Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[Clix Pix]

Digital tools for reading are definitely very popular, maybe even surpassing actual hardcover/paperback print books:

Fairfax library system hits a digital milestone with room to spare

More than 3 million digital loans recorded before the end of December

www.gazetteleader.com

The Fairfax County library system on Nov. 29 reached a milestone of more than 3 million digital loans for the year to date.

This is the first time the library system has exceeded the threshold since introducing OverDrive, the library system’s online-digital-catalog provider, in 2006, county officials said.

“Sabriel,” the young-adult fantasy novel by New York Times’ best-selling author Garth Nix, was the book that helped the library system surpass the milestone.

In 2022, only 37 libraries (out of 88,000 in 109 countries) utilizing OverDrive hit the 3 million digital-checkout mark in a single year.

The county library system utilizes Overdrive and its mobile application Libby to provide 24/7 access to its digital collection, which includes eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines. Readers can access titles whenever and wherever they want using any major device, making digital materials more popular than ever, library officials said.

“While reader interest in digital materials has been increasing steadily over the years, [the library system] has seen exponential growth since 2019, with circulation more than doubling in the three-and-a-half-year period,” library officials said.

“To meet this demand, collections staff has been hard at work expanding the digital collection to include more titles, as well as additional licenses for popular titles with the goal of reducing long wait times,” officials said.

The library system’s digital collection is available for free to anyone who has a Fairfax County Public Library card.

 

[Clix Pix]

I had to go off and do something right after I had posted, but I meant to point out to you, SS, if you haven't already noticed it, that "Sabriel" was the book which hit the magic number. It's definitely more than just a YA book, though -- many of us adults love Garth Nix's books, too, don't we?

Aside from that, I am still one who much prefers for various reasons to go in person to the library and look for and select actual physical books to bring home and read. For me, it just is not at all the same experience reading a book on a digital device.

 

[Don Quixote]

@pachyderm - have you finished Huckleberry Finn yet?

 

[scubachap]

OMG, Benjamin Zephaniah has just died! What a shock!

 

[obeygiant]

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx

Interesting Read actually. Not long actually and reads like a sales pitch. The pesky bourgeoisie and class structure annoys Marx so.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx

Interesting Read actually. Not long actually and reads like a sales pitch. The pesky bourgeoisie and class structure annoys Marx so.

This has always struck me as one of those books where the analysis, and diagnosis, are interesting, intelligent, and original - and certainly, thought-provoking, for that book transformed the study of history, politics, economics, among others - but that the proposed solutions may leave something to be desired.

As a student of political philosophy, I cannot claim that I studied it as thoroughly as my professor would have liked..

Then came the day I had to teach it, which meant a much more serious study of the subject matter.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I had to go off and do something right after I had posted, but I meant to point out to you, SS, if you haven't already noticed it, that "Sabriel" was the book which hit the magic number. It's definitely more than just a YA book, though -- many of us adults love Garth Nix's books, too, don't we?

Aside from that, I am still one who much prefers for various reasons to go in person to the library and look for and select actual physical books to bring home and read. For me, it just is not at all the same experience reading a book on a digital device.

The Abhorsen trilogy is still brilliant, and, to my mind, remains the best thing (by far) that Garth Nix has written.

 

[Don Quixote]

@pachyderm - have you finished Huckleberry Finn yet?

Guess not...

 

[Herdfan]

Read The Exchange by John Grisham.

This book reintroduces us to Mitch McDeere from The Firm.

Just my opinion, but this is Grisham's weakest book by far.

 

[pachyderm]

@Don Quixote - imma force myself to finnish huck finn this weekend...

 

[splifingate]

Fairy Tale, by Stephen King (audio-book narrated by Seth Numrich and SK (himself)).

I have read the hardback of Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon dozens of times, but the narrator of the audio-book did nothing but irritate me (as did Elizabeth Klett's narration of Peter F. Hamilton's Queens Of An Alien Sun).

Craig Wasson's narration of SK's 11.22.63 is as totally-fantastic as any a narration can be, but Seth's representation of Fairy Tale is the taste of just-out-of-the-oven powdered-sugar-covered pecan-balls my Grandma once used to make

 

[AVBeatMan]

“The Beatles Tune In” by Mark Lewisohn. 900 pages and only covers 1958 to 1962!

First book of a trilogy.

 

[Don Quixote]

@Don Quixote - imma force myself to finnish huck finn this weekend...

...and?

 

[pachyderm]

...and?

Finished it last night. Still not crazy about the "Tom Sawyer" bits.

My favorite Mark Twain is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

I'm onto As I Lay Dying ... which is about another lot of hay seeds and their stupid dialects... Dear God...

