# January logs

## Books

* [Beauty by Roger Scruton](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6323955-beauty)
  * My first foray into aesthetics theory.
* [The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216363.The_Man_in_the_High_Castle)
  * I quite liked the first TV series from Amazon - [The Man in the High Castle](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740299/), then lost interest to follow up on later series. I might revisit the later series in the future.
  * Without writing too many spoilers, the TV series has far more character development than the book and it is more *based* on the book rather than *faithful* to the book.
* [The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10223697-the-summer-without-men)
  * This is an interesting book on a woman's perspective on dealing with a *midlife* crisis of sorts.
  * Early chapters reminded me of [Girl, Interrupted (1999)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172493/) , which is one of my favourite films. Although both protagonists go through a breakdown, that's probably where the similarities end! 
  * This reminds me that I should pick up [Girl, Interrupted](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68783.Girl_Interrupted) book itself.
* [Catullus: The Poems](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/287155.Catullus) 
  * Curiosity read since I haven't read many (if any) Roman poets before.
  * Quite liked the mythical poems on Thesius etc.
  * There are some sharp, quite quotable short poems, too.
* [The Blue Room](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140590.The_Blue_Room)
  * Similar theme to [Unfaithful (2002)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250797/)

    film, although this book is much older.
  * Quite an interesting short story.
* [Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213233.Better)
  * Quite an interesting book on medication profession which I do not know much about.
  * Stories on how doctors in poor countries and areas adapt to the unique challenges and rise to the occasion were quite inspiring to read.
  * Advice on getting better in once professoin is, I think, applicable to other fields as well.
* [Pride and Prejudice](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1885.Pride_and_Prejudice)
  * It was a long awaited read for me to finally to read Pride and Prejudice.
  * I've seen [Pride & Prejudice (2005)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414387/) film some time back and reading books of Jane Austen was quite high on my list.
  * I picked up reading reading this book while parallel reading other books, but after the first couple of chapters I could almost not put it down, and read it solely till I finished it!
* [The Bridges of Madison County](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83674.The_Bridges_of_Madison_County)
  * I picked up this short book solely based on how much I liked the film [The Bridges of Madison County (1995)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112579/), and I think my ratings for the book, is biased based on the liking to the film as well.
* [The Lathe of Heaven](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59924.The_Lathe_of_Heaven) 
  * This is the first Ursula Le Guin book for me. 
  * I've been eyeing to read her science fiction books for a while and I'm quite glad that I started with this one. 
  * It is a pretty awesome story which is hard to describe. 
* [The End of the Affair](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29641.The_End_of_the_Affair) 
  * I had seen the movie based on the novel a long time ago [The End of the Affair (1999)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172396/) and I quite liked the film even though I found its ending a bit gloomy at the time. 
  * The book evoked even stronger emotions for me. I'm not even sure whether to call this book just a run of the mill love story. 
  * The second half is *almost* religious and spiritual. I found the novel quite nihilistic and religious at the same time.
  * Most of all, I like the brutal honesty of the protagonist who fights till the end to keep his nihilistic world view. I'm not sure whether it is nihilistic - at least he believed in love, so there's something!
* [Desperate Character](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23316532-desperate-characters)
  * I quite liked the way Paula Fox can pack so much into a single sentence.
  * Some passages in the book would be considered quite politically incorrect by today's standards, but I cannot fault the book because as with everything art is also a product of its time.
  * Characters insecurities and flaws are laied bare in a seemingly insignificant event in a very deft manner.
* [The Road](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6288.The_Road)
  * It took me a little while to get used to the Cormac McCarthy writing style, which I've come to understand is pretty unique.
  * I *really* wanted to find out what exactly was that apocalyptic event, but it is never fully revealed. In a way, not revealing what's the underlying event makes the novel universal.
  * The ending was really emotional and it was responsible for my ultimately high rating for the book.

## Papers

* [The Rise of Worse is Better - Richard P. Gabriel](https://wiki.dewaka.com/papers/cs/rise-of-worse-is-better)
* [Advantages and Disadvantages of a Monolithic Repository](https://wiki.dewaka.com/papers/cs/monorepos-seip18)

## Meetups

* [CREST/PWL Special Event - January, 2020](https://wiki.dewaka.com/meetups/pwl/crest-pwl-special-event-january-2020)
* [LDN Talks January, 2020](https://wiki.dewaka.com/meetups/rust/ldn-talks-january-2020)
* [Scala in the City - January, 2020](https://wiki.dewaka.com/meetups/scala/scala-in-the-city-january-2020)

## Blog entries

* [New Year Resolutions (2020)](https://dewaka.com/blog/2020/01/09/new-year-resolutions-2020/) 
* [Using sdkman to simplify development](https://dewaka.com/blog/2020/01/16/sdkman-to-simplify-development/)
* [Semantic Patching with Coccinelle](https://dewaka.com/blog/2020/01/25/semantic-patching/)

## Films and TV

* [Big Bang Theory](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898266/) - Finally finished the series. Even though I didn't like the later series all that much I was sad to see the series finish.
* [The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5788792/) - Although not as much as the first two series, I still quite like this series.
* [You](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7335184/) - I'm of two minds whether to continue watching this series, which I find quite a bit shallow.
* [Young Sheldon](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6226232/)

## Bookmarks

* [Swann's Way](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12749.Swann_s_Way) - A friend recommended reading this series, [In Search of Lost Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time) by [Proust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Proust), which has been on my mind also for quite some time.