Yes book hangover kind of turns you off of books and makes you feel like nevervreaxing again

I'm pretty sure that Plato said the best way to get over a book is to get under a new one. Works for me.

Whenever I read Discworld, I always picture Vetinari as Roger Delgado.

Personally, I only read biographies about or by people I'm interested in. For instance, I've read Who on Earth is Tom Baker? and A Life With Footnotes(about Terry Pratchett), both of which were interesting.

Forbidden Planet is good for sci-fi and fantasy books. I'm mainly there for Doctor Who of which there is plenty.

All addictions are illness.

The actions a person takes because of that addiction are what can be harmful. They are hurting themselves and often place more important things like self-care, personal and professional relationships, monetary stability, and living crime-free as lower priorities than getting the fix of their addiction.

People can be addicted to pretty much anything. It’s not the substance, it’s the neurochemistry of the afflicted that causes such a dependence.

It doesn’t excuse their behavior, but we can’t continue to treat these people like they’re bad when they’re just sick and stuck.

If you’ve ever lived on the streets, you’ll know how cold it can get in the winter without shelter. Many use stimulant drugs like meth or crack to keep them awake and moving through the night because stopping to sleep could result in death. And then they’re hooked and it further ruins their life.

I understand you feel bothered or unsafe by what you’re experiencing, but I ask you pleas try to access some compassion because it would only take a few missteps for you or anyone to end up in similar situation.

I really only enjoy a certain kind of memoir: it has to be by a person who was in some kind of extraordinary situation and the book has to focus mostly on that particular situation, not their life as a whole. And then, of course, it should be beautifully written, thoughtful, reflective, etc.

Last year, my top favorite book was a memoir: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, about her experience in an abusive relationship. I've also loved When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanathi, a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

When I've tried to read memoirs that fall outside this formula, no matter how interesting the person's life seems or how much I might like them as a celebrity figure, I end up feeling bored or like the story is too meandering.

This. But to name a couple from me it’s: All the light we cannot see; Project Hail Mary

Foyles is a must!

I actually love this feeling even though it's sadness. Because it is evidence that I really enjoyed the story, the world the author created, and the interesting people inhabiting it.

While this feeling is sad and a bit depressing, the antidote, for me anyway, is to crack open another book in search of that next comfortable world which I can snuggle into safely.

I think it beats the alternative: finding yourself in a world you don't really want to be in (real or fictional).

See Laura Ingalls Wilder as an example. She was 15 when she began dating her future husband at 25.

Speaking for myself, it's not a con. I enjoy the hangover as much as the actual reading.

When reading the Twin series (dragonlance) I was always picturing Arnold Schwarzenegger as Caramon and Willem Dafoe as Raistlin

You're confusing a figure of speech for a literal description. Book addiction is seen as good because nobody is talking about literal addiction, when it comes to books. They're talking about a great enthusiasm, that is both healthy and beneficial for the enthusiast. Nobody thinks a literal addiction to books is a good thing. Nobody says that.

I'm curious: Do you find that you struggle with literal versus figurative meanings generally, or is it just that this particular figure of speech slipped past you somehow?

I always felt like Mike Hagerty, who played the super, Mr. Treeger, on Friends would have made a great Ignatius J. Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces.

Probably would have needed to do this in the late-80s or early-90s.

I like to read a couple Philip K Dick short stories between books. Also comic books are a nice palate cleanser between meatier books

I still envision Megan Follows when I think of Anne Shirley even though I loved Anne with an E and thought the role was also perfectly cast

To reverse this - what part of Canada are you from? I often go to Toronto to visit family but haven't yet come across a really nice bookshop (store). Do you know of any?

The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy

206 total ratings on goodreads

William James Sidis is quite possibly the most intelligent man who ever lived, and virtually no one has heard of him. The son of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, his IQ is estimated to have been upwards of 200. He was the youngest person to ever attend Harvard University, enrolling at the age of 11, and began giving lectures at the age 12 to mathematics post-doctorates on the subject of four dimensional bodies. By the age eight he had taught himself eight languages and by the end of his life was conversant in 25. Sidis was scrutinized and harassed by the press throughout his childhood because of his prodigal abilities and lived most of his adult life in seclusion, constantly using pseudonyms to avoid the attention of the media.

i had this with almost all of Tom Robbins' books :{

Yesssss!!!! Sometimes I even wait to finish the book so I can drag it out a bit longer before I loose my new world.

Memoirs often have the effect of reading like a novel, because it’s someone telling the story of their life, except they’re not tidy and satisfying like a novel because nobody’s life is tidy and satisfying with all the loose ends and plot points neatly tied up at the end. A bunch of stuff happens, and there’s no real underlying plot. Might this be your issue?

That said, one of the most entertaining memoirs I’ve read is Harpo Speaks! by Harpo Marx. There’s a remarkable amount of real history in there, related by a guy who lived it, from the Vaudeville era to early Hollywood to the stock market crash of ‘29 to the Algonquin Round Table.

And at the end of a series — and the author died. Just…ugh. This happened to me after finishing Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s Labyrinth of the Spirits (book 4). He died of colon cancer in late 2020 at age 55.

I also found Robertson Davies 1 year after he died.

And Richard Brautigan 3 years after he passed.

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I remember getting this really hard for His Dark Materials as a kid. I had developed a huge crush on Lyra, finishing the books was like a break up