The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, Carlo Cipolla

Short Booklet. Very Taleb–esque writing. Very entertaining. Tells us there are lots of stupid people, with a really precise definition of stupid; those folks that would cut their nose to spite their face, or like the book would say, stupid folks are they who would cause losses to other folks, even when they stand to gain nothing or possibly, ever incur losses! It reads like an erudite rant. But unlike Taleb, ends with no advice or suggestion. ...

January 22, 2024 · Mario Jason Braganza

A Signed Copy of Neil Gaiman’s, “What You Need to Be Warm”

I went and fulfilled an old dream of mine. A signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s, What You Need to Be Warm. Click to see bigger A New Year’s Gift! From me, to me 😂 ...

January 14, 2024 · Mario Jason Braganza

Read, Read, Read, Everything

With eternal gratitude to Bruinhilda the Librarian, for writing this. And with lots of apologies for stealing it wholesale and making it my new reading manifesto :) As a library worker, there’s something I want to say to you. You do not have to apologize for the books you choose to read. At all. To anyone. You owe nobody any explanations; you need no excuse or “good reason” to be reading the book. ...

January 10, 2024 · Mario Jason Braganza

My Year in Reading, 2023 Edition

I normally hide Easter eggs or just random comments into my footnotes. And so normally it does not matter if you folk read it or not. But this post was really off the cuff and there are some details that have snuck into the footnotes. So, please do give ’em a peek courtesy, Tom Gauld ...

December 31, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

A New Hole Hawg, the Kobo Elipsa 2e

Update, 2024-02-16: Six months later … A couple of years ago, around this time, I upgraded to the best reading experience I could afford at the time. I got me a Kindle Oasis. I called it my Hole Hawg. And boy, has it served me like one. And while it has done, everything it promised it would do, I found myself outgrowing it and needing something more powerful. ...

July 10, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Mandy Brown Celebrates Fifteen Years of Her Blog

This was a thread on my fediverse account, that grew too long. Posting it here, all together, the way my thoughts spilled out. All I knew about Mandy Brown when I began following her a year ago is she has a doggie called Furiosa she thinks about books the way I do she reads books and then writes about reading them, the way I always dreamed I could she’s a prominent member of my circle of the Eminent Dead Today, as she celebrates the quinceanera of her blog, I realised that she also: ...

June 15, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza