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Alexander Killby
Ottawa Public Library
Alexander Killby's Profile Shelves

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Mere Christianity, BookA Revised and Amplified Edition, With A New Introduction, of the Three Books, Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality

by Lewis, C. S.
Book, 2001. First HarperCollins hardcover edition.
All copies in useView location availability for Mere Christianity, Book, All copies in use
Holds: 26 on 3 copies
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jan 17, 2026

The Extended Mind, BookThe Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

by Paul, Annie Murphy
Book, 2021
Available View location availability for The Extended Mind, Book, Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jan 15, 2026

Bedtime Eyes, Book

by Yamada, Eimi
Book, 2006. 1st ed.
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Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Sep 25, 2025

The Next Day, Downloadable AudiobookTransitions, Change, and Moving Forward

by Gates, Melinda
Downloadable Audiobook, 2025. Unabridged.
All copies in use
Holds: 0 on 4 copies
Added Jul 30, 2025

Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now, eBook

by Lanier, Jaron
eBook, 2018. First edition 2018.
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Holds: 10 on 1 copy
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 06, 2025

Comment:

Impractical for most in today's world, but a very insightful thought experiment to better understand the impact social media and tech giants have on our lives, our information, and our human nature.

Spring Snow, eBook

by Mishima, Yukio
eBook, 2013
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Holds: 6 on 1 copy
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jun 11, 2025

Source Code, BookMy Beginnings

by Gates, Bill
Book, 2025
Available View location availability for Source Code, Book, Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Mar 17, 2025

The pact, DVDPagten

DVD, 2022. Language: Danish
Available View location availability for The pact, DVD, Available
Added Feb 27, 2025

The Sound of Waves, eBook

by Mishima, Yukio
eBook, 2013
Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Feb 01, 2025

Comment:

Another fantastic read by Mishima. I felt transported to Shinji's simple island life in this straightforward but captivating account of his coming of age and its attendant adventure. Highly recommended!

Edinburgh, Book

by Chee, Alexander
Book, 2001. 1st ed.
No Longer AvailableView location availability for Edinburgh, Book, No Longer Available
Added Aug 04, 2024

The Prince, eBookThe Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau

by Maher, Stephen
eBook, 2024. Simon & Schuster Canada edition.
Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Aug 04, 2024

Comment:

An excellent chronology of Justin Trudeau's gaffes as Prime Minister, and a root-cause analysis of his personality traits and management style that have led to those failures. Most worrying to me are the observations about his relationship with cabinet (purportedly non-existent in a working capacity), and that his inner-circle view "the press release [as] the work product." A good read heading into the next election for those interested in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the management teams on offer for Canada.

Quotations

  • "The thing I remember most was how impressive Sacha was," says Herle. "He seemed like a very sharp, practical tactician, hardball political operator. He was astute." But the campaign already had a chief strategist, and it wasn't Sacha. As such, "he didn't look like a guy to me who was going to fall in line with whatever Gerry's view were."
  • When he [Scott Brison] spoke up in Cabinet meetings, counselling a more restrained approach to public spending, he felt that the prime minister treated him like a member of the opposition.
  • Once in Ottawa, Trudeau proved to be a loner rather than a team player. Liberal MPs found him a bit much, as he continued to arrive on the Hill riding a skateboard. They resented the way reporters sought him out, ignoring his more experienced, harder-working colleagues, and found him uninterested in policy work.
  • Until he entered politics, Justin Trudeau had not distinguished himself except in ways connected to his family's celebrity.
  • Everyone who has spent time with him remarks on his keen intelligence, although not everyone agrees that he has a focused, disciplined mind.
  • The convoyers wore his comments as a badge of honour. Belton could not believe that Trudeau was attacking people like her. "The wording that he used was division, the whole time," she testified later.
  • When the Liberals govern, they are colonized by public servants, and colonize them in turn, until the country seems to be run by a remote and inward-looking apparatus for resisting accountability.
  • For public servants and office workers, the pandemic had been mostly about hunkering down at home, but for street-level workers, life was different. "I think it's time we stop dividing the population," Lightbound said. "Not everyone can earn a living on a MacBook at a cottage."

