QUESTIONS for the AVID READER

SassyLassy here once more. Thanks to rocketjk, otherwise known as Jerry, for interrogating us last year!

If you’re new to Club Read, this is a thread where I post a question regularly, and anyone who wishes can jump in and respond. The questions are guidelines only. If they inspire a tangential thought, jump in with that. That’s how good discussions often get going.

If you have a thought for a question, please send me a PM, as I’m always on the lookout for ideas.

QUESTION 1: Following Threads

Well the first crazy week here in Club Read has almost ended. Inevitably some of the initial frenzy will wear down soon. So, as you pare down somewhat, how do you select which threads you will continue to read?

Do you read as many as possible?

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?

Perfect question. I struggle with this every year. I’m good through January. But at some point i take a break, and then when I come back, I’m hundreds of posts behind. Then, what to do?

At this time of year I try and keep up with everyone's threads while I have the time because then I can decide which ones to star.

As the year goes on and I have other activities vying for my time, I prioritise starred threads and read others as I can.

So, as you pare down somewhat, how do you select which threads you will continue to read?
I'm honestly having a difficult time with this.

Do you read as many as possible?
It's nigh impossible for me to read so many.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
I do keep an eye out for newcomers, but I'm not very proactive in greeting them. I just hope they aren't overwhelmed by the amount of traffic that's already taking place.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
I try to remember who's who and who's doing what, but some people are more active than others.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
I'm not familiar with this feature, so no.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
No, but maybe I should.

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?
When I joined last year, I soon figured out that it's easier to just camp in my own thread so I can stay focused on actually reading books.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read? Do you read as many as possible?
I try to read all of them. When I do get behind, I tend to read from the bottom (oldest) up. Or I start with threads with the fewest posts because they are quickly dealt with. That means that I may get farther and farther on the chattier threads because they keep ending up at the top and get longer and longer. On the 2024 CR I have 9 threads left to read and they are very long ones. Oh well, I'm expecting it to be quite slow at work this week and I think I will get them read.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
Of course.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
Probably eventually. See my comments on the first question.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
I don't use the stars. I tried the first couple of years mostly to keep track of the threads I was actively reading. But then as people create 2nd and 3rd and 4th threads, those were automatically being starred if I had starred their first thread. And that just threw me completely off, because I wasn't actively reading those threads yet not having finished the first one. Now I'm sort of thinking of maybe using the stars for its anti-purpose - to mark threads that I'm less interested in for various reasons, but I haven't done that yet.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
No.

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?
I don't "follow" people. If they post in other groups, I'm not following those groups....
Yes, I have my own thread. I like being able to keep track of all my lists and books read in one place. Of course, I love it when others comment, but really it's for my own benefit. Like many others here have said, I try to read everyone's threads but I don't comment that much, and I probably should try and do that more, because I do like the social interaction of it.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read? Do you read as many as possible
I follow almost everyone's thread in Club Read and Category Challenge. "Follow" doesn't necessarily mean reading every word of every post; I skim over a lot of the chattier stuff, not being a very chatty guy myself. If I've unfollowed a thread, it's probably because that person reads mostly books in languages I can't read and have little or no access to, or because experience has shown me that that person's reading interests and mine are unlikely to overlap much. Although, if someone's thoughts and comments on what they read are particularly thoughtful, I'll be interested to hear what they have to say even if I'm unlikely to read those books myself.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
Yes.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
No. My use of the stars is quite limited. There are a handful of threads I want to keep track of in groups where I'm not a member, and I'll star those, but it's rarely more than three or four threads at any given time.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
No.

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?
Since my default is to follow in my two main groups, finding people to follow isn't a problem. And I have my own thread. I am trying to get better about responding to comments people make there, but casual socializing doesn't come naturally to me, and the primary purpose of my thread is to keep a record for myself of what I've read and what I thought. (Which is not to say that y'all shouldn't comment there if you're so moved -- please do!)

I plan to be more active (or more lurking) on this avid reader thread this year, so I should start right now!
I like the conversation here, but feel people are saying thoughtful things before I can even think about it or take the time to write. Let's see how it goes...

And, I hope it's not a sign, I've started a post and it just disappeared as I was almost done, so rewriting everything, more quickly.

Do you read as many as possible?
Yes, for the first few weeks of the year.
Then, as some other said, I read mainly threads from people I have reading interest in common and/or people who have a way to talk about books that resonates with me.
There is another reason why I do not follow all threads (and this is not judging what people read and/or how they manage their threads!): I already have too many sources of inspiration to read new books. Sometimes, I read about a book that seems interesting, but then I know I won't buy it or read it, and it is frustrating (I have already enough books at home to read till the end of my reading life I think, so I try to be conscious on the books I buy, and I do not have access to extensive libraries or libraries that feature books I like to read). So I prefer to read a few threads than reading too many and get this frustration when a book pops out. I have come to terms with the fact that I won't read everything, and even everything that is interesting, so my limitation to a few threads (I don't even know how many are a few in this case...) is an expression of that, at the same time as an expression of my willingness not to spend too much time on the internet (except LT in January!) and keep some time to actually read!

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
Yes, always, I want to get to know them and their reading interests. I don't always post straight away, maybe a sign of my shyness.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
Yes, that's part of my beginning of year activity. I want to make sure it was not a mistake not following them, or if they or I have changed reading-wise and we might intersect more.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
Yes, that's how I use the stars. I access threads almost exclusively through my home page, where the ‘talk’ section is set on ‘starred’.
From time to time I go on the group page to make sure I have not missed a new thread, for example readers joining during the year.
>5 icepatton: You can star a discussion with the button at the top right of the page. Then you will have the possibility to see in the talk section all threads, only those from your groups, only the ones you’ve participated in, only the starred ones…
And contrary to >6 WelshBookworm: I love the fact that the follow-up thread is automatically starred. I figured that when someone creates a new thread afresh, I usually loose track of them in the course of the year!

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
No. I can’t follow everybody on this group, so I do not actively look for new people to ‘follow’. I stick to one or two people outside of CR and to CR members. The only new connections I make are new CR members, so welcome to all of them, even if this is not the best place to great them!

