I can’t be the first person to point out the preponderance of overeducated & overconfident white guys who got published in the 20th century, can I? Downvoting my opinion and implying I’m somehow unwell to hold it is a bit disrespectful. If you don’t agree, move on then.

This plus when I wanted to get into reading in 2015 I started reading just a chapter a day. Not much, because even that took a lot of energy to begin with. Now i'm an avid reader and can read for hours. It took time and practice. Just start with something manageable, like a chapter or 20 minutes a day as Penguin-47284 mentioned. And find something you'll enjoy. It doesn't matter if it's horror or YA or middle grade or fantasy or a manga etc. Read what you want, what excites you to read it. And DNF a book if you aren't enjoying it.

God I loved these books so much.

This is where I recall Gate and So the SDF Fought there.

Or, as I sometimes call it 'Imperial Japan did nothing wrong and Colonialism is just fine as long as you're moral about it.'

This isn't every one of these fics by any measure, but this is a theme I occassionally see in manga, anime, and light novels. Unsurprising. The legacy of Imperial Japan is culturally contentious in Japan today. Inevitably that will find itself reflected in the fiction and media that culture produces. The anime for Gate actually has it better than the manga where it gets harder and harder to ignore the story as it starts justifying Japan's colonizing of a fantasy work and making allusions to Imperial Japan that are thinly veiled at best.

And I could rant for hours about the frequency with which people miss the Nazism analogies in Zeon and the Gundam Unicorn lightnovels were freaking insane on this front, bordering on political diatribes at times.

The anime adaptations have a tendency of toning these elements down.

It has bled over into the LITRPG space somewhat, though in a variant that is more lacking in consideration of its content than anything. These genres borrow a lot from Eastern popular media so the osmosis is to be expected. I wouldn't say the genre is racist or pro-colonial per se. I would say it is at times very unintrospective about its contents and tropes. The writers adopt the motifs of things they like without a hard look at any implications they may carry.

I could make that criticism about most fiction, especially the pulpier popcorn varieties. People are reading them for the power fantasy, and many of them frame themselves as 'young hero fights abusive power structures' kind of stories. This is more a case of unfortunate implication than intent (most of the time, anyway).

As to women and young girls, oh yeah. This is a thing that's way more common in anime and manga than western media and it's bled over in much more unsavory ways. I still remember Reddit from I don't even know how many years ago anymore when Church of Kuro wasn't a banned sub and if you think it's bad now you have no idea. It's still kind of bad.

Though western made stuff generally skips it. Lots of western works in these genres are made and written for people in the early-to-mid 20s and the stories reflect this. The cringy presentation of younger girls and teens or the fetishizing of adolescent bodies isn't nearly as bad as you'll find in translated works originating in Japan, South Korea, or China. And there we have a more blatant case of values dissonance.

Cloud Atlas has a good section set after the collapse of society.

For films The Postman is fun, if cheesy.

Hello. Per rule 3.3, please post book recommendation requests in /r/SuggestMeABook or in our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you.

The expanse series is a brilliant book series for sci-fi lovers. It is all grounded in real world physics by and large so spaceships combat is limited by human G forces, and take place over weeks at a time from 1000's of kilometres away. Very fun.

You okay?

Yeah, the build up of Derry and it's inhabitants was amazingly done.

Yeah, maybe I should have been more specific: “upper middle class 20th century white guy who had the privilege to gain a huge vocabulary and the opportunity to be paid to bang on and show off all the words he knows whether anyone wants to read them or not”

maybe try listening to music while reading? also take your book everywhere with you, it can help you with reading more :) good luck!

I mean, Japanese stuff in general is going to usually push past what would be allowed in the West. But that isn't unique to Isekai. For example, Spice and Wolf is a fairly normal fantasy romance series, except the male MC is 25 and the girl appears to be 15 (of course she's a wolf goddess so she isn't actually 15, but it's specifically stated that she looks 15)

Obviously something like that just wouldn't fly in the west, but Japan is Japan, so it's normal. I could give plenty of other examples if you really want, but my point is just that your complaint has everything to do with Japan and nothing to do with Isekai specifically.

The American stories you mention appear to be self published erotica, so I'm not sure why you are expecting much out of them. Like no shit the main character goes around having sex with a bunch of hot girls, that's literally the premise.

And I don't think people from the modern era using guns against people armed with medieval levels of technology is equivalent to Japan's invasion of China in 1937. Like China was outmatched in that war, but they weren't THAT outmatched

Thank you very much, I will definitely check them out once I'm finished reading (man's search for meaning) and i also want to touch on The Untethered Soul, reviews on this book are great.

I just started reading my first book today and honestly I can't sit for very long, I finished the 7th page and my mind already started wandering:( for now I'll just stick to reading 10-15 pages a day until it becomes a habit and then I'll slowly increase my speed, anyways thank you once again have a great day.

Ah. Makes sense. I've always found him deranged and uninteresting. Don't downvote just my opinion.

I think they meant they felt hollow when the book was over and they had to leave its world and characters behind, so more like leaving the book made them feel that way, not the book itself. So the problem now is that they're not emotionally invested enough in what they read to care when it's over.

Oh no! It's also included in the chonker Academic Exercises, which is a collection of novellas and short stories, if you can find that.

I have read her historical fiction. Malibu Rising was a favorite. I thought Evelyn Hugo was a bit overrated.

For beginners, from philosophy genre, I would recommend The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber, it uses simple language, its not very long. It's a simple guide to stoicism with some practises to try. I'd also recommend Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, its a lil harder to go through, but it's a classic and I think it's worth it. It can really change your mindset and you will think about this book daily. From history I'm not sure what you are interested in, but my recommendations is The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Paintings by Ben Lewis. This discuss both history and renessance, also the life of Leonardo and what happened to make the painting so expensive. I'm not really into those genres, but I read some books and I hope I helped :) Sorry for not touching the subject of psychology books, but I dont think I've ever read any.

Yep, that's Steven King. He said in his book On Writing that he never plans his novels beforehand, and this is the result.

I have read On Writing, and started using it as a guide to write. Writing without outlines and just going where the story goes has been great so far, creatively. however I have 100 pages for roughly 3 scenes. I can see what you mean.

I find when I am not bored and paying attention, I default to my phone or computer. This prevents me from picking up a book instead. I have to consciously think about it, but once I do start I am still an avid reader. I just have to avoid falling into my usual habits.

He was famously into coke, pills, weed and alcohol

The planet where sometimes people make mistakes in comments and then edit it immediately as to avoid confusion.

Frost and Fire is one of Ray Bradbury's stories that I will never forget. His entire collection is fantastic but this one really grabbed me.

Overestimated on what? Is Steven a king a blowhead?