Declassified, Downloadable AudiobookA Low-key Guide to the High-strung World of Classical Music

by Warsaw-Fan Rauch, Arianna
Downloadable Audiobook, 2022. Unabridged.
Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Aug 03, 2024

Queen Elizabeth II's Guide to Life, Book

Book, 2019
Available View location availability for Queen Elizabeth II's Guide to Life, Book, Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 21, 2024

Quotations

  • Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom,' said the Queen, speaking in her Christmas broadcast in 1991

Show Me Rio!, Streaming Video

Streaming Video, 2013
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Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 20, 2024

What to Listen for in Music, Downloadable Audiobook

by Copland, Aaron
Downloadable Audiobook, 2020. Unabridged.
All copies in use
Holds: 0 on 2 copies
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 16, 2024

Quotations

  • All that you MUST have to appreciate music is an ability to recognize the melody.

Co-intelligence, Downloadable AudiobookLiving and Working With AI

by Mollick, Ethan
Downloadable Audiobook, 2024. Unabridged.
All copies in use
Holds: 12 on 3 copies
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 10, 2024

Comment:

An excellent primer for those that struggle to grasp the promise and potential of generative AI, Large Language Models, Multi-modal AI. A peek into the future of what work could look like. It also provides a rational framework to those that worry about the destructive potential of AI. Highly recommended, and a great work to consume via Audiobook!

False Alarm, BookHow Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet

by Lomborg, Bjørn
Book, 2020. First edition.
Available View location availability for False Alarm, Book, Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 07, 2024

Comment:

A fundamentally optimistic view of how humanity can overcome the challenges associated with climate change without abandoning global development. A worthwhile read to help anyone cut through the noise of climate alarmism! @macintoshjohn98 has clearly not read this work from cover to cover. I would also like to respectfully request we avoid ad hominem attacks, we should discuss works on their merits, and the ideas they contain. Each one of the popular claims that John highlights is directly addressed by Lomborg throughout the book. Lomborg cites relevant statistics and models from uncontroversial sources in each case. There is a serious question to be asked about the tendency of the media to conflate all short-term climate events with the much longer-term phenomenon of global warming (which is is quick to point out at the beginning he does in fact believe is underway). Would do well to remember the premise of Lomborg's book, which is that much of the doomsday scenarios completely ignore the propensity of humans to adapt to changing (climate) circumstances, and that many of the monumental expenses we are taking on are wasteful or counterproductive in their effect.

Quotations

  • CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL, it is caused predominantly by carbon emissions from humans burning fossil fuels, and we should tackle it intelligently. But to do that, we need to stop exaggerating, stop arguing that it is now or never, and stop thinking climate is the only thing that matters. Many climate campaigners go further than the science supports. They implicitly or even explicitly suggest that exaggeration is acceptable because the cause is so important.
  • [...] less grandiose responses to climate change night also be more effective, because the electorate won't turn against them. Climate policy has to be steady to be effective over the long run, and if the costs of climate policy are so high that citizens consistently turn against the governments that promote it, then meaningful change will be hard to come by.
  • Only when the screaming stops will we finally be able to identify the most effective ways to both address global warming and actually help people with their real-world problems.
  • [P. 50] The prediction that the polar bear would suffer immensely because of a lack of summer ice was always somewhat odd. Polar bears survived through the last interglacial period 130,000 to 115,000 years ago, when it was significantly warmer than it is now. They also survived the first thousands of years of the current interglacial period, when Arctic sea ice cover was strongly reduced and there were even long periods of ice-free summers in the central Arctic Ocean.

Six sonatas for solo violin, Streaming Music

by Ysaÿe, Eugène
Streaming Music, 2020
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Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 03, 2024

Violin concertos, Streaming Music

Streaming Music, 2023
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Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jul 03, 2024

The Jump, Streaming Video

Streaming Video
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Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jun 27, 2024

Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover, Streaming Video

Streaming Video, 2023
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Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jun 26, 2024

Comment:

Unfortunately this is a hugely biased and one-sided take on this episode. There have been serious claims about how poorly Twitter was run prior to Musk's takeover, yet the documentary really only features direct interviews with fired ex-staff. Absolutely no time is given to Musk's vision on the platform including the Community Notes program as a potentially more effective crowd-sourced check on false claims compared to the heavy handed blocking and deleting of the former content moderation team.