Q1:

Do you read as many as possible?
— Yes, in theory, although the amount of time I have varies a lot, so I fall behind at busy times. I focus on the people I know I have something in common with, but I tend to skim or give up altogether with the very chatty threads. Darryl’s thread is always a problem — he usually has interesting things to say about books that mean something to me, but whenever I get back to his thread I find there are two or three hundred unread messages, all from the last half hour…
I tend to avoid posting messages in busy threads myself unless I have the idea that I have something useful to add: maybe I’m too shy about that, and it comes across as lurking? When people leave purely phatic posts in my thread it pleases me, so I should probably reciprocate more.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
— Yes, I always check out at least the first few posts, until I get a feel for whether we are likely to have some overlap in background or type of stuff we read

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for a while?
— Yes. Sometimes if I’m way behind I arbitrarily start reading again from the most recent book post and ignore everything above that.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
— I use stars to mark threads I particularly want to keep up with, but I don’t limit myself to starred threads.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
— Rarely. I mostly use the conversations feature to track down discussions in the far distant past that I was part of, or to work out who it was who first told me about a particular book.

>9 thorold: Darryl’s thread is always a problem — he usually has interesting things to say about books that mean something to me, but whenever I get back to his thread I find there are two or three hundred unread messages, all from the last half hour…

Right?! 😄

Do you read as many as possible?

I keep up with everyone's threads, eventually, although I lightly skim the ones that mention or review books I have absolutely no interest in.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

Yes, especially those new members who are reading books I wouldn't have otherwise known about, particularly from other parts of the world, but sound interesting. Rasdhar's threads are a perfect example of this.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

I follow everyone, so no.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?

I do use the star function, but mainly in groups I'm not a member of, to keep track of friends, including several in the 75 Books group and one dear friend in The Green Dragon group.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

Almost never.

Q1

So, as you pare down somewhat, how do you select which threads you will continue to read?
Do you read as many as possible?
If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

These three go together for me a bit. I read as many as possible, including new members, to try to get a sense of who people are and if we have anything in common. The lack of this doesn't mean we won't have interesting conversations, so it's not a dealbreaker, just a way to start figuring out whose threads are likely candidates to keep track of.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
Yes, sometimes people get busy (me or them) and things slip through the cracks so we might have lost track of each other.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
Not exclusively, but definitely preferentially. Anything I haven't starred is for when I'm doing a deeper dive into the group.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
Not really - I have looked at Conversations for a book when I'm curious what other people might have said about it, but I'm mostly looking for people's names I recognize.

So, as you pare down somewhat, how do you select which threads you will continue to read?

I try to read everything. But I inevitably fall behind.

Do you read as many as possible?

Yes

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

Definitely

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

I don’t intentionally stop following people. But i fall behind and posts stack up. Sometimes i skim or skip. Sometimes i wait for a new thread and restart there.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?

Stars are for threads whose posts i want to catch immediately, which is usually a temporary thing. But they aren’t really necessary for me, and i use them less and less. I star my own thread. 🙂

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

It’s happened. But rarely. I like the feature.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read?
Do you read as many as possible?

I follow everybody's threads all year, even when I'm not posting on my own and rarely posting on anyone else's thread. This would be impossible in the 75 group where there are so many members and so many very chatty posters. Here it is possible for me, even if barely. I don't necessarily get to everyone's thread everyday day, or even every week. If a thread gets too long before I catch up on it, or I don't have an interest in the books or topics being discussed, I admit to skimming.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

Of course.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

As I said, I don't get to everyone's threads everyday, and for the threads I am less interested in, sometimes it is a while between visits. So although I do go back, I can't say I had made a conscious decision not to follow a thread and then went back.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?

I hate the concept of "dropping a star." If at the beginning of the year you "star" threads, and follow only those, you can end up missing a lot. I admit to being nosy and wanting to know everything that's going on.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

Yes. And I often find myself checking out that new person's library, seeing what books we have in common, and if that person has posted reviews, checking out a few of their reviewed.

One way (for me) of finding new books is to mark libraries as interesting or on a watch list. Then by checking on your "Connections" page you can see the new books these people add to their libraries or post reviews of. These would be people whose reading is of interest, but who, for example, don't participate in a group or have a thread.

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?

N/A

First I should say that I haven't (yet) scanned all the responses that have preceded mine, so apologies if I'm repeating your comments.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read?
See below.

Do you read as many as possible?
I read the threads of everybody who I hope will read my thread. So, yeah, that's everybody.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
Absolutely. I enjoy "meeting" new folks as they join the group. You never know where you're going to get fun reading ideas. Plus, and very importantly, everybody was extremely welcoming and encouraging to me when I first joined, and I enjoy passing that forward.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
Sure, although sometimes I'll be dozens of posts behind on such threads, meaning I end up scanning rather than giving the posts and reviews the attention they deserve.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
OK, here's where I'm going to include my answer to the first question. I've never really figured out what "dropping a star" means specifically. But what I do at the beginning of the year is to visit 4 or more different threads every day and leave new year's greetings. Because I've set my "Talk" section to "Topics you've posted to," I will then see each of those threads on my home page whenever they're added to. Also, once a day at least I'll go to the group home page and check in on 3 or 4 threads I haven't visited yet, or at least haven't posted to.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
Occasionally. Someone new, and even sometimes "new to me" groups. Although, sadly, many groups I "discover" that way turn out to be dormant.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read? Do you read as many as possible? If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
I try to keep up with everyone when I play catch-up. Mostly skimming over book reviews and catching up on discussions. I get behind often so this is always an ongoing process.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
Yes as much as feasibly possible, there's always someone or something I missed with keeping a busy schedule, but try when to look back when time permits.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
I use star threads to narrow the focus a bit to people I read the most in common with, to try and keep up with those threads as much as I can. I do try to get to every thread eventually, but the star threads i try to keep on top of even of a fail just as badly at that.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
Never to be honest use this feature. But it is a good idea to investigate now that it has been brought up.

