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What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
I just finished the first book of Dune. Its fascinating what was and was not included in the film, and how they adapted the story for the big screen. I loved both movies and the book has been fascinating. I am a little sad that Let's death was rather lackluster because it was such a big part of the movie - and the Sardaukar attacking the palace didn't seem to happen at the same time (or happens off-page?) Overall, I really like the book and I am excited to keep going.
I got both books of Justice Warriors and I am onto the third chapter of the first book. What a crazy biting and accurate satire. I love it so much.
In non-fiction world, I am reading Brian Kernighan's UNIX A History and Memoir. Its a super fascinating look into the early days of Bell Labs. Excited to get to the part of talking about actual UNIX. I also just got my hands on Blood in the Machine and I am excited to get into that too.
You and I are in the same boat here, having both just finished. My thoughts parallel yours. For me, it was the entire Bene Gesserit seeding the idea of the Kwisatz Haderach in the people of Dune, or that the Fremmen had lived on many, many planets. I don't remember these in the movie.
Maybe I missed these narratives in the film because I lacked the reading before-hand (or maybe because I was more involved in the 'popcorn-bucket-drama'), but I'll definitely have to watch both movies after reading the rest of the book series.
I think they covered the Bene Gesserit origin of the myth in the movie, but maybe I only caught the implication because I had read the first 2-3 books, albeit a long time ago.
It was discussed in both the recent movies iirc, but in dialogue relatively quickly, so I can understand someone missing it.
I'm 2/5 of the way through The Bonehunters, book 6 in Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steve Erickson. It is fantastic. Once I finish this mainline series I plan to take a break before exploring the other novels in the universe. I understand the hype these books get as each book is building off the others and fleshing out the world.
I feel like once I've read all the other books in the series, I will one day (maybe in a couple of decades) read through them again.
After finishing book 5 I read Quartershare by Nathan Lowell to cleanse my pallet. It was short and a rather enjoyable slice of life/cozy scifi book that I'd recommend.
I also picked up Brief Cases, the second anthology of short stories in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. I only have a few more books before I'm caught up in the series, and these short stories have been a great filler when I get a moment where I want to read something but don't want to think as much as Malazan makes me want to think.
I've got some other books that I've put down for the moment. There are just way too many good books to read!
Never seen as many Malazan fans as I've seen on this site. If you want to discuss book 6 when you're done, consider posting a discussion thread here! I don't have many IRL friends who've read the series.
If you're looking for another palate cleanser, I strongly recommend Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself (and the rest of the trilogy). Also grimdark, but a very easy read compared to Malazan! Someone here recommended it to me when I finished book 10 very early this year. I should track 'em down and thank 'em.
If I remember to I will!
I felt book 5 slowed down for me a bit as I got used to the new cast and area, but man this book bringing back some fan favorites and building on everything. Makes me wish I read this earlier when I could just binge through them but also I appreciate it now where I read smaller chunks and think about the story during the day.
Honestly, I felt like book 5 sped me up because it was so single-minded! But in later books I was really happy to return to the 'OG' cast. Book 6 is such a good place to be, though -- the next three books are quite the roller coaster!
I listened to the books Quartershare when they were originally released as free audiobook podcasts. Very cozy with a gentle positive vibe. Almost soap opera, but really engaging despite not having a whole lot of drama.
They sure enjoy their coffee on the ship! I agree with you on the soap opera type feeling. I'll probably slowly read the rest of the books in the series. They're short and easy to read between bigger volumes.
I finished The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, which is my new favorite Outlander book. It was the only one I felt emotionally invested in (almost shed some real tears). I've been enjoying the journey and basically happily jaunting along, but without much of a real impact until this book.
I somehow got into mythological fantasy following Chinese culture - I'm now on my fourth book in four months in this subgenre, A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang (narrated by Natalie Naudus). Since Natalie narrated all four of these books I've read in this subgenre, and three of them were about warriors, having her narrate this one as a court lady is a little jarring. I'm slowly getting used to it, though, and I think I finally got invested at about the 50% mark. I'm interested in where it's going and hope it will continue to grow on me.
Also currently reading The Choice by Nora Roberts. I might try one of her standalone books next, as these trilogies have felt... a little filler-y.
Next up is The Wild Huntress by Emily Lloyd-Jones. I picked this up because Book of the Month had it, and it looked up my alley (I may have adopted a practice of spying on their picks and then putting them on hold at the library). After that, Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I am incredibly excited for this reread. I never got through Eldest, and now that I have access to audio books, I'm really excited to take on this series again.
Curious if one of the books you read happens to be She Who Became the Sun? It made a few waves and there's a second book as well.
That one is on my TBR list! But the other ones I've read have been Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Heart of the Sun Warrior, and The Night Ends with Fire. Daughter of the Moon Goddess has been my favorite by far. I have been sad to be disappointed by the others (I just finished A Song to Drown Rivers).
Others on my TBR list (that I can find right now) are also Sue Lynn Tan - Tales of the Celestial Kingdom and Immortal (when it comes out). And The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh.
I just finished Severance by Ling Ma and was so enraptured by it the entire time, I finished it in two days. It's about an Asian American living in NYC during a pandemic (written before covid) and it's such a good snapshot of millennial life it resonated quite deeply with me.
I moved onto Caravan by James Michener. I've never read his work before but I'm already immersed in this world I have a feeling I'm going to get heavy into his novels.
I'm also listening to How to Win Friends and Influence People and it's probably one of the most pointless self help books I've ever read but it's such a quick read I'm just going to finish it. It's amazing people need a book like this to learn that empathy makes people like you. Clearly written for out of touch sociopathic rich bosses who don't know how actually people function.
I'm also listening to Cell by Stephen King, I have easy access to his audiobooks so I've just been crushing almost everything I can by him. Not a huge fan of this one. I want to get back to The Dark Tower series (I'm about to start the fifth one in the series) but I'm also kind of getting tired of it.
And in the midst of all this I'm dabbling in reading and writing poetry. I'm loving Raymond Carver, Bukowski, Robert Frost, pretty much anything I can get my hands on. So many books so little time!
I read "How to win friends..." after someone gifted it to me a whine ago, and the advice is so dull and obvious I don't understand why it's so popular.
I love funny typos and it totally applies to this situation lol ^^
Haha, now I don't want to correct it :D
That's completely okay. Self-help books aren't always applicable for everyone. Reading reviews on Atomic Habits will show that some people just grew up with those qualities instilled in them, and felt that purchasing the book was worthless, yet here I am craving each chapter. Same goes for Carnegie's Win Friends…. Although this book mostly helps make connections to other material.
If you want to explore Carnegie's works while you're in the general area, How to Develop Self-Confidence & Influence People by Public Speaking is far more helpful, (or has been for me). I can track down my copy, so I may send pertinent excerpts to you if you'd like.
Also, his book on Lincoln is good. Some passages are dry, but I tend to enjoy that after cafe/airport-fiction-style books.
I didn't mean to be so dismissive, I've read a bunch of self help books. Allen Carrs Easy Way to Stop Smoking is a large reason I was able to stop smoking a few years ago, and Atomic Habits was a game changer for me this year, and is probably the reason I'm on track to read almost 60 books this year. I also read Grit by Duckworth, Master your mind by Goggins, Supercommunicators by Duhigg, which border more on non-fiction/memoir but still had practical applications and were enjoyable despite their issues.
I just felt a bit cheated by this particular one, and find most of the anecdotal examples of magical business deals where he put his theories to use hard to believe without any sort of science based research. And I believe being too empathetic myself, which seems to be what the book is preaching, has caused me to be where I am in my station in life and being able to connect with people has in no way changed my career or financial outlook so there's likely some internal resentment I'm unintentionally putting out on display that shouldn't reflect the book. I know a number of bosses who could use this book. And that seems to be who the book is mainly for.
Is it just me or so self help books feel more controversial than some edgy fiction at times? Especially on Goodreads when I read reviews I see more divisive reviews for self help books than anything else. I wonder why that is.
