What are you reading?

[alexshred420]

I have a subscription to https://catalyst-journal.com and am reading those.

Lots of news which probably isn't good. What are people's go-to news sources? I use Google News as a general aggregator but find myself on The Guardian a lot. Intercept.

"How To Be An Anti-Racist" by Ibram X. Kendi

"An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

Goes without saying but don't buy any of these on Amazon. #solidarity #fuckjeffbezos

[joni]

I've been reading one job at a time from the book "Gig" for a while now. I can't recommend it enough. Needless to say, so many jobs were so different in 2001.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gig/_tqJDQAAQBAJ

[weston]

Have been in a book club with a friend reading through Werner Herzog's "Scenarios", which are his much more narrative versions of screenplays.

Separately, finishing volume one of "My Struggle" by Karl Ove Knausgaard.

Will definitely check out some of those other recs.

[kmikeym]

A friend recommended Leaving Cheyanne by Larry McMurtry, which is very far from my usual read but I'm enjoying a slow paced small population cowboy book.

https://www.powells.com/book/-9780671753801

[ritchey]

y'all I am reading a book called FEMINIST INTERPRETATIONS OF THEODOR ADORNO
And a book about Hildegard of Bingen
And for my seminar I am reading a book written in the 90s about Baroque music performance and historical authenticity that caused a huge ruckus when it was first published
And w/r/t fiction I just finished the third and final book in the Wolf Hall trilogy and it was great but now I don't have any more fiction books

I love Larry McMurtry, Lonesdome Dove FOR LIFE

[richjensen]

I've been carrying around UTOPIAN LEGACIES: A History of Conquest and Oppression in the Western World by John Mohawk for a long time. Over a year? A dog-eared page indicates that I was last reading page 179. I'm not sure if this means I am reading this or not. It is not John Mohawk's fault though. He is/was a great history teacher, philosopher of peace-making, and an expert on the Iroquois / Haudenosaunee confederacy. This book is a great quick run through Western History from, actually, the Paleolithic to the late-Twentieth Century. I mean, if you read it.

Most of my reading comes from links delivered by Twitter. There are a couple of recent long pieces I meant to finish. One is by Nathan Schneider looking at the role of gender in the tension between the Open Source and Ethical Source software development communities. He hasn't taken his mask off yet so I don't know what he really thinks or the point he is making.

[joni]

y'all I am reading a book called FEMINIST INTERPRETATIONS OF THEODOR ADORNO
And a book about Hildegard of Bingen
And for my seminar I am reading a book written in the 90s about Baroque music performance and historical authenticity that caused a huge ruckus when it was first published
And w/r/t fiction I just finished the third and final book in the Wolf Hall trilogy and it was great but now I don't have any more fiction books

I love Larry McMurtry, Lonesdome Dove FOR LIFE

LONESOME DOVE! I want to rewatch the TV miniseries! BEANS!

[yourfriendclaire]

I'm reading a VERY granola late '70s ecofeminist sci-fi book called The Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearheart. It's about a band of psychic hill women who live autonomously in mountaintop nests outside of The City. They communicate in a very elaborate telepathy with each other and every other living thing, including cats and dogs and trees. It's very good

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderground

[ritchey]

I HAVE TO READ THIS

[sashaburchuk]

I spend 7-8 hours a day reading Critical Theory. Foucault, Agamben, CCRU, etc.

And "How To Be An Antiracist" by Ibram Kendi.

[yourfriendclaire]

I HAVE TO READ THIS

I'll send it to you when I'm done!

[Jaclyn Jean]

Currently reading “Assholes: A Theory” by Aaron James which is a pretty robust philosophical framework for thinking about and engaging with the concept of someone being an Asshole, and also a super fun read in this time of Peak Asshole.

Also intermittently reading Tarkovsky’s “Sculpting in Time” which I’d only read excerpts from previously. It’s a fairly meandering meditation on the nature and purpose of art.

[richjensen]

Spending time here today: http://identitiesjournal.edu.mk/index.p ... nt/view/19
The Wonder of the Most Dramatic Contradiction of Capitalism -- by Katerina Kolozova

"The machine of capital, the automaton of producing surplus value or simply monetary value – can pause. Therefore, it can stop."