QUESTION 1: Following Threads

Well the first crazy week here in Club Read has almost ended. Inevitably some of the initial frenzy will wear down soon. So, as you pare down somewhat, how do you select which threads you will continue to read?
I try to read all of them - usually in whatever order they come up in "My posts and groups". Which means that if I fall behind and someone disappears, I may not get to theirs until I have some time. I am a lot more likely to just read and not post though - I do a lot of this browsing/reading on my phone and typing on it is not trivial (and then I forget I was planning to post).

Do you read as many as possible?
Yep.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
New, old - they are all threads :)

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
When someone posts in the threads and/or if I really get bored and decide to open the group and see who is lurking at the bottom.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
I do not use stars for this so no.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
To find someone new - no. To find a new group or to see some comments when there are no reviews - occasionally.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read? It's slightly about reading compatibility. If someone ONLY reads genres I really have no interest in then I won't follow that thread. There are plenty of people where the overlap in reading interests is fairly minor but I really enjoy their comments and when the stars do align I can tell it's probably a book I'll love. I also largely put my energy towards threads where people are leaving at least a little review of what they read, because that's what's most valuable for me in terms of my own reading and sparking conversations.

Do you read as many as possible? I try to in February once people have read more books.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads? Yes, though again it's not super productive right at the start of the year before you can see what they're reading, if they review/vs list etc...

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile? I try to, mostly later in the year, though this was not successful last year.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred? No, though again, it's a bit random and energy dependent. Last year was my first year back to LT after a break so I ended up mostly just starring people I was familiar with and only barely keeping up with my own reviews.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new? Nope, though maybe I will for more obscure books.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read? Do you read as many as possible?
I try to read as many as possible. I may not be able to keep up with everyone every week, but I do sometimes spread it around so that I can catch up on different threads each week. I like knowing what everyone is reading and adding even more to my TBR list, and I'm interested in your thoughts and comments even if it isn't something I'll end up reading myself.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
I'll echo >15 rocketjk: and say that everyone has been so kind and friendly when I joined, and yes, I will be trying to pass that forward as a CR sophomore. And >11 kidzdoc: thanks so much! I enjoy your thread too, for much the same reasons.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
It sometimes takes me a while to catch up, especially if a thread hasn't been very active, but eventually, yes.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
I have some threads temporarily starred if I'm following a particular conversation or looking forward to a particular review/notes on a book, but I try to read all the threads.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
I have done so occasionally, but perhaps I'll do it more often now.

Well, it's the first week of January and I'm behind with all of the above already, so I guess that says it all :).

I like to try and read as many threads as possible, but it quickly becomes a task I can't keep up with, so I tend to read more the threads of those who have common reading interests with me and then more sporadically lurk around the others.

I do (try to) read new members' threads - that interaction is very important when you're new to the group. I wish I could be better at doing it regularly.

I always like to see people popping up again who may not have been as active in the last while, and will always try to visit them.

After January, yes - I'm pretty much using the Starred Topics section to keep up with my thread reading, so if people join the group late unfortunately I'll probably miss their thread for a good while. This is also a great way to keep up with threads of people I follow in other groups (where I'm not a member of those groups), hence this is why this is my go-to view in Talk.

I regularly check out Conversations for a book I'm reading. I will often check out if anyone in CR has read the book previously and go back to check out their review, but I tend not to visit conversations from other groups as I know I find it impossible to keep up with even one group.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read?
I try to read most threads, minus the ones with subjects I'm not interested in (TV, audiobooks). I'll often skip those from folks with whom I have no real common reading ground—though when I'm caught up (it does happen from time to time) I'll give those a skim to see if there's anything interesting for me.

Do you read as many as possible?
I try, though I tend to read the threads from people I have reading affinity with, or whom I feel friendly with, in more depth.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
Yes, definitely, though I don't always say hi right away—in general I tend not to post unless I have something in particular to say.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
Yes, see above.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
I actually use the stars in a kind of reverse way—I have my Talk set to "starred topics" and then star almost all of them. That way I don't have to see the ones I don't star, for reasons I mentioned above.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
Not to discover someone new so much as to go back and find conversations I was having about a title, and with whom, since i have a terrible memory.

I am a big lurker on CR so I read the majority of people's threads even if I spend months without posting. I use the star button to keep track of members I know I have a lot in common so they are my priority list, but I have no qualms about clicking the ignore button on certain threads: mostly people who just post book titles with no reviews, or we truly have absolutely no reading overlap at all.

>10 kidzdoc: ditto! but we do love the good doctor :)

>15 rocketjk: Because I've set my "Talk" section to "Topics you've posted to," I will then see each of those threads on my home page whenever they're added to

Um I didnt know one could do that. I usually set my talk section to starred topics. May need to try this

wow I was gone a few days due to net outage, and Im already way behind!

How do you select which threads you will continue to read?

at the begining of the year, I star the threads of folk Im familar with; often as I read those, I see who else is posting on that thread and check out there threads too I note the posters whose reads are compatible to mine, or something new that interests me. throughout the year I also will pick up on posters from groups like RTT or GR or What are you reading that interest me and add them to the list

Do you read as many as possible? I try to; there are some default ones I always go to first and then try to read others along the way

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

those are the first ones I read! and often will add them to my starred list

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

If I think about it. each quarter Ill pick up CR and check threads I might be interested in

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred

no, Ill check out other threads to see what I am missing

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

I have no idea what this is! where do i find this?

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?

>25 cindydavid4: If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

those are the first ones I read!

Yay Cindy!

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

I have no idea what this is! where do i find this?

Right click on the book title.
This will take you to the book's main page.
On the left hand side of the screen is a column with an image of the book.
Under this is a list of options.
You will see Conversations listed there.
If you open Conversations, you will find a list of all threads where that book has been mentioned or discussed.

>26 SassyLassy: oh my god where have you been for the last 9 years!!!! which makes me wonder if you all"older members"could post . such things that us relatively newbies dont know about. A tour guide of CR in other words.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read? Do you read as many as possible?

