Daily Thoughts 08/17/2015

Portrait of Natasha Nesterova (On a Garden Bench), Mikhail Nesterov), 1914

Daily Thoughts 08/17/2015

I took a few days off to not think about libraries and books.

I checked the Twitter and Facebook this morning.  I also placed an order for new books.

I finished reading Lagoon by Nnede Okorafor.  I like how the author described the aliens.  They had a magical quality to them.  The aliens were made of technology and what they could do seemed indistinguishable from magic to human beings.

The setting in Lagos, Nigeria made the story interesting as well.  The author drew from current news, myths, and fairytales to create a unique story.  I very much enjoyed reading this book.  It drew from a lot of disparate elements.

I am also reading The Economics of Inequality.  This is a hard book to read.  It reads like an academic treatise.  It feels like a text for European college students.  This was not written for an American audience.  It does not feel like a popular work like Thomas Piketty's Capital.  The concepts are harder to grasp, even though the book is much shorter.

Web Bits

Brooklyn Public Library to Sell Branch to Real Estate Developer

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/08/buildings/brooklyn-public-library-to-sell-branch-to-real-estate-developer/

Inside Amazon Wrestling Big Ideas In A Bruising Workplace

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0

Did Technology Kill the Book or Give It New Life?

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33717596

Never Read a Romance? Grow Up

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/67802-it-s-not-the-sex.html

Inflatable Space

 Wild Inflatable Space Elevator Lift People 12 Miles Up
http://www.space.com/30272-space-elevator-inflatable-concept-patent.html
 It could be used as a platform for high altitude research, hybrid aircraft, and a few other things.