A few months ago I was looking for a similar solution but couldn't find one that handles empty cells very well. I ended up writing my own program[0] that is specific to my files' layout.
This library works perfectly and could've saved me a lot of time! Looking at some of the source code, we used similar logic to parse the tables. Pretty neat!
It depends on the model. For my XPS 15 with the bigger battery I can get up to 10 hours working on Python dev and checking out docs. But only when disabling the discrete Nvidia card, which is relatively straightforward[0] to do after having suffered setting up bumblebee.
Unfortunately I can't recommend the book. It's a fascinating subject, but ... Much/most of the book is devoted to what various Eastern Mediterranean civilizations were like before the Collapse of the Late Bronze Age. It's useful as an introduction so that you can get some idea of what collapsed, but it shouldn't be most of the book.
The treatment of the collapse itself is fairly shallow. I know the collapse is still mysterious and comparatively little is known about it, but that's why a book like this should be so interesting. Surely there is enough information to fill a comparatively short book like this. The ever mysterious Sea People's are mentioned of course, but other than noting that they weren't just one group and that the Egyptians defeated one group of invaders he says little. There is the usual "they may have been from here, or perhaps there" but it doesn't go into much detail about the different theories. The possible causes of the collapse aren't discussed much either. Basically it says "stuff fell apart and here are some examples". I know that much of this stuff is far from settled but discussing the evidence and arguments for various theories is a good approach. Talking about how new civilizations arose after the collapse would have been interesting too; much more than endless detail about pre-collapse civilizations like the Minoans.
> I forget to download the issues from time to time
Same here, so I wrote a Python script (Selenium) that downloads the new issue and emails it to me. The quality to price ratio is amazing, I love Nautilus.
Although you're not the first to offer a (not-so-eloquent) genetic explanation of economic success, you are definitely the first person I came across being told "when someone is pretty they're usually crazy" which makes it a moot point.