Rewan Tremethick

Book Reviews - Rewan Tremethick Click on a cover below to read my review of the book.

I’ve read a lot of books(subjectively, for me) recently. So much so that I have quite the backlog of titles to #review.

Hopefully this page is going to expand quite a bit in the near future:

My neurodivergence still surprises me An honest reflection of where I am with my neurodiversity right now.

I named my newsletter exploring late-diagnosed #neurodiversity after how easy it is to forget such a profound truth about ourselves.

Because I have about 30 years of believing I just sucked at being a person. But the answer to my struggles is often ‘Oh…it’s the autism’.

#ActuallyAutistic

Every now and then it’s worth zooming out to evaluate whether your perspective holds true at the macro level.

Case in point - I already feel like I’ve failed at SubStack. Zooming out showed me that I’ve published 6 newsletters in 10 weeks. It’s not one per week, but it’s not far off.

#AmWriting

Maybe she thinks that's how you wear headphones?

That's a great set of rules - the internet should adopt them too!

Just reply 'OMG NOOOOO' after every sentence, regardless of what they said. Maybe they'll get the hint. Maybe.

“I read The Return of the King without reading the other books, and I have to say it was poorly explained. Like, who was Frodo, and why did he even have the ring in the first place? How did they get to Mordor? Confusing, 2/5.”

That’s impressive!

Book Review: Snuff (Discworld #39) by Terry Pratchett - Rewan Tremethick Sir Terry Pratchett is my favourite author, the Discworld my favourite series, and the City Watch books my favourite subset of those novels. Snuff, therefore, had a high bar to …

The last book in my favourite #Discworld sub-series sadly fails to deliver on many of the things I love about its predecessors. The elements are there, but they’re clumsy and shallow, unfortunately.

#AmReading #BookReview

Whoa, that’s pumpkin dedication right there. What would you say is the longest time you’ve spent on a single carving?

Certainly can’t argue that they aren’t convenient. I have a Kindle and read ebooks sometimes (just the change in format can be refreshing), but I still love physical books - although if I keep buying them at my current pace I’ll have to go back to ebooks as I won’t have any space left!

What I want to know is, did he get a massive Thunderbird 3 at a bargain price, or think he’d seriously overpaid for a miniature one?

I don’t have anything practical to say, otherwise I’d say it to cure myself when I get low.

But the interactions here show that people care. I’m one of them.

The dark times are when you best see the stars shining.

That’s beautiful. How long did it take you to carve?

It’s going to become something only eccentrics do, isn’t it? People will look at us reading human books as though we’ve just pulled up to a McDonalds drive-thru on a penny farthing.

Same! It really is unfair that they keep making books worth reading. I suppose GenAI is going to solve that problem though, by making books not worth reading. Yay for us...

Indeed. That discussion would be very interesting to be a part of! It’s a fascinating topic and I hope to do some more reading on it.

I hope so. The book is interesting, but I would have liked more exploration of the consequences of allowing unfettered free speech. There are some important questions the authors don’t consider, which makes it difficult to fully buy into their argument.

The internet has given individuals the chance to share their voice and build an audience.

But that also means our entertainment, education and enlightenment is spread out across dozens of channels and platforms.

open.spotify.com/episode/592b...

That is encouraging, and also a good reminder of the fact that the behaviour we see on social media is really unrepresentative of the general public.

Also, coincidentally, I’m reading Cancelling the American Mind right now. Timely.

Starting to wonder if my main issue with all the different things I want to write about is the unshakeable autistic feeling that I have to do it all myself. Maybe I need to find others who can do consistency well, that I can support with my words and perspective as and when the executive functions.

It’s funny isn’t it how we get to glimpse a tiny sliver of someone’s life on social and assume we have the full picture. And also there are so many reasons for going on social media. It’s not like going to a political rally and saying ‘can we all stop talking about politics?’

A really interesting point - I suppose sometimes we focus only on the person right in front of us, and forget that these conversations often have an audience. Kudos again to you for doing this. It sets a great example, one I hope I can follow.

Thats a great approach! I like that you’re using a tiresome and polemical situation to educate a different group of people. Turning people’s rage against them so that they come off looking stupid in front of others.

Yeah, behaving like a toddler is in trend these days.

How did you deal with these people? Was there anything that did work to get a conversation going, or do you just have to accept some ideas are too entrenched and leave them to it?

That sounds fun </sarcasm>. Do you think there’s also a contingent among them that simply don’t want to accept it because it challenges their worldview?

Completely agree. I feel there’s also a culture, or at least the perception of a culture, that if you’re not angry about the same thing as everyone else, that means you’re burying your head in the sand. As though posting a pic of a nice cake while everyone else screams injustice makes you compliant.

Props to you indeed! We need more calm dialogue, while still asserting our boundaries.

Apparently people are posting less on social media, feeling that their everyday lives aren't 'worthy' or can't compete with the polished content from influencers and other creators.

What about you? Do you think social media has become less real, and more performative?

They look great. I agree about the design decisions though - GW makes a lot of beautiful models, but putting them together and reaching 50% of their area with a paintbrush is increasingly becoming a nightmare.