Great Romances Of The 20th Century, Series 2, Queen Elizabeth And Prince Philip, Streaming Video

Streaming Video, 1999
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Added Jun 24, 2024

The Coddling of the American Mind, BookHow Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up A Generation for Failure

by Lukianoff, Greg
Book, 2018
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Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jun 24, 2024

Comment:

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt take an unapologetic and critical view at what they term the three great “untruths” which activists seem to be pushing on the younger generations in the western world: “What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker,” “always trust your feelings,” and “life is a battle between good people and evil people.” Lukianoff and Haidt make a well reasoned and convincing argument that much of the societal progress of the twentieth century is in the process of being undone by these pernicious ideas. Ideas that seem firmly entrenched in the prevailing social discourse of today and throughout the past decade. I am not unaware of the highly charged and controversial topics that this book examines: safetyism, anxiety and depression, trigger warnings, identity politics, and the like. However, after taking the time to read it and to watch an accompanying lecture given by Jonathan Haidt, I now believe this book serves as an urgent reminder of some of the great ideological achievements of the western world, and the implications for abandoning them. Lukianoff & Haidt’s analysis focuses on the American university campus as one of the most illustrative battlegrounds for these “untruths.” They examine the impact of these ideas with intuitive and common-sense arguments, and statistical research. Importantly, this book reasons from first principles of the role of the academy, and provides a prescription for a return to the correct functioning of the institution: The Chicago Statement on Principles of Free Expression. In short, that the university return to its role of serving society primarily through the ongoing testing and competition of all ideas, and not to compromise that role by becoming an undergraduate consumer experience: treating students privileged to attend these institutions as a customer, and thereby compromising this role. Equally importantly, the book brings with it what I consider to be a far more inspiring message of encouraging individuals to develop resilience, strength, and to overcome the unfair disadvantages, challenges, or discrimination they encounter in their lives, that offence is a normal and healthy part of a university experience, that difficult ideas are the ones that advance the total human understanding of the world and our place in it, and that we would all benefit from a little more humility as an entrant to this important institution. This isn’t to say that society doesn’t have work to do to continuously make good on the cherished western values of equality of opportunity, mutual respect, the equal worth of all human beings, and individual freedoms and responsibilities, but it shifts our focus a little more towards what all of us individually can do to improve our own fortunes and to build a less divisive society.