The parts where he talked about Lincoln were the most fascinating to me, and was craving more knowledge so I'll have to look into the Lincoln book, thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Really? I feel like the basic premise is true. My impression is that most people go through life acting like they are mostly thinking about things from their own perspective without trying to put themselves in other peoples' shoes. Out of all the people you interact with, do all of them normally avoid criticism, get to know you and show honest admiration, take your desires into account during exchanges, listen to you sincerely, admit their mistakes and apologize for them, and show appreciation for your positive impacts? If so, I'd say that you are an extremely lucky person. I'm being a little facetious here, but I feel like a book that highlights these ideas has value. Some of these ideas may be obvious, but to me it's like how it's obvious that eating healthier and exercising more is good for you. Despite how obvious it is, people are full of excuses about why they aren't practicing it. I would have exercised, but I was tired after work. I would empathized, but that person acted like a jerk. I would have bothered to try to understand them, but that person is an idiot.
It seems that as society moves away from face-to-face and voice interaction, this book is a good reminder of the value of building understanding of people that goes beyond the face value of what they say or write. Even if you end up just robotically following these tips, you will probably still incidentally gain a better understanding of others and become a better person for it.
In the spirit of trying to understand other peoples' perspective, I think it may resonate more with some than with others. It's also a bit outdated as far as social norms, which may rub people the wrong way. I'm not rich, I'm not a boss, and I hope I'm not a sociopath, because I like this book.
I shouldn't have been so dismissive, there was good knowledge in there I just feel like the basic premise "be authentically nice to people and have empathy" was taught to me in first grade when I was watching Mr. Rogers and Arthur on PBS.
I find the magical business deals where he puts his theories to use and "not only saves a cancelled order but doubles it" a bit fantastical as well, I would prefer something a bit more research based.
I agree most people in American culture are self centered and need this book. I enjoyed some of the information, and I know I have a few bosses who would benefit from reading this so I don't think the book is meritless, it's concepts are just second nature to me.
I am an empathetic person at heart, and always try to see from the other person's perspective. I'm also not necessarily where I feel I should be in my career or financially after doing everything I feel like I was told to do and this book saying essentially; "if you're a nice person you'll make a lot of money!" creates a little bit of resentment. At the end of the day the book just wasn't geared towards me.
Edit: I've also had some self help books literally change my life so I guess I had high hopes for this one and felt it fell flat to my expectations.
Honestly I feel like this sort of book and Brené Brown's work too is "empathy for executives/businessmen" - with this one being more "how to fake caring" and Brené going more for "how to actually care"
I've never found them enlightening the way others have. But that was never my weak point
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
I was in a Barnes and Noble poking around and found myself sitting in a chair for ~20 minutes reading through the beginning. Ended up buying it on Kindle and it's been truly eye-opening.
It walks through the history of the United States ever since Columbus discovered it. The thing that sets it apart from other history books is the way it is written. I tend to get bored reading about history but the author describes things in a way that keeps my interest.
It's also a good refresher and reminder of America's roots and how it came to be what it is. There are graphic descriptions of slavery and Native American brutality that are depicted in a way that is more raw than what we all learned in school.
This was one of my textbooks in college and we only read excerpts. My wife read the whole thing cover to cover a few years ago and loved it. Isn't it all from the perspective of everyday people? It's not written by any sort of "powers that be" or am I wrong in that regard? I really need to read this one.
I often think about this book when I read or hear comments glorifying the "good old days." The good old days sucked for a lot of people, and my opinion is that anyone who thinks otherwise needs to read more history.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Heidt.
I've been struggling on and off personally to understand why some people are seemingly incapable of coming to the same natural conclusions I do when it comes to beliefs.
It's not so much to say that I think everyone should believe as I do, but moreso wanting to really dig into "why" certain folks near me that I have no choice but to interact with are so steadfast in their line of reasoning.
The book has been pretty interesting so far, as it has dived into cross-cultural psychological studies that show that morality is often a "intuitive" reaction, rather than derived rationally. This rationalization typically happens "after-the-fact" when the gut reaction has already taken place. Also, any post-hoc rationalize typically serves to further entrench ones pre-existing viewpoint.
I don't mean to toot my own horn but I felt like the book so far hasn't taught me too much "new" stuff that I didn't already know. And I'm left feeling sort of empty so far. I think I was hoping for something more that this book couldn't give me in terms of how to handle folks with seemingly incompatible worldviews.
