 4.34 2008 Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence
author: Rory Miller
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average rating: 4.34
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]]> Surface Detail (Culture, #9) 7937744
With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on.

A brutal, far-reaching war is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead and it's about to erupt into reality. It started in the realm of the Real & that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the center of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.]]> 627 Iain M. Banks 0316123404 Automata 0 to-read 4.24 2010 Surface Detail (Culture, #9)
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name: Automata
average rating: 4.24
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]]> Free Will 13259270
In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.]]> 96 Sam Harris 1451683405 Automata 5 3.86 2012 Free Will
author: Sam Harris
name: Automata
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Prevent the Next Pandemic]]> 59900689 The COVID-19 pandemic isn't over. But even as governments around the world try to get it under control, they're also starting to talk about what happens next. How can we prevent another pandemic from killing millions of people and devastating the global economy? Can we even hope to accomplish this?

Bill Gates believes the answer is yes, and he has written a largely upbeat book that lays out clearly and convincingly what the world should learn from COVID-19, explains the science of fighting pandemics, and suggests what all of us can do to help prevent another one.]]> 304 Bill Gates 0593534484 Automata 0 to-read 3.74 2022 How to Prevent the Next Pandemic
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average rating: 3.74
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]]> Letters to Milena 88340 Letters to Milena, which begin essentially as a business correspondence but soon develop into a passionate "letter love." Milena Jesensk¨¢ was a gifted and charismatic woman of twenty-three. Kafka's Czech translator, she was uniquely able to recognize his complex genius and his even more complex character. For the thirty-six-year-old Kafka, she was "a living fire, such as I have never seen." It was to her that he revealed his most intimate self. It was to her that, after the end of the affair, he entrusted the safekeeping of his diaries.

Newly translated, revised, and expanded, this edition contains material previously omitted because of its extreme sensitivity. Also included for the first time are letters and essays by Milena Jesensk¨¢, herself a talented writer as well as the recipient of these documents of Kafka's love, anxiety, and despair.]]> 298 Franz Kafka 0805208852 Automata 0 currently-reading 4.10 1952 Letters to Milena
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average rating: 4.10
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]]> You Are Not So Smart 11709037 An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise.

Whether you¡¯re deciding which smart phone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic, but here¡¯s the truth: You are not so smart. You¡¯re just as deluded as the rest of us--but that¡¯s okay, because being deluded is part of being human.

Growing out of David McRaney¡¯s popular blog, You Are Not So Smart reveals that every decision we make, every thought we contemplate, and every emotion we feel comes with a story we tell ourselves to explain them, but often these stories aren¡¯t true. Each short chapter--covering topics such as Learned Helplessness, Selling Out, and the Illusion of Transparency--is like a psychology course with all the boring parts taken out.

Bringing together popular science and psychology with humor and wit, You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of our irrational, thoroughly human behavior.]]> 302 David McRaney 1592406599 Automata 0 currently-reading 3.84 2011 You Are Not So Smart
author: David McRaney
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average rating: 3.84
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]]> <![CDATA[Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words]]> 24108839
Beginning with ALONE and closing with WORK, each chapter is a meditation on meaning and context, an invitation to shift and broaden our perspectives on the inevitable vicissitudes of life: pain and joy, honesty and anger, confession and vulnerability, the experience of feeling besieged and the desire to run away from it all. Through this lens, procrastination may be a necessary ripening; hiding an act of freedom; and shyness the appropriate confusion and helplessness that accompanies the first stage of revelation.

CONSOLATIONS invites readers into a poetic and thoughtful consideration of words whose meaning and interpretation influence the paths we choose and the way we traverse them throughout our lives.]]> 245 David Whyte 1932887342 Automata 0 currently-reading 4.47 2014 Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
author: David Whyte
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average rating: 4.47
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]]> <![CDATA[All Tomorrows: The Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man]]> 16143402 111 Nemo Ramjet Automata 0 currently-reading 4.19 2006 All Tomorrows: The Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man
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average rating: 4.19
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]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 31434883 No one¡¯s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she¡¯s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond¡¯s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship¡ªand even love¡ªafter all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

the only way to survive is to open your heart.]]> 336 Gail Honeyman 0735220689 Automata 0 currently-reading 4.21 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
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average rating: 4.21
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]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization¡¯s collapse¡ªthe spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band¡¯s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Automata 0 to-read 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Automata
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pocket Guide to Action: 116 Meditations on the Art of Doing]]> 35062823 143 Kyle Eschenroeder 0989190374 Automata 0 to-read 4.26 The Pocket Guide to Action: 116 Meditations on the Art of Doing
author: Kyle Eschenroeder
name: Automata
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close]]> 4588
The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But which of New York's 162 million locks does it open?

So begins a quest that takes Oskar - inventor, letter-writer and amateur detective - across New York's five boroughs and into the jumbled lives of friends, relatives, and complete strangers. He gets heavy boots, he gives himself little bruises and he inches ever nearer to the heart of a family mystery that stretches back fifty years. But will it take him any closer to, or further from, his lost father?]]> 326 Jonathan Safran Foer 0618711651 Automata 0 to-read 3.98 2005 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: Automata
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Made to Order: Robots and Revolution]]> 52130311
They are often among the least privileged, most unfairly used of us, and the more robots are like humans, the more interesting they become. This collection of stories is where robots stand in for us, where both we and they are disadvantaged, and where hope and optimism shines through.

