Welcome to Bookmarker!

This is a personal project by @dellsystem. I built this to help me retain information from the books I'm reading.

Source code on GitHub (MIT license).

Bookmarker tag: meh/style (38 notes)

Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
by Ellen Pao

the deep divisions between the rich and poor
by Ellen Pao

[...] Spending time with open, optimistic people reminded me that it might be possible to fix some of what was broken in our country - particularly the deep divisions between the rich and poor and between those at the center at those at the margins. I felt renewed and excited. I remembered why I loved tech. When I got home I felt, more than ever, committed to making a difference through my work.

what the fuck lmao

—p.60 | Startup City | created Jun 03, 2019

hotel shower, here i come
by Ellen Pao

The train took forever. I couldn’t wait to get to the hotel to shower. At last, we were off the train and walking to the hotel. Hotel shower, here I come, I thought.

who writes like this

—p.92 | Getting Crushed | created Jun 03, 2019

we were so in love
by Ellen Pao

During our courtship, I was traveling to China for Kleiner all the time. So we could spend time together, Buddy joined me. We were so in love. One night after dinner, just six weeks after we’d met, he took me to the roof of the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai. A band was playing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” How funny, I thought. That’s one of our favorite songs. And then Buddy was getting down on one knee and opening a ring box.

SHOW DONT TELL jesus h christ

—p.105 | What a Wonderful World | created Jun 03, 2019

the world was a meritocracy
by Ellen Pao

For years, I’d tried to believe in the story of Kleiner as a place where we were really trying to help entrepreneurs to build awesome companies and products. I’d believed that we were this team of people working together and that we were trying to be missionaries, not mercenaries. But eventually I’d come to see all that talk as a big lie. My parents raised me to believe that the world was a meritocracy, that if you worked hard enough you could get ahead. But that wasn’t true at Kleiner. It just wasn’t fair.

im sorry but this made me laugh out loud

—p.144 | The Last Straw | created Jun 03, 2019

I respected her and thought the interview went well
by Ellen Pao

In the wake of the verdict, I just wanted to hide, but in the months after the trial, I knew it would be good for reddit if I did a little bit of press. In April, Katie Couric sat down in our offices to interview me, even though I’d turned her down at first. Initially I didn’t want to do any video, but Katie was visiting her daughter at Stanford and asked to meet with me, and we got along well. She seemed so nice and genuinely empathetic, and she even shared some of her personal experiences with bias in journalism across her entire career. She was warm and professional, so I agreed to my first on-camera interview. I was very tightly wound and found it hard to relax, but she was fair and professional. I respected her and thought the interview went well.

why does she include all this unnecessary detail??? where was her editor

—p.222 | Verdict and FAllout | created Jun 03, 2019

sitting together on the sand
by Ellen Pao

And so we left town on our first trip for fun in ages. For the first time in years, there were no calls scheduled, no emails to return, and no emergencies to handle. We went to Maui to see Lori, my old friend from Google. Our daughter loved Hawaii so much—from her first taste of shave ice to sunset hikes on the beach—and Buddy and I loved being on the beach, watching her frolic in the surf. The stress of the trial, the miscarriage, and all the other crises of the past few years had taken a toll on our marriage. I didn’t know what would happen with us. But I did know that, whatever happened, sitting together on the sand watching our little girl laughing in the sun would give us a wonderful memory.

i just???? what???

—p.233 | Verdict and FAllout | created Jun 03, 2019

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.
by Adelle Waldman

a loneliness he began to fear would be permanent
by Adelle Waldman

[...] The spring of his sophomore year, he began to read from feverish loneliness, a loneliness he began to fear would be permanent. After all, if someone like him, wasn't happy in college, where and when would he be happy? His disappointment and isolation made him bitter, and he judged the world around him harshly, with the too-broad strokes of a crank. [...]

idk why i wanted to save this. it's kind of sad and interesting i guess. the last sentence ends in a really clunky way

—p.27 | created Dec 03, 2019

everybody took the quality they had
by Adelle Waldman

[...] He had wondered if everybody took the quality they had and treated it as the most important thing - used it as a basis for feeling superior to others.

