— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ बयासी —
Shobhit was out on one of his long walks getting steps in yesterday afternoon, and he was headed south from the Capitol Hill branch library when I left work. He met up with me on Pike and walked the rest of the way home with me. He snuck in another point on the next Social Review this way. I was reading my library book and did read some of it while we were walking. I've been super into it from the start but it's kind of kicking into high gear now, about halfway through.
I'm reading
The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed, a trans author writing science fiction about a lesbian character in the 24th century. It's the second book I'm reading out of the five the Seattle Public Library librarian recommended to me via their highly personalized "
Your Next 5 Books" feature. I have become an evangelist for this feature. You get a response from a live human librarian and based on the interests you share, they recommend truly fantastic books you never would have heard of otherwise. At least that's how it's been for me. And the service is totally free! All you need is a library card.
Shobhit asked me last night what the book was about, and I started with, "It's hard to explain. It's set in the 24th century." I was about to try and share some more detail, but Shobhit immediately asked me a question about something completely unrelated—he does this constantly, basically interrupting a conversation
he started with a total change of subject. I know this is just about how his brain works, he can't help but just keep moving on in his thought process, but he could also stand to learn a little patience, something he's never even attempted. I wish I could spit out a pithy log line every time he asks me what a book or a movie or TV show is about, but I just don't have that skill. In this case, maybe I should have just left it at "It's about the future."
By comparison, here's what Google came up with in half a second:
The Fortunate Fall is a 1996 cyberpunk novel by Cameron Reed (a pseudonym for Raphael Carter) about Maya Andreyeva, a "camera" who broadcasts her experiences in a near-future Russia where AI-controlled thought police monitor citizens. The story follows her investigation into a massacre, uncovering political secrets and confronting themes of surveillance, identity, and love in a technologically saturated world. Praised for its prescient themes and prose, it's considered a classic of the genre, recently re-released in a new edition with an introduction by Jo Walton.
That about sums it up. Shobhit would probably have stopped listening about a third of the way through if I had actually said all that to him. Whatever the case, I'm loving the novel, and at the moment I have every reason to expect the other three recommendations will be great as well.
I guess the new edition being released is because Cameron Reed has another new novel coming out, her first since this one. I kind of hope to get my hands on that one after it's published as well.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ बयासी —
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ बयासी —
Anyway, the "highlight" of the evening yesterday was the Braeburn Condos Annual Meeting, which as usual was held over Zoom. This would be a great example of one of the many ways the world was permanently changed since the pandemic; had covid never happened, we'd still be holding these annual meetings in person. I kind of miss all the free refreshments those in-person meetings had, but I don't miss how dreadfully long and boring they tended to be.
There was not a lot of business to conduct this year, though, and the official Annual Meeting lasted all of about five minutes, after spending over half an hour struggling to meet quorum. One guy on the 7th floor even went to knock on neighboring doors to try and get people to enter the meeting for that very purpose. I suppose that's the flip side of holding these meetings over Zoom—even though they are far easier to attend and no one even has to leave their unit, I think it's also easier for people to forget or ignore.
There was a Board meeting in the same Zoom session after the five minutes was over, which anyone who wanted to stay could do so if they wanted. But, Shobhit and I walked to QFC to get a few groceries instead. We came back and then watched the one-hour season premiere of
Shrinking on Apple TV. I signed up for a month free due to a promo I saw on Venmo a week ago, and then totally forgot about it. I realized last night we should start watching some stuff there rather than wasting the free time we have with it.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ बयासी —
[posted 12:33pm]
