Some people like them and are rabid about that. Some people don’t like them and are rabid about that.

I have not read this book but now I’m interested, is it any good?

It means something of course. He likes music and is obsessed with surfaces. But it’s not that deep. Not being deep is the meaning.

I kind of figured it might be because he knows it's normal to have some kind of connection to music? Like he's got the clothes and consumer goods as a way to show off on material level, and then he can use the art he displays in his apartment and the music he seems to know a lot about to make himself seem cultured, but in a way that doesn't really take any reflection or real emotional connection on his part.

Or maybe he just does love commercial pop music and he goes on and on about it because it's the only thing he feels a connection to?

I still have my copy of this book from my childhood. Glad it holds up because it was by far my favorite book back then

book freaked me out as a kid even though I read it over and over

He's a Psychopath. He's Glib. His choice of music are all hyper produced, shallow, just like him. His Huey Lewis bit is a lecture on conformity. They are him manufacturing himself by proxy - which is what psychopath's do. They have no identity of their own so they need to find and borrow/steal bits from other people's to make themselves real. Andrew Cunanan is a good RL example of this.

The music is a stable thing he can fix on and a material icon of success (Phil Collins' story in Genesis for example, sort of mirrors his own in his family).

Oh that's right! It's been so long since I read this book.

Ever creepier. Like a robot trying to blend in.

The Vampire Diaries series by LJ Smith. For something a bit more adult, so some murder, humor and a bit more sexual, Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series.

I mean, there’s a difference between someone saying “I don’t like Colleen Hoover and think her writing is bad” and saying “you’re stupid because you like Colleen Hoover.” One is stating an opinion which is fine but the other is specifically insulting someone else for their opinion. I think that’s what they’re getting at.

Maybe The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris? It's set in the Victorian era, so towards the end of the period you asked for, and it's about surgery, Joseph Lister in particular.

Try asking in one of r/AskHistorian's weekly thread about book recommendations. Someone over there must know about the time period.

According to others, his music chapters were literally him memorizing critic reviews to regurgitate them...

That's ehat someone else said! Him having memorized a real music critic's opinion is actually pretty mindblowing and makes complete sense.

That makes a lot of sense him trying to be deeper, but i wonder why he honed in on music to make him seem deeper? I would have assumed his obsession with consumer products would have been most important to be knowledgeable on, other than ending the apartheid ofc.

I haven’t read it in forever, but I still remember both the book and the movie somewhat. I remember thinking they weren’t his actual opinions, but memorized critic reviews. I also seem to remember him narcissistically thinking Bono was singing directly to him?

Damn really, it's just memorization of another's words???

To my memory, and it's been a while since I read it, it almost felt like him trying to be deeper than he really is? Like the things he talks about sound like they're directly pulled from reviews or magazine articles or interviews, and as mentioned, they're almost always talking about the most "commercial" album of whatever artist he's talking about. It's like he knows there's supposed to be something there, and it's something he's supposed to feel deeply, but all he can do is parrot what he's heard about the least challenging music available.

This won't be the usual recommendation, but I think you might enjoy it a lot.

The long way to a small angry planet by Becky Chambers. Beautiful, poignant, funny, two main characters fulfill your no drama wlw request without it being THE focus of the novel, and you'll have a good time like hanging with new friends.

As it turned out he was just a really ugly duckling, and he grew up to be just a really ugly duck.

Quite possibly the most important lesson I learned as a child.

He memorizes reviews to have something to talk about when he interacts with people.

All part of the mask.

I was Jack the Narrator in the children's play version of this. Simpler times

Twilight was ridiculed mercilessly for being so crappy. Now it's Coho's turn.

He has no idea how to interact normally with other human beings. So he came up with this scripted narrative about something he actually enjoys and spouts it off to anyone he can in an attempt to seem "normal" in their eyes. He's trying to act casual and get his potential victims to relax, but he can't hide his weirdness and the awkward stilted monologue sets off alarm bells, despite his best efforts.

The boy just ain't right.

Adderall might have made them coherent

But his obsession with it is above everything else in his life, excluding murder. It may be superficial to us, but other than his murders, it's the only other "mainstream" consumer product that has entire chapters dedicated to him talking about it.

Not saying you're wrong, but always got a sense of something else being there for him when it came to this shit mainstream music