Hmmmm... I appear to be on a bit of a book buying spree at the moment, lots of books being bought which is starting to create a bit of a backlog of unread books! Still, I really love having books around... and eventually, I will get around to reading them! Especially if I don't spend my time blogging instead... on the other hand, I do enjoy blogging... but if I read the books, then I will have more thoughts to blog about... sigh, what a conundrum. It sounds like that the path forward is to read the books, experience life, and then blog!

Anyway... given that I haven't YET read these books, I guess the second best thing is to blog about receiving them and the sense of anticipation to reading them instead! These days, I guess many people tend to stop there... but I do intend to read these ones! After all, two of the books are books that I've been really wanting to read for a little bit... one a bit longer than the other obviously!

Anyway, about the books... "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn... this is a staple of scientific philosophy and epistemology(?). First published in 1960s, it deals with the upending of scientific concepts and views on reality as old paradigms of thought and baseline assumptions are revisited, rethought, and eventually replaced. Often this has been the result of a dead end in the current way of thinking, a sort of end point where the reality of the universe is starting to disagree with the theoretical models which results in scientists needing to revisit original assumptions that led to the current "best approximation" of the Universe. After all, the reality of the universe is sort of the key arbiter of what is true or not... This has happened many times in the past, and there are indications that we are headed to this sort of "leap" in the near future in a number of fields (the ones that I'm interested in are the ones that deal with Mathematics and Physics, but I'm sure that other fields also have their little moments!). Sometimes, the concept of a "neglected" and "minority" interpretation of a field suddenly becoming the dominant paradigm has been misinterpreted to mean that having a "non-standard" and contrarian view is somehow going to be justified in the future... it isn't that, but.., sigh, I'll keep my thoughts on that to myself!

Next off the ranks of reading material is a book that ISN'T for me! My youngest one has suddenly taken a keen interest in Chess for some reason! My older one has been teaching her a little bit, and I really need to start playing it more with both of them. So, I thought it would be nice to get her a little starter chess book for her.... I remember my first chess books, sadly they don't seem to be in print any more, but I remember how much I would read them and cherish the characters that brought the board game to life in my own imagination!

Finally, the Cryptopians by Laura Shin. Laura is one of the most respected journalists and podcasters reporting on crypto (Unchained podcast) and that is a pretty rare breed in this field. Her podcasts often feature sober commentary from industry, tech people, and regulators in the cryptocurrency and blockchain fields and it is refreshingly devoid of hype hype hype! Her first large book deals with the early days of Ethereum, the characters and personalities, and major events like the DAO hack and fork. The early days of cryptocurrency, when the space was filled with idealists and tech-nerds of many stripes... before the big money came in and turned the space into the "interesting" place that it is now. I've been wanting to get this book for quite some time, and it only just became available for order and delivery in Australia... so, I immediately jumped on it!

So, lots more dead wood ideas to devour in the coming months and years! I think I will end up taking a few of these on tour with me... perhaps not the Chess on though!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
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Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!