[ritchey]

"The machine of capital, the automaton of producing surplus value or simply monetary value – can pause. Therefore, it can stop."

YES

Imagining the possible
Realizing the impossible

[richjensen]

I think I need to read KK's most recent book: Capitalism’s Holocaust of Animals: A Non-Marxist Critique of Capital, Philosophy and Patriarchy.

[ritchey]

Wow this looks EPIC and really good. WOW
I've been getting into post-humanism. It's such an exciting way to try to think. I only recently realized I'm a post-humanist and since then so much has been falling into place in my mind.

Along these lines, I recently read a book that has re-oriented a lot of my thought lately: Lesley Head, Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene. Makes a lot of post-humanist claims and advocates separating optimism (a feeling) from hope (a practice). I find myself thinking about it constantly. It's a Routledge book and absurdly expensive though. I already loaned my copy out. If you can get ahold of it I think you would dig it.

[m o l l y]

I love Larry McMurtry, Lonesdome Dove FOR LIFE

Agreed. FOR LIFE. I liked Leaving Cheyenne too!

[m o l l y]

Reading The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-first Century oof.

Also, Xenogenesis
and Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book
and Anais Nin's In Favor of the Sensitive Man
and The Revenge of the She Punks, which is slow-going for me... @ritchey, should I push through?

[ritchey]

@ritchey, should I push through?

I don't know this book!! What is it

[tim]

And for my seminar I am reading a book written in the 90s about Baroque music performance and historical authenticity that caused a huge ruckus when it was first published

deets please! book & seminar (& what you're studying!)

[m o l l y]

@ritchey, should I push through?

I don't know this book!! What is it

Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot by Vivien Goldman. It was a birthday present and I was excited about it. But the whole thing is written like a long 90's magazine album review and it is kind of exhausting.

[ritchey]

Tim: I'm not studying I'm TEACHING!! A grad seminar for music history Masters students introducing them to the history of the field. It's a meta class and very fun.

Molly: This sounds like a book that is great in concept but boring in execution! Your description is very boring (I do not mean your description itself is boring) and I don't want to read it and I give you permission to give up on it. HUZZAH

[tim]

Tim: I'm not studying I'm TEACHING!! A grad seminar for music history Masters students introducing them to the history of the field. It's a meta class and very fun.

Ahh! Amazing! Apologies! im a philosophy ma student with a focus on the philosophy of music. what's the one thing I HAVE to read, from your perspective? (interested in improvisation, ontology of works, performance/listening)

[richjensen]

Wow this looks EPIC and really good. WOW
I've been getting into post-humanism. It's such an exciting way to try to think. I only recently realized I'm a post-humanist and since then so much has been falling into place in my mind.

Along these lines, I recently read a book that has re-oriented a lot of my thought lately: Lesley Head, Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene. Makes a lot of post-humanist claims and advocates separating optimism (a feeling) from hope (a practice). I find myself thinking about it constantly. It's a Routledge book and absurdly expensive though. I already loaned my copy out. If you can get ahold of it I think you would dig it.

Yeah, dope! I had my post-humanist epiphany maybe a year or so ago (kind of triggered by people trying to formulate a left accelerationism) and yeah was probably from sectors near Lesley Head's practice. Definitely grief reflections. Also, good ol' Donna Haraway has so much to say about companion species and 'tentacularity' and gorgons and whee! in her take down of violent and phallocentric social relations enmeshed in the historical production of scientific and technical knowledge, as it were..

A number of 'feminist' post-humanists have been citing the work of Sylvia Wynter. I have a collection of essays Sylvia Wynter: on Being Human as Praxis edited by Katherine McKittrick that's been gathering dust beneath my window. A kind of reading.. right?

Looking through the big post-humanistic binoculars the other way kinda points at another individual I'm fascinated by, Benjamin Bratton. He more or less eliminates the whole human thing in what he calls a Copernican Turn, folding all the 'life' stuff that ever happened on earth including cognitive evolution, culture etc.. into a story about some wild and crazy planet-scale geology that cooked in the sun for some billions of years until finally became aware of itself through AI.

Pick yr poison! Salut!

[eggcity101]

I just read Illeana Douglas' memoir "I Blame Dennis Hopper."