Contents:
- Making the Other We Need by Jonathan Strahan
- A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
- Test 4 Echo by Peter Watts
- The Endless by Saad Z. Hossain
- Brother Rifle by Daryl Gregory
- The Hurt Pattern by Tochi Onyebuchi
- Idols by Ken Liu
- Bigger Fish by Sarah Pinsker
- Sonnie's Union by Peter F. Hamilton
- Dancing with Death by John Chu
- Polished Performance by Alastair Reynolds
- An Elephant Never Forgets by Rich Larson
- The Translator by Annalee Newitz
- Sin Eater by Ian R. MacLeod
- Fairy Tales for Robots by Sofia Samatar
- Chiaroscuro in Red by Suzanne Palmer
- A Glossary of Radicalization by Brooke Bolander

]]> 349 Jonathan Strahan 1781087873 Automata 0 currently-reading 3.95 2020 Made to Order: Robots and Revolution
author: Jonathan Strahan
name: Automata
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/09
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]]> A Guide For Working Breeds 53062854
100 years after Karel Capek coined the word, ¡°robots¡± are an everyday idea, and the inspiration for countless stories in books, film, TV and games.

They are often among the least privileged, most unfairly used of us, and the more robots are like humans, the more interesting they become. This collection of stories is where robots stand in for us, where both we and they are disadvantaged, and where hope and optimism shines through.]]> 30 Vina Jie-Min Prasad Automata 4 4.16 2020 A Guide For Working Breeds
author: Vina Jie-Min Prasad
name: Automata
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/04/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories]]> 35394775 313 Naomi Kritzer Automata 0 to-read 4.29 2017 Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories
author: Naomi Kritzer
name: Automata
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/09
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]]> ????? ????? ?????? 6054407
???? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ??????. ???? ??? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ???????. ?????? ??? ???? ???????. ???? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?????.. ??? ??? ??????. ???? ??? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ?? ????: ??? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ????.. ??? ??? ???? ????? ??? ?? ???, ???? ??? ??? ??? ?????. ???? ???? ????????? ??????? ??????? ???????? ???????. ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ?????? ????????, ???? ????? ????? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ????.]]> 253 Hamed Abdel-Samad Automata 4 3.88 2008 ????? ????? ??????
author: Hamed Abdel-Samad
name: Automata
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/04/06
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]]> The Day of Salvation 57291438
A man wakes up one morning to find the world outside of his house a wasteland. As he searches for signs of life, he finds a fetus in a ditch, which promptly latches onto his thumb and won't let go, and things only get stranger from there...]]> 199 Nishioka Kyoudai Automata 0 to-read 3.69 The Day of Salvation
author: Nishioka Kyoudai
name: Automata
average rating: 3.69
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/11
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]]> Futurama and Philosophy 17465810 288 Courtland Lewis 0812698339 Automata 0 to-read 3.93 2013 Futurama and Philosophy
author: Courtland Lewis
name: Automata
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/05
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]]> Kami no Kodomo 15923048
(Source: Kotonoha)]]> 182 Nishioka Kyoudai Automata 4 3.70 2010 Kami no Kodomo
author: Nishioka Kyoudai
name: Automata
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/02/17
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]]> Dark Matter 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie¡ªwhen his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined¡ªone that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]> 342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Automata 0 to-read 4.13 2016 Dark Matter
author: Blake Crouch
name: Automata
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time]]> 48816586
Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, and Hyrum K. Wright, software engineers and a technical writer at Google, reframe how software engineering is practiced and taught: from an emphasis on programming to an emphasis on software engineering, which roughly translates to programming over time.

You'll learn:


Fundamental differences between software engineering and programming
How an organization effectively manages a living codebase and efficiently responds to inevitable change
Why culture (and recognizing it) is important, and how processes, practices, and tools come into play]]> 599 Titus Winters 1492082791 Automata 0 to-read 4.19 2020 Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
author: Titus Winters
name: Automata
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Our Final Hour: A Scientist's warning - How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century ¡ª On Earth and Beyond]]> 185583 Bolstered by unassailable science and delivered in eloquent style, Our Final Hour's provocative argument that humanity has a mere 50/50 chance of surviving the next century has struck a chord with readers, reviewers, and opinion-makers everywhere. Rees's vision of our immediate future is both a work of stunning scientific originality and a humanistic clarion call on behalf of the future of life.

]]> 240 Martin J. Rees 0465068634 Automata 0 to-read 3.61 2003 Our Final Hour: A Scientist's warning - How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century ¡ª On Earth and Beyond
author: Martin J. Rees
name: Automata
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War]]> 40180025 Sea Hunter¡ªand examines the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. ¡°A smart primer to what¡¯s to come in warfare¡± (Bruce Schneier), Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to explore the implications of giving weapons the freedom to make life and death decisions. A former soldier himself, Scharre argues that we must embrace technology where it can make war more precise and humane, but when the choice is life or death, there is no replacement for the human heart.]]> 448 Paul Scharre 0393356582 Automata 0 to-read 3.78 2018 Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War
author: Paul Scharre
name: Automata
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone]]> 25667449
When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between works and lives -- from Edward Hopper's Nighthawks to Andy Warhol's Time Capsules, from Henry Darger's hoarding to the depredations of the AIDS crisis -- Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.]]> 336 Olivia Laing 1250039576 Automata 0 to-read 3.91 2016 The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
author: Olivia Laing
name: Automata
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/28
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]]> L'?tranger 15688
³¢'¨¦³Ù°ù²¹²Ô²µ±ð°ù est le premier roman d'Albert Camus, Prix Nobel de litt¨¦rature en 1957.]]> 184 Albert Camus 2070360024 Automata 4 3.93 1942 L'?tranger
author: Albert Camus
name: Automata
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1942
rating: 4
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date added: 2021/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond]]> 51300408 A New York Times Book Review Editors¡¯ Choice

