I finally read Starship Troopers and hated it. Heinlein was basically god to my family but I think he's got one, maybe two good books in him. He's just such a fascist. i reread The Forever War for the nth time to wash the taste of it out of my mouth and it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered. I think I've read all three versions over the years but the first one is best and I don't think that one's available anymore.

Jim Butcher has this weird-ass series with airships and castles and talking cats'n'shit. There's two books in it. I have now read both. The first one was weird and okay. The second one was weird and okay.

There's also this weird-ass book about castles and airships(?!) where everyone is an elf or a goblin for some reason. The first one is weird and okay. The second one is weird and okay. the first one was basically "King Ralph, if everyone was a goblin or an elf" and the second one is basically "Sherlock Holmes, if everyone was a goblin or an elf." There's no reason for them to be goblins or elves, they just are.

There's this other weird-ass book that's basically "Sherlock Holmes, if all technology was replaced by magic, except that magic was genetic engineering, and autism was a superpower, and everyone is gay." It is better than the other weird-ass books mentioned here. I will also mention that going from that milieu to "Starship Troopers" is some whiplash.

I tried SPQR. It's fucking dogshit. There's this assumption among western historians that you must learn the Romans because they're the Romans and why wouldn't you learn the Romans and Fuck The Romans. If you can't tell me why I should give a shit, I won't. The nice thing about the Durants is they were objective about the Romans. Fuckin' nobody else is. Fuck the Romans.

Eichmann in Jerusalem is rough. The Origins of Totalitarianism is rougher.

Battle Cry Freedom is also shit. See: SPQR except for the American Civil War.

Gary Stevenson's "The Trading Game" is fucking spectacular. It's all about inequality. It's all about dragging rich people for being rich. It's all about the hollow pursuit of wealth as a hollow pursuit. And it really fucked me up that I made more money in less time than he did just buying and holding. Crypto is like a Game Genie for finance.

Johnathan Haidt's "The Anxious Generation" is shit. I think Haidt is a one-trick pony and he's started fluffing the conservatives.

A Memory Called Empire and a Desolation Called Peace are great fuckin' books. I like my space operas written by lesbians. They have so much more color. Also, let me just say that this new flavor of sci fi and fantasy where they aren't written by privileged white men? Fuckin' rules.

I read The Communist Manifesto. It takes no time at all, also jesus christ who worships this shit

The two that broke me were Red Plenty and Secondhand Time. Red Plenty sets you up for the bleakness, Secondhand Time rubs your fucking nose in it until it's ground down to the bone. Secondhand Time followed by the Biden debate followed by the Trump assassination attempt was just too goddamn much. It's one thing to watch stupid fucking Republicans cheering for totalitarianism and stupid fucking Independents willing to throw away the future on principle, it's another thing doing it while reading an oral history of people longing for Stalin while also describing all of their relatives murdered by Stalin.