Books I've read. February '25
A new batch of short book reviews I’ve recently read.
It’s been quite a while since the last post in this series. Although I hadn’t read many books at that time, I thought it was worth putting my thoughts and impressions into writing while they were still fresh and I hadn’t forgotten them.
As always, you can find previous publications at the links below:
And this time I will talk about the following books:
- “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
- “Night watch” by Terry Pratchett
- “The Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett
- “No longer human” by Osamu Dazai
- “Simulacra and simulation” by Jean Baudrillard
- “NGINX cookbook: advanced recipes for high-performance load balancing” by Derek DeJonghe
- “Using Asyncio in Python: understanding Python’s asynchronous programming features” by Caleb Hattingh
- “Monstrous regiment” by Terry Pratchett
- “Love Yourself Tender” by Olga Primachenko
“Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
I have always been inspired and interested in the philosophy of Stoicism. Of course, Marcus Aurelius one of the most famous thinkers of this philosophy school has always aroused special interest. He was the emperor of Rome, and this always gave rise to questions in me like - “And how much does the stoicism of the emperor differ from the stoicism of a slave? Or the stoicism of a programmer?” Surely his life and my life are quite different - from our goals and problems that we face every day, and ending with opportunities and a degree of responsibility. And surely our modern society and life are different from what it was 2 thousand years ago.
However, while reading the book, I discovered that he was talking about the same things that still concern people today. About being the author of your own existence. About accepting and living the present, no matter what it is. About not regretting the past and not complaining about the future. About how important it is to be responsible for your actions. How not to blame people for not living up to your expectations, since your expectations are purely your beliefs, which only you influence. In general, this book is still very relevant and I recommend it to everyone.
“Night watch” by Terry Pratchett
“Night Watch” is another novel in the “City Watch” sub-cycle of the Discworld series. And I think this novel is quite experimental. Commander Sam Vimes is chasing a maniac but accidentally ends up in the past. To return, he must preserve the course of history, but the killer ends up there too. Pratchett unusually reveals Vimes’s past by avoiding prequels. The book is centered only on Vimes, without the usual parallel lines. Among the new characters, Carcer (main villain) stands out - the incarnate evil.
Also very interesting are the young versions of familiar heroes: young Vimes, Colon, Nobby, and Lord Vetinari. The setting is old Ankh-Morpork before it acquired its familiar appearance. As in many other Pratchett novels, the dialogue and atmosphere are stronger than the plot. Overall, I liked this book, so I consider the experiment a success.
“The Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett
“The Wee Free Men” is the first book in the series about the aspiring witch Tiffany Aching. This sub-series about the young witch can be read separately from everything written about the Discworld. If you like adventures, everyday magic, traditions of the Scandinavian and Celtic peoples, real humor, and living, non-plastic female characters, then you have come to the right place! Tiffany is not used to sitting idle, because her grandmother was the main keeper of order in her native area. The girl dreams of being at least a little bit like the legendary ‘Granny’ Aching, who helped lost and sick sheep, and also administered justice in her own way.
And then, one day, the main character’s little brother is kidnapped by a terrible sorceress. The young girl decides to become a witch, and Nac Mac Feegle (a local type of fairy folk) declares her their hag. Now she has a mission to save her brother, not to lose authority in front of magical creatures and prove herself as a witch.
The book is filled with folklore: myths, legends, songs, dances, references to other famous works. Nac Mac Feegle speaks their own funny language, the main character is smart, brave and moderately feminine. The book also describes this part of the Discworld very colorfully and picturesquely. I really liked this novel and I can’t wait to read the next ones from this sub-cycle.
“No longer human” by Osamu Dazai
This is the first book by this author that I have read, and it is a painfully honest confession of a man torn between his fear of society and his inability to fit into its norms. Dazai creates a portrait of a man who lives in a constant lie, hiding his true nature behind the mask of a jester until he is consumed by self-destruction.
This book is like a combination of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s desperate existentialism and Charles Bukowski’s doomed nihilism. Like “Notes from Underground”, there is a deep inner conflict between the character and the world, but unlike Dostoevsky, Dazai offers no catharsis - only a slow decline. And if Bukowski romanticized the fall, then in Dazai it seems inevitable and hopeless. I think this is one of the most powerful books I have read in a long time.
“Simulacra and simulation” by Jean Baudrillard
I decided to read this book because it influenced “The Matrix” movie. For me, the book was more of a vague and metaphorical discussion of how in a postmodern world the real dissolves into simulacra - signs that have no connection with the real. Although Baudrillard’s ideas are interesting, his radical pessimism and complex style make them difficult to understand, and the concept of hyperreality itself seems exaggerated.
I think that now in the digital age, his thoughts on simulation can be related to social networks, fake news, and AI-generated content, but they do not take into account human critical thinking. Moreover, Baudrillard himself rejected the connection of “The Matrix” movie with his philosophy, which makes the book less significant for understanding his ideas through cinema. In the end, for me, this book looks more like just an intellectual provocation.
“NGINX cookbook: advanced recipes for high-performance load balancing” by Derek DeJonghe
This book is a practical guide to configuring and optimizing NGINX for load balancing, reverse proxying, and performance. It contains specific recipes for working with caching, HTTPS, security, and scalable architectures.
It is worth noting that part of the book is devoted to the commercial product NGINX Plus, which offers advanced features not available in the free version. Since I was not going to use this solution, I skipped the sections of the book about it.
Overall, the book is useful for administrators and developers working with NGINX, although all this can be found in the official documentation.
“Using Asyncio in Python: understanding Python’s asynchronous programming features” by Caleb Hattingh
The book does a great job of explaining asyncio, its concepts, and usage. One of the main advantages is the clear division of tools:
- for library and framework developers – low-level mechanisms, event loop management, etc.
- for application programmers – convenient async/await, asyncio.run(), asyncio.gather(), and other ready-made solutions.
This helps to avoid unnecessary complications and use asyncio effectively. The book is short but practical – a good choice for learning asynchronous programming in Python.
“Monstrous regiment” by Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett’s “Monstrous Regiment " is a clever and wry war story that focuses on self-identity. The main character, Polly - the lady who dresses as a man to find her brother amidst the horrors of war. Soon she learns the importance of staying true to herself no matter what.
In the book, Pratchett masterfully explores the power of friendship, mutual support, and personal identification. The story touches on important themes such as finding one’s place in the world and overcoming external stereotypes while maintaining a lighthearted, humorous tone.
“Love Yourself Tender” by Olga Primachenko
Last year I went through a rather difficult divorce process. I sought help from a psychotherapist and at one of our meetings he advised me to read this book. I am not very interested in psychology and psychotherapy, and this book is written more for women, but it turned out to be very useful and timely for me. I cannot say that it carries any new ideas or meanings. But it very carefully reminds us how important it is to take care of yourself and to accept yourself.
Probably, for many these things will seem banal and obvious, but at that moment it helped me shift the focus of attention from self-abasement and endless thoughts about my mistakes and failures, to how important it is to listen to your feelings, desires, and take care of yourself.
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