I read all the posts in all the threads in groups of which I am an admin. So all of Nobel Laureates, Holocaust Literature, and Global Challenge. I read every single post in Club Read for the three years I was admin. I'm hoping to give myself permission to skim some (group threads of topics I am less interested in) now that Dan has taken over!

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

Always. I like to welcome people and try to make a connection from their hometown or profile page.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

This is only applicable for groups which I do not admin. For instance, I had met Ellen in RL, but lost track of her thread on 75 books until last year.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?

Since I used to keep my Talk Page set to Groups I Admin and read all of the posts, I never used stars in CR. Now I have it set to My Groups, so ditto. I do use stars for threads in other groups that I don't want to lose track of, for instance, people I follow on 75 Books, Paul's Challenges, and TIOLI.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

Only when I am trying to find a conversation I participated in but no longer remember where or when.

>28 labfs39: please skim. Go all Mary Kondo and spend more time on the threads that bring you joy. Universal advice to all. 🙂

Being a CR newbie my answers to several of these questions are pretty much based on my many years spent in the 75 Books world.

How do you select which threads you will continue to read? Do you read as many as possible?

i've been starring pretty much everyone in sight. It's kind of like moving to a new town and then poking into every nook and cranny so as to learn everything I can about my new digs.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

Back in the 75 Books groups, I must confess that I did not. There is waaaay too much going on there in terms of other people's threads growing by leaps and bounds every day (and which - weirdly - led to me feeling pretty isolated). CR seems much easier to handle so far and I mean to keep up a lot better.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

Remains to be seen.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?

That's been my habit in the past, but it's another habit from BCR25 (Before Club Read 2025) that I hope to break.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

And I can't believe that I, too, never noticed the "Conversations" spot before. Now that it's been pointed out I mean to check that out a lot.

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?

Regarding finding people to follow - it's still early days. I figure that this will just work itself out as I go along.

And that's a yes on the thread. Setting up a new one is one of the best parts of the new year for me.

QUESTION 1: Following Threads

How do you select which threads you will continue to read?
My participation on LT has dropped significantly in recent years. I start the year systematically, unstarring threads from the previous year, starring threads for the current year of people I recognize and have interacted with in the past. Over the first few weeks of the year, I peruse the 75 Books and CR groups for new threads. When I was new to the challenge groups, I checked most threads, and assessed whether there was enough overlap of interests to follow. Now I'm not on LT enough to keep up with e.g. people I have met in RL.

Do you read as many as possible?
No. Not enough time in the universe.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?
I occasionally notice a comment on a thread and go looking for the thread of the commenter. I aim to reciprocate if someone comments on my thread.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?
Yes.

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?
Typically yes. I either view by starred threads, or by threads I've posted to which in challenge groups generally means threads I'd already starred. Occasionally I view by groups (I reduce the clutter by not joining challenge groups), but these are either less active or of only peripheral interest.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?
I occasionally check Conversations if I want to remember where I heard of a book or what known members have said about it. I rarely find new people this way, unless it's somewhat obscure and I'm curious that someone else is interested in the same topic.

QUESTION 1: Following Threads

Do you read as many as possible?

I do, but I tend to do it in batches, so might miss a group of people for a week or so, and then another group the next week.

If you’ve been around CR for awhile, do you read new members’ threads?

I do - it's amazing who's out there! It's good to meet them.

Do you go back and revisit people you might not have followed for awhile?

I do periodically, again, in batches. I'm most likely to do this if I see a comment of theirs on another thread and think "that's interesting, is there more on the person's own thread?"

Often at the beginning of a year, a post might say “dropping a star”. Do you only read threads you have starred?

I don't use stars, fearing it seems somewhat cliquish, and also fearing it would make my participation more lazy if I only read certain people all the time. It's sort of like the real world - you need to hear people with whom you might not necessarily be of like mind from time to time.

Do you ever go back to a book page and check out “Conversations” for that book, and discover someone new?

This is something I really enjoy doing, especially if the person is not in CR. Again, it's hearing other voices.

If you’re new to CR, how in all this muddle do you find people to follow? Do you see yourself setting up your own thread?

Not really applicable, having been here for some time. However, when I first joined, I had followed people here and in a couple of other groups for most of a year, so when the new year came, I was ready to set up a thread.

__________

edited to add that like >28 labfs39:, my Talk page is set to "Your Groups". Occasionally, maybe every month or so, I will have a look at "Hot Topics" just to see what else is happening in the world.

Welcome back everyone, and welcome to CR "newbie" >30 Fourpawz2:.

If you miss a question, you can go back and answer it anytime - no deadlines!

A bit of a revisit, but there’s been a lot of talk about these on various threads this month



image Paul Castain

QUESTION 2: DNF

When does a book become a DNF?

Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it?

At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now? Chucking it probably means it is not something to be picked up again. Giving it away may work. Keeping it in the house is an alternative in the “maybe someday” sense. What’s your solution?

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go, or do you find yourself wondering what had you setting it aside the first time around?

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

When does a book become a DNF?

when it throws me out of the story usually by complicated motifs that i cannot understand, or issues with the characters or the plot that dont seem to get better

Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it?

often its gradual, Ill put it down, pick it up and try again, but ofter there is a shiny new book I can read it again the the other book languishes on my shelves in hope I can try again, now and again a poster will recommend it, I catch the enthusiasm, and Im hooked birds without wings is a perfect example. a trick I use that learned from a friendI go to near the the end of the book so I can see where its going (I dont mind spoilers) sometimes it helps me return to it, other times its gone

At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?

I dont like horror stories and I have problems with
child abuse, violence that never stops, battles that have no sign of ending These are probably tossed immediately. ButIm also not a fan of angst, soap operas or sugary writing tho I have been known to read them now and again But evetually they get tossed

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now? Chucking it probably means it is not something to be picked up again. Giving it away may work. Keeping it in the house is an alternative in the “maybe someday” sense. What’s your solution?

