I don’t know any of those specific books but I feel the exact same way about talking about books with people. I want to have a non-banal conversation with someone. Anyone. About anything. But they’re vanishingly rare, and usually just about personal experience not about any shared topic like a book or article we both read, because nobody fucking reads anything anymore :(
So relatable, part of the issue I think is that forums have died, so where can you go to discuss books? and the gamer chat app. Sucks hard. This extremely fun & enriching example you see is the result of me strivinf and suffering for like three years straight through dead-end conversations and clownish individuals.
If you haven’t you can always just post about whatever in the megas, or as a post in a comm? It took a little work (lots of posting) but it’s been great posting about say, Unjust Depths on here. I look forward to it every single day.
I haven’t had a lot of luck posting here about specific books that aren’t like, super common reads or current book club books, though when I do get a reply its usually good, if a bit short! I honestly just wish anyone IRL would engage with this stuff with me. I like people here but I really want to hear my friends’ thoughts
I can talk to friends about the books I’m reading at least! but I can’t even get them to read the same articles as me so we have no common material to work from and I have no sanity check for how I’m reading/interpreting the text :/
technology delenda est. I used to be the biggest reader I knew when I was a kid, now I’m still one of the biggest but only because everyone else doesn’t have the attention span to read 1 (one) book and I can sometimes burn through one or two when I’m in the right headspace
Yeah that’s super fucking annoying, it sucks. One of the reasons I’m so neurotic about weirdbooks is that I can ONLY work from my own frame of reference. I have no way to sanity check myself, or even just to hear alternate views or whatever to expand my understanding. As a result, my takes on certain novels are extremely myopic, like Nevada!! I relish getting to talk with other people who have read the thing ❤
I never got why it’s like that, I have a lot of computers and whatever and I still read a fair bit, because words on a page are cool. I fuckin love when readable text is presented in paragraphs!
I have a lot of computers and whatever and I still read a fair bit, because words on a page are cool.
Amen to that
I am finally reading through This Soviet World by Anna Louise Strong and its absolutely fascinating and amazingly well written. If anything it’s better at nearly 100 years old than I imagine it was in the 30s
its really cool to hear an unabashedly pro-soviet perspective from the most demonized period in the USSR’s history (under Stalin). She’s so charismatic, and direct experiences of how the soviet economic and political organizing worked are so fascinating. I haven’t finished it yet but every little tidbit of how people took to it and ran with it is so inspiring, and I think the later chapters will cover more of how changing society subsequently changed people! I read some from the scuffed PDF copy a while back, but now I found a physical copy to borrow which I am immensely lucky for!
Its a great primer on communism tbh, as long as you can get over the positive mentions of stalin (makes it a tougher rec for libs but super eye opening for anyone else who isn’t deeply well read about the ussr, IMO)
I don’t know any of those specific books but I feel the exact same way about talking about books with people. I want to have a non-banal conversation with someone. Anyone. About anything. But they’re vanishingly rare, and usually just about personal experience not about any shared topic like a book or article we both read, because nobody fucking reads anything anymore :(
So relatable, part of the issue I think is that forums have died, so where can you go to discuss books?
and the gamer chat app. Sucks hard. This extremely fun & enriching example you see is the result of me strivinf and suffering for like three years straight through dead-end conversations and clownish individuals.
If you haven’t you can always just post about whatever in the megas, or as a post in a comm? It took a little work (lots of posting) but it’s been great posting about say, Unjust Depths on here. I look forward to it every single day.
I haven’t had a lot of luck posting here about specific books that aren’t like, super common reads or current book club books, though when I do get a reply its usually good, if a bit short! I honestly just wish anyone IRL would engage with this stuff with me. I like people here but I really want to hear my friends’ thoughts
Ah I see, I never even tried talking to people irl myself
so I feel your pain there too.
I can talk to friends about the books I’m reading at least! but I can’t even get them to read the same articles as me so we have no common material to work from and I have no sanity check for how I’m reading/interpreting the text :/
technology delenda est. I used to be the biggest reader I knew when I was a kid, now I’m still one of the biggest but only because everyone else doesn’t have the attention span to read 1 (one) book and I can sometimes burn through one or two when I’m in the right headspace
Yeah that’s super fucking annoying, it sucks. One of the reasons I’m so neurotic about weirdbooks is that I can ONLY work from my own frame of reference. I have no way to sanity check myself, or even just to hear alternate views or whatever to expand my understanding. As a result, my takes on certain novels are extremely myopic, like Nevada!! I relish getting to talk with other people who have read the thing ❤
I never got why it’s like that, I have a lot of computers and whatever and I still read a fair bit, because words on a page are cool. I fuckin love when readable text is presented in paragraphs!
Amen to that
I am finally reading through This Soviet World by Anna Louise Strong and its absolutely fascinating and amazingly well written. If anything it’s better at nearly 100 years old than I imagine it was in the 30s
Ooh, aged like wine? What makes you say so?
its really cool to hear an unabashedly pro-soviet perspective from the most demonized period in the USSR’s history (under Stalin). She’s so charismatic, and direct experiences of how the soviet economic and political organizing worked are so fascinating. I haven’t finished it yet but every little tidbit of how people took to it and ran with it is so inspiring, and I think the later chapters will cover more of how changing society subsequently changed people! I read some from the scuffed PDF copy a while back, but now I found a physical copy to borrow which I am immensely lucky for!
Its a great primer on communism tbh, as long as you can get over the positive mentions of stalin (makes it a tougher rec for libs but super eye opening for anyone else who isn’t deeply well read about the ussr, IMO)