Quotations

  • Our argument is ultimately pragmatic, not moralistic: Whatever your identity, background, or political ideology, you will be happier, healthier, stronger, and more likely to succeed in pursuing your own goals if you do the opposite of what Misoponos advised. That means seeking out challenges (rather than eliminating or avoiding everything that “feels unsafe”), freeing yourself from cognitive distortions (rather than always trusting your initial feelings), and taking a generous view of other people, and looking for nuance (rather than assuming the worst about people within a simplistic us-versus-them morality).
  • We should all take reasonable precautions to protect our children’s physical safety–for example, by owning a fire extinguisher–but we should not submit to the pull of safetyism (overestimating danger, fetishizing safety, and not accepting any risk), which deprives kids of some of the most valuable experiences in childhood.
  • The Dalai Lama has long urged such an approach, based on the same social psychology. In May 20187, he tweeted this: > I’m Tibetan, I’m Buddhist and I’m the Dalai Lama, but if I emphasize these differences it sets me apart and raises barriers with other people. What we need to do is to pay more attention to the ways in which we are the same as other people.
  • Sages in many societies have converged on the insight that feelings are always compelling, but not always reliable. Often they distort reality, deprive us of insight, and needlessly damage our relationships. Happiness, maturity, and even enlightenment require rejecting the Untruth of Emotional Reasoning and learning instead to question our feelings.
  • Most people want individuals to be treated well, and they recoil from cases where individuals are treated unfairly in order to bring about some kind of group-level equality.
  • Developmental psychologists Christina Starmans, Mark Sheskin, and Paul Bloom reviewed the research on fairness in children and concluded that “humans naturally favour fair distributions, not equal ones,” and “when fairness and equality clash, people prefer fair inequality over unfair equality.”
  • Sometimes the left-leaning view turns out to be correct, sometimes it’s the right-leaning view, but on average, students will get closer to the truth if they are exposed to debates among credentialed scholars who approach difficult problems from differing perspectives.
  • Greg’s […] theory was this: Students were beginning to demand protection from speech because they had unwittingly learned to employ the very cognitive distortions that CBT tries to correct. Stated simply: Many university students are learning to think in distorted ways, and this increases their likelihood of becoming fragile, anxious, and easily hurt.
  • Conversely, if you accidentally say or do something that a member of a group finds offensive, but harbour no dislike or ill will on the basis of group membership, then you are not a bigot, even if you have said something clumsy or insensitive for which an apology is appropriate. A faux pas does not make someone an evil person or an aggressor.
  • The notion that a university should protect all of its students from ideas that some of them find offensive is a repudiation of the legacy of Socrates, who described himself as the “gadfly” of the Athenian people. He thought it was his job to sting, to disturb, to question, and thereby to provoke his fellow Athenians to think through their current beliefs, and change the ones they could not defend.
  • If the telos of a university is truth, then a university that fails to add to humanity’s growing body of knowledge, or that fails to transmit the best of that knowledge to its students, is not a good university. If scholars do not advance the frontiers of knowledge within their disciplines, or if they betray the truth to satisfy other goals (such as accumulating wealth or advancing an ideology), then they are not good scholars. If professors do not pass on to their students a richer understanding of the truth, as it has been discovered in their discipline, along with skills and habits that will make them better able to find the truth after they graduate, then they are not good professors.
  • A culture that allows the concept of “safety” to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences embedded in daily life that they need in order to become strong and healthy.
  • In a chilling passage that foreshadows events on some campuses today, Marcuse argued that true democracy might require denying basic rights to people who advocate for conservative causes, or for policies he viewed as aggressive or discriminatory, and that true freedom of thought might require professors to indoctrinate their students[…]
  • One of the most brilliant features of universities is that, when they are working properly, they are communities of scholars who cancel out one another’s confirmation biases.
  • Jones then delivered some of the best advice for college students we have ever heard. He rejected the Untruth of Fragility and turned safetyism on its head: > I don’t want you to be safe ideologically. I don’t want you to be safe emotionally. I want you to be strong. That’s different. I’m not going to pave the jungle for you. Put on some boots, and learn how to deal with adversity. I’m not going to take all the weights out of the gym; that’s the whole point of the gym. This is the gym. Jones understands antifragility. Jones wants progressive college students to see themselves not as fragile candles but as fires, welcoming the wind by seeking out ideologically different speakers and ideas.
  • Social scientists analyze correlations like this constantly (to the great annoyance of friends and family). They are self-appointed conversation referees, throwing a yellow penalty flag when anyone tries to interpret a correlation as evidence of causation. But a funny thing has been happening in recent years on campus. Nowadays, when someone points to an outcome gap and makes the claim (implicitly or explicitly) that the gap itself is evidence of systemic injustice, social scientists often just nod along with everyone else in the room.
  • They defined a victimhood culture as having three distinct attributes: First, “individuals and groups display high sensitivity to slight”; second, they “have a tendency to handle conflicts through complaints to third parties”; and third, they “seek to cultivate an image of being victims who deserve assistance.”
  • Of greatest importance in free play is that it is always voluntary; anyone can quit at any time and disrupt the activity, so children must pay close attention to the needs and concerns of others if they want to keep the game going. They must work out conflicts over fairness on their own; no adult can be called upon to side with one child against another.

Best of Enemies, DVD

DVD, 2015
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Holds: 1 on 1 copy
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jun 24, 2024

Comment:

This thoroughly engaging documentary centres on the Buckley-Vidal debates, and positions them as the genesis of an ever-widening chasm between the American left and right over coverage of politics in media. The degree to which it determined the state we now find political debate today though is dubious. I view the hyper-partisanship of political coverage to be the product of a growing number of broadcast media, and then into the era of the Internet which provided a huge platform to the ultra-niche. Most interesting to me was the window it provided into the famous moment in which these two avowed enemies lost all decorum and collapsed into an ad-hominem outburst. Buckley (who I have admired in my reading of the National Review, and in archival recordings of Firing Line) gains most of my sympathy in this moment. He demonstrated regret over his own behaviour very clearly for the rest of his life, while Vidal revelled in what was in reality an embarrassment to him. "Winning" a debate through these means is not admirable in my eyes. Buckley clearly gave up, exasperated, at some point in the debates over the constant interruptions, ad-hominem attacks, and self-importance of Vidal, erupting only when his dignity was wantonly trampled on. I was disappointed that we did not learn more about both of these men in this documentary. Having known of Buckley prior to this, I felt deep sympathy for him. Having never heard of Vidal, I might have had an open mind to learn more about him, but I was left with at least a superficial understanding of why I might not have.

Quotations

  • "The Buckley-Vidal debate was the harbinger of an unhappy future."

Side Hustle, eBookFrom Idea to Income in 27 Days

by Guillebeau, Chris
eBook, 2017. First edition.
Available
Alexander Killby's rating:
Added Jun 21, 2024

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