Happy Tuesday, friends! I'm continuing the tradition started by acidicchaos of inviting everyone to share what you've learned from your reading in the past week or so. Whether you're reading the most obscure niche non-fiction, or you discovered something exciting about human nature or your own inner self from a great bit of fiction, we want to hear about it!

Thanks to When Trees Testify by Beronda L. Montgomery, I learned about Blackdom, New Mexico, a short-lived town that attempted to be a fully self-sufficient community of African American homesteaders. Environmental factors conspired against them, unfortunately, and it's now a "ghost town." You can get a quick overview from this Wikipedia article. The town was apparently well-known for its Juneteenth celebrations, so this week is the perfect time to learn about it.

Your turn!

and not like, how many books you want to read this year or actual quests you're currently working through (tho those are really fun too, so lmk those too if you want) but like what are some personal reading goals/quests/ideas you have at the moment? now I'm finishing up with the semester I'm thinking about reading seriously again (but maybe a bit too soon cos im not quite done yet hahahaha)

For me, some of them are:

• I really want to read all the Lord of the Rings books (I was read the Hobbit when I was a kid but mostly forgot everything hahaha)
• and also all of Agatha Christie's work (I've read a couple and I have the Mysterious Affair at Styles out from the library rn)
• I actually do want to read through one of the quests hahaha but I haven't decided which one yet cos a sidequest seems easier but i know there might be books I don't want to read so completionist badges might be off the table for a bunch of them (smut is a hard no from me so let me know if you have recs 😁)(im thinking one of the fantasy ones???)
• also, the readalong books, as well as Dark Wild Shore which is our unofficial southern hemisphere winter readalong book
• also with the Southern Hemisphere books, more local stuff (New Zealand and more generally SH stuff)
• I've been wanting to read the "classics", but like, both literal greek/roman stuff and whatever the "classics" are. maybe a list or quest for that 😆
• I've been wanting to get into comics for a while, and I just read Batman: Year One which I enjoyed, so more of those!! (I've been following this list)
• After John Flanagan died earlier this year, I've been wanting to reread all of his Ranger's Apprentice universe books
• also, Redwall
• Mistborn. and then, the entire universe
• maybe a little non fiction? I was recced some classical history books by @eleanors in this forum post
• trying to keep up with the 500 books i randomly impulse requested from the library
• i dont buy a lot of books, but ive a few on my shelf i need to read 😭 so also those
• and i want to reread the hunger games books before the new movie
• and not reading specifically, but I said i was going to review more books this year, and so far,,, ive reviewed zero. so more book reviews!!

So I have definitely got way too much going on, but what about you guys??

Sometimes reading a ton of reviews about a book you were initially interested in (by reading the synopsis) can ruin the experience of reading it and discovering for ourselves what part of it we like or don't like. Reviewers point out what part was their least favourite and what left an impact while reading, which creates an already set narrative about that book in our head, it's like reading a book through somebody else's glasses. I realised that sometimes while reading, we are not actually reading ( subconsciously), we are nitpicking good moments or bad moments that we read about that book in those reviews. Reviews are not a bad thing, they are great for when you have limited time and want to get the best out of it. For someone like me they create a little hindrance on the path of actually discovering what I like and what I don't. That's probably when readalongs and clubs come to rescue. Read the books and judge for yourself, although I have never participated in any. I love reviews though, some are very funny. I sometimes read them more than the actual book and it's a problem.

What’s your special interest and do you have any nonfiction recommendations to help other people understand/get into the same interest?

I’m interested in so many different topics but it can be hard sometimes to find NF that is well researched and not written by a grifter of some sort🫠

So! Let me know your special interest and what books you recommend for said interest! Bonus points: if you have multiple books and they cover from beginner to advanced in your interest!

As someone who frequently reads 10+ books a month and has Libby holds out the wazoo, I love(d) how I could access (and support) a lot of indie authors work through KU and Kobo+. However, as generative AI quickly became more accessible and less easily detectable, it seems like KU is now absolutely over run by AI generated materials. Just today I picked up 3 different books that were either written by a VERY amateur writer or generated by AI and it seems like I run into those types of books more than actually decent written stories. It’s honestly gotten to the point where I am seriously thinking about canceling my KU subscription.

