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François

FrankAuLux@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 1 year, 7 months ago

Retired linguist/law/IT. Avid reader in all languages (see polyglot.city/@FrankauLux/), both paper and ebooks. Mostly fictions these days.

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François's books

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Success! François has read 109 of 52 books.

Sapiens (Paperback, 2016, Signal) 5 stars

Destined to become a modern classic in the vein of "Guns, Germs, and Steel," "Sapiens" …

Mandatory reading

5 stars

This book should be mandatory reading. It explains many things in a simple way and reads like a thriller, despite being a history book. It just makes sense. So do yourself a favour and read it. now.

Sapiens (Paperback, 2016, Signal) 5 stars

Destined to become a modern classic in the vein of "Guns, Germs, and Steel," "Sapiens" …

This book should be mandatory reading. It explains many things in a simple way and reads like a thriller, despite being a history book. It just makes sense. So do yourself a favour and read it. now.

finished reading Bikepunk by Ploum

Bikepunk (Paperback, Français language, PVH éditions) No rating

Un flash mystérieux a coupé toute électricité sur Terre, aveuglant au passage tous les adultes. …

Un excellent bouquin de @ploum@mamot.fr. Un monde futur alternatif d'où l'électricité a disparu. Plein de rebondissements jusqu'au dernier moment - chaudement conseillé. Peut-être un peu tard pour l'avoir à temps pour mettre sous le sapin, mais cela vaut la peine d'essayer :-)

Goodbye, Things (Penquin) 4 stars

Fumio Sasaki is not an enlightened minimalism expert or organizing guru like Marie Kondo—he’s just …

This book was a gift, so I felt compelled to read it. However, I have very mixed feeling about it. I am old and have started my döstädning, so I don't need convincing and I was hoping a couple of technique. I did get that, but at what price!! The author and I live on completely different planet, so it was very difficult to relate to anything in the book. A lot of what he says is just not applicable here * "put everything in a bag and bin it" - well no. we have to sort paper, metal, plastic, etc and that's what takes time... * "you can always order this and that and have it delivered" Can you really ? Well, not in my country... etc, etc. And then the enthusiasm of the born again minimalist ! tiring ! "Since I turned minimalist, I lost 5 kilos, won …

Approaching zero: the extraordinary underworld of hackers, phreakers, virus writers, and keyboard criminals (1992) No rating

Entertaining but hardly comprehensive, this study offers a somewhat European angle on the "technological counterculture." …

This book was basically a trip down memory lane for me, as I remember most of the things described in it. I still learned a couple of facts. I'm not sure anybody below 35 y/o would enjoy or appreciate the book though. It has aged a lot.

finished reading Malpertuis by Jean Ray

Malpertuis (French language, 1993) No rating

L’oncle Cassave va mourir. Il convoque toute sa famille à son chevet dans la demeure …

Jean Ray est le Lovecraft / Poe belge. Je pense que quand j'ai dit cela, j'ai tout dit. Ses histoires et contes sont super bien construits et c'est un plaisir sans cesse renouvelé.

My Italian Bulldozer (2018, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) No rating

"From one of our most beloved and best-selling authors: a hilarious new stand-alone novel about …

Excellent, but then again, I still have to find a book by A. McC-S. that I don't like :-) If you don't know him yet, do yourself a favour and get one of his books, any which one will do. He's probably most famous for The N°1 Lady detective agency, which was made into a movie, but it's a whole series (probably 20 I reckon). The audio books made by the BBC (I think) are of very high quality, so recommended as well (got several of those and never disappointed). He has several series with different settings and heroes, my favorite being Dr Igelfeld, scholar in a linguistic department, and having been there myself I can swear Alex was a fly on the wall so close it is to reality. All his books are great, he is great. More here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_McCall_Smith . Ho yes, this specific book, I hear you …