I received this book as a birthday present from my dear friend in Catonsville, Maryland, USA. I read this book immediately upon getting it. I sincerely hope that one day Edward Snowden can safely and freely return to the United States. Some consider him a traitor; some consider him a hero. I will never look at my country the same way since I read his story, though.

I had fun reliving the days after the personal computer entered our lives, and recalled, from having sons of my own who are contemporaries of Snowden, just how completely computer gaming took over a part of their lives. I also recalled, with sadness now, how wondrous the Internet was when it was free from government and corporate dominance. It was a force with which to reckon and to challenge oneself.

I loved the chapter about hacks where Snowden figures out how not to do any of his Math homework. I had to laugh when reading this because one of my own children used that same tactic in a high school computer class. Explanation finally understood...after all these years!

I was fearful of having to read parts of the book about where Snowden would make the decision to work for the public to his detriment and against his government. In the end, I was cheering Snowden and mortified by my own federal government’s secrets. I can’t help but feel Snowden is a hero whose intent was in the public interest.

I was astounded by the fact that Snowden and one other techie were the nighttime sysadmins for 12 hours for the whole global CIA network, and they were *contractors*!

Snowden’s description of his night shift on the computer reminded me of my own nighttime job where and when a work colleague of mine used to play Scrabble together on the computer to make the long nighttime hours pass more quickly.

I was wondering how much of the information Snowden revealed about his training (its location and what he learned) is common knowledge or if it should not have been revealed.

This is probably the most terrifying book I’ve ever read because it’s not about history but about the present and the future. It is also not science fiction, but what I would consider to be the truth. It actually kept me awake at night thinking about the blatant disregard of the Constitution and unconstitutional secret-keeping by the American intelligence community. How can a country acting in such a manner even be considered to be a functioning democracy? Was it foreshadowing of the further demise of American democracy?

I was a bit annoyed at Snowden’s hacking into unknowing subjects’ personal computers even though I understand he needed that to maintain his own secret identity.

Here we have an extremely intelligent man. I somehow wonder if he did what he did in part just to see if he could do it AND get away with it.

I like how, throughout his book, Snowden carefully explains “computerspeak” to us common folk. That is an important component of making this book accessible to all who read it.

One aspect of this book, oddly enough, I did not like was that when I wanted to talk about the book’s contents, the people with whom I’d spoken wanted to give me their negative impression of the author. That was missing the point of what he wrote. I found that frustrating.

It’s true that computer systems are quite a mystery to all but the techies. I’m amazed by their knowledge.

This was as interesting, and probably more interesting, reading for me than any spy novel ever.

Some parts of Snowden’s story made me laugh: “I wasn’t wild about the idea of taking thousands of pictures of my computer screen in the middle of a top secret facility.”

What a nightmare it must have been for Lindsay following Ed’s departure! I loved the last line of the book, and knowing how her situation ended.

It’s good to know that web security increased after Snowden’s revelation to the world. “The year 2016 was a landmark in tech history, the first year since the invention of the Internet that more Web traffic was encrypted than unencrypted.”

I'm releasing this book to my friend and her husband in Staunton, Virginia. I hope to get it back one day so I can re-release it to another friend in Woodbury, Pennsylvania. I plan to circulate it, but as part of my permanent book collection.

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I'm releasing this book for...

***The 2019 What's in a Name Release Challenge hosted by DragonGoddess. The title of this book contains the names ERMA, OR, NEN, and CORD.

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Hello and welcome to BookCrossing ... where we make the whole world a library!

Now that you've "caught" this book, it is yours to do with as you like. Read it, keep it, or give it away. It's your choice!

I'd love if you'd enter a note here on BookCrossing about this book -- where you found it, how you like it, and/or where you release it. If you join BookCrossing (free and fun), kindly list me, SqueakyChu. or any other journaler on this thread as your referring person. Thank you so much.

Enjoy the book!

Caught! My friend from Staunton returned this book to me, but she said she did not read it.

I'm releasing this book to my friend who lives in Staunton, Virginia, USA. I hope to get it back so I can share it with other close friends. She said she might read it this time!

--------------------------------------

Hello and welcome to BookCrossing ... where we make the
whole world a library!

Now that you've "caught" this book, it is yours to do with as you like. Read it, keep it, or give it away. It's your choice!

I'd love if you'd enter a note here on BookCrossing about this book -- where you found it, how you like it, and/or where you release it. If you join BookCrossing (free and fun), kindly list me, SqueakyChu, or any other journaler on this thread as your referring person. Thank you so much.

Enjoy the book!