[ritchey]

Tim: I'm not studying I'm TEACHING!! A grad seminar for music history Masters students introducing them to the history of the field. It's a meta class and very fun.

Ahh! Amazing! Apologies! im a philosophy ma student with a focus on the philosophy of music. what's the one thing I HAVE to read, from your perspective? (interested in improvisation, ontology of works, performance/listening)

How cool! Well ontology of works makes me think of Lydia Goehr, who surely you already know?? The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works--she's a philosopher who writes about music, like you. Her book is so good. You should also read ADORNO!!!

[tim]

Tim: I'm not studying I'm TEACHING!! A grad seminar for music history Masters students introducing them to the history of the field. It's a meta class and very fun.

Ahh! Amazing! Apologies! im a philosophy ma student with a focus on the philosophy of music. what's the one thing I HAVE to read, from your perspective? (interested in improvisation, ontology of works, performance/listening)

How cool! Well ontology of works makes me think of Lydia Goehr, who surely you already know?? The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works--she's a philosopher who writes about music, like you. Her book is so good. You should also read ADORNO!!!

Yes! big fan of BOTH. even tho adorno's ideas about jazz are NOT GREAT.

[infopetal]

I'm a bit sheepish it's taken me so long, but I'm finally reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. if anyone else has similarly had this one languishing on your to-read list for some years, I recommend bumping it to the top. I'm finding it a perfect choice for this moment—the appropriate mix of apocalyptic despair and determination.

next on my list is The Gentrification of the Mind by Sarah Schulman.

p̶.̶s̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶n̶t̶ ̶c̶o̶p̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶t̶o̶r̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶l̶i̶b̶r̶a̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶N̶e̶w̶ ̶Y̶o̶r̶k̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶h̶o̶p̶.̶o̶r̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶.̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶p̶u̶r̶c̶h̶a̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶p̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶[̶u̶r̶l̶=̶h̶t̶t̶p̶s̶:̶/̶/̶b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶h̶o̶p̶.̶o̶r̶g̶/̶s̶h̶o̶p̶/̶n̶y̶c̶b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶e̶l̶l̶e̶r̶s̶]̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶B̶o̶o̶k̶s̶t̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶E̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶W̶o̶r̶l̶d̶[̶/̶u̶r̶l̶]̶,̶ ̶3̶0̶%̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶u̶r̶c̶h̶a̶s̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶N̶Y̶C̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶e̶l̶l̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶l̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶r̶s̶ ̶c̶u̶t̶.̶ ̶(̶+̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶A̶m̶*̶z̶o̶n̶!̶)̶
Update Apr 8: nevermind! see @GARY-19's note about bookshop.org here

[m o l l y]

I read the Parable books on a long haul flight a year or so ago and enjoyed them. Now I'm reading the Xenogenesis or Lilith's Brood series: Tri-gender alien sex on a living spaceship orbiting earth. It's pretty great stuff!
I like Butler a lot but every time I read something by her I get kind of frustrated by it. The premises are great. The timing is great. The commentary is great. But they read like young-adult novels that tell you exactly how you are supposed to be feeling about any character or event at any given time. Do you get that feeling too? Every time I pick one up I'm like oh, I could read this with my Freshmen and then the weird sex stuff happens (luckily).

[ritchey]

I feel the same way about Butler!!!! Everyone loves her and I love everything on-paper about her but the writing itself, I can't get in. Kindred is such a great concept e.g. but definitely has that YA feel where it's hard for me to fall all the way into it. They feel more like fables or something than novels. I'm way more into N.K. Jemisin and Le Guin.

That being said, all kinds of fancy grownup smart people I know love Butler, in fact one of my colleagues named her daughter after her, so the respect is deep and real.

lol "luckily" parenthetical

I am hijacking to bring up Sheri Tepper, has anyone gone deep into this weird oeuvre? A lot of it is so bad--the writing as well as the politics--but then randomly you'll pick one up and it will be SO compelling and good. Specifically I'm thinking of Grass. Has anyone on here read Grass?? For years I've wanted to talk to somebody about Grass but despite it being a huge international bestseller I've never found anyone who's heard of it. Did I dream it

[ritchey]

I also want to talk about China Mieville, who Claire refuses to read but who I think is a major genius despite the unacceptable way he chooses to look

[m o l l y]

Big Le Guin fan but never read Jemisin. Added her to my list but Grass might have just jumped the queue!

