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Essentially, you argue that reading (fiction) is self-improvement.

Is it true? Can you measure such improvement somehow? If you can't, is it meaningful?

Regardless of whether it is true, if your goal is persuasion, I don't think this argument will work.

It puts you in the rhetorical position of knowing better than they do, because you've exercised your mind and they haven't. This is only likely to make your interlocutor more defensive and disparaging of your "book-learning".

People who disparage "book-learning" generally do so out of insecurity, because they don't have any. You can't win an "argument" with such a person by making them more insecure.

I also feel this sub has energized my passion for reading. The What Are You Reading sub has also been a consistent source for finding books I would have otherwise never heard about.

i just quoted the phrase that was used continuously in the final chapter

it's really more of a reddit problem, but comments that are against the mainstream opinion get down voted to oblivion

Take YouTube off your device, get the kindle or libby app. Problem solved.

Respectfully disagree. Not sure what dissent you're talking about and I'm not exactly looking for PhD English analysis.

Ad hom

That's a strong endorsement!

It's nothing close to the movie. They present Gump as a proper fool in the books. In the movie he was very likeable.

Do not read the book lol.

I'm not usually a fan of academia novels, and I wondered if it would resonate with me. I thought there was a chance it would be too pretentious. I read Rachel Cusk's book Outline because a lot of writers recommended it, and it was good but I didn't love it. That was what I expected.

What??? I'm almost done with the second one right now with plans to read the rest, but that's mainly because I assumed the big mystery in book 1 would be solved eventually 😭

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great sub for the lowest common denominator, dissent is not tolerated

truelit is too snobby though -- we need something in the middle, but will probably never get it

The definition of genre is, "a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content".

You're overthinking or mistaking what it means to be a genre. LitRPG stories share a particular style and/or content, so it absolutely meets the definition of genre. Do many LitRPG stories also happen to be fantasy stories? Absolutely. But that doesn't change the fact that LitRPG is also a genre.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I was being flippant but I was saying that I read because I don’t like being subjected to my OWN thinking and self-generated ruminations all day and I prefer to hear other people’s (printed) thoughts to avoid getting stuck in my own bubble. I don’t use written narratives to generate more hypothetical scenarios where something might be applicable — I read specifically to avoid it.

Agreed, this is the only book I’ve given literally zero stars to. How is it being made into a movie?!

I knew she/her journal/him were unreliable narrators. It was still boring AF and I wish I hadn't wasted the hours I did thinking it would eventually get better. I spent the entirety of the book irritated. Similar to The Davinci Code which at the time everyone also loved and I hated. On the plus side, it was the book that finally set me on the path of "If I am hating a book I'm not wasting any more time on it." which has opened the door to many more books I actually enjoy.

You can do whatever you want, but if you’re skipping and skimming, you’re not actually reading the book. Where is the line? One chapter skipped? 20% skimmed? You’re missing a lot. Just pick a different book

You are in very good company at feeling let-down by the ending.

https://www.englishliterature.info/2022/01/controversial-ending-huckleberry-finn.html

☝️

Project Hail Mary

NYRB is New York Review Books, the most recent publisher. They're known for finding old forgotten gems and re-releasing them. They really do find great old stories and I loved almost everything from them that I've read, but sometimes they're less accessible which is what fear was with Stoner.

I'm surprised no one has said The Maid by Nita Prose yet. The entire book was a frustrating experience in how dramatic irony (and reverse dramatic irony) can be grossly overused in mystery novels--the narrator's "quirk" (never diagnosed but is coded as autism) is an excuse for her to miss all of the clues so plainly in front of her--an interesting premise for a mystery perhaps-- but then at the very end its revealed in a flashback that she literally witnessed who did it but sort of just, forgot?? and didn't think to mention it to us the entire time?? I have never in my life yelled at a book like this

That sounds horrendous.