Absolutely. My favorite one is The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman which is set in St. Thomas. I started reading it just before going there on vacation and that made my stay on the island magical. I walked the same streets as the characters, went to the synagogue and the beaches mentioned in the book. It was fabulous.

Another one that comes to my mind but is not based on location is Bewilderment by Richard Powers. Reading it as a parent of a young child makes it an entirely different experience.

They are just defining terms. I see a lot of confusion about this, and there's already a comment below equating curating with banning.

The mention of soft censorship (trying to remove a book from a library or curriculum) is to differentiate it from hard censorship (the government banning the publication and sale of a book). Again, there are always a few people on these types of articles trying to say that only hard censorship counts. Soft censorship is still censorship, and it's pretty much always the type that we're talking about in a U.S. context.

I avoid fan groups for any given book, series, or author except when I want to discuss a book or other work. The internet is full of stans who have picked some series, books, or even bibliographies of various authors to be the hill they defend to their dying breath. Let them do what makes them happy and go do what makes you happy.

Read what you want, when you want. Don't set a goal like x number of books a year/week/month. Recognize that other forms of media have value too. Take a break after books to think on them. Put the book down and spend sometime outside or going to a museum or whatever you like too.

Yeah I mean it's not INaccurate lol

This is very true, but Madame Bovary was such a miserable experience, I don't think I'll go back to Flaubert.

>No one should ever be forced to read this sort of thing.

Has this ever actually happened? Is there some danger of it happening? I know that Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is occasionally taught in high schools but I don't think FW is likely to show up as required reading anywhere.

Just more proof that America is run by fascist shitheads and uneducated knobs.

My dream is to bring "the Banned bookstore" to Utah and other states where we will feature all the "banned" books and all the reading materials that these uneducated shitheads find so offensive.

My partners and I will make them available to all ages, and to all open minded, good people. Bigots will not be allowed. And no religious idiots either.

In a way, we'll be doing our own sort of banning - banning ignorance, banning the perverse molestation of kids by putting their brains into cement braces.

I stand up against fascism. And will never salute the behavior of nazis.

I concur, and not just because I’m diehard when it comes to Russian literature.

[removed]

I've read quite a bit of Joyce's work including his private letters and "exposing types of people for being twats" especially in the context of books didn't really seem like something he was really into or about, in general. I'm curious how you got that impression.

Like do you really think he spent seventeen years writing a novel just to make a rather petty comment that could have just as easily been done with a pamphlet?

So democracy is doing well… /s

Dude, thanks for taking the time to hear me. I totally came off bitchy and I apologize. oops

Yeah good point. I guess I was trying to shock and awe her out of a navel-gazing loop and honestly, my advice was hard won. The worst, hardest, deepest trenches of my own suffering were allayed with the simple trick of turning all that energy outward. Help others.

And that was my (failed) attempt of a post. Hope OP reads this and forgives. I meant it all in a good way. Good luck for reals, all of us ✌️

Just listen to the song, it makes more sense.

Please post 'Should I keep reading' questions, in our Weekly Recommendation Thread.

As an avid reader/book collector, I have never had this happen before. I recently purchased C.J. Tudor's "The Drift" at a local bookstore and while the cover and the binding are correct, the text of the book is Kennedy Ryan's "Before I Let Go". Is this a common type of misprint and I have just been lucky to not encounter it on my reading journey?

We're going to be reading this on r/bookclub in a few weeks. Maybe join us and the group discussion will help you enjoy it more. Here's the announcement post: https://www.reddit.com/r/bookclub/comments/11vn6q9/announcement_evergreen_the_count_of_monte_cristo/

I see where you're coming from with that :) but it also sounds like they're going through a bit of mental health crisis with how much medication they're on. They could be focusing on things in their life outside their career to help improve their situation. The things that make you happy and value life shouldn't come entirely from your work. But it couldn't hurt to give it more attention ;)

Ok i have an example but it's much lamer lmao

I read the book Several People Are Typing in fall 2021. The whole book is in the form of Slack messages, and is mostly about an employee having his consciousness sucked into Slack. I enjoyed it at the time, but I was still a college student, so the humor and commentary didn't always land for me. Now I'm out of college and have been working a job for months that uses lots of Slack, so I just started rereading the book in order to get the full experience

Please post requests for reviews in our Weekly Recommendation thread. Thank you!

I don’t mean to assume. Sorry. Just… not working, and not asking questions about employment? Just worried about feeling bad about losing a reader race that doesn’t exist? Kinda 1st world problemesque sounding.

I think if you’re dwelling or ruminating on the ending to try distracting yourself with other things, if readings not cutting it, then try doing something else. I often find TV to not be enough of a distraction when I’m lost in thought. Throw yourself into a project or a hobby until your mind settles a little. I had a similar problem years ago when I read The Notebook the first time, (my grandparent had passed away and I don’t know why the heck I thought it was a sensible idea to read it). It will pass, and you’ll probably always look back at that story and feel sad or mad about the ending but it won’t be as big a deal anymore.

Also, “three quarks for Muster Mark”. Finnegans Wake will live (in infamy perhaps) as long as there’s physics. Personally I love the Wake. I read some out loud at a party once after my friends expressed their disbelief that it was worth the paper it was printed on, and almost immediately everyone was laughing hysterically. 600 pages of multilingual puns might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it made as much sense as the John Ashbery I’ve been reading lately.

A lot of this is just people going to meetings and making a scene. Apparently one lady who has no kids and hasn't read most of the books she keeps trying to get banned just shows up and makes a fuss.

Has anybody else ever thought about organizing in favor of books? People need to stand up and say that these works need to stay available.

[removed]