iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Took me eleven years to get here but today was the day.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Autograph letter from Nikola Tesla

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

You may be asking, how did I wind up here?

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Well there's a name I haven't thought about in a long time.

Front of Toscanini's ice cream in Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Found that the grape vine I planted earlier this year finally "took." Wish I remembered what variety it is lol.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I prefer Star Hustler day myself . . .

Image of Jack Horkheimer, host of TVs Star Hustler show in front of a background image of a colorful nebula.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Yup, dawg. "You talk most like someone from New Jersey — about 61% of your answers match a typical resident." mydialect.us/quiz-standar...

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

You mean, despite my turning off all AI features in my Google account, you opted me into more without asking, Google?

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

What? I am outraged, outraged I say.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

12-year-old me's dream come true

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Harriet Tubman about an hour and a half away if you're driving.

The grave marker for Harriet Tubman. Several items are strewn about in front including flowers, a red shawl, and a number of oranges.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Happy eight-year anniversary to giant greeting card day.

Picture of Trump holding a giant greeting card from North Korea in 2018

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#27 Why the West Rules--for Now by Ian Morris. Basically, a comparative history of China vs. Europe/North America. Uses a self-devised "social development index" as the basis of his analysis, and this is explained in a companion volume that I have not read. Interesting but no idea if accurate.

Cover of Why the West Rules--for Now by Ian Morris. Title and author name with abstract shapes of color and a somewhat surreal painting of what I assume is Neptune (with his trident) and a lion staring down a group of gods/people/horses, some of whom are reaching out towards him.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#26 The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. Etymogically-correct made-up terms and literary descriptions of complicated emotions and feelings. A sample: ludiosis n. the sense that you’re just making it up as you go along (a bit more extended than this but longer than a skeet)

Cover of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. Title and author name superimposed on an artistic image of a rocky landscape with a wildly-starry sky above.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#25 Conquest : how societies overwhelm others by David Day. Colonialism, power, genocide, empire building - should have been better than it is. Challenging.

Cover of Conquest by David Day with the title and author name sumperimposed over a painting of armored soldiers and horses marching towards a - city? ziggurat? Not entirely clear to me.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#24 Trilobite! : an eyewitness to evolution by Richard Fortey. Who doesn't love trilobites, maybe the weirdest animals to ever dominate the planet? Fun read.

Cover of Trilobite! by Richard Fortey. Title and author name on a black background, centered by a photograph of a trilobite fossil.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#23 Trapped in the present tense by Colette Brooks. A look at what we remember and forgotten aspects of recent events.

Cover of Trapped in the present tense by Colette Brooks. Blue with the title and author name, and three round windows mimicking cutouts with the author's personal photographs visible through them.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#22 Diary of a Man in Despair by Frederich Reck. Writings of a conservative upper-class German, horrified by the Nazi regime and what it was doing. Brutal.

Cover of Diary of a Man in Despair by Frederich Reck showing a painting of a person lying in the street with trains and train tracks behind them.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#21 Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper by Paul E. Johnson. A brief biography of one of America's first daredevils. Also the awakening of class consciousness in Jacksonian America. Really interesting.

Cover of Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper by Paul E. Johnson. A contemporary painting of Niagara Falls with several people admiring them framed by the title and author.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#20 The Wandering Mind by Jamie Kreiner. How did medieval monks stay focused? Lots to learn about how easy it was for even them to get distracted.

Cover of The Wandering Mind by Jamie Kreiner. Orange background with the title and author name, and a set of eyes with one being partially covered by what appears to be the hand of a zombie.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Way way behind here! OK, #19 was The Medieval Imagination by Jacques Le Goff. Marvels, dreams, purgatory, bodies in medieval thought.

Cover of The Medieval Imagination by Jacques Le Goff. A line drawing of a medieval building, roofless, with a background of a cloudy sky.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

#18 Who Owns This Sentence? by David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu. A history of copyright. Way more engaging than it has any right to be.

Cover of Who Owns This Sentence? Shows a mock copyright page for the book itself.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

#17 Too Much to Know by Ann Blair. A look at early printed compilations and reference books. Pretty dry, honestly, but I'm glad to have read it.

Cover of Too Big to Know by Ann Blair. Title and Author name above an image of a Renaissance-era scholar surrounded by piles of paper and other materials.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

#16 Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Holland. Jesus, what horrible people. A great read.

Cover of Dynasty by Tom Holland with the title and Author name superimposed on an image of the burning of Rome from behind an arch.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

#15 A History of Science, Magic, and Belief by Steven Marrone. VERY dense scholarly look at the interplay between the three title aspects of knowledge, mostly in medieval times. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Am I relieved to be done with it? Also yes.

Cover of A History of Science, Magic, and Belief by Steven Marrone showing a scene from a Hieronymus Bosch image showing a king or religious figure on a throne with three human/animal hybrids at the base of his throne with a headless demon on a platter and other fantastical creatures lying about.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

#14 How Do We Look by Mary Beard. A VERY short book that I actually wish were longer. Tied into a BBC series from a few years ago, it is richly illustrated with images of the artworks that Beard talks about. A good reminder that how WE see something is not necessarily how people in the past saw it.

Cover of How Do We Look by Mary Beard. Author name and book title surrounded by a circle of miscellaneous patterned images.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

#13 The Myth of the Strong Leader by Archie Brown. A look at authoritarianism and totalitarianism and why it fails. Really a good, accessible read.

Cover of the Myth of the Strong Leader by Archie Brown showing a black and white image of a man from behind, standing at a lectern, raising his arms in the air, with a gigantic outdoor crowd in front of him.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

#12 Great Adaptations by Kenneth Catania. How and why do some unusual creatures become so? Looks at star-nosed moles, electric eels, and wasps that turn cockroaches into zombies. Really fascinating, another short, quick read.

Cover of Great Adaptations by Kenneth Catania, with images of eels and moles on a cream-colored background, along with he title and author name.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

#11 Enchanted Creatures by Natalie Lawrence. A book about mostly imaginary beasts and why we create them. Really a quick breezy read, enjoyed it.

Cover of Enchanted Creatures by Natalie Lawrence, images of green and gold cryptids, most prominently two dragons, on a black background with the title and author name.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

#10 The Discovery of the Past by Alain Schnapp. A kind of "prehistory" of archeology and all the stops and starts before it developed into a full-blown profession. Interesting but dry. Lots of good illustrations and photographs of early antiquarian discoveries.

Cover of the Discovery of the Past, illustrated with several images of early archeological finds, a map, and an image from an illuminated manuscript of a bearded man digging into the side of a hill.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

#9 Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children by Michael Newton. The very thought is mindboggling - children either abandoned to the wild or otherwise kept from all human contact in their formative years, but still survived. Kaspar Hauser probably the best known. Really fascinating.

Cover of Savage Girls and Wild Boys by Michael Newton, showing two young children staring into the camera with distant looks in their eyes.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

And then #8, Algospeak by Adam Aleksic. A Christmas gift from my older teenage son, it was much more engaging than I thought it would be. Really interesting how language - not just English - is being changed by the way websites work and filter/promote/censor particular things.

Cover of Algospeak by Adam Aleksic, showing dozens of various facial emojis with varying expressions.

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Jonathan Bohan @jonathanbohan.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

#7 Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. Finally finished Morris's three-volume bio of Teddy. Just an absolutely fascinating guy, really progressive on some issues and really regressive on others, even in his time. Finished this the other day but forgot to add here.

Cover of Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, an artistic image of Roosevelt in his later years.

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