Ben Bartosik

Reading Log

Roughly in order, dates when finished.

study
interest
fun

Currently reading

On Pilgrimage: The Sixties

Dorothy Day

reading

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper

Roland Allen

reading

2026

Governing the Commons

Elinor Ostrom

Dense but important book looking at what enables collective action around shared resources

Aug 2026●●●●
Maintenance of Everything: Part 1

Stewart Brand

The lost art of taking care of things and why we should

Jul 2026●●●●
Good Guys: A Novel

Sharon Bala

Asks, is it possible to do good under a broken system?

Jul 2026●●●●

The Ritual

Adam Nevill

Survival horror meets folk horror when four hikers take a wrong turn deep in a north Sweden forest.

Jul 2026●●●●

The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI

Cory Doctorow

The AI future we are being sold is not inevitable. How—and whether—we use it is up to us.

Jul 2026●●●●

Harvest Home

Thomas Tryon

70s folk horror that left me feeling I should have just rewatched the Wicker Man

Jun 2026●●○○○

The Fisherman

John Langan

Cosmic, lovecraftian horror via fishing yarn

Jun 2026●●●○○

Coffin Moon

Keith Rosson

A bloody vampire revenge roadtrip

Jun 2026●●●●

Grace

A.M. Shine

Surprisingly boring Irish folklore horror. His last book was better.

Jun 2026●●○○○

Enshittification

Cory Doctorow

Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Everything is getting worse and this is why.

Jun 2026●●●●●

Red Rising (books 1-3)

Pierce Brown

Not normally a sci-fi guy, but I'm always down for an anti-imperial/let's tear down the corrupt system story. Main character was a bit of a downer.

Jun 2026●●●○○
Age of Extraction

Tim Wu

More time on tech platforms = more money for billionaires

May 2026●●●○○

The Keeper

Tana French

Tana French has become one of my favourite authors but this third entry in her current trilogy landed a bit weak for me in comparison to her other works

May 2026●●●○○

Dungeon Crawler Carl (1-8)

Matt Dinnaman

The most fun I've had reading in decades

May 2026●●●●●
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Shoshana Zuboff

We are not the customers, we are a raw material to be extracted

May 2026●●●○○
Against the Wind (memoir)

Dorothee Soelle

The life and thought behind the theology of one of the 20th centuries greatest saints

Mar 2026●●●●
Against the Machine

Paul Kingsnorth

Curmudgeonly anti-tech manifesto

Jan 2026●●●○○

2025

Capitalism and the Death Drive

Byung-Chul Han

Meditations on the way capitalism deprives life of life

Oct 2025●●●●