important concept, though could be better worded

—p.104 | created Dec 03, 2019

Perfidious Albion
by Sam Byers

because they’d done it, anyone could do it
by Sam Byers

[...] It wasn’t just Handler’s politics that repelled her, it was the entire ideology these life-hacking white boys espoused. Unable to explain their privilege by any other means, they had convinced themselves and others that everything that had landed in their laps had landed there not through basic structural imbalance but through some sort of philosophy. Tech-bros weren’t overpaid and over-lauded because they’d had everything handed to them on a plate, went the accepted wisdom, but because they’d focused, or lived their vision, or actualised. Because they’d done it, anyone could do it. Because anyone could do it, anyone who didn’t do it had only themselves to blame.

i mean i dont disagree with this obviously but the style feels heavy-handed?

this also glosses over the potential contradiction in "because they’d done it, anyone could do it" - surely they dont actually think anyone could do it; they think they are one of a lucky few with the natural talent. but they also know that feels unfair so they cloak it in pretensions of universality despite not actually believing in it. idk. should be investigated more.

—p.100 | created Apr 29, 2021

I’m literally looking at the ambulance
by Sam Byers

‘OK,’ said Hugo as the car eased up to the kerb and he took in the scene, ‘I’m seeing an ambulance.’

Teddy didn’t look at the ambulance but instead checked his tablet for news of it.

‘I’m not seeing anything that would suggest an ambulance,’ he said.

‘I’m literally looking at the ambulance, Teddy.’

Teddy tapped around. ‘Looking at it doesn’t tell us anything,’ he said.

‘It tells us it fucking exists,’ said Hugo.

‘Right. An ambulance exists. I could have told you that without seeing one, no? It’s irrelevant. That ambulance could just be there as a matter of protocol. Visual confirmation of its presence is, like, literally useless at this point.’

‘Maybe we should briefly speculate,’ said Hugo.

i think this would be funnier if the fact that Teddy didn't look at the ambulance were conveyed more obliquely & w/o the all-seeing eye. like instead of that second line, something a little more basic/perfunctory: "Teddy pulled out his tablet and tapped at it for a few scconds."

—p.300 | created Apr 29, 2021

No One Is Talking About This
by Patricia Lockwood

Guess What: Tech Has an Ethics Problem
by Patricia Lockwood

Even a spate of sternly worded articles called “Guess What: Tech Has an Ethics Problem” was not making tech have less of an ethics problem. Oh man. If that wasn’t doing it, what would??

the extra ? is maybe superfluous

—p.64 | created Jul 05, 2021

Of Women and Salt
by Gabriela Garcia

at the crescent of raw fear
by Gabriela Garcia

After the blows came kicks sometimes. With mud-caked boots. Drawing blood from a broken nose that never repaired right, from split lips and knocked-out teeth. She should have feared death but she didn't. In the moments when Daniel appeared ready to kill her, all thought ceased, and she retracted into the shell of her arms, saw splinters of light, spinning walls, felt like a child on a merry-go-round thrust off and ready to hit the floor. Sometimes, at the crescent of raw fear, she felt free, like she soared. The pain came later.

the level of detail is too maudlin/artless for me but the ending is nice. though idk why "crescent" fits here - why not crescendo?

—p.157 | created Jul 01, 2021

Carmen had stood at the back door that night
by Gabriela Garcia

How was she to know that Carmen had stood at the back door that night? That she'd seen her father's face slowly consumed by licking flames and tiptoed back into the house? In fifteen years, Carmen would board a plane to Miami, and Dolores would never see her again. She would think it was politics that had divided her from her firstborn daughter.

ok this is a cool twist but why state the last sentence explicitly, and in such a matter-of-fact way (without any new detail or color)? it kinda ruins the vibes

—p.168 | created Jul 01, 2021

you're not like other girls, he says
by Gabriela Garcia

[...] You're not like other girls, he says, and I wind the words tight around me, a cape. The world is full of other girls - shiny-haired, giggle-glowing, simultaneously pure and sex-enthralled, groups of them, worlds of them, walking in community, writhing under club lights, running through parks. But if he says he doesn't like other girls, if I am not an "other girl," he will be mine, not theirs.