From an Oxford economist, a visionary account of how technology will transform the world of work, and what we should do about it

From mechanical looms to the combustion engine to the first computers, new technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines. For centuries, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. But as Daniel Susskind demonstrates, this time really is different. Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.

Drawing on almost a decade of research in the field, Susskind argues that machines no longer need to think like us in order to outperform us, as was once widely believed. As a result, more and more tasks that used to be far beyond the capability of computers ¨C from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts, from writing news reports to composing music ¨C are coming within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is now real.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, Susskind emphasizes. Technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of humanity¡¯s oldest how to make sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenges will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, to constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and to provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the center of our lives. Perceptive, pragmatic, and ultimately hopeful, A World Without Work shows the way.]]> 307 Daniel Susskind 1250173523 Automata 0 to-read 3.81 2020 A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
author: Daniel Susskind
name: Automata
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/16
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]]> <![CDATA[21 Lessons for the 21st Century]]> 38820046 In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today's most pressing issues.

How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children?

Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today's most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.

In twenty-one accessible chapters that are both provocative and profound, Harari builds on the ideas explored in his previous books, untangling political, technological, social, and existential issues and offering advice on how to prepare for a very different future from the world we now live in: How can we retain freedom of choice when Big Data is watching us? What will the future workforce look like, and how should we ready ourselves for it? How should we deal with the threat of terrorism? Why is liberal democracy in crisis?

Harari's unique ability to make sense of where we have come from and where we are going has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. Here he invites us to consider values, meaning, and personal engagement in a world full of noise and uncertainty. When we are deluged with irrelevant information, clarity is power. Presenting complex contemporary challenges clearly and accessibly, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is essential reading.]]> 372 Yuval Noah Harari 0525512179 Automata 0 to-read 4.15 2018 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Automata
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World ¨C and Why Things Are Better Than You Think]]> 34890015 Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.

When asked simple questions about global trends¡ªwhat percentage of the world¡¯s population live in poverty; why the world¡¯s population is increasing; how many girls finish school¡ªwe systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective¡ª´Ú°ù´Ç³¾ our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

Our problem is that we don¡¯t know what we don¡¯t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases.

It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn¡¯t mean there aren¡¯t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. ]]> 342 Hans Rosling 1473637465 Automata 0 to-read 4.34 2018 Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World ¨C and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
author: Hans Rosling
name: Automata
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/16
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]]> Think Python 14514306 296 Allen B. Downey 144933072X Automata 0 code 4.17 Think Python
author: Allen B. Downey
name: Automata
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/24
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]]> Introduction to AI Robotics 37678353 A comprehensive survey of artificial intelligence algorithms and programming organization for robot systems, combining theoretical rigor and practical applications.This textbook offers a comprehensive survey of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and programming organization for robot systems. Readers who master the topics covered will be able to design and evaluate an artificially intelligent robot for applications involving sensing, acting, planning, and learning. A background in AI is not required; the book introduces key AI topics from all AI subdisciplines throughout the book and explains how they contribute to autonomous capabilities.

This second edition is a major expansion and reorganization of the first edition, reflecting the dramatic advances made in AI over the past fifteen years. An introductory overview provides a framework for thinking about AI for robotics, distinguishing between the fundamentally different design paradigms of automation and autonomy. The book then discusses the reactive functionality of sensing and acting in AI robotics; introduces the deliberative functions most often associated with intelligence and the capability of autonomous initiative; surveys multi-robot systems and (in a new chapter) human-robot interaction; and offers a "metaview" of how to design and evaluate autonomous systems and the ethical considerations in doing so. New material covers locomotion, simultaneous localization and mapping, human-robot interaction, machine learning, and ethics. Each chapter includes exercises, and many chapters provide case studies. Endnotes point to additional reading, highlight advanced topics, and offer robot trivia.]]> 608 Robin R. Murphy 026203848X Automata 0 3.50 2000 Introduction to AI Robotics
author: Robin R. Murphy
name: Automata
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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]]> 50 Robots to Draw & Paint 969604 128 Keith Thompson 0764133101 Automata 0 4.09 2006 50 Robots to Draw & Paint
author: Keith Thompson
name: Automata
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> The Midnight Library 51879720
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig Automata 0 4.12 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Automata
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> Frankenstein 18490 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780141439471

'Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart ...'

Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Based on the third edition of 1831, this volume contains all the revisions Mary Shelley made to her story, as well as her 1831 introduction and Percy Bysshe Shelley's preface to the first edition. This revised edition includes as appendices a select collation of the texts of 1818 and 1831 together with 'A Fragment' by Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori's 'The Vampyre: A Tale'.]]> 288 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Automata 0 3.77 1818 Frankenstein
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Automata
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1818
rating: 0
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]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297 272 Oscar Wilde Automata 0 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Automata
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 0
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]]> Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 51496 139 Robert Louis Stevenson 0451528956 Automata 0 3.84 1886 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Automata
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1886
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Little Women (Little Women, #1)]]> 1934 This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451529305.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott¡¯s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman¡¯s work,¡± including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl¡¯s book¡± her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

]]> 449 Louisa May Alcott Automata 0 4.16 1868 Little Women (Little Women, #1)
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Automata
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1868
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Benjamin Franklin: An American Life]]> 10883
He was, during his 84-year life, America's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist, and he was also one of its most practical¡ªthough not most profound¡ªpolitical thinkers. He proved by flying a kite that lightning was electricity, and he invented a rod to tame it. He sought practical ways to make stoves less smoky and commonwealths less corrupt. He organized neighborhood constabularies and international alliances, local lending libraries and national legislatures. He combined two types of lenses to create bifocals and two concepts of representation to foster the nation's federal compromise. He was the only man who shaped all the founding documents of America: the Albany Plan of Union, the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the peace treaty with England, and the Constitution. And he helped invent America's unique style of homespun humor, democratic values, and philosophical pragmatism.

But the most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America's first great publicist, he was, in his life and in his writings, consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity.

Through it all, he trusted the hearts and minds of his fellow "leather-aprons" more than he did those of any inbred elite. He saw middle-class values as a source of social strength, not as something to be derided. His guiding principle was a "dislike of everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people." Few of his fellow founders felt this comfort with democracy so fully, and none so intuitively.

In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin's amazing life, from his days as a runaway printer to his triumphs as a statesman, scientist, and Founding Father. He chronicles Franklin's tumultuous relationship with his illegitimate son and grandson, his practical marriage, and his flirtations with the ladies of Paris. He also shows how Franklin helped to create the American character and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.]]> 586 Walter Isaacson 074325807X Automata 0 to-read 4.04 2003 Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Automata
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art]]> 102920 222 Scott McCloud Automata 0 4.00 1993 Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
author: Scott McCloud
name: Automata
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Guide to Figure Drawing for Comics and Graphic Novels]]> 14610570 Explains how to pose and photograph models, and then use photos as reference for finished drawings Describes the essentials of creating sequential art, including backgrounds, facial expressions expressing emotion, poses suggesting action, and more Includes examples and principles on how to draw clothing and costumes Advises on writing dialogue that keeps the story action moving
This comprehensive self-teaching course for illustrators features more than 150 instructive color illustrations.]]> 192 Daniel Cooney 1438000987 Automata 0 3.93 2012 The Complete Guide to Figure Drawing for Comics and Graphic Novels
author: Daniel Cooney
name: Automata
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Foundations in Comic Book Art: SCAD Creative Essentials (Fundamental Tools and Techniques for Sequential Artists)]]> 18811348
Artists seeking a way to break into the exciting world of sequential art first need to master the tools, techniques, and habits used by their favorite pencillers, inkers, and digital artists for creating dynamic, exciting comic artwork. In Foundations for Comic Book Art , the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)¡ªa leading force in art and design education¡ªenlists one of its top instructors, John Paul Lowe, to provide aspiring comic book makers with a thorough primer for creative comics, featuring must-know concepts like contour drawing, mastering perspective, using photo-reference, and adding digital patterns. Examples from the works of SCAD faculty, alumni, and students are paired with Lowe¡¯s easy-to-follow, step-by-step lessons and exercises for readers, demonstrating the vital processes all would-be sequential artists have to know before joining the ranks of the comic book¨Cmaking elite.]]> 160 John Paul Lowe 077043696X Automata 0 3.99 2014 Foundations in Comic Book Art: SCAD Creative Essentials (Fundamental Tools and Techniques for Sequential Artists)
author: John Paul Lowe
name: Automata
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels]]> 60113 "Magnificent! The best how-to manual ever published." ¡ª Kevin Kelly, Cool Tools

Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand¨Cin narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way.?Both comic book devotees and the?uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once¨Cunderappreciated art form.]]> 264 Scott McCloud Automata 0 4.34 2006 Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
author: Scott McCloud
name: Automata
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in your Artwork]]> 221238 176 David Chelsea 0823005674 Automata 0 4.06 1997 Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in your Artwork
author: David Chelsea
name: Automata
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Drawing Words and Writing Pictures]]> 1093525
Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is a course on comic creation ¨C for college classes or for independent study ¨C that centers on storytelling and concludes with making a finished comic. With chapters on lettering, story structure, and panel layout, the fifteen lessons offered ¨C each complete with homework, extra credit activities and supplementary reading suggestions ¨C provide a solid introduction for people interested in making their own comics. Additional resources, lessons, and after-class help are available on the DW-WP website.]]> 274 Jessica Abel 1596431318 Automata 0 4.09 2008 Drawing Words and Writing Pictures
author: Jessica Abel
name: Automata
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/24
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]]> How To Make Webcomics 2251815 PVP, Scott Kurtz!
PvP received 1.3 Million unique page views in Q1 2007 and averages 150k-200k per day!]]> 200 Brad Guigar 158240870X Automata 0 4.03 2008 How To Make Webcomics
author: Brad Guigar
name: Automata
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World]]> 10483171
In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely?