It's been a few of months since I read anything which was Bitterthorn. I guess I got a little burned out from reading almost only fantasy with queer characters so the couple of unread books on my shelf are kind of just collecting dust - they are also both 500+ pages which I have, similarly, read a lot of and they often test my patience even though they are more than likely to be very worth the read.
I bought This is How You Lose the Time War on account of seeing it in the tildes book club thread a while back, so hopefully I can find the motivation to get started and read it soon. I know that I will like it.
Does anyone have recommendations for similar digestible, shorter books? Anywhere between 100 and 200, maybe even up to 300 pages? Very much wouldn't mind queer, fantasy, and/or sci-fi, but it can be basically anything except horror or overly erotic. Short story collections might also be good - currently on my list is Girlfriends by Emily Zhou for example.
Idk, it's a very specific ask but hopefully not too difficult criterias.
Have you read anything by Sarah Gailey? She's one of those authors that I will just get the book when it comes out without knowing anything else about it.
Scifi and fantasy with lots of queer characters, and they tend to be pretty short. River of Teeth and Upright Women Wanted are two of my favorites.
Haha those are not sentences I expected to ever hear! Thanks for the recommendations, I think especially Upright Women Wanted is right up my alley.
You're welcome!
The hippo thing almost happened.. And they are queer mercenary hippo wranglers, if that helps.
But yes, I think you'll enjoy Upright Women Wanted.
Point B by Drew Magary is some pretty good queer sci-fi. I'm not sure how many pages, though.
404 according to Goodreads, but thanks for the suggestion anyway!
Edit: Ohhhhh, 404 pages. Not "the webpage on Goodreads is giving me a 404 error". Ignore me, haha!
Works okay for me?
But in case that link doesn't work for you, here's the summary they have:
It's got a 3.7 star rating and 150 reviews.
Apparently under 300 is tough (for me anyway) - the only one I found that I've read recently that was under 300 is Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind. It's a standalone and it's high fantasy, might be a little bloody in places.
Some things I have marked as TBR: The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer, Nettle & Bone by T Kingfisher, The Jinn Daughter by Rania Hanna, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel, A Dark and Secret Magic by Wallis Kinney, Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater.
Hmm I guess it counts as a novella when it's under 300 or 200?
Thank you for all these suggestions, I'll look them up!
I just finished Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker, just 159 pages. It’s about someone who works on a reality show where they renovate houses that might be haunted. Not scary but very heartwarming. You might enjoy it!
It feels like The Murderbot Diaries are always recommended by people (starting with All Systems Red), so maybe you're already aware. The first four books are ~150 pages.
Some time ago I read The Empress of Salt and Fortune, which I thought was pretty good as well! It's the first part of the Singing Hills Cycle (currently 5 books,) and they are all around 100 pages, some a bit above.
I've been horsing through Light Bringer, the latest, and penultimate, novel in Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. I enjoyed the 'Hunger Games, but better' vibe the first one had going before the second immediately blasted the whole thing off into full-on space opera and wound up as a very satisfying trilogy. The fourth entry, Iron Gold, dipped a bit as it is very much a 'scene setter' novel but ho. ly. fuck. I was not prepared for the compulsively grim depths into which the aptly-titled Dark Age then dove - complete with its own Red Wedding challenger to boot. It has also been a joy to see Brown pushing himself with each novel and the development of his writing skill throughout the series' run, it reminds me quite a bit of The Expanse series there.
So yeah, very much enjoying the series, easy recommend for fans of action-packed sci-fi. The finale is due out next year, and Brown has a good track record, so little to fear for those adverse to incomplete series.
I've been a bit stuck in Dark Age but I want to get through because I have some half-formed theories about the role of Lysander in Light Bringer.
Dark Age spoilers
The demise of Cassius was grim but it's giving the boy room to grow into himself. Feels like Darrow is floundering.Might be worth sticking a spoilerbox around that last bit for those mid-read.
That whole first section of Dark Age is certainly heavy going, it has a very oppressive atmosphere which is actually what I most enjoyed about it, great execution - you come out the other side of it damn near shell-shocked yourself! But yeah, overall it is a huge growth novel for
character name
LysanderThanks, I'll have to check how to do that. I think I agree with that assessment. haha
I finished This is How You Lose the Time War, I enjoyed it but I wish they'd delved into the sci-fi aspect of the world and the time war itself a bit more but that's obviously not the book they wanted to write.