[ritchey]

Grass is so weird!!! Please read it and report back

[yourfriendclaire]

Ritchey, I think quarantine might be the season I finally crack and indulge you on China Mieville

[ritchey]

you only have to read Embassytown!

[m o l l y]

Following that suggestion. Anyone interested in a book-club thread? I'd read a thing with you.

[GARY-19]

p.s. I wanted to read a print copy and all the bookstores and libraries are closed in New York, so I tried bookshop.org for the first time. if you purchase through their page for The Bookstore at the End of the World, 30% of the purchase price goes to NYC booksellers who have been laid off or had their hours cut. (+ it's not Am*zon!)

I've seen quite a few people promoting bookshop.org since Ariana Huffington tweeted about it and the "End of the World" shop had a run of sales. It's important to understand that when you purchase books from bookshop.org you are not purchasing from independent bookstores, but from Ingram Content Group, a subsidiary of Ingram Industries, a privately held company with revenues well over $2 billion annually.

Over the past three decades, Ingram has steadily gobbled up its competitors in the wholesale book distribution business, a practice which periodically raises concerns about anti-trust violations, but which has mostly been allowed to continue due to the fact that Ingram usually purchases only a portion of its competitors' assets, rather than undertaking a full merger.

The capitalists and thought leaders pushing bookshop.org want us to believe that their model is really good for small bookshops. Unfortunately, it's not so good.

Currently, bookstores purchase their books from wholesalers at a discount of around 40% off list price. Whenever they sell a book, they net that 40% of list. Selling new books on Amazon is basically impossible for bookstores because Amazon itself buys and stocks a huge inventory of books, which they acquire, like bookstores, from Ingram and other wholesalers, and typically sell at 40% off list--that is, at a profit of zero dollars to Amazon. The point for Amazon is not to make money from selling books but to monopolize the online bookselling marketplace.

Bookshop.org wants to do something similar, only they have an exclusive partnership with Ingram, which supplies the books listed on the site and handles order fulfillment. When customers order books from bookshop.org, they are essentially paying Ingram to ship them the book. Even better (for Ingram), bookshop.org's current discount appears to be around 10% off list. That means that instead of selling wholesale at the 40% discount rate, Ingram can sell directly to customers at essentially list price.

Of course, Ingram is not technically the "seller," because bookshop.org presents itself as such. But what is bookshop.org, but essentially an interface for customers to buy books from Ingram? Unlike Amazon, which does, at least in theory, still buy from Ingram's competitors, bookshop.org works exclusively with Ingram. I don't know how much Ingram is charging to fulfill all the orders, nor what their cut of each sale is, but it's probably more than what Amazon's paying.

The carrot on the end of the stick for booksellers appears to be a 25% commission on sales generated by content created by booksellers on the bookshop.org platform: e.g., "staff picks" or reading lists. To get that 25% commission, bookstores must take on the role of "content creators," driving sales for bookshop.org by posting links and recommendations in the manner of Goodreads. The bookstore's cut of each sale is, of course, roughly half what they get from selling books themselves, but, as the bookshop.org About page puts it, they get that money "without having to do the work of keeping inventory, picking, packing, shipping or handling complaints and returns." In other words, bookstores won't get paid as much as they normally do from selling books, but they don't have to sell books, either. Just create content on bookshop.org and let Ingram handle the rest.

And that's only the best-case scenario. Most sales are likely to happen on the main bookshop.org pages, which are not affiliated with any particular bookstore. When that happens, bookstores get an even smaller cut of the sale. According to their founder and CEO, bookshop.org's net revenue will be "about 30% of a book's list price." That 30% is divided evenly between bookshop.org and two revenue-sharing programs: one for brick-and-mortar stores, and one for "non-bookstore affiliates" such as Literary Hub, which, incidentally, the bookshop.org CEO himself publishes. So, if a bookstore does nothing but sign up for revenue sharing, they will get a fraction of 10% of all sales, which could be a lot if no one signs up but is not likely to be a lot if the platform has any success.

