Joined February 2009
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3,515 Photos and videos
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May 12
Audiobooks – January, February 2026
The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich 3/5
Who Owns This Sentence: A History of Copyrights and Wrongs 3/5
The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush 4/5
blog.darkmere.gen.nz/2026/05…
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May 31
For the Love of Trains: Celebrating 200 Years of British Railways by Paul Routledge
Review: A mix of rail history and stories of the author's life and journeys. An okay light read but either topic is better severed elsewhere 3/5
lovereading.co.uk/book/97819…
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Simon Lyall retweeted
May 12
Audiobooks – January, February 2026
The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich 3/5
Who Owns This Sentence: A History of Copyrights and Wrongs 3/5
The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush 4/5
blog.darkmere.gen.nz/2026/05…
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Simon Lyall retweeted
May 20
Unfortunately at the start of April 2026 X made their API pay-only so this feed stopped working
Thank you for all the support since 2009 when this account started
Posts to BlueSky will continue if you want to join us there
- Simon
bsky.app/profile/nzquake.bsk…
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May 16
The KLF: Chaos, Magic, and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds by John Higgs
4/5
Review: Not a convention band biography but more an explanation on their influences and thinking. Fascinating, funny and a fun read
cyclicdefrost.com/2013/12/th…
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May 11
The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush
4/5
Review: A fairly balanced biography of the 6 astronauts. Covering before and during the Astronaut careers and to an extent afterwards. Worth a read for space fans.
theguardian.com/books/2023/s…
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May 9
Who Owns This Sentence: A History of Copyrights and Wrongs by David Bellos & Alexandre Montagu
3/5
Review: A look at the almost random ways and reasons copyright has changed over the centuries usually as different groups lobbied governments
historytoday.com/archive/rev…
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May 3
Review:
The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich
3/5
The story of John C. Houbolt, a NASA engineer who pushed for Lunar Orbit Rendezvous for the Apollo program. Just 3 hours long but Interesting
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Simon Lyall retweeted
Apr 22
The Kiwi Moot Conference to take place in Wellington, New Zealand in February 2027
It is a three-day conference based around Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and related topics
#tolkien #lotr
More information:
signumuniversity.org/event/k…
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Simon Lyall retweeted
Jan 8
Audiobooks – Dec 2025
After Eden: A short history of the world by John Charles Chasteen 3/5
Ground Combat by Ben Connable 3/5
Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang 4/5
The Devil Reached towards the Sky by Garrett M. Graff 4/5
blog.darkmere.gen.nz/2026/01…
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Jan 2
Review:
The Devil Reached towards the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb by Garrett M. Graff
4/5
Structured as quotes from characters spken by actors. Better coverage of Oak Ridge & Hanford than most books. Pretty good
andrewliptak.com/atomic-bomb…
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Simon Lyall retweeted
19 Dec 2025
Review:
After Eden: A short history of the world by John Charles Chasteen
3/5
A history of the world but from the point of view of how society organises and people treat each other. Interesting
archive.ph/j0rGJ
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27 Dec 2025
Review
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
4/5
Contrasts the Lawyer Culture of the US vs China's Engineer Culture. Discusses aspects of China's culture, Government and Industry. Recommend
noahpinion.blog/p/book-revie…
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21 Dec 2025
Ground Combat: Puncturing the Myths of Modern War by Ben Connable
3/5
A bit dry and academic with a lot of "talking to my dataset" but some interesting bits on trends in modern warfare including early parts of Ukraine war
foreignaffairs.com/reviews/g…
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9 Dec 2025
Audiobooks November 2025
The Global Age Europe 1950-2017 by Ian Kershaw 4/5
The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn by Alice George 4/5
blog.darkmere.gen.nz/2025/12…
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2 Dec 2025
Review
The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn by Alice George
4/5
A fairly brief and positive biography of one of America's first Astronauts. "heroic without being perfect" . Worth a read
archive.ph/Ww5Ux
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Simon Lyall retweeted
30 Nov 2025
Review
The Global Age Europe 1950-2017 by Ian Kershaw
4/5
Covers all of Cold War Europe quite well for politics and culture. A good general introduction. Part of the Penguin History of Europe
theguardian.com/books/2018/n…
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