My local indi has a trade counter where I bring such books that I think they will take so I get credit to buy something else. ditto with our used bookstore that is usually not so picky, then its to goodwill. problem solved

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go, or do you find yourself wondering what had you setting it aside the first time around?

oh yes, and some have become favs' these usually are books recommended here by my book pals other times , no, they are placed in the trade bag and thats all she wrote

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

Its too early yet to tell But I can tell you a few from last year that were tossed early:parable of the sower, olga dies dreaming and ivanhoe

Q2:
When does a book become a DNF?
I was brought up in the sort of household where you don’t leave food on your plate, and that seems to apply to books too — if I’ve decided that I’m going to read something, it usually gets finished. I can usually tell from a brief skim and the opening pages whether something is so far out of the range I was looking for, or so bad, that I don’t want to read it at all.
I read quickly, which is something of a mixed blessing on the whole, but it means that it usually doesn’t take long to finish a book when I want to, even if it’s not especially interesting.

Is it a gradual process?
Occasionally a book becomes a low-priority read, set aside temporarily for something else, typically because it’s so long I’m not going to finish it before some salient event (travel, usually). It can sit for years with a bookmark in it (from where I’m sitting I can see the Royal Spanish Academy edition of Don Quijote with a bookmark about a third of the way in…), but it usually gets read eventually.

At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?
If so, then that happens before I’ve properly started it.

What happens to it now?
Depends on reasons for not reading it — if it’s just “not the right book at this moment” then it goes back on the TBR; if it’s a potentially useful reference book but not something I want to read cover to cover it gets shelved in its appropriate spot; if it’s not something I ever want to read it will most likely end up a long-stay guest of a local Little Free Library.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years?
Yes

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?
Everything on the TBR shelf, or nothing at all, depending on how you look at it… :-)

QUESTION 2: DNF

When does a book become a DNF?

I think there are four broad categories of DNF for me.

1. I start reading the book and find something about it irritating. The writing is cliched, or every single woman who appears is startlingly beautiful, or it's a historical novel written in what I think of as a 'forsooth' style.

2. I have some uninterrupted time with a book and get along with it fine, but after I have a break from it I realise I just don’t really care about the characters of the story.

3. At some point in the book I get irritated with something about it, or I have assumed that it's going in a particular direction and realise maybe it's not. At this point I usually have a look at the LT reviews which generally give me the information that I need to DNF (for example, a story is rambling around but I want to see how the writer brings all the strands together, and the LT reviews say things like 'I loved the writing but the writer didn't know how to end the story').

4. I put the book down with every intention of going back to it, but somehow there's always something else I pick up, and one day I realise that it’s made its way to the bottom of a teetering pile of books I'm in the middle of. Sometimes I do pick it up again, sometimes I decide to honour the mistake as the intention of the unconscious mind.

What happens to the DNF-ed book?

I generally put it on the pile to take to the secondhand shop. Occasionally I think I might like it in a different mood, and I may keep it. But my guiding principle is that I don’t have enough time to read all the books that exist in the world that I would love, so if I'm not feeling a book, I don't worry about whether that judgement is right - I am happy to move on to the next read.

Were you usually right the first time you let it go?

I recently read Beyond Black, which was one of the books which I fully intended to keep reading but put down and accidentally didn't pick up for a year. I read it through, this time round, and enjoyed many things about reading it.

I also accidentally re-read The Haunting of Hill House - I forgot I'd read it before, and when I came to review it on LT I discovered that I'd read and disliked it! I liked it much better the second time around. That’s not a DNF of course but shows that I can easily be in the mood for a book at one time and not another.

Somewhere I have a list of books I DNF-ed but have since had recommended to me, and I'd like to try again. I can't find the list right now and the only book I can remember that was on it is The Feast by Margaret Kennedy.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

There is a pile of about 10 books on the bedside table, and several stalled books on my kindle (these are even less likely to be read as I sort my kindle homepage by recency, so unless something reminds me that they're waiting to be finished, I might forget them altogether).

QUESTION 2: DNF

When does a book become a DNF? Is it a gradual process?
Typically yes. I start the book, switch to another activity or another book because of mood or obligation such as a book group meeting, the original book recedes in my mind so it becomes more difficult to pick up where I left off and yet I don't want to start again from scratch.

At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?
This is most likely to happen with fiction, and the main reason will be that I don't care enough about any character to find out what happens.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?
I read fiction almost entirely as e-books, so nothing happens. I've been accumulating some non-fiction as audio books, so again, nothing. If I got a physical book for a book group and the discussion is in the past, then I may decide not to keep the book, so it goes to my Little Free Library or the public library. If it is non-fiction and a topic of continuing interest and falls into an existing category, then eventually I shelve it for a potential future.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go?
If I set a book aside because of something about the book, then yeah, I'm likely to have the same reaction again. Often though the reasons are external, so when I cycle back to reading in general, or the topic of the book, then I'll want to continue.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?
I started over a dozen books last year that I set aside, much more a matter of mood than of merit. I have them sitting in a stack on a table with hopes for this year.

Q2

When does a book become a DNF?

I've been on a addition by subtraction kick for a while. So I give books a try, but if they don't grab me I am more than happy to place them to the side now. I need to reduce the TBR pile and really no longer feel the need to waste time at something I feel as mediocre.

What happens to the DNF-ed book?

They are eliminated.

Were you usually right the first time you let it go?

I have yet to go back for anything I have removed. If anything it is a freeing feeling to let them go.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

Everything is on the block.

When does a book become a DNF?
When I decide it's not worth finishing. Usually this is either with fiction for my book club where the genre already isn't something I like and if the writing is bad enough or the characters do something really stupid/unbelievable in the first 15 pages I just drop it. Otherwise it's with popular non-fiction, because they're just making up people's thoughts/feelings wholecloth or presenting things I know are questionable at best as absolute fact.

Is it a gradual process, the book just drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?
It's pretty much always just immediate with me. If it's not immediate I risk getting too far into the book and then I feel I might as well finish it so I at least I can fully describe the problems. This is always a mistake and I hope to get better about decisively dropping books this year.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?
I'm primarily a library user, so they just go back to the library. I did recently do a big book shelf purge getting rid of things I knew I wouldn't reread or all the weird stuff my dad had dumped on me that he snagged from various library culls (he was a librarian most of his life). I had room for the books, but I'm hoping to move this year so seemed silly to keep hundreds of books I wouldn't pick up again or knew I wouldn't pick up to begin with.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?
Nothing, since that's not really how I read. Anything I've started and not continued but still have the book it's just because I wasn't in the mood at the time or the book is physically too hard to hold.