Except that I know deep down that I am other girls. They spin in me and around me. I am of them: my coworker who has been wearing the same lipstick shade, Barely Legal, every day since some guy leaned over the counter and complimented her on the color. [...] Sasha who is no longer my best friend, because her boyfriend told her he thought she should dress more like me [...] and so she realized I was not an other girl to him or that she was not a special girl, a chosen girl, or that all the categories collapse at the behest of the men who make them and that it is just easier to pretend that we have any control in the first place. Control is pushing me away.

the prose feels a bit clunky but the "categories collapse" bit is kinda nice

—p.172 | created Jul 01, 2021

Assembly
by Natasha Brown

in a panorama around me, the sky is melting
by Natasha Brown

In a panorama around me, the sky is melting: reds and oranges into inky blue and nighttime. I stare through the surely colour-distorting, anti-UV-tinted, floor-to-ceiling window-walls. Out past the skyscrapers and into the blurred green-grey horizon beyond. My fingers feel numb but my face is hot, and prickles. I log out of my workstation, pack up my handbag and head towards the lifts.

this is like almost good but the last sentence is stupid. "head towards the lifts" feels clumsy and lazy. what is the point of including this here? it doesn't even sound nice.

—p.36 | created Jan 06, 2022

he’s at the station already
by Natasha Brown

A buzz. He’s at the station already.

Nearly there, I send back.

what the hell is the point of this lol. another metaphor for the whole social mobility thing? is she really nearly there? it's too timid/uninteresting a theme to merit this much metaphor

—p.60 | created Jan 06, 2022

The Invisible Circus
by Jennifer Egan

Phoebe noticed through his T-shirt
by Jennifer Egan

She sat on the floor, away from the charcoal couch. When Kyle shed his army jacket, Phoebe noticed through his T-shirt how muscular he was. He took a joint from a Lucite cigarette holder on the coffee table and fired it up, then lowered himself to the floor.

feels too flat

—p.6 | created Feb 28, 2022

Ripe
by Sarah Rose Etter

for a moment, just a moment
by Sarah Rose Etter

Upstairs in my tiny apartment, I pull a small bag of cocaine from the freezer and cut out a line, then suck the powder up my nostrils. The drugs lace into my blood. I lean back on my cheap blue sofa and stare at the white ceiling. For a moment, just a moment, the man on fire is gone and there is nothing in my mind at all. For a moment, I am cold, still, a cadaver on a silver autopsy table.

god i hate this

—p.5 | created Oct 31, 2023

whether you’re a Believer or not
by Sarah Rose Etter

But out here, out west, there are endless hours of commuting, constant emails and notifications, top secret projects, impossible deadlines. Whether you’re a Believer or not, the very pressure of the atmosphere in San Francisco changes you, molds you, shapes you into a new breed of worker. It has changed me.

sooo preachy im bored

—p.7 | created Oct 31, 2023

the fog is heavy, dark, thick
by Sarah Rose Etter

Outside, the fog is heavy, dark, thick. I still haven’t gotten used to it. The mist makes the streets look eerie, haunted, unreal.

so melodramatic i hate this

—p.10 | created Oct 31, 2023

I pull out my phone and press a few buttons
by Sarah Rose Etter

I pull out my phone and press a few buttons. Two minutes later, a black car with tinted windows pulls up. I slide into the back seat, and the driver navigates the steep hills of the city. The black hole hangs above the seat beside me.

this feels so boring

—p.10 | created Oct 31, 2023

how to leverage techniques first used on gamblers
by Sarah Rose Etter

Today I write a report on how to capture and keep people’s attention online: how to leverage techniques first used on gamblers and how to appeal to our human love of games to encourage a user to click the buy button for increased gratification and keep them coming back again and again and again. I write about the colors of buttons, the optimal utilization of text, where the eye tends to land on a screen, how to subtly scam the human into being tracked, into the sales funnel, as if through a chute, like a cow on the way to slaughter, to the right place, to the right action, at the right time.

again preachy

—p.30 | created Oct 31, 2023

no place is safe
by Sarah Rose Etter

“Cassie?” she says in a soft tone, her accent making my name sound more beautiful than it is.