That being said, while I have Kobo+, I really only use it for audiobooks and manga, and find the app not very user friendly 😅. Due to this, I don’t know if Kobo+ also has an issue with AI generated works flooding the market. Has anyone had issues with that?

A part of me wants to press for mandatory AI disclosures on these and related book platforms, but I know corporations have as many morals as a mushroom (though that might be slightly unfair to mushrooms) and don’t care as long as they see a profit. And more books mean more opportunities for profit 😔

Lately I've been seeing certain phrase choices come up in books, and it makes me wonder if this is an emergent trend, or something else.

Phrases like "my chest tightened" and "the wood doesn't flatter. It keeps score" and "my ribs unclenches".

It brings a very weird vibe to my imagination. I get what the author wanted me to imagine. But the prose is...something.

Have you guys bumped into these phrases? Mind sharing your two cents? :)

A Friend of mine published her first book and ofc all of her friends ( including me) want to support her by buying and preordering the book, going to live readings etc.

My Problem is, that I'm pretty sure that the book's cover ist made by AI - which goes against my principles of not buying and therefore supporting AI "Art".

Now I'm not sure how to handle the situation. I don't want to offend her or make her feel bad my critisizing this ( Not everybody has spend that much thought into the topic of ehtical use of AI etc.) but I also really don't want to support a publisher who seems to use AI or have a Book with AI Art in my shelfes.

I can't remember the last time I read about two characters liking some musician and the artist in question was fictional. And don't get me wrong, fictional celebrities always wind up having cartoonishly fake names or are obviously based on a person irl, but I always liked these fictional stand-ins. It always felt a little satirical, whether it be regarding the celebrity or their fanbase.

Nowadays in contemporary fiction, the artists mentioned are real and they're always the biggest names—I cannot count how many books I've read in the last year which mention Taylor Swift at some point—and in half of these cases, a character's lack of enjoyment about this celeb is viewed as a moral failing. It's very cheap to me, as if it says something about a character that they enjoy and love one of the most popular musicians on the planet. I don't think it does because, hey, these are the most popular musicians on the planet. As in so many people listen to them, they cannot be categorized easily as being "good" or "bad" people.

I think I also don't like these references because they always feel a little embedded in stan culture and I think we need to stop normalizing that nonsense immediately. But anyway: how do you guys feel about irl pop culture in your books? Do you too miss fake celebs or media?

Hi, so I've been trying to get into actually analysing books and picking up on underlying themes, symbolism, and deeper meanings instead of just reading for the plot.

Sometimes the themes are pretty obvious, but a lot of the times I struggle to collect my thoughts and put them into words in a way that feels accurate to the book, or even insightful enough. Usually, I just read a book, enjoy the vibes, know what happened, and know what I loved about it. That kind of thing. But I want to actually understand a book on a deeper level, if that makes sense.

I tried annotating, but I genuinely had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, and I mostly ended up writing wattpad-level comments in the margins lmao.

Does anyone have any tips or methods or resources that helped them learn how to analyse books more deeply and like intentionally?

I recently started playing this game called On Together. It’s like a productivity game where you can set up a pomodoro timer and set your character up doing whatever action you are going to be doing. I’ve been using it for my reading sprints recently and have been loving it 🫶 if any of you join and see a server called Reading Sprints, please feel free to join and let’s cheer each other on to reach our reading goals! ✊

I've seen a lot of discussion recently online about how fast different people read and also the different ways people approach reading books and what effect that has on reading speed.

I saw a post which said some people only read dialogue in books and skipped descriptions which is fascinating to me so if that's you I would love to hear more about how you started doing that and if you enjoy books more now.

In a conversation with a friend they said that when they read, they hear each word in their head as if said aloud which is so different to how I read and I was wondering if maybe that affected reading speed.

I'd love to know how everyone processes words when reading and also if you consider yourself a fast or slow reader?