A book a month is about 1 book more than 50% of the population read in a month.

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Who doesn't like aesthetically pleasing books? But it's not a deal breaker for me if the design or even formatting is off. I've read self-publishing books (e-books mostly) that still got the "this is a preview.indd" in them every chapter, or that have a cover someones teenage kid made in blender. Some of those were awesome books, just very badly designed. Yeah - the formatting can be disturbing, but I overlook it if it's just a minor problem. As long as it's readable enough to not distract from the story too much, it doesn't get an immediate downvote from me.

I have a goal of reading 100 books in 2023. I’ve already read 20, so I think I’ll keep the pace and maybe exceed it.

Now to find more things I actually want to read lol! I don’t want to read something just to check it off.

I have never done this,

But I noticed a bias I had that stunned me the other day: I was watching a dubbed-in-English movie, and they used British actors for the voices, and I watched it all the way through. Then a few days later, I was watching another dubbed-in-English movie and they used American actors, and I just could not take it. I reverted film to original language plus subtitles.

It was not bad voicing, but simply one sounded right to my ears and one sounded wrong. And I'm an American. Why such a bias? Beats me.

I have a handful of yearly challenges; 150 books, 30 physical books, a genre challenge and 10 countries. Then an overall challenge of one for every country, but that will plug along slowly!

same. the only exception that comes to my mind is far tortuga by peter matthiessen. I love that book.

it's told in brief, very impressionistic snatches of text, and uses very simple pen-and-ink graphics as a narrative element, which it took me some time to catch on to. the story would have me anyway, but for me the layout is needed to give the right pacing and balance to the prose. so it works. those elements contribute strongly to the "feel" of the story, as well as adding beauty to how it's told.

but that's rare.

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One year I challenged myself to exclusively read books by women and/or indigenous Americans and it was great. Sometimes I have a numerical goal, or to finish a series. This year is quantity only because I hated how much time I was wasting listening to garbage podcasts and instead am throwing that time at audiobooks. Happy reading!

I believe what you're referring to is typography; the arrangement of the typeface (font), size, line lengths, line-spacing, and letter-spacing etc in relation to the page space available.

As a collector of books from publishers that either have a history, or are still printed, by letterpress where exacting typographic standards are necessary to the overall broader aesthetic of the book; I do find it does very much matter. I have bought the odd mass printed edition over the years that have had awful typography; especially some packed story collections where the publisher tries to jam as much into the pages to save on spending money on splitting them into separate volumes thus making the entire text block jammed and claustrophobic that pushes right up the page edges with barely any margins for the text to "breath." An overall awful reading experience.

I have come across a few books that are trying to be artsy and "more than just a book" and if you take away the pictures and fancy typography and and all that ... well, you just end up with a mediocre story.

Nowadays, whenever I see a book doing something different with the layout I'm wondering if its just trying to make itself look much more interesting than it actually is.

I put all my unread books, about 60, on scraps of paper and into a big vase. I pick from there and read what I’m told

In my day to day reading, not so much. But my very favourite books I tend to collect in fine editions. Things like leather bound Franklin library editions, Folio Society and such.

One of my favourite books in my collection is a lovely Franklin library edition of Poe's stories. Red leather, a gold inlaid geometric pattern on the cover, heavy paper and every story has an ink illustration. I love reading that book on stormy autumn days, sometimes just stopping to picture the stories while running my fingers over the leather.

One of my biggest splurge purchases recently is a folio society edition of the never ending story that is made exactly as the book itself is described in the story. The shimmering golden silk cover, the depiction of the Auryn. The only difference is that the book has beautiful illustrations while the book described in the story does not.

It's a joy just turning those thick pages. Stuff like this just turns the whole act of reading into an experience for me.

I thought this was going to be about book covers, but am I wrong in thinking that this is more about formatting? As someone else said, it sounds like this detracted from the reading experience, and the saving grace was that you were able to more clearly see your friend as you knew them in the writing because of it.

I think to a certain extent authors having control over how their book is formatted works is cool. Lemony Snicket had that one chapter/couple of pages that was just a word repeated over and over, or something like that.

Look, the truth is that your friend is never going to famous author. So best case scenario is he listens to you, makes his book more readable and... no one is gonna buy it because he'll need to spend a few hundred on advertising to make any sales. The worst case scenario is that he's resentful about you "stifling his creativity" or becomes too self-conscious to publish, and the result is still the same, no one buys his book.

So you're risking your friendship for something that won't make any difference in book sales.

A lot of writers are just objectively bad, but the process of writing and designing a book makes them happy, and as their friends, that's what we should support.

Personal expression and unique books are great. But it sounds like the things you mentioned don't make the book better. Things lacking context, random capitalization, and poor readability aren't things I think I would appreciate unless it somehow actually lends itself to the theme of the book, which seems unlikely. It sounds like it might be endearing to you because you already know the author.

Not really challenges, but I have some goals this year:

- Re-read favorite books I've read before (aiming for 1 per month)

- Read books I own but haven't read yet (also aiming for 1 per month)

- Get books mostly from free libraries, public libraries, and physical bookstores and only buy online as a last resort (and buy from bookshop.org when I do)

Don't worry about the number of books you read. The number is less important than what you got from those books. Personally, I try not to focus too much on how many books I read, because I find that encourages me to stay away from books that are slower or take longer, and those are usually my favorites at the end of the year.

Just like everything else, social media has turned reading into something where you compare yourself to some "ideal" of a reader. There's no such thing. The most important and valuable thing about reading is the relationship you build between yourself and the book.

Yes... in my head Crowley from Good Omens is played by Seth MacFarlane ..... so yes.

Personally i like to be able to read my books easily, so anything that hinders that would discourage me from continuing a book.

Random capitalizations and pictures are intriguing, though. I wish more novels had pictures.

This year I have a word count goal and not book total. When I do book totals I always err on the side of shorter novels just for the sake of hitting my goal and start feeling impatient when getting through one takes longer than expected. So this year my goal is 1.5 million words (12-15 avg length books)

While I appreciate and encourage personal expression, it's also frustrating to me when people make things difficult to read for others. One of my biggest complaints is when there isn't enough contrast between letters and their background. Why write something that can barely be read? It happens a lot.

It's good to express your personality. However, when you make people struggle to read something, it comes across as... arrogant? inconsiderate? I'm not sure the right word, but I find it irritating.

Hindering comprehension is beyond mere aesthetics.

12 books from 12 friends is such a nice idea (‘: If you hate a certain one would you ask them for a new suggestion, or ask a new friend for a new book?

Either way, thanks for mentioning, might get my friends to do this! A plus, I’m sure, if they’re irl friends and can loan you the book personally!

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Totally same. I’m over the trope of female character who doesn’t have her shit together, and even more over the wayyyy overused trope of murdered popular female character who was a bitch to everyone and totally deserved to die, but post modern feminist lit begs you to think otherwise. This character archetype has exhausted my empathy.