Books #42

[Harlot O'Scara]

A lot of booktok/bookstagram seems to be more about the aesthetic of reading than actually reading.

They're only interested in an incredibly narrow range of books, there's a lot of overconsumption with buying numerous different expensive decorated editions of the same book + book "merch" and pointless accessories; and I've seen several clips of booktokers admitting they basically just skim books, won't read prologues or epilogues, won't read paragraphs of more than a certain length etc.

 

[daisynoon]

My card has been cancelled due to fraudulent activity so that means no more online shopping til my new card arrives. There better not be any good kindle daily deals in the interim!

It was rather mortifying as I had to go through recent spends with the agent on the phone and explain why there were SO MANY 99pence transactions with Amazon 🫣

I called up my bank because of a weird entry on my statement, and the guy on the other end was dismissive and told me it was fine. I asked what it was, and he said it was from kobo (some sort of card verification check), and he could tell it was fine because I clearly shop with them a lot. I died.

 

[chickhicks86]

• The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
• Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt
• American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld
• The Women - Kristin Hannah
• The List of Suspicious Things - Jennie Godfrey
• My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises - Fredrik Backman
• Prima Facie - Suzie Miller
• The Will of the Many - James Islington
• The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
• Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

That was harder than I thought it would be! Nearly took out The Lovely Bones due to the controversy surrounding the author, The Women would have taken its place in that case. Edit to add - I left The Women, it would have been Norwegian Wood

 

[Booklover]

Finished The Names today! Flipping heck, what a book. And a debut too! Only one of a handful of books I've ever read that made me actually shed a tear. Superb.

 

[LaBlonde]

I don't mind the ads although if i was getting a new one, I'd probably get one without as it's not much difference in price. Just for the principle of not having ads!

The ads are only on the lock screen so it's not a big deal apart from it keeps giving me ads for those books with naked men on the cover and my husband wonders wtf I'm reading i have to be like it's an ad, I'm not actually reading the hunk porn ( or am i )

i get SO MANY naked men ads - i’m glad it’s not just me and they always have the most insane premises: i keep getting one now which is like “he fought the enemy with his fists, but he forget to protect his HEART” and if i see it one more time i might just buy it.

what is kindle trying to tell us

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

24 hours in and we've already got over 100 individual books!

Keep the lists coming though!

 

[Carapop]

I’ve been using Threads a bit recently cos I enjoy the book community on it. This morning I posted about how the majority of my reading was written by women and should I include more male authors? The responses were hilarious, and predominantly of the nature “nah, you’re good”.

 

[Shepherd___spy]

My top 10 in no particular order

1. Thousand splendid suns
2. Rebecca
3. Midori by moonlight
4. Alone in berlin
5. The book thief
6. Eleanor oliphant is completely fine
7. Remarkably brught creatures
8. Wild swans
9. Memoirs of a geisha
10. The lovely bones

 

[pinkmug]

I checked my 5 star/favourites lists but I'm afraid none of then are recommendation worthy. It is mostly full of books I know to be bang average but I just enjoyed them very much Or very well known books in general.

The book curse is broken, I spent almost all Sunday reading. Richard Osman is getting a fruit basket from me for keeping my attention this long when my brain felt like a chihuahua on cocaine after spending weeks scrolling on my phone. Can't wait to finish it this evening and start the next one.

 

[ordinaryjelly]

Houston. We have a problem.

My top ten list is currently 33 books long. Every time I go to take one out I feel like I am removing a family member.

Come back tomorrow for tomorrow's trauma.

We are now down to 26 books and I am feeling very disloyal to those who I have removed today. My plan for tomorrow is to just go in and just do it. Get it done, get it posted.

I haven't felt this stressed since I handed in my dissertation.

 

[ordinaryjelly]

I was just reading some random stuff, which I then checked and it seems like only 1% of the world's population read over 50 books a year.

I know it needs to be relative because there is a huge portion of the world whose people do not have access to books. 13% of the world are considerate illiterate. Since I have nothing better to do I went through each region and tallied up how literate they are, some places surprised me with 98% literacy rates (far flung Pacific Islands) and then places in Asia with poor rates. I lived in Asia for almost 20 years and some of those countries surprised me.

Given the world's population is at best guess 83,000,000,000. We are part of a fairly exclusive club of around 830,000,000 people in the world who are considered literate. Which isn't many at all when you think about our world. Then take that down to the 1% of people who read more than 50 books a year we are down to 8,300,000 which is a grain of rice of the worlds population.

I'll stop now before I extrapolate the exact literacy rate of Zambia and go back to the Tudor Rose novel which I am really enjoying!

How many people do you know who read + 50 books a year?

I know 1, plus me. So we are down to 8,299,998 people.

 

[Eureka]

Just finished Remarkably Bright Creatures just in time for the Netflix movie this week. Loved it, it could have been a bit silly given that an octopus is up to all sorts of meddling shenanigans but it didn't. A very sweet book.

Moving onto something very different in Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy.

 

[Booklover]

My ten are:

The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
The Most Fun We've Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
You Are Here by David Nicholls
My Brilliant friend by Elena Ferrante
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

 

[SaintLeo]

How much time do you leave between finishing a book and starting a new one?

I’m never without a book on the go, so pretty much straight away. (Or the next day if I finish one late at night of course!)

It’s not unusual for me to get off to a slow start with a new book though - my daily page count definitely increases the further in I get. I think that’s just a case of getting in to a new story and characters though so I don’t think getting a break between books would change that.

 

[Chocolategoggler]

I had to do an Amazon order to fix my TV ready for the Jilly Cooper Rivals Series 2.
As I was going to be charged £5 delivery unless I added £10 of goods I was forced to order some books.
#that'smyexcuse

 

[OwlHen]

I’ve had such a mad month I’d forgotten I even read the first 2! I’m really glad I finally started The Wager too, I knew I’d need to be in the right mood for it.

 

[veronica71]

I love this discussion about kindle/books - I find other people’s reading habits fascinating

another plus of the kindle I remembered last night is I can keep reading way past my bedtime with the lights off.

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

Should add my own since I started it

Also in alphabetical order:

1984 - George Orwell
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
Emma - Jane Austen
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Shogun - James Clavell
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle


Also would probably change if asked again tomorrow!

I'll give it a week for anyone who wants to do a list and post the final one next Sunday.

 

[Hannahebee]

Here is my book haul from yesterday.

 

[Blueblue123]

My top 10... though there are so many highly-rated books I'm yet to read and I'm probably forgetting everything I've read.

Caucasia - Danzy Senna
Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
Monday's Not Coming - Tiffany D Jackson
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro
Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Strange Pictures - Uketsu
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
The Good Samaritan - John Marrs