Door into Summer and the AI revolution: an inventors dream epoch
Amidst all the discussions over AI tools that are becoming more and more commonly used due to their open-source availability, I cannot but look back into some of the science fiction stories I have enjoyed. One particular title came into mind recently, a little bit under the influence of what seems to be a bit colder, Tokyo winter. I want to take this chance to write a review of this book and comment on some parallels with AI software. Door into Summer is a science fiction novel written by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1957. It tells the story of Dan Davis, an inventor who is betrayed by his business partner and put into suspended animation for thirty years, meaning he is frozen to wake up three decades later. The novel is a futuristic story set in a...
Read MoreThirteen hours by Mitchell Zuckoff, a book review
I had barely started reading Zuckoff’s, an American professor of journalism at Boston University, 13 hours, a couple of days before, but I was already about 200 pages in, it was that absorbing, when I had a video chat about it with my best friends, the brothers Xh. The book details the events of September 11th, 2012, specifically the Benghazi attack on the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. 2012 is not that far ago, therefore I was wondering why I didn’t have any recollection of the news related to this attack. I reckon that back then I was fully absorbed in my studies as a science major and had little time or interest, to watch the news. So, I felt the need to ask them if they recalled these events. And so, we started a passionate discussion on geopolitics...
Read MoreStanding Again by Dhimitër Xhuvani: How to stand up when life puts you down?
This is going to be the review of a book that unfortunately can only be found in the original language, Albanian. In my opinion, many of the excellent works of Albanian authors of the previous century have been left, forgotten, untranslated and isolated. One of the reasons, at least from my perspective, is the heavy socio-realism background, forced into these books by the communist regime of the dictator Enver Hoxha. I read Standing Again (“Përsëri në këmbë”) during my junior high school days, probably in seventh grade. It was one of those summers, when I used to live with my grandparents, who needed someone to help them in daily chores. They didn’t have a TV, so I spent my free time buried into the magical worlds of books (not necessarily age appropriate)....
Read MoreDan Brown’s Digital Fortress and my admission to a little bit of snobbery in my reading taste…
Recently, I found Digital Fortress in a lonely corner in a bookshop near Kasai station, Tokyo. Although I had decided, many years ago, not to read Dan Brown’s works anymore, my hand reached for it. See, I have been doubting my fiction taste recently, suspecting of snobbism. Now that I finished it, I would like to write down a couple of things on the book. First of all, it is a story that I would have loved to discuss with someone I had known ages ago. While reading, the memory of a cold December afternoon in the streets of Pristina, surfaced in my head. I was walking home from school, talking with this acquaintance of mine, probably debating something, fiercely. She was into science and science-fiction (her favorite movie was Avatar, 2009) and we often had...
Read More“Love, Rosie”: A short letter to the author
“I’ve learned that home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling.” Dear Ms. Ahern, How are you doing? My name is Maxtron Moon and I had the pleasure of reading some of your works. Most recently, I found your book, “Love, Rosie” in a used book store here in Japan. I have to say that I was reading your book while commuting all over Tokyo, with people, especially women of all ages, giggling over the cute cover. On one side, the romantic embrace of the hug from the movie scene and on the back cover, the illustration of a heart, switching views depending on the page I was reading, caused so many cute laughs from my right and left sides. It was almost like they were saying, “Who’s this foreigner, looking all serious with his messy beard and suit, yet reading something looking...
Read MoreThe Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Picture taken by Y.S., my girlfriend, in a café in Tokyo “And in that moment, I swear we were infinite” Before I share my own opinions and feelings about the book, I will, in short, address the critical readers who have rated this book negatively. It is interesting to me how a lot of these low rating readers of the book seem to take an issue with the fanbase, rather than with the book itself. They claim that the book has formed a cult-like following. I frequently come across the same critique with Haruki Murakami’s writings. This might have a simple explanation. People who love these books and recommend them set high too high expectations for future readers, who therefore end up disappointed. If someone says that X has changed their life, don’t expect it to...
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