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    1. 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.

      17 votes
    2. 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.

      20 votes
    3. Tildes Book Club - Voting thread winter spring 2024-2025

      It's time to vote. This thread is for voting on the next set of books for book club. Voting will close end of day Sunday. If you would like to read with us, please upvote as many as five titles....

      It's time to vote. This thread is for voting on the next set of books for book club. Voting will close end of day Sunday.

      If you would like to read with us, please upvote as many as five titles. We will select at least four, probably more if there are books with solid support. I look forward to reading and discussing with you all.

      There are a few people who voted before the thread was complete so books with authors earlier in the alphabet got a slight statistical advantage. I will take lessons for next time to avoid this.

      20 votes
    4. Tildes Book Club - Alternatives to handle goal to read books representing diverse and disadvantaged perspectives

      So I have been reflecting on the statements of many members of this book reading group that they want to include books from diverse perspectives. Talking about next year and looking at our current...

      So I have been reflecting on the statements of many members of this book reading group that they want to include books from diverse perspectives. Talking about next year and looking at our current voting results, I see three options and I would like us to vote on which the group prefers.

      First, we could accept a very long list from this voting thread and cut off choices just after Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. That would delay new nominations for over a year.

      Second, we could elevate Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and possibly Demon Copperhead to the top of the list in a sort of affirmative action.

      Third, we could agree that our next nomination thread (for a smaller list of books) would exclusively be taken from groups that are disadvantaged in some way. An incomplete list of such disadvantage would include being from a poor or formerly colonized country, being an immigrant or refugee, being a political/ethnic minority such as basque, romani or catalan or kurdish, being indigenous, being poor or ethnic minority in a dominant country, being a sexual/gender minority, being disabled etc.

      14 votes
    5. Has anyone read Thinking in Systems: A Primer? Best next read?

      I read thinking in systems a primer by Donella Meadows and really found it interesting. I have been struggling to find a follow up book about systems aimed at a reader with intermediate but non...

      I read thinking in systems a primer by Donella Meadows and really found it interesting. I have been struggling to find a follow up book about systems aimed at a reader with intermediate but non specialist Knowledge of systems thinking. They are all either to basic, too advanced, or so dry it’s impossible to concentrate. Has anyone found a good follow on book for this book?
      I appreciate this might be a bit of a niche topic!

      14 votes
    6. Tildes Book Club - Nominations thread

      This is the third nominations thread for Tildes book club. If you think you might be interested to read with us, please name between one and five books you find intriguing and think others might...

      This is the third nominations thread for Tildes book club.

      If you think you might be interested to read with us, please name between one and five books you find intriguing and think others might enjoy. We will later have a voting thread so that each nomination gets an equal shot to win votes with no early nomination advantage. After we finish discussing Kindred this month and the City We Became at the end of November, we will move on to read the new titles.

      Please feel free to nominate both fiction and nonfiction and consider nominating a diverse selection of books and authors. Books should be 600 pages or shorter. The first books in series are fair game for nominations if they tell a complete story.

      18 votes
    7. Non-fiction books about mentally surviving a far right regime

      Looking for non-fiction books that will help me cope with the stress of living in a far right regime. Almost every week there's something new happening that makes me lose mental energy, and it's...

      Looking for non-fiction books that will help me cope with the stress of living in a far right regime. Almost every week there's something new happening that makes me lose mental energy, and it's becoming harder to cope with this. I already have a lot of other problems. It's especially hard when even supposedly "regular" people against this madness toe the line when it comes to nationalist or other established right-wing talking points.

      Books that are written from the point of view of minorities or leftists would especially be helpful.

      Also, I'm not looking for books whose main focus is effecting change on a grand scale. Looking for books that simply will help an individual live a less painful life in such a situation. It's basically about changing one's behavioral or cognitive responses to such conditions in order to live a better, happier life.

      34 votes
    8. Elevator pitch your favourite book!

      I'm looking for something new to read, so I'm just selfishly posting this in the hopes that it works. Doesn't have to be your all-time favourite I guess, if you can't decide. Feel free to do...