The love story that the novel revolved around was nice but the letters and exchanges got a bit cloyingly sweet and flowery by the end.
Still a decent book.
Now I'm about 2/3's of the way through John Langan's The Fisherman which I'm having a blast with. I really love horror novels, and this ones like a classic ghost story with Lovecraftian touches. I'm still being regaled with the story of Rainer and his family and eagerly looking forward to the fishing trip between the main character and his friend.
I have started reading the short story collection Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami. I mostly read science fiction, so it is an interesting challenge to read something more "literary". It surprised me that the first story Drive My Car was the foundation for the movie of the same name, which we discussed for Movie of the week a while back here on Tildes. Really interesting to see where the basic of the story came from, with many things being very recognizable and yet so very different.
I've started reading "A Short History of the World in 50 Lies" by Natasha Tidd. It tells the bittersweet origins and effects of the biggest lies that have been invented over the past 2 millennia, and how our lying has evolved over time.
I say bittersweet because it really puts into context the idea that "a lie will get halfway around the world before the truth puts its shoes on", but also that the truth eventually catches up and resets society back to a more reasonable state (though it can't fix the deaths/damage caused along the way).
It also ties back to something that's been on my mind for a few weeks - how trust is probably the most important thing we do when building a society, how fragile it is, and how our trust in institutions might be misplaced or manipulated for other selfish reasons - so it needs to be given carefully.
Bruce Schneier's book Liars and Outliers is a good one that explores trust and society.
Trust when buying food was one of the first examples that came to mind too. Definitely adding it to my reading list, cheers!
Just finished The Omnivore's Dilemma. It was ok. The first portion describes industrial corn and animal food production. It is understandably unpleasant and probably a good reminder. Middle portion reads like some kind of advertisement for organic or somehow more natural farming practices. I didn't enjoy this part very much. Last portion is about foraging and hunting, which was a decently interesting account of his personal experience with trying both of them out.
Currently reading Sapiens by Harari. So far, I'm not liking it. Lots of speculation and leaps in logic for the analysis. There's a whole lot of "[This] might have happened, but we don't really know." The section I just finished was mostly about how hunter-gatherer societies may have engaged in a ton of murder of children/weak/injured/old people for survival purposes, but because they are stupid, people made the idiotic decision to settle down and develop agriculture.
Finished The Assassins Quest.
It's overall a good story, but I feel like it could've been half as long (book and a half instead of 3). Felt like a lot of dead time hammering home points we'd already made, and a lot of characters feel dumb for the sake of plot. The enemy is supposed to be absolutely evil and selfish and foolish and yet keeps winning because.....it'd be boring if they didn't.
Started back on my sanderson stuff, so Yumi and the Nightmare Painter.
Nothing special yet, but enjoyable. Only 1/3rd of the way through so far.
I was about halfway through A Sorceress Comes To Call when the election stuff hit, so I needed something lighter and with less body horror. I tried The Morningside which was lighter, but the story centers around the impacts of climate change, so that was
fucking with my chigetting me down.Now I'm onto Emelie & the Hollow World by Martha Wells. So far I am enjoying it. It seems to be straight up adventure and has an "old timey" feeling to it that is just about right for some much needed escapism. I never got into the murderbot books, but I really enjoyed The Witch King so I may have to circle back to her other work eventually.
My current 'reading' is not so much reading as it is listening, because I've been brought into the awe of audiobooks.
I've been on Dune for the past three days. This version is narrated by Simon Vance and others. Getting to hear the characters speak through voice actors (and the fun voices the main narrator makes for them) has gripped me. I have about three hours and fifteen minutes left, so I'll be sad when it's over. But I am hopeful that all the books will get adequate narration versions (including the prequels) so that I may continue.
I likely would not have read Dune if it weren't for philosophy/notebook YouTuber ParkerNotes whose own enamoration with the series led to the urge to at least try it. I was hooked immediately.
