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Huh. Not really a pilgrimage or a travel journal or ....anything i have read. Seemingly random thoughts at several stations along an ancient pilgrimage, seemingly from a random person. A book without purpose, or message.

The description of the book is more in depth than the book itself.

Some recipe like onion bread are so wrong, first time I suspect a book to be ai written.

Meh. More of a 'blow up a really good article' to a 300 pages type of book. Good stuff in it, but lots of repetition, way overstretched.

Short poems - not one I was able to connect to. Maybe I am lacking the experiences that would allow me to understand or get some feel for a poem? Some seem plain descriptive, some seem more like playing with words - but not making any sense for me.

Either I am clearly not the target audience or its just that.

Making time - for making. A call to move from 'producing' what is demanded, from being tiny wheel in the big machine, to becoming ourselves with unleashing our creativity to "make", with 'make' in the widest sense of the word. Many short chapters - tiny topic after tiny topic from current to liberation to actually making.

Lots of ideas, great call-outs, some wisdom - for me at least.
One of my favorites is at the end of the book and talks about knowing or not if what you make influences others - love it.

Somehow really hard to read, though, even tiny chapter by tiny chapter.

just a beautiful novella.

Ai gone rogue - overprotective. Unusual team gets thrown in the environment causing plenty of friction. Good old independence, the David of AI's and a group of outcasts fight back successfully.

Book is absolutely readable, funny at times (some good, some less so) and entertaining - but definitely not novel in any aspect.

(still: thanks for the free 'reviewers' book. )

Great idea - unsubscribe - but seems more like a 'one idea spread out very far' kind of book. Stopped after ~1/2, too little substance after the initial reasoning.

The book is an in depth, perhaps philosophical, examination of art and how it relates to nature, time, culture, other cultures. The 'meditations' in the title are a great label for the meandering explorations of Japanese art, life, time and the relevance of context.
Following the author was challenging at times without having much context or previous knowledge - but felt like expanding understanding how intricately woven cultural elements are with everything else.

For someone who is somewhat interested in Japanese culture, this book from 'early reviewers' was a gift: I would not have picked it up in a store or catalog, but have thoroughly enjoyed 'learning' from the author's reflections.

The book has the same pro- and antagonists as the first book. While the first book was a fun read, with a fairly moderate amount of fantasy elements, the second book is falling into the 'fantasy trap' of going ever stronger, ever more evil, ever more fantastic feats.

Like the first book in the series - very entertaining, well written, lots of up and downs. Would be great, if the cliches would not be so overly familiar: group of misfits saves the world, snarky but warm heart, clumsy but strong, the mechanic that can fix everything - as does the doc.

Nice little book, easy read to relax and just enjoy. A tough princess, lots of dragons and some heroes in an unsurprising, smooth story.

great to see regional vegan recipes! Many great ideas, recipes, some more doable than others, but overall great book.

easy, often vegan recipes. tried a few, loved them all. having read and used lots of cook books - this is a keeper.

Author plundering their notebook for scraps to make some quick bucks...

Easy read and entertaining - if not much novel in it.

Disappointing, one of these "one central thought" books. Talking about lots of hacks in various systems - most are well known.
Not really any new insight, barely entertaining.

I also disagree on statements, some examples:
1. Ambiguity, at least in many systems, is desirable, as it allows not just compromise but also offers flexibility.
2. A 'hacking governance system' as proposed does not make sense, as hack are by his definition circumventing regulation.
3. And even more importantly, while he mention power structures as one of the main hindrance for progress against hacks, he is not addressing this in his ideas for solutions.
4. Instead of a 'hacking governance system', we need more democratic institutions to address these, like a 'citizen forum'.

Lovely little book of lovely short poems. Many of those evoke feelings like some japanese art, many Haiku or Caspar David Friedrich's paintings:
Impermanence, Insignificance, and the acceptance of Imperfection.

Hopepunk in Western style - entertaining, sweet, but most of all very, very different to what I have read before. Relatively slow moving - but with surprising turns.
Missing 1/2 a star because there are some turns that seem a bit (!) of a stretch.

Really loved this one, and while an extremely different setting a similar feeling to 'angry planet' .

Tried twice to read it, but after some hundred pages - no thanks. Book one was great, book two was ok, book three... too much.

I received this as an 'early reviewer' - and was even a bit hesitant to order it, uncertain if it would be a match at all.

A poet, accidental artist, becomes a revolutionary in describing his desolate world. He work is still misunderstood, used against his will, but in the end he becomes the savior of humankind.
There is a big potential to be kitschy with this story, but to me the story of Evans, while tumultuous and full of action, focuses on thought and reflections. Poetry floats up among all the action taking place which appears more as a setting than the center for attention. Poetry, like a haiku or even koans, is interspersed into everything, give it more and more interesting meaning that just the plain actions. If anything, I would have liked more of this!

A very nice surprise after my initial skepticism and the first handful of bumpy pages.

Insgesamt lesenswert - KI mal ein bisschen anders, ganz interessante Vermischung mit anderen Themen wie dem Bewusstseinshochladen.

Der Erzaehler sicher ganz gut dargestellt - die zwei anderen Hauptfiguren sind ein bisschen duenn, und die Geschichte manchmal ein bisschen schwer zu folgen.

Waehrend das Ende doch recht ploetzlich kommt, sind andere Passagen doch recht lang.

Easy, entertaining read, more of a fairy tale than a fantasy book, as pretty much everything that often is associated with the genre is missing. The goblin versus elves setting seems more a tale of territorial and racial politics than any special faculties.

Too many names are being strewn in anew for my liking. The story itself is as traditional as it gets, but entices with details around the emperor's details and chores.

Not anything really interesting. Very simple story, little humor, flat characters, meager world building. "Meh" all around.

Fantasy time travel with Dan, a plumber, and Freddie. Easy read, funny at times, quite entertaining.

A bit too old fashioned in the stereotyping, a bit misuse of language ('hermaphrodite' really hurts bad), but overall harmless, entertaining fun.

Took me months to finish - definitely a hard to read book for me. The occasional pearl of wisdom, learning, is well embedded in lots of historical context. It also has a lot of personal commentary, and strongly reminds me of the endlessly boring sermons of my childhood - each chapter, but also the whole book.

Great start, interesting story and characters. Teleportation and mind reading are firmly in the 'fantasy' genre, not scifi.

The story turns more and more into a cheesy romance fantasy with some scifi elements.

A nice book, liked it, although it is a bit 'unpolished'.

Some interpersonal drama, not really any fights, a little suspense, tiny bit romance, some scifi elements and some character development but not a lot of any of this. Overall it is also a fairly standard story, nothing really standing out.

I still enjoyed reading it quite well.

Interesting topic, but i did not realize how overpowering the spiritual approach is. I was interested in 'learning humility' not a religious pamphlet, and thus stopped a few pages in.

Quaint. Short.