      I'm looking for something new to read, so I'm just selfishly posting this in the hopes that it works.

      Doesn't have to be your all-time favourite I guess, if you can't decide. Feel free to do multiple books too, or maybe just whichever is on your mind a lot recently.

      42 votes
    9. Kobo for a casual reader

      Howdy, Just this morning I got a wild hair and started thinking about replacing my older Kindle Paperwhite, mostly because something with a a USB-C port would be nice to have. I'm still not sure...

      Howdy,

      Just this morning I got a wild hair and started thinking about replacing my older Kindle Paperwhite, mostly because something with a a USB-C port would be nice to have. I'm still not sure I'll actually do this, as my Kindle works just fine, occasionally needing a reboot is about the extent of it, as well as the reading time can get janky here and there.

      Based on what I'm reading about Kobo, it seems like it offers a bunch of features I'll never use or be interested in. I do not care about customization. I don't borrow from the library. I don't mind buying from Amazon. I rarely read books more than once, so I almost never go back through my collection to see what I have. I don't like ads (I have a PiHole, for example), but the ads on Kindle don't bother me, my brain skips over them, never even noticing. And by casual reader, I mean I read maybe 5-10 books a year, so my Kindle often just sits by my bedside, gathering dust for a spell.

      Basically all I do is pick up my Kindle, unlock it and get back to reading whatever I had been, then close the case and set it aside. I like that I can read on the Kindle app on my phone if I've forgotten my Kindle at home. I do read lots of samples on it.

      Kobo seems nice and I like an excuse to migrate away from a major corporation, but it's more expensive than a Kindle (I've bought both my Kindles I've owned, used for $40) and seems to offer little that I care about over the Kindle. I'm well aware I can transfer my purchases over, but I'm not sure I care or want to bother with the hassle, so I'm wondering if a Kobo would be at all the right choice and am looking for opinions.

      Thanks!

      15 votes
    10. Finding a book club (in Chicago)

      I'm a recent college grad in the Chicago area and was planning to join a book club (preferably classic literature) to meet like-minded people my age. Unfortunately, this wound up being a much more...

      I'm a recent college grad in the Chicago area and was planning to join a book club (preferably classic literature) to meet like-minded people my age. Unfortunately, this wound up being a much more difficult task than I expected. Practically all the book clubs I could find online were inactive or had a much older age demographic. Anyone familiar with city have any tips for finding what I'm looking for (a book club or something similar)?

      8 votes
    11. What are you reading these days?

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      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.

      26 votes
    12. Is there an independent, cross-device cloud sync platform for ebooks?

      I used the Kindle ecosystem for a while before souring on Amazon. Now I’m bought into the Kobo ecosystem, which is great in some ways but frustrating in others. I’m curious if there’s a sort of...

      I used the Kindle ecosystem for a while before souring on Amazon. Now I’m bought into the Kobo ecosystem, which is great in some ways but frustrating in others.

      I’m curious if there’s a sort of DIY book cloud platform out there. I’ve come across a few, but they all seem to lack what, to me, is the killer feature of the Kobo/Kindle platforms:

      Cross-syncing between mobile (iOS), ereader, and web reader

      Most of the ones I’ve found can do this with some of those devices, but not all three.

      I ask because I regularly hop between reading on different devices to the point that I avoid reading books that I can’t do this with (e.g. all my DRM free books, physical books, etc.). I’ve even re-bought books I already own in other formats just so I can have them inside the “sync loop” because it’s so much easier for me. I’d rather not have to do that though.

      Are there any independent options out there that cover this use case? I primarily want to use it for DRM free books I got from bundles, as well as books that I de-DRMed from my Kindle. I would also happily buy a different ereader device that supports this (currently I use a Kobo Forma).


      Meta note: wasn’t sure if this topic was better in ~books or ~tech — feel free to move it if needed!

      17 votes
    13. Tildes Book Club discussion - This is How You Lose the Time War by El - Mohtar and Gladstone

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      This is the seventh of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing This is How You Lose the Time War by el-Mohtar and Gladstone. Our next book will be Kindred by Octavia Butler around the end of October.