In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility.

'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement

'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist

'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman]]> 487 David Deutsch 0670022756 Automata 0 to-read 4.16 2011 The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
author: David Deutsch
name: Automata
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> The Fault in Our Stars 11870085
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.]]> 313 John Green Automata 5 4.13 2012 The Fault in Our Stars
author: John Green
name: Automata
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/10/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow¡ªand Reds like him¡ªare nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]> 382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Automata 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Automata
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/10
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]]> An Imperial Affliction 23959944 6 Peter Van Houten Automata 0 to-read 4.08 2013 An Imperial Affliction
author: Peter Van Houten
name: Automata
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Lesbian Love Addiction: Understanding the Urge to Merge and How to Heal When Things go Wrong]]> 26542267
Love addiction for lesbians comes in many forms. Some struggle by sexually acting out and others are serial relationship junkies, jumping from one relationship into the next. Some are addicted to the high of falling in love and once that wears off don¡¯t know how to handle the day-to-day realities of a committed relationship. Some are even addicted to fantasy and intrigue, while others are love avoidants and sexual anorexics. Love avoidants may be able to get into a relationship but once they are fully committed, struggle with feeling smothered. Others may avoid intimate or sexual relationships all together, becoming sexually anorexic. Some may even vacillate between all of these. The underlying component and common denominator in all of these scenarios is the ¡°Urge to Merge.¡±

Lesbian Love Addiction is designed to help ameliorate at least part of this problem. Lauren D. Costine offers insight for lesbians, bisexual women in relationships with women, queer women, and more specifically, any woman who loves women, as well as their family and friends, and health care professionals, into the psychology of lesbian love addiction. It will give those who struggle with and suffer from love addiction ways to understand, cope, and heal from this debilitating addiction. It will give those who work with this population new tools to use to do this more effectively. Mostly, it will help lesbians understand their relationship failures and how to heal from problems associated with them, so they may grow and cultivate happier, more fulfilling connections in the future.]]> 186 Lauren D. Costine 1442248084 Automata 0 to-read 3.90 2015 Lesbian Love Addiction: Understanding the Urge to Merge and How to Heal When Things go Wrong
author: Lauren D. Costine
name: Automata
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/06
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]]> Dark Places 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 Automata 5 3.95 2009 Dark Places
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Automata
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/10/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death]]> 193755 Elle, suffered a massive stroke that left him completely and permanently paralyzed, a victim of "locked-in syndrome." Where once he had been renowned for his gregariousness and wit, Bauby now found himself imprisoned in an inert body, able to communicate only by blinking his left eye. The miracle is that in doing so he was able to compose this stunningly eloquent memoir, which was published two days before Bauby's death in 1996 and went on to become a number-one bestseller across Europe.

The second miracle is that The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is less a record of affliction than it is a celebration of the liberating power of consciousness. In a voice that is by turns wistful and mischievous, angry and sardonic, Bauby tells us what it is like to spend a day with his children; to imagine lying in bed beside his lover; to conjure up the flavor of delectable meals even as he is fed by tube. Most of all, this triumphant book allows us to follow the flight of an indomitable spirit and to share its exultation at its own survival.]]> 132 Jean-Dominique Bauby 0375701214 Automata 0 to-read 4.00 1997 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
author: Jean-Dominique Bauby
name: Automata
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/08/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley]]> 36288143
In this powerful expos¨¦, Bloomberg TV journalist Emily Chang reveals how Silicon Valley got so sexist despite its utopian ideals, why bro culture endures despite decades of companies claiming the moral high ground (Don't Be Evil! Connect the World!)--and how women are finally starting to speak out and fight back.

Drawing on her deep network of Silicon Valley insiders, Chang opens the boardroom doors of male-dominated venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins, the subject of Ellen Pao's high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit, and Sequoia, where a partner once famously said they "won't lower their standards" just to hire women. Interviews with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer--who got their start at Google, where just one in five engineers is a woman--reveal just how hard it is to crack the Silicon Ceiling. And Chang shows how women such as former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, entrepreneur Niniane Wang, and game developer Brianna Wu, have risked their careers and sometimes their lives to pave a way for other women.

Silicon Valley's aggressive, misogynistic, work-at-all costs culture has shut women out of the greatest wealth creation in the history of the world. It's time to break up the boys' club. Emily Chang shows us how to fix this toxic culture--to bring down Brotopia, once and for all.]]> 335 Emily Chang 0735213542 Automata 0 to-read 4.00 2018 Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley
author: Emily Chang
name: Automata
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
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]]> The Kite Runner 77203 371 Khaled Hosseini 159463193X Automata 0 to-read 4.34 2003 The Kite Runner
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Automata
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/08/12
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]]> <![CDATA[View From Above: An Astronaut Photographs the World]]> 33583836 Few people get the experience of seeing the world from outer space--and no one has taken as many pictures of Earth from above as Terry Virts. Celebrated NASA astronaut, pilot of the space shuttle, crew member on Soyuz, and commander of the International Space Station, Virts has spent more than 200 days in space--and very few of those days went by without his reaching for his camera.
Now as never before, Virts shares the astronaut's view of the world, offering astounding aerial views of our planet and the vastness that surrounds it. The colors, shapes, details--and the stories they tell--are endlessly fascinating. Virts's book marries his stunning photographs with glimpses of everyday life in orbit. And amid this amazing show of Earth spectacles, he reflects on how the astronaut's point of view has shaped his life and spirit. Filled with magnificent photographs that will astonish and inspire, this book--and its intrepid author--becomes our guide to a new way of looking at the world.]]> 304 Terry Virts 1426218648 Automata 0 to-read 4.43 2017 View From Above: An Astronaut Photographs the World
author: Terry Virts
name: Automata
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2017
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]]> Bird by Bird 12543 A newer edition of this title can be found here.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