 

[AL2TEACH]

My favorite Mark Twain is

Letters From Earth

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I've been reading less than I'm comfortable with the last couple of years, so I set myself a (at the time) rather hairy goal at the Goodreads 2023 reading challenge: 26 books!

And I did it:



A couple of re-reads in there, but most of them first-time reads.

After reading the omnibus version of the Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth's Past) at about 1400 pages, and amassing a meter high stack of other books, I switched to reading on a Kindle that I got as a present years ago and (almost) forgot about. I'm not sure I'll ever buy another paper book again...reading on the Kindle is fantastic and very convenient.

At the moment I'm reading my first non-fiction of the year: Maskiner som tenker - a Norwegian book about AI.

 

[Matz]

The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande.

I picked this book up because I find checklists useful, and was intrigued by the title. I‘m now 50 pages into this 200 page book, and am pleased to say that it is one of the most useful and interesting books that I’ve had the pleasure to read in a very long time.

Far from being a dry treatise on a mundane topic, I’m finding it to be surprisingly engaging, informative, and even entertaining. Hint: it’s not just about checklists.

The book was written by a physician who has a real knack for narrative. It starts out around the practice of emergency medicine, but soon develops to include other contexts to effectively demonstrate the fundamental importance of such a simple device: the checklist.

This book would be truly useful for any individual or organization interested in improving on how to deal with simple, complicated, and complex tasks and processes.

I only wish that I had discovered this book when it was published in 2009.

Very highly recommended.

 

[obeygiant]

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

 

[Scepticalscribe]

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

I would be interested in reading your thoughts.

I read it when I was in my early twenties, (and quite liked it), but have a feeling that it is one of those books that doesn't age well, by which I mean that an older reader may not enjoy it - or identify with it - as much as one did when younger.

 

[Shanghaichica]

 

[Don Quixote]

I would be interested in reading your thoughts.

I read it when I was in my early twenties, (and quite liked it), but have a feeling that it is one of those books that doesn't age well, by which I mean that an older reader may not enjoy it - or identify with it - as much as one did when younger.

Ya know I've never read it.

I'm old now, maybe I should give it a whirl...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Ya know I've never read it.

I'm old now, maybe I should give it a whirl...

Catcher In The Rye by J D Salinger is another of those books; not just brilliant, but quite possibly inspirational, if read in your teens.

However, I first read it when I was already a young teacher - I had started my teaching career as an academic, and had been teaching for a few years by the time I came across the book - and that night was the night when I first realised, when it dawned on me, that I was no longer an adolescent in my own mind, for I couldn't stand Holden Caulfield, (the protagonist), whereas I think (no, I know), that I would have loved him had I encountered him in my mid teens.

Therefore, sometimes, in my experience, there is (or can be) an age when it is just right to read a book, when it speaks to you and resonates with you.

 

[Chuckeee]

Catcher In The Rye by J D salinger is another of those books; not just brilliant, but quite possibly inspirational, if read in your teens.

However, I first read it when I was already a young teacher - I had started my teaching career as an academic, and had been teaching for a few years by the time I came across the book - and that the night was when I realised, when it dawned on me, that I was no longer an adolescent in my mind, for I couldn't stand Holden Caulfield, (the protagonist), whereas I think (no, I know), I would have loved him had I encountered him in my mid teens.

Therefore, sometimes, in my experience, there is (or can be) an age when it is just right to read a book, when it speaks to you and resonates with you.

Similarly, I read Catcher in the Rye for the first time as an adult and was solely disappointed. Left me wondering why would anyone consider this classic? It just wasn’t very interesting nor wasn’t very good. But your point is well taken, I could see where this would be at least interesting to some adolescent boys as a sort of forbidden literature.

Although I found this is not always true, I read Harpers Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in high school and recently had the opportunity to reread it as an adult. On both occasions, I found the novel to be wonderful and I would consider it a masterpiece.

 

[Don Quixote]

Catcher In The Rye by J D Salinger is another of those books; not just brilliant, but quite possibly inspirational, if read in your teens.

However, I first read it when I was already a young teacher - I had started my teaching career as an academic, and had been teaching for a few years by the time I came across the book - and that night was the night when I first realised, when it dawned on me, that I was no longer an adolescent in my own mind, for I couldn't stand Holden Caulfield, (the protagonist), whereas I think (no, I know), that I would have loved him had I encountered him in my mid teens.

Therefore, sometimes, in my experience, there is (or can be) an age when it is just right to read a book, when it speaks to you and resonates with you.

Yep. I re-read it a while ago and decided Holden needed a good spanking.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yep. I re-read it a while ago and decided Holden needed a good spanking.

Exactly.

Actually, I found myself seized by a most immoderate, but surprisingly deep desire to boot him (hard) on the backside.

That was when I realised that my thoughts would have been a bit different had I read the book at fourteen, or fifteen, or sixteen.