      I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

      For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.
      And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

      20 votes
    14. Tildes Book Club - Fall schedule

      Following this month's discussion of Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, , we are set up to read This is How You Lose the Time War towards the end of September. After that we will discuss Kindred by...

      Following this month's discussion of Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, , we are set up to read This is How You Lose the Time War towards the end of September. After that we will discuss Kindred by Octavia Butler at the end of October and The City We Became by Jemisin at the end of November.

      I look forward to reading with you.

      18 votes
    15. 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.

      20 votes
    16. 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.

      14 votes
    17. What LitRPG Series do you recommend?

      I read through He Who Fights with Monsters and it was not only my first read into the genre, so far it's been my favorite. I've come to absolutely love the characters, especially the protagonist,...

      I read through He Who Fights with Monsters and it was not only my first read into the genre, so far it's been my favorite. I've come to absolutely love the characters, especially the protagonist, and the humor. Interesting and likeable characters are what makes or breaks a book for me.

      I'm waiting on the next book to release, and in the mean time I've tried reading some others, but I've disliked what I've read so far. I read through the first three and a half books of Defiance of the Fall, but not only is the main character just hands down boring and contradictory, it's made worse by the fact that I don't believe the author is a very good writer. The amount of times a character has "snorted" and "rolled their eyes" is honestly a bad running joke.

      After this I tried reading the Iron Druid Chronicles. It's not a LitRPG book, just a fantasy novel that takes place in modern times, but the author spent very little time on anything but the major plot points. Everything happens in such rapid succession that there's no depth given to the characters. I don't think it's poorly written, I just think it's just written for a different kind of reader. The books are also incredibly short for me, and I finished the first three in just a few days.

      I'm halfway through the first book of The Primal Hunter now, and the writing is far better than Defiance of the Fall, the protagonist much better written, except I'm not sure I like him all that much. Very much the "I'm quiet, smart, and better than everyone" kind of attitude you'd get out of the know it all in high school, except supposedly this guy is a grown adult.

      I've read all of these through Kindle Unlimited and they were all suggested to me by the app itself. I've only recently picked up reading again since dropping Reddit altogether, so I'm not super well versed into the best ways of finding new series to read.

      17 votes
    18. Tildes Book Club discussion - Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      This is the sixth of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. Our next book will be This is How You Lose the Time War around the end of September.

      I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

      For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.
      And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

      32 votes
    19. What are you reading these days?

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      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.

      20 votes
    20. History book recommendations

      Hey all, I'm trying to get into reading historical books - I have a broad range of interests and would be open to trying anything. The only thing that bothers me is when the author is very clearly...

      Hey all, I'm trying to get into reading historical books - I have a broad range of interests and would be open to trying anything. The only thing that bothers me is when the author is very clearly pushing an agenda. For example, last year I read Band of Brothers which I really enjoyed, but I felt there was quite a bit of American propaganda mixed in which detracted from the historical aspect.

      I typically read more fantasy/scifi novels:

      Examples of some of my favorite fiction series:

      • Dune
      • Mistborn Trilogy by Sanderson
      • Cradle series by Will Wight
      • progression fantasy in general
      • LOTR
      • Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

      I'm interested in more historical novels because i've listened to a handful of excellent history podcasts and think I would enjoy getting closer to the source, but I've been struggling to pick a book because I'm afraid of choosing one that is too dry.

      Podcasts I enjoyed:

      • History of Rome by Mike Duncan
      • Revolutions by Mike Duncan
      • Hardcore History by Dan carlin

      Please give me some recommendations!

      17 votes
    21. The Library at Mount Char is a fantasy horror thriller fast paced ride of a book

      Has anyone else read this book? Without spoilers (or hiding them) what did you think? The closest I have read to this is Gaiman's American Gods but the pace is much faster and more intense. I want...

      Has anyone else read this book? Without spoilers (or hiding them) what did you think?

      The closest I have read to this is Gaiman's American Gods but the pace is much faster and more intense. I want to reread the first half to see what I missed because I didn't know what was going on.

      15 votes
    22. 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.

      13 votes