I wrapped up my reading on the tragic novel: Memoirs of a Geisha, and through that have added Geisha: A Life, and Autobiography of a Geisha to my reading list. It's a good book, but I was foolishly under the understanding it was based on true events. (I know, I know; it literally says ": a novel" on the front cover, but I was tricked by the translator's note) The story felt so real, and the feelings of Sayuri felt real.
An interesting audiobook worth reading (it's only 40 minutes) is Megan Fox's Pretty Boys Are Poisonous collection of poems. It makes me immeasurably sad hearing some of them. "If I had a nickel for every time you came through for me, I'd have exactly zero nickels." (Paraphrased, but I thought this line was funny)
I also finished The House of Thunder by Dean Koontz, and all I have to say is that it was definitely written by a Man™ (this is strike two for Koontz because Intensity was also a bust for me.)
Audiobooks are reading and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I got really into Dune this past summer after friends urged me to watch the movie, I loved it and immediately devoured the books. I read the first one in a week. The themes of ecology and plans within plans were fascinating. The world building is unmatched. I started the rest of the series but got stuck at God Emperor and am hoping to finish it by the end of the year.
I would avoid learning about Frank Herbert as a person though, learning he was a bigot partly ruined the series for me for a little while.
How can listening ever be considered reading? I get that it's literature, but I thought they were called teleplays or something. How can audio ever be considered reading?
Asking in good faith and also there's of course nothing wrong with audiobooks whatsoever, one is not better or lesser than the other!
the word on the street is that our brains don’t know the difference :)
i love audiobooks, but i still don’t totally buy this.
Interesting! Anecdotally, it feels like there's a big difference in my level of immersion/imagination when I'm reading that is so much richer compared to audiobooks. Maybe because audio allows me to do other things at the same time, but it's hard to wash dishes while holding a book? Or maybe I don't want someone's interpretation of dialogue?
I want to like audiobooks, my brother does, but I just can't for some reason.
make sure you’re speeding them up. that’s the most important for me. overall, audiobooks play really well with my type of ADHD where i can / need to do a few things at a time using different parts. it doesn’t really make sense to me, but cooking, cleaning, driving, etc — book. but if im shopping and have a book, that trip is either 4x as long or i don’t catch anything in the book. meanwhile, i can read an article and listen to a podcast without any issues.
long story short, speed it up. the narrator is also critical. i hate Scott Brick, but i like Simon Vance. a lot of people love Scott Brick.
100% with you on this one, as well as that the narration can make or break the audiobook.
Although the quality of the narration in new works is a lot higher in general. Maybe because audiobooks have become so mainstream. I kitten to a lot of audiobooks and rarely find one that is so off-putting these days.
One of my favorites back in the day was George Guidall. That man's voice is butter for your ears.
For me, the playback speed I choose generally depends on the narrator.
Some narrators I mesh really well with at their normal cadence. Some I have to speed up 1.05 - 1.15x to sound 'right' to my ear. Every so often, I encounter a narrator I've had to slow down.
Also, if it's a passage I'm bored with but I'm not necessarily ready to dnf, I'll speed it wayyyyy up to get through.
Also anecdotally, I personally don't feel any difference in immersion/imagination between reading-reading vs listening-reading.
i’ve almost always got every narrator between 1.3 and 1.5 now. if i go down, it sounds crazy at first.
i swear recorded books etc slow it down before shipping.
i like ‘listening reading’ as a term.
If you're coming at it from this viewpoint, I think it's fine to acknowledge that the physical act of listening is different from the act of reading printed words with your eyes.
I don't want to speak for @Turtle42, but I think a statement like "audiobooks are reading" is usually a push back on a vibe that listening to the book is "cheating" or inauthentic in some way.
When I was a kid, if I had listened to a book instead of reading it, it definitely would have been treated the same way as using Cliffnotes or watching the movie version. To be fair, back in those days, many audiobook versions were abridged.
For an unabridged version, that's absurd, of course. If one listens to the whole book, they've fully experienced the author's words. If someone listened and I read it, our experiences would be different, but our experiences would be different if we had both read it, too.
Just to be clear, I'm explaining a viewpoint I sometimes encounter in response to your good faith question, not suggesting you hold this view.
Yes this is exactly it. Whether one uses their eyes or ears to ingest words to me defines reading. Sure the experience may be different, as one sees the light of the sun and one might feel the warmth but are they not the same sun?