]]> 238 Anne Lamott Automata 0 to-read 4.24 1994 Bird by Bird
author: Anne Lamott
name: Automata
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1994
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]]> Hard Laughter 49702
Writer (and sometime housecleaner) Jennifer is twenty-three when her beloved father, Wallace, is diagnosed with a brain tumor. This catastrophic discovery sets off Anne Lamott's unexpectedly sweet and funny first novel, which is made dramatic not so much by Wallace's illness as by the emotional wake it sweeps under Jen and her brothers, self-contained Ben and feckless, lovable Randy. With characteristic affection and accuracy, Lamott sketches this offbeat family and their nearest and dearest as they draw ever closer in the intimacy Jen prizes "among the other estimable things: good music, good hard laughter, good sex, good industry, and good books."]]> 304 Anne Lamott 0865472807 Automata 0 to-read 3.67 1979 Hard Laughter
author: Anne Lamott
name: Automata
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots]]> 13547241 New York Times bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman¡¯s escape from a religious sect, in the tradition of Ayaan Hirsi Ali¡¯s Infidel and Carolyn Jessop¡¯s Escape, featuring a new epilogue by the author.

As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. It was stolen moments spent with the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott that helped her to imagine an alternative way of life. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah¡¯s desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth at nineteen and realized that, for the sake of herself and her son, she had to escape.]]> 262 Deborah Feldman 1439187010 Automata 0 to-read 3.97 2012 Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
author: Deborah Feldman
name: Automata
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/08/08
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]]> Hadith: A Re-evaluation 3238261 166 Kassim Ahmad 1881893022 Automata 0 to-read 3.64 1986 Hadith: A Re-evaluation
author: Kassim Ahmad
name: Automata
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion]]> 18774981
From Sam Harris, neuroscientist and author of numerous New York Times bestselling books, Waking Up is for the twenty percent of Americans who follow no religion but who suspect that important truths can be found in the experiences of such figures as Jesus, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history. Throughout this book, Harris argues that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow, and that how we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the quality of our lives.

Waking Up is part memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris¡ªa scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic¡ªcould write it.]]> 256 Sam Harris 1451636016 Automata 0 to-read 3.88 2014 Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
author: Sam Harris
name: Automata
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> Geometry for Ocelots 58245377
Geometry for Ocelots is the story of two monarch siblings gone to war at the end of time¡ªa holy empress, and an alcoholic university dean. With galactic resources dwindling, both believe they hold the answer to the crisis; be it spiritual salvation or technological nirvana. Both will be gravely mistaken.]]> 325 Exurb1a Automata 0 to-read 4.41 Geometry for Ocelots
author: Exurb1a
name: Automata
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/06/03
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]]> We Should All Be Feminists 22738563 We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay¡ªadapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name¡ªby Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.

With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century¡ªone rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences¡ªin the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad¡ªoffering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author¡¯s exploration of what it means to be a woman today¡ªand an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.]]> 52 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Automata 4 4.42 2012 We Should All Be Feminists
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Automata
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master]]> 4099 The Pragmatic Programmer cuts through the increasing specialization and technicalities of modern software development to examine the core process--taking a requirement and producing working, maintainable code that delights its users. It covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse. Read this book, and you'll learn how to

Fight software rot; Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge; Write flexible, dynamic, and adaptable code; Avoid programming by coincidence; Bullet-proof your code with contracts, assertions, and exceptions; Capture real requirements; Test ruthlessly and effectively; Delight your users; Build teams of pragmatic programmers; and Make your developments more precise with automation. Written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with entertaining anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies, The Pragmatic Programmer illustrates the best practices and major pitfalls of many different aspects of software development. Whether you're a new coder, an experienced programmer, or a manager responsible for software projects, use these lessons daily, and you'll quickly see improvements in personal productivity, accuracy, and job satisfaction. You'll learn skills and develop habits and attitudes that form the foundation for long-term success in your career. You'll become a Pragmatic Programmer.]]> 321 Dave Thomas 020161622X Automata 0 to-read 4.32 1999 The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
author: Dave Thomas
name: Automata
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment]]> 6708 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781577314806.

