In deference to US Independence Day, I was thinking about books with a counterfactual historical take – speculative history. I wrote about it.

👉https://philosophics.blog/2026/07/03/un-discovering-america/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #books #blog #podcast #spotify #video #youtube #short #history #reading #america #europe

I'm thrilled to share that my new book #HYPERSCALE is hitting bookstores on October 20. You can preorder it now!

It's an account of how the data center boom is pushing our planet past its breaking point, and of the incredible efforts of people and movements pushing back against the profit-driven interests of Big Tech.

Get your copy and learn more: https://hyperscalebook.com/

#techindustry #techbook #newbook #reading #datacenter #datacenters #generativeai #politics #artificialintelligence

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Hyperscale by Paris Marx. Coming October 20, 2026. An eye-opening account of how the data center boom is pushing our planet past its breaking point

"What set of circumstances favored an animal that weighs up to 600 pounds, moves at four miles a day, and takes a quarter of a century to reach sexual maturity?" —Helen Lewis for The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/writers-way-galapagos-charles-darwin-travel/687480/?src=longreads

#longreads #darwin #evolution #originofspecies #reading #writing

"Tully Gets Hooked on #Books is a delightful new #picturebook for #frum families. #Written and #illustrated by #GoldieGolding, the #story follows Tully the worm as he travels through the forest and encounters several animal friends: Ollie Owl, Shimmy Sloth, Faigy Flamingo, and Talia Turtle.

Remarkably, each of these new friends is #reading a #book when Tully meets them, which in turn inspires him to want to #learn to #read, too."

https://jewishpress.com/a-tale-for-reluctant-readers/

"To call it a speck is generous. At first, I mistake it for a particle of dust. But then, it catches the sun and sparkles undeniably." —Eve Livingston for Dispatch

https://dispatch-media.com/the-brits-panning-for-gold/?src=longreads

#longreads #gold #hobbies #subculture #reading #writing

When someone asks, "What is it?" and someone else answers, "It's a mystery!" I sincerly hope this is what they're talking about 😂

@reading @bookstodon @books @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#BookMemes #Meme #Memes #Mystery #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Reading #Readers #ReadingCommunity
#Litterature #Novel #Bookshelf #BookStore #Books #Bookstodon

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Photo of a bookself with a sign saying, "Mystery" and all the books around with the title towards the shelf. Caption: Well played, bookstore, well played.

Judeo-Christian

"Among the many #faiths practiced by millions of #Texas #students, a new statewide required #reading list that includes #biblical passages draws from just two traditions: #Protestant #Christianity and #Judaism.

Yet Texas #rabbis say #Jews had no role in shaping how #Judaism appears in the #curriculum, and they disagree with how the lone #Jewish text is presented. Rather than teaching about Judaism on its own terms, they argue, the lessons filter Jewish texts through a #Christian perspective.

The #readinglist, which is expected to go into effect in 2030, will have #publicschool students across the state reading passages from the #NewTestament and mostly Christian #translations of the #Hebrew Bible alongside #literary classics. Of the curriculum’s six #HebrewBible readings, just one uses a Jewish #translation."

https://forward.com/news/834539/texas-bible-curriculum/

Riffing on the idea of identity and selfhood after reading Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun.

https://open.substack.com/pub/brywillis634737/p/metaphysical-projection?r=pvxh5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

#philosophy #books #reading #ishiguro #identity #selfhood #perception #heuristic #video #podcast #substack #blog #souls #metaphysics #astronomy #essence

"The appeal of dog neuroscience is not limited to understanding their adolescence, indeed it kicks in as soon as you take a new puppy home." —William Davies for The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/25/what-training-my-chaotic-dog-taught-me-about-power-control-and-human-beings/?src=longreads

#longreads #dogs #dogtraining #sociology #control #reading #writing

Speak up for libraries at www.speakupforlibraries.us

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarianship #lit

Self-promotion in progress 😁

The Last Philosopher is a Fantasy/Attempted Comedy story that some have even compared to #DouglasAdams and #TerryPratchett

My response to that comparison, is to go hide under the covers for a week with embarrassment 😊

1€ Ebook. Help an #IndieAuthor to get to 100 sales, up to 26 from 14. This is not for the profit but to avoid the fees from D2D

Part One: https://books2read.com/b/m0pJYA

#FantasyBooks #Fantasy #Comedy #Reading #Bookstodon #Books #IndieAuthor #AmWriting

I have a couple of Warhammer 40,000 games in both my GoG and Steam libraries, but I haven't really engaged with them fully because I don't have an understanding of the lore.