QUESTION 2: DNF

When does a book become a DNF?

When it either pisses me off enough (see this review or when I realize that I am looking for things to do around the house just so I do not need to return to the book (Singer's Enemies, A Love Story last year and his Collected Stories before that - I really bounced hard from his writing). It does not happen often - I finish books I had started and read more than the first few pages (sometimes I will start a book, realize I am not in the mood for it and just let it go and come back to it later). These examples are actually the only books I had started and not finished in the last 15 years. :)

Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it?
I'll get back to books I had started - if it survived the initial few pages, I will finish it usually - it may take a few pages per day for awhile but I do get back to it.

At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?
The ones that get sent packing early are not DNFs and I plan to get back to them (sometimes 10 years later but still...)

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now? Chucking it probably means it is not something to be picked up again. Giving it away may work. Keeping it in the house is an alternative in the “maybe someday” sense. What’s your solution?
That's different from DNF for me - I tend to get on binges and buy a lot of books on the same topic. Occasionally I will look at my 10 books about hominids for example and wonder if I will ever read them all. Occasionally I will realize that my attention had drifted from the topic and I will just drop a bunch in the library (although I usually try to read them before that so more likely for them to get into a box and then to wait for my interest to rekindle).

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go, or do you find yourself wondering what had you setting it aside the first time around?
I am a moody reader sometimes so I know perfectly well that books that do not work at the start for me will work just fine at another time (provided it is something I find even mildly interesting). Or at least I will want to read it to see how bad it can get (There are books I know are not worth the time but then I won't have the chance to write reviews like this one when I finish them).

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?
Ulysses :) I have it on my shelves. I am also 99.9% sure I will not read it but it looked nice and I felt like I should have it. It may not survive a purge at some point but for the time being it is sitting on the bottom shelf of a book case and waiting.

When does a book become a DNF?
It's very rare that I make a definitive DNF decision on a novel. With fiction, I always feel I need to give a novel 50-75 pages to get going, as some of my favourite books were slow burner starts (The Mayor of Casterbridge, for example). But then if the book's not grabbing me by that stage, I feel like I've invested too much time already to give up on it, so usually I plough on for better or worse.

With non-fiction titles I can often subconsciously enter the DNF zone. As they lend themselves more to 'dipping in and out of' reading, sometimes I'll dip in and out and then forget to go near them again.

Is it a gradual process, the book just drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?
Yes for non-fiction as above. For fiction it would have to be an active decision - I tend not to start fiction and then drift away from the book.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?
Oh then it languishes in the mental 'must donate that' bucket with 50% of the other objects in my house, and some years down the line it may eventually get purged. Or not.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?
No fiction reads - there are a few I've started but stopped early on, but I have every intention of coming back to them at some stage. I just can't say for sure in what decade. Definitely a couple of non-fiction books - a personal development book has been gathering dust at the side of my bed for about 6 months now, along with an 'on this day in history' type of book which I must have restarted two or three times now and keep forgetting about.

>37 wandering_star: "Forsooth style" - Ha! I love that. I read one recently. It wasn't a DNF, but I most likely will not pick up any more books by that author.

When does a book become a DNF?

When it bores or offends me.

Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it? At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?

I rarely read more than one book at a time, so gradual isn't really an option. If the book's a DNR, I put it aside and move on to the next.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?

Most of my reading comes from the library these days, whether in print or in e-book, so it just goes back to the library. If I own the e-book, not much that I can do with it; it'll just live unread in my library. Print books go to the local Little Free Library, unless they're in bad condition or some odd thing that isn't likely to be wanted by anyone else; those get thrown into the garbage.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go, or do you find yourself wondering what had you setting it aside the first time around?

I almost never return to a DNF unless it's part of some larger project and I feel the need to try again in the name of completism. Occasionally, I've gotten hold of a galley/e-galley that was so typo-ridden or badly formatted that I chose not to finish and wait for the actual book to be published.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

Because I'm a one-at-a-time reader and I happen to be between books right now, nothing.

When does a book become a DNF? Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it? At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?

I think, most of the time, a book becomes DNF if I subconsciously tune out of it because I feel like holding out for a more worthwhile book that may be written with the same concept but from a different angle. Sometimes books take the stage from other books in that regard. There are also books that I had wanted to read completely but couldn't due to various circumstances in my life, not necessarily due to the quality of the book itself. But it's fairly easy to tell when a book is trash, plain and simple.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now? Chucking it probably means it is not something to be picked up again. Giving it away may work. Keeping it in the house is an alternative in the “maybe someday” sense. What’s your solution?

I recently gave a book I couldn't finish to a family member, who I thought would be more interested in it. Some books I couldn't finish were simply e-library loans; others were e-books that I had bought believing the content would match their storefront appearances, not realizing that I had paid for a mistake. My solution to judging whether a book will be worth buying and reading to completion is by reading the introduction or preface, which is usually free of charge, to get a better sense of what the author is about. I do have some "maybe somedays" on my list, but these don't include literary classics, which are not as engaging to me as more recent books, but which I have resolved to read for the sake of improving my education, no matter how much time it will take. There may well be other books that I will simply never get to.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go, or do you find yourself wondering what had you setting it aside the first time around?

I like to think I'm a good judge of a book's readability. Apart from classics, which I tend to read a lot more slowly anyway, I can't think of a time when I regretted not finishing a book sooner.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

Right now, it's mainly The Lost History of Christianity. Although it's an important history that I should know more about as a Christian in the West, I didn't expect this book to be so dark and depressing.

When does a book become a DNF?