To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of Eckhart Tolle's extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, ¡°The eternal, ever present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.¡± Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question-and-answer format to guide us.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.]]> 229 Eckhart Tolle Automata 0 to-read 4.16 1997 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Automata
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)]]> 17934530 Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers¡ªbut it¡¯s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.]]> 195 Jeff VanderMeer 0374104093 Automata 0 to-read 3.80 2014 Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Automata
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/30
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]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born ¡ª a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam ¡ª and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 Automata 5 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Automata
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/15
date added: 2021/04/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA]]> 43800588 240 Amaryllis Fox 0525654976 Automata 0 to-read 3.87 2019 Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA
author: Amaryllis Fox
name: Automata
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/10
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]]> Algorithmic Puzzles 10640251 The book's unique collection of puzzles is supplemented with carefully developed tutorials on algorithm design strategies and analysis techniques intended to walk the reader step-by-step through the various approaches to algorithmic problem solving. Mastery of these strategies--exhaustive search, backtracking, and divide-and-conquer, among others--will aid the reader in solving not only the puzzles contained in this book, but also others encountered in interviews, puzzle collections, and throughout everyday life. Each of the 150 puzzles contains hints and solutions, along with commentary on the puzzle's origins and solution methods.
The only book of its kind, Algorithmic Puzzles houses puzzles for all skill levels. Readers with only middle school mathematics will develop their algorithmic problem-solving skills through puzzles at the elementary level, while seasoned puzzle solvers will enjoy the challenge of thinking through more difficult puzzles.]]> 257 Anany V. Levitin 0199740445 Automata 0 to-read 4.26 2011 Algorithmic Puzzles
author: Anany V. Levitin
name: Automata
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/22
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]]> The Simulation Hypothesis 44141381
Drawing from research and concepts from computer science, artificial intelligence, video games, quantum physics, and referencing both speculative fiction and ancient eastern spiritual texts, Virk shows how all of these traditions come together to point to the idea that we may be inside a simulated reality like the Matrix.

The Simulation Hypothesis is the idea that our physical reality, far from being a solid physical universe, is part of an increasingly sophisticated video game-like simulation, where we all have multiple lives, consisting of pixels with its own internal clock run by some giant Artificial Intelligence. Simulation theory explains some of the biggest mysteries of quantum and relativistic physics, such as quantum indeterminacy, parallel universes, and the integral nature of the speed of light.

Recently, the idea that we may be living in a giant video game has received a lot of attention:

"There's a one in a billion chance we are not living in a simulation" -Elon Musk

"I find it hard to argue we are not in a simulation." -Neil deGrasse Tyson

"We are living in computer generated reality." -Philip K. Dick

Video game technology has developed from basic arcade and text adventures to MMORPGs. Video game designer Riz Virk shows how these games may continue to evolve in the future, including virtual reality, augmented reality, Artificial Intelligence, and quantum computing. This book shows how this evolution could lead us to the point of being able to develop all encompassing virtual worlds like the Oasis in Ready Player One, or the simulated reality in the Matrix.

While the idea sounds like science fiction, many scientists, engineers, and professors have given the Simulation Hypothesis serious consideration. Futurist Ray Kurzweil has popularized the idea of downloading our consciousness into a silicon based device, which would mean we are just digital information after all. Some, like Oxford lecturer Nick Bostrom, goes further and thinks we may in fact be artificially intelligent consciousness inside such a simulation already!

But the Simulation Hypothesis is not just a modern idea. Philosophers like Plato have been telling us that we live in a "cave" and can only see shadows of the real world. Mystics of all traditions have long contended that we are living in some kind of "illusion "and that there are other realities which we can access with our minds. While even Judeo-Christian traditions have this idea, Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism make this idea part of their core tradition?--?that we are inside a dream world ("Maya" or illusion, or Vishnu's Dream), and we have "multiple lives" playing different characters when one dies, continuing to gain experience and "level up" after completing certain challenges. Sounds a lot like a video game!

Whether you are a computer scientist, a fan of science fiction like the Matrix movies, a video game enthusiast, or a spiritual seeker, The Simulation Hypothesis touches on all these areas, and you will never look at the world the same way again!
]]> 330 Rizwan Virk 0983056900 Automata 0 currently-reading 3.72 2019 The Simulation Hypothesis
author: Rizwan Virk
name: Automata
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
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]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past ¨C one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself ¡°Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don¡¯t want to know what the ¡°A¡± stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]> 158 Martha Wells Automata 5 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Automata
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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]]> Gamelife: A Memoir 23848178 224 Michael W. Clune 0865478287 Automata 0 to-read 3.34 2015 Gamelife: A Memoir
author: Michael W. Clune
name: Automata
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/06
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]]> <![CDATA[What I Talk About When I Talk About Running]]> 2195464
Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo¡¯s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.

By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.]]> 188 Haruki Murakami Automata 4 3.87 2007 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Automata
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2021/02/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time]]> 46190 224 Rob Sheffield 1400083028 Automata 0 to-read 3.87 2007 Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
author: Rob Sheffield
name: Automata
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/19
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]]> It's a Good Life 51195902 Voted as one of the greatest stories by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the story was also adapted into a classic Twilight Zone episode.]]> 13 Jerome Bixby Automata 0 to-read 4.18 1953 It's a Good Life
author: Jerome Bixby
name: Automata
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World]]> 10374 Lord Jim.

Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.]]> 400 Haruki Murakami Automata 0 to-read 4.14 1985 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Automata
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/18
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]]> Dead Astronauts (Borne, #2) 37589179
A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own. Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful corporation. A raving madman who wanders the desert lost in the past, haunted by his own creation: an invisible monster whose name he has forgotten and whose purpose remains hidden.

Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts presents a City with no name of its own where, in the shadow of the all-powerful Company, lives human and otherwise converge in terrifying and miraculous ways. At stake: the fate of the future, the fate of Earth ¨C all the Earths.]]> 352 Jeff VanderMeer Automata 0 to-read 3.35 2019 Dead Astronauts (Borne, #2)
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Automata
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Bird: A Borne Story (Borne, #1.5)]]> 35654201 The Strange Bird¡ª´Ú°ù´Ç³¾ New York Times bestselling novelist Jeff VanderMeer¡ªis a novella-length digital original that expands and weaves deeply into the world of his ¡°thorough marvel¡±* of a novel, Borne.

The Strange Bird is a new kind of creature, built in a laboratory¡ªshe is part bird, part human, part many other things. But now the lab in which she was created is under siege and the scientists have turned on their animal creations. Flying through tunnels, dodging bullets, and changing her colors and patterning to avoid capture, the Strange Bird manages to escape.

But she cannot just soar in peace above the earth. The sky itself is full of wildlife that rejects her as one of their own, and also full of technology¡ªsatellites and drones and other detritus of the human civilization below that has all but destroyed itself. And the farther she flies, the deeper she finds herself in the orbit of the Company, a collapsed biotech firm that has populated the world with experiments both failed and successful that have outlived the corporation a pack of networked foxes, a giant predatory bear. But of the many creatures she encounters with whom she bears some kind of kinship, it is the humans¡ªall of them now simply scrambling to survive¡ªwho are the most insidious, who still see her as simply something to possess, to capture, to trade, to exploit. Never to understand, never to welcome home.

With The Strange Bird, Jeff VanderMeer has done more than add another layer, a new chapter, to his celebrated novel Borne. He has created a whole new perspective on the world inhabited by Rachel and Wick, the Magician, Mord, and Borne¡ªa view from above, of course, but also a view from deep inside the mind of a new kind of creature who will fight and suffer and live for the tenuous future of this world.

Praise for Borne

*¡°Jeff VanderMeer¡¯s Southern Reach Trilogy was an ever-creeping map of the apocalypse; with Borne he continues his investigation into the malevolent grace of the world, and it's a thorough marvel.¡± ¡ªColson Whitehead

¡°VanderMeer is that rare novelist who turns to nonhumans not to make them approximate us as much as possible but to make such approximation impossible. All of this is magnified a hundredfold in Borne . . . Here is the story about biotech that VanderMeer wants to tell, a vision of the nonhuman not as one fixed thing, one fixed destiny, but as either peaceful or catastrophic, by our side or out on a rampage as our behavior dictates¡ªfor these are our children, born of us and now to be borne in whatever shape or mess we have created. This coming-of-age story signals that eco-fiction has come of age as wilder, more reckless and more breathtaking than previously thought, a wager and a promise that what emerges from the twenty-first century will be as good as any from the twentieth, or the nineteenth.¡± ¡ªWai Chee Dimock, The New York Times Book Review]]> 96 Jeff VanderMeer 0374714932 Automata 0 to-read 4.15 2017 The Strange Bird: A Borne Story (Borne, #1.5)
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Automata
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/14
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]]> A Prayer for Owen Meany 4473 637 John Irving 0552135399 Automata 0 to-read 4.24 1989 A Prayer for Owen Meany
author: John Irving
name: Automata
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 Automata 4 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Automata
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 4
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date added: 2021/02/09
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]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.?Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he¡¯ll not only be unable to overcome¡ªbut that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Automata 0 to-read 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Automata
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Diary of a Cosmonaut: 211 Days in Space (Air and Space, No 4)]]> 436020 320 Valentin Vital Evich Lebedev 0553287788 Automata 0 to-read 3.86 1988 Diary of a Cosmonaut: 211 Days in Space (Air and Space, No 4)
author: Valentin Vital Evich Lebedev
name: Automata
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/07
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]]> The People of Paper 43603 256 Salvador Plascencia 0156032112 Automata 0 to-read 4.06 2005 The People of Paper
author: Salvador Plascencia
name: Automata
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/06
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]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn¡¯t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ¡®droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as ¡°Murderbot.¡± Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Automata 5 4.10 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Automata
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/02/05
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]]> The Long Walk 9014 370 Richard Bachman 0451196716 Automata 0 to-read 4.11 1978 The Long Walk
author: Richard Bachman
name: Automata
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again]]> 40915762 A Science Friday pick for book of the year, 2019


One of America's top doctors reveals how AI will empower physicians and revolutionize patient care


Medicine has become inhuman, to disastrous effect. The doctor-patient relationship--the heart of medicine--is broken: doctors are too distracted and overwhelmed to truly connect with their patients, and medical errors and misdiagnoses abound. In Deep Medicine, leading physician Eric Topol reveals how artificial intelligence can help. AI has the potential to transform everything doctors do, from notetaking and medical scans to diagnosis and treatment, greatly cutting down the cost of medicine and reducing human mortality. By freeing physicians from the tasks that interfere with human connection, AI will create space for the real healing that takes place between a doctor who can listen and a patient who needs to be heard.


Innovative, provocative, and hopeful, Deep Medicine shows us how the awesome power of AI can make medicine better, for all the humans involved.]]> 400 Eric J. Topol 1541644638 Automata 0 to-read 4.02 2019 Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again
author: Eric J. Topol
name: Automata
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/03
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]]>