Little did I know that the lore is so deep! OMG. I watched this 15 minute YouTube video to get started on it. And also found this guide for Warhammer 40,000 books -- there are so many books in the series! I'm going to start reading the book Horus Rising by Dan Abnett to dip my toes into the universe.

Any Warhammer 40,000 fans out there?

#warhammer #warhammer40000 #warhammer40k #gaming #videogames #books #reading

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Captain Titus Warhammer 40000 Space Marine

I wrote this book a while ago to inspect the nature of time travel.

https://open.substack.com/pub/brywillis634737/p/impossibility-of-time-travel?r=pvxh5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

#philosophy #time #phenomenology #epistemology #writing #reading #fiction #books #blog

What's your pet grammar peeve? That one rule you learned but everyone else still gets wrong?

#WritingCommunity #writing #AmWriting #reading #books

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so “T-Rex” isn’t just some pop culture shortening of Tyrannosaurus rex, it's actually a standard way of shortening the genus in a binomial, e.g. E. coli for Escherichia coli. Despite what movie titles or toy packaging or band names say, it should always be written as T. rex and not as T-Rex or T-rex or god forbid T. Rex. And it should be italicized, which should be clear to anyone reading this but not clear to you, Corythosaurus, because I am speaking aloud to you and I don’t know how to italicize my voice.

Read about it while it lasts folks.

"Over the years, I collected a handful of favorites that not only drew the #kids into #Jewish worlds but also merged Jewish experiences into the #American #story. This 250th-anniversary-friendly list includes #books with Jewish takes on American life going back to the #Pilgrims and the #AmericanRevolution, and Jewish holidays entwining themselves with what’s most American about #America, whether it’s baseball, boxing or welcoming (or being) the stranger. Some of the books are old and hard to find, while others came along recently, after my #school-#reading days were long past. All carry the message that #Jews are deeply enmeshed in the American story and are also part of what moves that story forward."

https://momentmag.com/american-jewish-childrens-books/

What’s on your reading table? #booksaboutmusic #coffeetablebooks #music #musicthemedbooks #musicalbooks #reading #stanstewart #wondersofjazz #webstories https://muz4now.com/web-stories/whats-on-your-reading-table

A New Partnership is Formed with Weightless Books

Adamsdesk expands with a new partnership that provides value to those seeking e-books that respect your freedom while supporting independence.

https://www.adamsdesk.com/posts/partnership-weightless-books/

#books #reading #blog #BlogPost #bookstodon

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A stack of colourful books sit next to a e-book reader with a bold title above that says, 'A New Partnership Is Formed'.

Hey. Bookshop.org is hosting Anti-Prime Day this week: 6/23–6/26.

https://bookshop.org/info/anti-prime-day

#Books #Reading #Bookshop #AntiPrime #Amazon #Indie

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Fake Amazon box that reads “anti-prime day, June 23–26.”

What if you could fight book bans by buying a book?

https://www.charity-opus.com/shop/p/stephen-graham-jones-horror-ebook-collection #library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarianship #lit

Was Hobbes Right in Leviathan? Only partially.

https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/hobbes-was-right?r=pvxh5

#philosophy #blog #history #reading #substack #monarchy #democracy #history #books #politics #governance #empire #nature #foundation #anarchy #Leviathan #Hobbes #violence

They want to regulate what you and your family are allowed to read - www.bookbanpetition.us

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarianship #lit

"David was a crazy workaholic, just like my dad. They were both people who were used to being creative every waking moment of their life. So for David, doing Labyrinth was like being on vacation." —Ann Lee's oral history for The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/16/david-bowie-workaholic-labyrinth-at-40-oral-history/?src=longreads

#longreads #labyrinth #bowie #film #cultclassic #reading #oralhistory

"But follow an obsession long enough, and the joke changes. Excess becomes craft, even service."

In our new reading list, Dr. Dinesh Kumar Jangra celebrates the fixated:

https://longreads.com/2026/06/18/reading-list-amateur-experts/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#longreads #amateurs #hobby #obession #reading #writing

No country has ever increased freedom and liberty by banning books - www.bookbanpetition.us

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarianship #lit

That feeling when you are struggling to read not one but two books, then open one by an author you trust, and sink into the world within two sentences.

Is there anything better?

#Reading

[for your address book]

A Fediverse group for sharing your papers and preprints.

https://soc.octade.net/papers/

#Papers #Writing #Preprints #Authors #Research #Reading #groups #fedigroups #fediverse

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cartoon drawing of a feather quill standing in a inkwell