This is a rarity for me. I feel like a quick look at the first couple of paragraphs, plus perusals of random paragraphs throughout the book, can let me know that I'm not going to enjoy the book. So those books will generally get a DNS (did not start). But usually, once I get around 20 pages in, unless something extreme pops up, I will push through and finish the book. If I find within the first few pages, signs of blatant racism or sexism, such that the book and the experience of reading it, becomes distasteful. I will set it aside quickly. This happened a couple years back when I started a 100-year-old YA novel with a beautiful cover that I'd been really looking forward to. It was an adventure novel taking place in Africa. I'd been expecting some "of its time" racism, but when, on the second page, a lurking villain's "Negroid features" were presented as a clear sign of depravity, I knew this novel was going to be over the top in terms of what I could stomach, even in the name of "historical artifact" reading. I put it back on the shelf because it was such a beautiful old volume that I couldn't stand to do anything else with it. But when we culled the book collection in preparation for our move across country, I finally managed to get it into one of the "donate" boxes. Oddly enough, given that I'm Jewish, antiSemitism in the writing alone will usually not make me set a book down. My reaction then is just a sort of "What else is new?" The only other book I can recall starting but not finishing recently was a collection of essays by William Carlos Williams I'd been going through gradually. The essays were mostly literary criticism and the writing was so dense that I was getting very little out of them and certainly not enjoying them. After getting about a third of the way though I thought, "Why am I making myself struggle so with these?"

Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it?

No, not for me. I generally don't set things aside in that way. Either I read a book or I stop reading it.

At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?

About 20 or 30 pages will generally do it for me, on those rare occasions when I quit a book. I almost never return to such a book.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now? Chucking it probably means it is not something to be picked up again. Giving it away may work. Keeping it in the house is an alternative in the “maybe someday” sense. What’s your solution?

It gets donated to a thrift store. If I think it's actually a quality book that is just not right for me, I might put it in the "leave a book, take a book" library in our apartment building. Or there's a fellow who sells books from a sidewalk table in my neighborhood who takes donations. If I think a book is up to his standards, I might give it to him. But if I think a book is particularly, egregiously racist or sexist, I will make an exception and dump it in recycling.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go, or do you find yourself wondering what had you setting it aside the first time around?

I rarely keep such books, but even if I do, I can't recall a time when I returned to a DNF and tried it again.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

As Mark says, I guess every unread book on my shelves is a potential DNF.

>34 SassyLassy: QUESTION 2: DNF

When does a book become a DNF?
This is very rare for me. I have marked 14 books as DNF since 2007. So less than 1 a year. Although, I did DNF two books last year. One was for a book club. I did keep trying, but once the book club date had passed it sat for several months until I realized I really didn't care if I ever picked it up again. The other one was a book on my TBR that I picked for a challenge. I was actively disliking it, and decided that I had read enough to count it for the challenge, but not to count it as "read." Looking at my 14 books, most of them I would say were in the "actively disliked" category. Actually, I see one on there that I think I might try again at a later time, so I should probably unmark it as DNF. And one was a translation of War and Peace that I own, but set aside because I ended up preferring a different translation - and I did finish that one.

Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it?
This happens all the time with me, but those books don't get marked DNF. They either get marked "started intend to finish" or they get changed back to "to read" to try again (or not) another time. Some of them get carried over in my lists as "leftovers" hoping to prioritize them the next year. I've got several of those this year, and I'm still hoping to read or finish them. Most likely they have to be restarted if it has been too long.

At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?
Well, if it does then it is a book that really didn't get started, not DNFd.

When the realization strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now? Chucking it probably means it is not something to be picked up again. Giving it away may work. Keeping it in the house is an alternative in the “maybe someday” sense. What’s your solution?
Most of my books come from the library, so they just get returned. I do have a tag on Goodreads for "next in series but no interest" but those are books not started and I don't have any intention to read them. But you never know. I COULD change my mind, so I list them.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years? If so, were you usually right the first time you let it go, or do you find yourself wondering what had you setting it aside the first time around?
As I said above, there is one DNF that I could see picking up again. The others no. But the books that I have set aside (for now) for whatever reasons, yes, I will come back to them. They might be one of my "random read" picks for the year, or it fits a challenge and gets picked for that. I'm reading one right now (The Celtic Gods: Comets...) which I started in 2008 and never really had occasion to pick up again. But I'm focusing on C titles this year, and it fit the January RTT theme and it was on my started, intend to finish list. Unfortunately, there were no longer any library copies to be had, not even ILL, so I actually purchased it as it is a topic that interests me and I will keep it in my home library.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?
Probably nothing. I am planning on finishing all of my currently reading books. On the other hand, if you mean all those "leftovers" - I have over 4,000 titles on my TBR list, and I am turning 70, so probably most of those will never be read, sad to say.

Q2

I’m kind of in denial. I never think about abandoning a book when I start it. But it happens. I hit a point where the book is clearly terrible and I abandon them, or more likely, where i just can’t get into it…but surely i will later. So, they revert back to the TBR.

Q2

I haven't abandoned many books generally but I'm hoping to be better at giving them up if I'm not enjoying them. For fiction it's hard, since it's actually only the rare book that grabs me from the first page and it often takes me at least a few pages to get a grip on a book, especially if it's an author I haven't read before. I need to read far enough to know that it's not working for me but not so far that I'm thinking I might as well finish the book at this point. When I have abandoned fiction previously, it's often because I'm part way into it and I find every time I think about reading it I decide to do something else instead.

Non-fiction is often easier: if they're written like novels with lots of clearly made up details then they're straight out. Likewise ones where it's clear from the introduction or opening chapter that I'm not going to get on with the author's writing.

QUESTION 2: DNF

When does a book become a DNF?

Very rarely. Between you guys and reviews elsewhere, I'm reasonably certain that a book I start will be worth my time. And since I always have between four and six books going at a time, I don't mind a book that's slow to get going. The books that I abandon are then usually books from an awards list or book club books, the reason I will give up on a book is when I feel like I'm putting more effort into reading than the author did into writing it. And even then, it's rare, since I do like an opportunity to talk about why a book didn't work.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?

I tend to only buy books I'm pretty sure I'll like or at least will find worthwhile to have read. Ones that I'm not sure about I check out of the library, which makes the decision of what to do with them easy and prevents me from throwing them at a wall. If a book is slow going, it just takes a little longer to read it, which happens often enough with non-fiction. With non-fiction, I'm reading for the information and not the writing.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years?