Listening to spoken words over seeing written words does not preclude one from retaining or looking for thematic elements or deciphering and analyzing metaphors, or being immersed in a new world, which is why I read in the first place. I enjoy both the written and spoken word and find often times both in tandem help me experience a book fully.
Consider poetry, for instance. Many poets believe to fully experience the beauty of a poem it needs to be heard or spoken as well as read, I think that's the beauty of language and reading. Even as a child when learning to write teachers often suggest reading out loud to make sure it sounds right.
To suggest listening to audiobooks isn't the same as reading feels pious and gatekeeping, especially when the point is to simply experience language and a story.
I saw a tweet once that said something to the effect of "My indigenous ancestors didn't carry on oral story telling traditions for thousands of years for you to call audiobooks cheating" and it resonated with me and I will forever die on this hill.
I love this! I'll join you on that hill.
As a kid, physically reading is important develop that skill. Especially depending on the age, listening instead of reading to oneself seems like it could go against the spirit of the assignment.
Surely, you can construct a case where it's cheating, and I can construct one where it isn't (or shouldn't be), but that's getting into arguing about hypotheticals, and I'm not sure there's much point in that.
My point above is that there's nothing inauthentic about listening to an audiobook, and that this position is usually to borrow @Turtle42 's words, "pious and gatekeeping", and a way of ignoring impairments that may interfere with a person's ability to read in what's considered the "traditional" way.
Since you brought kids up, I don't think there's anything wrong with giving kids audiobooks either. As they are developing, their ability to appreciate and enjoy narrative exceeds their ability to read. So just like reading aloud to them, giving them access to audiobooks lets them engage in narrative. Their drive to learn to read is much more than just being able to read a book. They'll develop that skill so that they can read a menu, read the signs on the side of the road, and participate in the life of the adults and older children around them.
My daughter has an audiobook player (old phone, no internet) since she was three. Now she's nine and is an excellent reader with an amazing vocabulary. No regrets!
It's as important to read to kids as it is for them to read. Hearing stories fits into that too. The only downside is it's less interactive by default but that's why you should also talk to your kids about what they read and listen to.
It's all good development
When I received your reply, I went right to work looking into Frank Herbert to understand the flavor and severity of his 'bigotry'.¹ I find knowing these things about an author (after establishing my own thoughts about the book) helps me understand the context of the narrative better. My late reply is a byproduct of careful composition and research.
I will tell you, I was listening and I thought, " why is this Barron character so obsessed about the bodies of little boys." I didn't relate it to homophobia, but moreso the current political climate. Looking back, I am easily able to connect the dots.
I viewed portions of his interview at UCLA in which he was pressed by a student on this.² At first, his response was interesting. There are "aberrant" people of every creed, he mentioned [paraphrased by me], and that he only depicted an aberrant gay person as opposed to an aberrant straight person or a normal gay person. He said that it's harder to come out of the social criticism being a gay man. "Wow! Are we about to get some insightful comment?"
Then he turned around and shared further, and I got the sense that FH, in sharing his deep-seated beliefs on gays [pardon the language and terseness] was trying to wrap dogshit in gold foil and sell it as chocolate. The nervous laughter really expounded that feeling for me. To take hate, and try to deliver it in this 'gold foil' of articulate philosophy sucks. It really does just suck.
I'll be taking this knowledge I've gained into my journey of the series. I won't hold FH's personal beliefs against those that recommend the book, especially because it is incredible from an ecological and philosophical perspective. Additionally, Frank Herbert is dead so my usual process of withholding funds isn't necessary here.
There is this sort of limbo i find myself in, philosophically. Let me tell you my experience.
I read the works of some figure (political, philosophical, historical) and I find it resonates with me, deeply. I find these words build me up and help me structure things I've thought but couldn't quite get into words. Then, I become a fan. I commit their quotes to my Sententiae book. Suddenly, I find they have committed some morally reprehensible act or have said something I despise. Now I've got to go through the process of understanding this.
