literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
Book Review: "Criminal" by Tom Gash
Subtitled The Truth About Why People Do Bad Things, Tom Gash's book focuses on the way in which we interpret crime, how we see factors relative to crime and of course, why those who commit it choose to go in that direction. The book is an interest read complete with graphs and data, but also shows the reader why data and statistics perhaps, may not be able to explain everything and how the amount of variables that are actually within the sphere requires them to be cut down by the researcher - creating implicit bias as to which variable is 'valued' over another. It's a book that works with an incredible amount of research and explanation to tell the story of why people do bad things.
By Annie Kapur2 months ago in Geeks
Why I left CIA
I still remember the night I knew I couldn’t stay. I was sitting alone in a cheap motel room somewhere in the Middle East, the hum of the air conditioner mixing with the distant shouts of a city that didn’t sleep. My hands were shaking—not from fear, but from exhaustion and something heavier, something I couldn’t name. Years of carrying secrets, running operations, and watching people’s lives hang by a thread had finally left me hollowed out inside.
By John Smith2 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Pseudoscience: A Very Short Introduction" by Michael D. Gordin
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: I love free books. I also love dipping my toes into the Very Short Introduction series, especially when I'm between bigger books. I've read those on Biblical History, I've read some on philosophy and now this one, is on pseudoscience. From UFOs to Anti-Vaxxers, from eugenics to how the Russians basically made up their own science during the height of communism, from the planets to the human body - pseudoscience is everywhere. But what is it, where did it come from, and what are the different forms it can arise in? Well, the truth is that pseudoscience is just as old as science itself...
By Annie Kapur2 months ago in Geeks
When Ice Becomes a Battlefield
For most of the world, Greenland exists as a blur on the edge of the map—vast, frozen, distant. A place of ice sheets and silence. A place you don’t think about unless you’re scrolling past climate headlines or watching a documentary late at night.
By KAMRAN AHMAD2 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Time After Time" by Chris Atkins
I'm quite interested in the prison systems across the world and how they work. Back when I read Let the Lord Sort Them a few months ago, I was surprised at how horrifying the American death row system actually was and how often it got things wrong and that doesn't just mean that they executed the wrong person - it means that the system is definitely rigged against some. Chris Atkins though, writes about the British prison system, where the death penalty thankfully doesn't exist (I don't trust the government to make the correct decisions on whether prisoners live or not). But there are so many damn things wrong that if you're not angry, then you're not paying attention. The British Government, no matter who is in charge, is the biggest joke in the country.
By Annie Kapur2 months ago in Geeks
Why I Trust Google More Than My Own Memory
I forgot my cousin’s birthday last year. Not just the date. I forgot the month. I stood in the middle of a grocery store, staring at my phone, typing her name into Google like it might gently remind me who I was supposed to be.
By John Smith2 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Queen" by Andrew Morton. Top Story - January 2026.
You're probably wondering why on earth I would read this book. It was free and it was a fair length. That was basically it at first. But another reason is because I enjoyed the show The Crown and so, it only makes sense to read a book that goes through separating facts from fictions - and to be fair, there aren't a lot of fictions about the show it seems. From the birth of the little princess and the way in which her father was reluctantly to become the king, all the way to meeting and marrying the veteran prince, Duke of Edinburgh and even down to the death of her father, queendom and beyond, this book actually gives us a lot about a woman who basically embodied the greatness and modernisation of the British 20th Century.
By Annie Kapur2 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "On 1984" by D.J Taylor
I was almost not going to review this book because I felt it was a bit short. But it is something that was interesting to read and so, why not? The story of 1984 by George Orwell does not stand alone in the world of dystopian literature, we know that. It was definitely a reflection of its time. However, what many do not know is that it didn't even stand alone in the author's life. It is an amalgamation, a fusion, a mirror of everything he had written up to that point. From Winston Smith being inspired by aspects of himself all the way to the way in which rats are used as a symbol of terror and disgust. There is something about how 1984 is a product of connected thinking that makes us see it in a whole new light through this text...
By Annie Kapur2 months ago in Geeks
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
Published in 1922, Jacob’s Room was Virginia Woolf’s third novel and marked a significant departure from her earlier, more traditional narratives. The book is considered Woolf’s first major experimental work, foreshadowing the stream-of-consciousness style that would define Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). Jacob’s Room was published by the Hogarth Press, the small publishing house founded by Woolf and her husband, Leonard Woolf.
By Annie Kapur2 months ago in Geeks
