Author Archives: smellincoffee

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About smellincoffee

Citizen, librarian, reader with a boundless wonder for the world and a curiosity about all the beings inside it.

How Social Media Rewired Our Minds

Posted on November 2, 2023 by smellincoffee

One of my core beliefs is that we live in a world which we made for ourselves, and yet which is not fit for ourselves. Our eyes expect to see what they do not see, our arms reach for which … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

October 2023 in Review

Posted on November 1, 2023 by smellincoffee

October was a fun month! The highlight was reading some classic SF of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly True Names, Shockwave Rider, and Neuromancer. I was also able to revisit some favorite contemporary authors — Scalzi, Doctorow, and Suarez. I … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Ten Year Book Tag (2023 Edition)

Posted on October 31, 2023 by smellincoffee

Cyberkitten and Marian recently posted a “Ten Year Book Tag”, which I missed because my weekend consisted of horror movies and a six-hour karaoke party . This should be fun, because 2013 was a banner year here at Reading Freely, … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | 5 Comments

Influx

Posted on October 31, 2023 by smellincoffee

Jon Grady is ecstatic. Tonight he has ushered in a new era in human civilization. He’s created antigravity. A thousand years from now, schoolchildren will recite his name alongside Newton and Einstein. Or….they would, if a strike team from a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Terrifying Tuesday Teases

Posted on October 30, 2023 by smellincoffee

Mr. Bensington proposed originally to try this stuff, so soon as he wasreally able to prepare it, upon tadpoles. One always does try this sort ofthing upon tadpoles to begin with; this being what tadpoles are for. The Food of … Continue reading →

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Metatropolis

Posted on October 30, 2023 by smellincoffee

Metatropolis collects five short stories from a “shared future”, all in or about the future of the city. That vision is not one of growth, however, but of retraction and collapse. Expect nothing like the Sprawl here. I was drawn … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Neuromancer

Posted on October 26, 2023 by smellincoffee

Neuromancer is a rare book — bewildering, beautiful, horrifying, disorienting. It’s the story of Case, a ruined hacker who is approached by a woman with a job offer. In the recent past, he made the mistake of stealing from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Reads to Reels: The Island of Lost Souls

Posted on October 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

Tonight a friend of mine and I watched The Island of Lost Souls, a 1932 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. The island references Wells in the credits, and largely follows its plot although a shift in … Continue reading →

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Do you believe in…ghosts? Short rounds, ectoplasm edition

Posted on October 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

This past week I’ve finished two books about ghost-hunting: one from “the only full-time professional paranormal investigator”, Joe Nickell, and the other from journalist Will Storr. I’ve read both men before: Nickell’s Real Life X-Files from 2008, and Storr only … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Media Diary

Posted on October 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

Another assignment this week in my SLIS class was to record and reflect on our experiences with media throughout the course of a day. Again, since the topic is relevant to the general theme of Reading Freely, I share it … Continue reading →

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