A few students in my class stayed back after school today to talk about their current reads, and it turned into one of those conversations you wish you could bottle up.

One student is reading a nonfiction book about Hawaiian fishing traditions with his dad. The others are reading a mix of fiction. Naturally, we started going over what they’re getting out of their reads, and the student reading nonfiction mentioned it was taking him so long to get though because the text is dense with facts, history, and ideas that send him down rabbit holes of further research, unlike his classmates reading make-believe.

The fiction readers quickly pushed back on the idea that they were “just reading make believe.” It sparked a really thoughtful back-and-forth where they started listing all the things they’ve learned from their fiction reads. Things like, perspective, empathy, and vocabulary to name a few.

It turned into a surprisingly rich discussion about what it actually means to “learn” from reading, and whether fiction and nonfiction are really doing different kinds of teaching rather than competing ones.

It made me curious to hear from other readers:

What do you think fiction does better than nonfiction when it comes to teaching or understanding ideas?

And on the flip side, what does nonfiction offer that fiction can’t fully replicate?

JK Rowling jump scare lmao

"read more books to combat fascism" yes yes yes! "especially Deathly Hallows" wut lol ok

Not me joining this quest even though I haven’t finished a romance book in weeks (maybe even months) and my most current read is literally about dinosaurs🥲🙂‍↕️ (I just really need that cute little flamingo badge OKAY)

I'd so love to join this one but my local libraries have none of these books 😥 I'll keep my eye out for them though just in case 🤞

i just found out that the Patternist series is having a revamp by Grand Central Publishing, including the previously out of print Survivor. the choice to include Survivor is pretty controversial because of Butler's feelings about the work. she often called Survivor her "Star Trek novel", in that she was not proud of its contents and admitted she rushed its publication to fund her research for Kindred, which is why she decided not to have it reprinted

here's an article i read that talks about the decision-making process behind the reprint

it's definitely a complex decision as it would be naive to think that it's not partly an opportunistic release, especially given that Butler can't fully consent. i do appreciate the reasoning given behind the decision and see how much thought was put into it behind the scenes

i especially liked the conversation featuring Butler's long-time agent, Merrilee Heifetz, who said that Butler couldn't have predicted her rise in popularity in 2020, how mainstream her books have become and how important they are now to so many people. it's impossible to guess what Butler would have wanted if she were alive, so i believe that this decision was not made lightly by any means

also... THE COVER??? even if i don't want to get tangled up with the reprint of Survivor, i cannot wait to see the new covers for the other books 👀👀

what do you think? are you interested in buying the reprint, or do you think it should be off-limits due to Butler's past opinions on the work?

I'm gonna say this one time. And anyone who needs this explained to them, in any other context, is welcome to be sent right back here to learn this lesson.

This user, now deleted, wanted to throw a tantrum because what they wanted in terms of assembled literature on antisemitism, didn't already exist here. That was where it started. And where it ended was the nature of this user only being interested in pro-Israel, pro-Zionist representations of Judaism and antisemitism being brought to light. That went round and round until the person deleted their account. And at the core of this misunderstanding isn't whatever content on Judaism we do or don't have here. It's the lack of respect and understanding this user has for this platform.

There is no AI, no algorithmically generated book curation going on here. Nothing is automatically creating reading lists and quests here on every imaginable topic and human interest. Everything here is user created. The quests, the lists, the events, all of it is hand made by an actual person.

I'm gonna say something really honest, and I want y'all to hear what I'm saying, and only what I'm saying. There was jack shit on this site for black fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction when I joined. I'm not accusing anyone of anything when I say this. That was just the reality of the situation. So I sat my ass down and curated that content! I made the things I wanted to see on this site, and that's why they're here now. I have added hundreds of books to this site, in those genres and many others, specifically from black authors. I have given so much of my time to that endeavor because I care. I can bitch because it's not here, or I can do something about it. I can complain that the potluck doesn't have what I want to eat, or I can bring something I want to eat and share with others.

On this platform, no one is special or exempt from that.

If you want something to exist on this website that isn't already here, you have to build it yourself! If you're an expert on something, congratulations! You're the one we've been waiting for to build the lists and content for that subject. It's you, or it doesn't exist. And if you aren't willing to do that, it's because you don't actually care that much. You want someone else to do it for you. You see those of us who do that work as your servants, not your peers. You expect us to reach outside of our expertise and interests to create things for you, when YOU are the one who should be sticking out your neck and being judged on your efforts.

This is what I find profoundly offensive. It's not that someone with questionable views of Zionism showed up here. There really isn't a better place for them to be. I have no problem showing them zoharejacobi and moving on with my day. It's that they showed up here expecting to be served and catered to. That was their error and why they received the reactions they did.

If you have something only you can teach, then teach it. If there's a contribution only you can make, then make it. Don't expect anyone else to do it for you. Respect the labor it takes to build all of this by hand or go back to fucking Goodreads.