The problem is that bookstores still have to sell books to remain viable; and if they're already selling books, they're already managing inventory and fulfilling orders so they don't need Ingram to do that for them; and if they're already promoting themselves online and through social media, they're better off posting "staff picks" on their own websites than on bookshop.org. At best, the latter is a small source of additional revenue that also unfortunately competes with a store's own website.

From my vantage bookshop.org appears to be geared toward improving the bottom line not of bookstores but of "content creators" like the aforementioned Literary Hub. That 10% share of sales revenues will be a much better rate than what Amazon offers for affiliate links. For a guy who also owns Literary Hub, it's an obvious win-win, but for booksellers it's a net loss.

[yourfriendclaire]

This is really helpful context, thank you Gary!

[ritchey]

Thank you for this epic follow the money deep dive, Gary!!

[GARY-19]

I just realized that if bookshop.org's net revenue is supposed to be "about 30%" of list, then we probably know how much Ingram is getting: about 10% more than they get through conventional wholesale distribution.

[infopetal]

thank you for the background, @GARY-19! I'm a librarian and have worked in bookshops in the past so am familiar with Ingram and knew that bookshop.org = Ingram, but I appreciate the breakdown of what they are actually offering financially. since my local bookshop was not able to fulfill online orders at the time, I was admittedly hopeful that particular "end of the world" landing page might be a way to get some money directly to affected workers. I added a link to the info you provided from in my original post.

several of the independent bookstores I am familiar with here in NYC were unnervingly quick to lay off the bulk of their staff without notice. is anyone aware of any independent bookstores that are keeping their workers safe and paid while fulfilling online orders that we can support instead?

[GARY-19]

I can't help you with the NY scene but here in Western Mass we have several bookstores that haven't resorted to involuntary layoffs and are doing things like preparing book bundles and "grab bags" for local delivery and pickup. Some have websites but some are just taking orders via email or social media. You're right that The Strand et al (and Powell's in Portland) were awfully quick to lay everyone off. I guess they just weren't interested in getting creative.

My bookstore also sells online via numerous platforms that aren't Amazon (e.g. Alibris, Biblio). They all have different fee structures but they all offer slightly better terms than Amazon. As a librarian you're surely already hip to those sites so maybe that's still not the resource you're looking for.

[Phil]

Finally reading this essay I’ve had on the shelf for like a decade comparing the Unabomber and Thoreau, written by Julie Ault (who is maybe GARY-19’s friend?). It’s choice.

[ritchey]

That sounds great!!

I'm still mainly reading for class, having a tough time concentrating even just on that. So for class today I just read an essay about minimalism, an essay about the marketing of "world music," and part of a book about Led Zeppelin. I'm still chipping away at my book about Hildegard of Bingen, which is fascinating!! I somehow never knew she was an anchorite for the first 20 years of her nunhood (anchorite = you actually are declared dead, a priest performs last rites, and then you get walled up in a tiny room (called a "tomb") attached to a monastery, where you become a holy woman and spend your time praying and writing letters and giving advice to townspeople). Then in her 40s God gave her a vision that she should start a new abbey down the river, so she petitioned the bishop to declare her alive again and let her out, and he did, and she did, and the rest is history!

I just ordered a shit-ton of sci-fi/fantasy and/or plague dystopia novels and am hoping they get here soon.

[m o l l y]

Which ones? I want the list!

[ritchey]

Ok some of these have been on my list for awhile, and some I chose sort of randomly in a frenzy:

Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf (I learned he wrote it specifically bc there are so few fantasy novels about black people, also he previously won the Booker Prize so I figure it will be good or at least interesting. I've never read him before)

Finally got the first book of Phillip Pullman's new Dust trilogy (prequel/sequel trilogy to His Dark Materials)

Finally got The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Chinese sci-fi smash hit that's been on my list for ages

Saramago, Blindness: I always meant to read this weird-ass book and now I will

Yuri Herrera, The Transmigration of Bodies: Mexican post-apocalyptic noir detective type story set around the border during a pandemic

Geoff Ryman, The Child Garden: famous sci-fi book from 1989 about a plague, and/or climate change, and the government using diseases to educate people? I am not sure, maybe Claire knows more

If you want other plague novel recommendations I have two:

Honestly THE STAND is a stone-cold classic, I don't give a shit what anyone says, I read it every year or so. RCH can weigh in on this too. Very formative book of my childhood. Like all King there is lots of cringey stuff about race and gender (liberal Boomer style) so just be ready for that. It's so good, great patient depiction of a global plague that kills almost everyone. The whole first half of the book is un-put-downable, he takes so much time just kind of exploring all these different thought experiments. What if you were locked in a military hospital when the plague killed everyone? What if you were pregnant when it happened? What would walking through the Lincoln Tunnel be like if the electricity was off and you stupidly didn't bring a flashlight? What would happen if you got appendicitis? How would you solve all these interesting problems that come up? Actually I think the appendicitis plot line is in the later, longer, unabridged edition which in my opinion you should NOT read (when given his head King's bad qualities are much worse; you can really see what a huge role a good editor plays). But anyway.

There is this new book by this young woman named Emily St. John Mandel and I can not recommend it highly enough, it is riveting. STATION ELEVEN, you have probably seen people talking about it lately as it's about a global pandemic and what life is like after. It's one of the only apocalypse novels I've read that has a basically hopeful outlook (actually The Stand does too). It's awesome. If anyone reads it I would love to discuss. It centers on a traveling music and theater troupe that performs Shakespeare for the scattered villages that make up post-plague civilization around the Great Lakes region. But their troupe's motto is a line from Star Trek: "survival is insufficient." I love that so much. Like the Stand it's also got a lot of what I love most about this genre, which is following thought experiments. What if you were on an international flight that got rerouted to a small regional airport and then that airport was quarantined by the military? etc. There's also so much good beautiful/sad/interesting stuff about memory and generations--the younger people just insatiably want to ask the older people questions about what it was like before. How did electricity work? What was the internet? Did airplanes take off straight up in the air or did they need a running start, like ducks? What were credit cards? I was just a kid but I seem to remember that when you opened the refrigerator, not only was it cold inside but a light came on, is that right, am I remembering that right? There's also a really fun culture of storytelling that's just older people describing the plots of movies and TV shows. So kids are like "Tell us Die Hard again!!" Anyway it's just so good. I think many people on this board would dig it, not only because there is a strong Trek component.

Given this list of books I am interested in, do you have recommendations for other novels for me specifically to read??? Please tell me

[yourfriendclaire]

Have you read any Delany? The Einstein Intersection has a cool “tell us Die Hard again” component, in that it takes place in a future so far away that all of Western culture is one big mythical mish-mash, and all the sad mutants left on Earth are struggling to make sense of our abandoned technologies by working through exaggerated myths about the ancient heroes of Earth, such as the Beatles, Jean Harlow, and Elvis.

For example:

“You remember the legend of The Beatles? You remember the Beatle Ringo left his love even though she treated him tender. He was the one Beatle who did not sing, so the earliest forms of the legend go. After a hard day’s night he and the rest of the Beatles were torn apart by screaming girls, and he and the other Beatles returned, finally at one, with the great rock and the great roll.”

And so on

I’ve never read Geoff Ryman’s novels but he’s quite famous for his school of “mundane science fiction” that’s kinda like the Dogme95 of SF: stories can only take place on Earth with feasible technology within a short period of time.

[yourfriendclaire]

Station Eleven sounds really good!

[meadows]

Station Eleven is sooooo good, it's right in that sweet spot of scary dystopia and clever solutions/reactions.I've read it a couple of times!

[m o l l y]

Thank you for this list! Lots to explore here! I agree, you're description of Station Eleven has me intrigued!
I feel like my story-cravings ebb and flow between hopefully-dystopian Atwateresq sci-fi and the deepest need for a 24 carat high-quality western, full of the most earth-bound characters and their life-long struggles with their utterly human condition. Even McMurtry's Buffalo Girls, the last one I read. It is not excellent and is even borderline bizarre. But I still keep thinking about Dora Dufran pining away in her window watching the prairie with nothing to do but comb her hair and think about her regrets with nothing but her pet parrot for comfort.

Recommendations? I LOVED Little Big Man. Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding.
Blindness is very very good. Devastating though. If you want Saramago at his best, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is a goddamn masterpiece.