My shoulders tense. I can’t have a single moment of peace in this office, no place is safe.

hate the last line. has so much potential to be funny and yet it just isn't

—p.38 | created Oct 31, 2023

above us, the very galaxies rotate and collide
by Sarah Rose Etter

The door swings shut behind her. A wave of nausea hits me. I’d spent weeks on the project. The work was good, I know it was. But for an instant, my reality wavers: maybe I am terrible, maybe I don’t deserve to be here, maybe I am a nothing.

Above us, the very galaxies rotate and collide. Stars are born and die. The whole of the universe breathes and expands. Suddenly I can see the disparity so clearly—the men bathing in the river, and me in the bathroom, holding a porcelain plate, always failing.

lol

—p.39 | created Oct 31, 2023

I couldn’t take my eyes off those baby ducks
by Sarah Rose Etter

Once, walking the path along the bay, I saw a family of ducklings paddling after their mother. I stopped and watched as they neared the water’s edge. For a moment, I felt chosen by a greater force, as if a hand of light had reached through the clouds to reveal this miracle of life specifically to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off those baby ducks, their small hearts beating new and wild in the world.

Out of nowhere a crow descended and snatched one of the babies. It didn’t look real, but it was: the duckling in that black beak, in the air, then slammed against a rock until it went limp, the ruthlessness of nature horrifying me.

The office churns on around me. The receding water reveals: the bones of fish, rotting wood, empty chip bags, bright crushed soda cans. It feels good to see ugliness on the otherwise immaculate campus, where everything is polished to a sheen. The truth of the world bares itself when the tide goes down: devoured, used, rotting.

thx i hate it

—p.41 | created Oct 31, 2023

meaningless conversations buzz around me
by Sarah Rose Etter

Now, meaningless conversations buzz around me about softball leagues, Pilates, bridal parties, tee times, electric cars, protein powders, stock options.

hate this too

—p.48 | created Oct 31, 2023

data exchanging through the air between us
by Sarah Rose Etter

I pull out my pen and paper. In most meetings with the CEO, we are forbidden from looking at phones or laptops. We are only meant to gaze upon each other, our minds bursting with new and innovative ideas, data exchanging through the air between us.

this is almost funny

—p.51 | created Oct 31, 2023

I hated the thought of their intimacy
by Sarah Rose Etter

Jealousy reared up in my chest at a series of scenes my mind created of him with this woman: mornings in bed together, drinking coffee in the kitchen, him with his arm wrapped around her waist. A woman with an eyeless swirling whorl for a face perched on a lithe body with perfect breasts. I hated the thought of their intimacy.

who writes like this lmao

—p.90 | created Oct 31, 2023

the city wears away at all of us
by Sarah Rose Etter

The city wears away at all of us, wrenching open mouths full of a rage that explodes out of us, turns us into self-immolators or sacrifices to commuter trains or people who relentlessly scream our pain into the night.

too vague

—p.163 | created Oct 31, 2023

Mobility
by Lydia Kiesling

Bunny noted with amazement
by Lydia Kiesling

The men with Upstairs Eddie were making a lot of noise. They looked, Bunny noted with amazement, like seniors just graduated from Stanhope, the boarding school where she and her older brother, John, would return in the fall: gorgeous in the aggregate if not individually, white boys with gently shaggy hair, bronzed, golden-furred legs in khaki shorts and dirty running shoes. They were drinking Heinekens fished from a cooler full of lukewarm water, from where Bunny had earlier fished her own tepid Coke.

why is she amazed? im so bored

—p.7 | created Nov 07, 2023

Bunny cursed the slutty intern
by Lydia Kiesling

[...] Some stares were simply from interested people who could tell immediately that Bunny was not from Azerbaijan. Some were pointed but mostly playful: “Hello, beautiful girl!” Some scared her, boys who followed her until she could walk fast and resolutely to a safe and crowded distance. “Monica Lewinsky! Monica Lewinsky!” one of them had yelled, cracking up. Bunny cursed the slutty intern as she broke into a humiliating jog.