General McChrystal - My Share of the Task and leadership talks, involvement in and further cover up of the Pat Tillman "Incident"
Sonya Sontag - speaks well on isolation and developing articulate thoughts, says 9/11 was America's fault for being cocky and lives in a multi-million dollar home while chastising the wealthy.
Frank Herbert - creates a masterpiece of science-fiction philosophy with ecological and religious themes, homophobic ideology and dis-owned his own gay son.
So here I am. Trying to find some middle ground where I can take pieces of these people into myself without becoming too much like them. This isn't something you can help with, but speaking of these difficulties is helpful, I'm sure you understand. But, I digress. You telling me this was incredibly helpful. Thank you.
1: This explanation is a pre-emptive strike on reactions concerning the quotes around bigotry: I don't like using this word [bigot] to represent single-channel prejudice, like gayphobia. I prefer to utilize it on multi-channel prejudice, such as: holding more than one of these beliefs (or those not mentioned) - Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism, transmisia, aporophobia, or ageism. I know this usage of the word is correct, but using it myself in this way is like dragging sandpaper across my nervous system. In my mind, calling a homophobe just that is like striking him directly in the heart with a dagger–calling him a bigot is like throwing a dagger in his general direction. If you felt this distinction was unsanctioned… do what you will.
Wow your comment is really thoughtful, the point you made about using the word bigot is interesting and I've definitely taken note.
You've already done more research than I on his homophobia. I was in the middle of the fourth book and kind of just stopped caring about the series in tandem with the news. Not to say I still don't enjoy it and have I suppose "separated the art from the artist" but at the end of the day while disowning his gay son is reprehensible the work he did for climate awareness and earth day for instance are no small contributions. As with anything and anyone there's good and bad sides. I appreciate you enlightening me as well, I learned something too.
Started the Bobiverse series, finally. Loving it so far! It's popular enough that I probably don't have to describe it, and would do a poor job of doing so anyway. But it's definitely one of the better series I've read as of late.
Utter garbage, but I'm having a great time of it. Someone left a small collection of Star Trek books in my front yard library, which was pretty apropos, because I've been craving some Next Gen and started thinking about reading some of the books.
So I'm reading Star Trek: The Next Generation - Here There Be Dragons. It's not great, but it's also not terrible. It feels like it captures the characters pretty well and it's been a pretty fun, light and easy read, so I'm happy. Surprising amount of threatened rape against the female characters though...
have you hit Imzadi?
So far, this is the only book I've read, as it just happened to appear. I have one more called Dark Mirror, but after that I'm going to have to start seeking them out.
nice! Star Trek doesn’t have the catalog or quality of Star Wars, which is a shame. There is so much to work with in the universe.
I’m going to read those two, though.
It's good enough. I've got about two chapters remaining and it's a fun little romp; not the most amazing thing I've ever read, but good enough that I did keep reading it rather than abandon it.
if you keep this attitude, Imzadi will be a joy.
I have been on a pleasant vacation with family while grieving the lost election here in the US. I'm in a weird mental state.
When last I left off reading, I was nearly finished with lessons in chemistry by garmus.
I am part way through a biography Frances Oldham Kelsey the FDA and the battle against Thalidomide.
I am about halfway through 12 notes on life and creativity by Quincy Jones
I reread Frankenstein.
I had forgotten how morally ambiguous it was.
It is morally ambiguous by even todays standards, and Frankenstein was written two hundred years ago.
Two days or so ago I finished reading my first novel in like, forever. It was Andreas Eschbach’s latest thriller Die Abschaffung des Todes, which approximately translates to “the abolition of death”, although be warned, it’s relatively recent – I don’t think it has been translated into other languages from the German original yet. Publisher link.
For the presumed majority who don’t know the author; Eschbach often writes these sort of “realistic/believable science-fiction” novels, of which I’ve already enjoyed a few in the past, so when I saw this title and recognized his name above it in the bookstore, I picked it up right away.
Without giving away too much, there were interesting concepts brought up (as usual), as well as clear and obvious references to real-life events and companies (though given different names) and some meta-level fun about being an author, publishing contracts, etc.
I reread "Time's Last Gift" by Philip Jose Farmer. I read it when I was a teenager. It was still good
I wasn't happy with all of the OCR errors in the eBook edition.
I just started Farmer's "Riverworld" series.