The books of 2026

1. Gökboet [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest] - Ken Kesey

So I finally read one of the countercultural iconic novels. It's true that McMurphy is an arsehole, but he probably has to be. It's the unrighteous one showing us how we "righteous" people oppress both others and ourselves. I became pretty angry at the abuse of power the head nurse inflicted on the patients, but the significant point is of course that apart from McMurphy, they are there of their own free will. It's like the inverse of the definition of the Enlightenment. Maybe it takes someone broken to break us free. I still think we need a society, and I think togetherness is the only way anarchy wont spiral down into authoritarianism. Like Le Guin showed in The Dispossed, it's the "groupthink" that's the worst enemy of freedom. We need some force that goes against "good taste", in order for that not to be our next prison. Even though McMurphy's story didn't end happily, I think the story ended happily for all he touched. I can see how this would be a book that could affect you very strongly if you read it at the right time.

2. Lyorn - Steven Brust

Now we're cooking with gas! After the complicated setup in Hawk, Vlad was out of the worst of it, just to have another faction wanting him dead. Has he finally taken care of that enemy as well? I really liked this one, as Vlad was funny and the plotting was tight. He did manage to outthink his enemies, and wasn't just saved by his powerful friends. It did feel a bit like Tsalmoth in that Brust manages to make Vlad come across as charming, but also clearly show his negetive and ugly prejudices and his arrogance. But, I'm now really pumped up for the race to the finish line, as it feels like Brust is accellerating towards the end. When I re-read it all again, this will be one I'll looks forward to. One little niggle was that there where a few scenes told from a perspective I don't think was known to Vlad. How does that match up with the story being told by Vlad to the "black box"? Curious.

3. Inventing the Renaissance - Ada Palmer

This book is too long, and too wordy. Apart from that it was very interesting, and it took apart the myth of the golden age in an educational and entertaining way. What are the myths? What where the times? What was renaissance humanism, really? Palmer takes it all apart and makes it make sense. Sadly, she almost drowns the clarifications in the long winding sentences. I also get the impression many of the sections of the book where written separately, as if often feels like she repeats things needlessly. Is it writing for the online generation? I liked how it expounded the collaborative aspects of social science, and how real science is about trying and about being wrong. It made me once more think of reading Machiavelli. One telling thing was that one of the great things in the book, how ideology and worldview can explain climate change denial against all empirical evidence, was buried in a footnote about cornupianism on page 616! It was a good book, but I think it could have been better with agressive culling.