[nesfa-reading-group] Potential reading choices for February 2025

Thu Oct 3 20:24:13 EDT 2024

I use browser extension to show me what book are available in libraries:

https://www.libraryextension.com/

after installing yo get side panel on book web pages such as goodreads
showing the book availability - I like that with one click I go the library
book page or to the libby for ebooks [1]

best,

Alek

[1] screenshot:

[image: image.png]

On Thu, Oct 3, 2024 at 7:27 PM Gay Ellen Dennett <gayellendennett at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Just a note about Hoopla - this is a pay as you go per item database for
> the subscribing library and they usually restrict borrowing to town
> residents only (Needham has a subscription and this is what we do).
>
> — Gay Ellen
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Oct 3, 2024, at 5:37 PM, Wesley Brodsky <wesbrodsky at alum.mit.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Everybody;
> > "The Futurological Congress" is
> > Listed in Old Colony Library Network as
> > Digital Format: HOOPLA E BOOK
> > Vendor: hoopla
> > Available: Unlimited
> > I suppose the download is valid for a limited duration
> > -Wes
> > ________________________________________
> > From: reading-group <reading-group-bounces at lists.nesfa.org> on behalf
> of Melody Friedenthal <friedenthalmelody at gmail.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2024 1:24 PM
> > To: NESFA Reading Group
> > Subject: Re: [nesfa-reading-group] Potential reading choices for
> February 2025
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Although I have rarely been involved with your group, I am on the
> emailing list and noticed you've been talking about Lem's Futurological
> Congress.  So, just a note to say a really weird movie was made which was
> simply called The Congress. Starring actress Robin Wright, who plays an
> actress named Robin Wright. Part live action and part animated.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Melody Friedenthal
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 3, 2024 at 12:30 PM Gay Ellen Dennett <
> gayellendennett at gmail.com<mailto:gayellendennett at gmail.com>> wrote:
> > The last two are widely available in different formats in the Minuteman
> Network (and can be gotten via ILL), the Lem book will be harder to find,
> as I'm only seeing 3 copies total in Minuteman, which probably means that
> the other Networks may have the same issue.
> >
> > --Gay Ellen (lurking while on the Reference Desk, and counting this as a
> question😉)
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 3, 2024 at 11:56 AM Gloria Lucia Albasi <
> trebbiana61 at gmail.com<mailto:trebbiana61 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> > Here are my three suggestions for our group to vote on. Dave Grubbs has
> assured me that these haven’t been read as group choices. Yet.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Gloria
> > 
> >
> > (1) The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
> >
> > “The Futurological Congress is a 1971 black humour science fiction novel
> by Polish author Stanisław Lem. It details the exploits of the hero of a
> number of his stories, Ijon Tichy, as he visits the Eighth World
> Futurological Congress at a Hilton Hotel in Costa Rica. The book is Lem's
> take on the science fictional trope of an apparently Utopian future that
> turns out to be an illusion.
> >
> > The book opens at the eponymous congress. A riot breaks out, and the
> hero, Ijon Tichy, is hit by various psychoactive drugs that were put into
> the drinking water supply lines by the government to pacify the riots. Ijon
> and a few others escape to the safety of a sewer beneath the Hilton where
> the congress was being held, and in the sewer he goes through a series of
> hallucinations and false awakenings, which cause him to be confused about
> whether or not what's happening around him is real. Finally, he believes
> that he falls asleep and wakes up many years later. The main part of the
> book follows Ijon's adventures in the future world — a world where everyone
> takes hallucinogenic drugs, and hallucinations have replaced reality.”
> >
> > — Wikipedia
> >
> >
> > (2) Infomocracy by Malka Older
> >
> > “It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a
> powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring
> nation-states to global micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party
> Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the
> horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything's on the
> line.  With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right
> by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues.
> For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing
> struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information
> operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels
> running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have
> so much to gain?”
> >
> > — Google Books
> >
> >
> > (3) Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
> >
> > “Pattern Recognition is a novel by science fiction writer William Gibson
> published in 2003. Set in August and September 2002, the story follows
> Cayce Pollard, a 32-year-old marketing consultant who has a psychological
> sensitivity to corporate symbols. The action takes place in London, Tokyo,
> and Moscow as Cayce judges the effectiveness of a proposed corporate symbol
> and is hired to seek the creators of film clips anonymously posted to the
> internet.
> >
> > The novel's central theme involves the examination of the human desire
> to detect patterns or meaning and the risks of finding patterns in
> meaningless data. Other themes include methods of interpretation of
> history, cultural familiarity with brand names, and tensions between art
> and commercialization. The September 11, 2001 attacks are used as a motif
> representing the transition to the new century. Critics identify influences
> in Pattern Recognition from Thomas Pynchon's postmodern detective story The
> Crying of Lot 49.”
> >
> > — Wikipedia
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Join Zoom Meeting
> >
> https://us06web.zoom.us/j/94460014978?pwd=a1BFQndDa1NYTnlNcUVCMU95dWdNZz09
> >
> > Meeting ID: 944 6001 4978
> > Passcode: 244476
> >
> > Recurring Meeting; Generally the first Friday of every month at 7 PM
> > See https://www.nesfa.org/events/nesfa-reading-group/ for group info.
> > _______________________________________________
> > reading-group mailing list
> > reading-group at lists.nesfa.org<mailto:reading-group at lists.nesfa.org>
> > https://listsmgt.nesfa.org/mailman/listinfo/reading-group
> > _______________________________________________
> > Join Zoom Meeting
> >
> https://us06web.zoom.us/j/94460014978?pwd=a1BFQndDa1NYTnlNcUVCMU95dWdNZz09
> >
> > Meeting ID: 944 6001 4978
> > Passcode: 244476
> >
> > Recurring Meeting; Generally the first Friday of every month at 7 PM
> > See https://www.nesfa.org/events/nesfa-reading-group/ for group info.
> > _______________________________________________
> > reading-group mailing list
> > reading-group at lists.nesfa.org<mailto:reading-group at lists.nesfa.org>
> > https://listsmgt.nesfa.org/mailman/listinfo/reading-group
> > _______________________________________________
> > Join Zoom Meeting
> >
> https://us06web.zoom.us/j/94460014978?pwd=a1BFQndDa1NYTnlNcUVCMU95dWdNZz09
> >
> > Meeting ID: 944 6001 4978
> > Passcode: 244476
> >
> > Recurring Meeting; Generally the first Friday of every month at 7 PM
> > See https://www.nesfa.org/events/nesfa-reading-group/ for group info.
> > _______________________________________________
> > reading-group mailing list
> > reading-group at lists.nesfa.org
> > https://listsmgt.nesfa.org/mailman/listinfo/reading-group
> _______________________________________________
> Join Zoom Meeting
> https://us06web.zoom.us/j/94460014978?pwd=a1BFQndDa1NYTnlNcUVCMU95dWdNZz09
>
> Meeting ID: 944 6001 4978
> Passcode: 244476
>
> Recurring Meeting; Generally the first Friday of every month at 7 PM
> See https://www.nesfa.org/events/nesfa-reading-group/ for group info.
> _______________________________________________
> reading-group mailing list
> reading-group at lists.nesfa.org
> https://listsmgt.nesfa.org/mailman/listinfo/reading-group
>

-- 
The best way to predict the future is to invent it - Alan Kay
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