terrible

—p.24 | created Nov 07, 2023

his bookshelf was filled with forbidding books
by Lydia Kiesling

Her father considered for a moment. “His view is that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there’s been a gold rush for resources, and that a lot of unscrupulous people are making money in very corrupt ways. Which is true.” When the Glenn parents were together, she sometimes heard her father lament the quality of men with whom he was now expected to engage, and the variety of work he was expected to do. Bunny, despite her sense of alienation from her father, knew he was a very smart man. His bookshelf was filled with forbidding books by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn that Bunny sometimes tried and failed to read.

so lazy

—p.43 | created Nov 07, 2023

it was as impenetrable to Bunny as
by Lydia Kiesling

Bunny had heard again and again of the Contract of the Century, without knowing exactly what it was. Something about oil, different companies working together, revitalizing decrepit wells, blah blah blah. It was as impenetrable to Bunny as the warren of pipes and factories that ran through the Black City, the industrial east of Baku where she had been told not to go. [...]

????

—p.47 | created Nov 07, 2023

Bunny loved Rachel’s and Monica’s outfits
by Lydia Kiesling

After they had finished Lale’s food, they watched several of the Friends episodes from the tape Bunny had been given. Bunny loved Rachel’s and Monica’s outfits—so sleek and put-together. [...]

???

—p.59 | created Nov 07, 2023

so many people with very interesting lives
by Lydia Kiesling

Maryellen spoke again after a few minutes. “Sue found out she had some kind of inner ear thing, vertigo. She had to quit.” She turned down Poirot. “I felt so bad for her; she was devastated. But then she did this travel-booking certificate program they had instead, and she ended up managing a high-end guest house in Bora Bora for years,” said Maryellen. “She married an Australian guy out there. Now she’s retired. Never had any children,” she said, the matter finished. Bunny admired the way that Maryellen and Ted knew so many people with very interesting lives.

how do you admire 'the way that'

—p.117 | created Nov 07, 2023

she felt a miserly happiness
by Lydia Kiesling

Bunny had even come to love the long Repro nights and their time-and-a-half pay, the way she imagined an athlete would love an away game at a distant stadium. When she looked at her bank account every two weeks and saw that $1,072 was deposited there, she felt a miserly happiness. She spent money on nothing but gas, Zumba, Starbucks, and her share of groceries. She packed spartan and sensible lunches, sating afternoon hunger with salted almonds and La Vache Qui Rit. She was always slightly hungry, the hunger forming a slender iron rebar that held up the habitual laxity of her character and flesh. She ate her peanut butter sandwiches with smug slowness while her colleagues went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Her bank account fattened as her body attenuated.

i dont like the way this is written [too obvious] but the details are interesting

—p.123 | created Nov 07, 2023

Obama was heroic to her
by Lydia Kiesling

Bunny was surprised at this. Obama was heroic to her, a symbol of the victory of good over evil. And he had gotten Osama bin Laden, whatever that was worth—although after the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan, it did seem a little beside the point. Frank Turnbridge had said, “Finally, something good out of Obama-nation,” and Bunny bristled within.

lmao. hate this. too obvious. like a wikipedia page in simple english

—p.174 | created Nov 07, 2023

constantly being surprised by the revealed information
by Lydia Kiesling

“Please get in,” she said. “I can drop you somewhere.” Gulbahar had been beautifully hostessing all day, and Elizabeth hated to keep her longer. She knew little of Gulbahar’s life outside of her work. She assumed she was unmarried—no ring—but she didn’t know for sure. Elizabeth had been amazed to learn that the receptionist in the BP office, a very young woman, had two small kids. Their photos were on her desk; she had first assumed they were her younger siblings. Elizabeth was constantly being surprised by the revealed information of people’s lives.

such boring writing

—p.281 | created Nov 07, 2023