If there are grounds to abandon a book, then I'm not picking it up again.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

Nothing! I look at my tbr as all being potential five star reads, otherwise they would not be there.

When does a book become a DNF?

Occasionally I will DNF a book because I'm having a stressful time or a lot of physical pain. This happened last year with Prophet Song, although it's probably more accurate to say that I put it aside for later. I hope to get back to it this year. Others have been books that I didn't choose, such as book club selections; sometimes I will plow through, and sometimes I won't. It's also possible that I will pick something up that just doesn't click.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?

Lately I've been reading a lot of library books, so they just go back. I've also been trying to get through a number of books that we've had sitting around for a while, to decide whether to keep them or not. If I decide to dispose of one of those, whether I finished it or not, its destination depends on its condition: a few gnarly old MMPBs just get recycled, and most of the rest go to the library donation bin.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years?

I've done this once or twice, but not often. There re so many other books. And given that I'm being somewhat ruthless about even keeping the book around these days, it's pretty unlikely.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

I like to think of unread books as possible treasures, but of course they're also possible DNFs. That applies to the books on our shelves as well as book-club selections, and even to bullets that I take from all my friends here.

>34 SassyLassy: I only DNF books if they bore me. If I don't like them, I'll often hate-read to the end. Not a particularly healthy approach, I suppose! Sometimes I pause for a long time.

Question #2

When does a book become a DNF?

I kind of just go with my gut if it's fiction. Sometimes - The Alienist springs to mind - I pull the trigger within days of starting it while others just go back on the TBR Fiction pile for a while. Generally fiction does not get more than two chances with me. With non-fiction if I have given it a couple of attempts (or more*) and find that I am not liking it even earlier than I did the previous time it is time to seriously consider not finishing it. Ever.

*Antonia Fraser's biography of Oliver Cromwell is on the bedroom floor, patiently waiting for me to try it for a third time

When the realization strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?

There was once a second-hand bookstore in the area that would buy my rejects, but they are long out of business, so nowadays I donate my evicted copies to the library.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years?

With non-fiction I will stick with a book for years after an initial rejection. Meetinghouse Hill stalled pretty early the first time around, but I had a feeling that I really wanted to know about the meetinghouses of early America and a few years later I gave it another shot and loved it. DNF fiction goes back into the TBR pile and when it rises to the top again I do give them another shot - most of the time. But some of the time I know just by looking at the cover that I will be absolutely unable to open up that puppy again.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

George Sand by Curtis Cate - Nothing wrong with Cate's writing; I am just finding Sand so unlikable.

Barack Obama's memoir is dangling by a thread. Just the thought of delving into it again makes me tired.

and The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York has been languishing for 4 mortal years. Don't know what I was thinking when I bought it.

And I must say that some of the time - especially with non-fiction - I shelve my DNFs on the Keeper Shelves because I think that down the road there may come a time when I want to know something that is contained in a particular book.

QUESTION 2: DNF

When does a book become a DNF?
I am not a DNF-er : in 2024, I DNF-ed 2 books, which is a lot for me. I am usely between 0 and 1 per year.
A book becomes a DNF because it’s boring (I got the point after a few pages and don’t want to bother to read till the end), because it’s cliché, in style and/or in the way it treats women or minorities (without the excuse of time) and/or if there is too much violence or sex that is not useful for the story.

Is it a gradual process, the book justs drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Maybe something else was picked up in the meantime, and you never returned to it? At the other extreme, does it get chucked almost immediately?
As I read uselly only one book at a time, it’s easy to identify a DNF for me. If it becomes a chore to read, I realise it’s a DNF. Or if I start another book before finishing this one, and then another one and another one, I come to realise it will be a DNF.

When the realisation strikes that a particular book probably won’t get read, comes another decision; what happens to it now?
If it is an owned book, I’ll keep it if I consider it might be a good read for someone else or if I want to give it another try (which I almost never do).

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years?
Uselly no, but there are two exception I can foresee: I tried twice to read La faute de l’abbé Mouret / The Sin of Father Mouret and could not finish, but as I want to read the whole series, I will tackle it a third time! And Moby Dick, I plan to try again, last time, probably 20 years ago, I was not in the right mood.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?
None. I would love to see all my future reads assuperb and memorably good.

When does a book become a DNF?

Because I typically plow through to the end, a book has to be horrid or a really bad match for my mood. Usually I make it halfway, and my reading gets slower and slower. Since I only read 1-2 books at a time, this cuts into my overall reading. Finally, I stop, and it becomes either a "bookmark stuck" book (one I intend to return to) or "DNF" (one I do not).

Is it a gradual process, the book just drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Or does it get chucked almost immediately?

I'm loathe to give up on a book, so it usually lingers, collecting dust, until finally it gets reshelved.

What happens to it now?

If it's a "bookmark stuck" book, it eventually gets reshelved (with bookmark). If it's a DNF and in bad shape or the information is dangerously erroneous, I chuck it, otherwise I put it in my Little Free Library or donate it to the library book sale.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years?

That's the hope, and sometimes it happens.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

I looked at my tags, and I have 11 books listed as DNF (since 2008). They have either been returned to the library or disposed of. Interestingly, all but two are nonfiction and three were Early Reviewer NF. I have 20 books marked as "bookmark stuck". They are evenly split between fiction and nonfiction. Some I fully intend to return to, such as Dictionary of Maqiao (I simply got pulled away by reading commitments, but want to return), others I'm hopeful about but it's unlikely to be soon, such as The Crimean War or Alan Turing: The Enigma, and others are hopeless hangers on. My Century: The Odyssey of a Polish Intellectual, I'm looking at you.

>55 labfs39: Dictionary of Maqiao is one to which I also fully plan to return. It got packed for my move all those years ago, and has yet to be unearthed (lack of bookshelves here). It was a slow read, but I was persisting. Maybe I should venture down to the basement and see where it may be. My Chinese shelves upstairs are overflowing, but I know there are more books still to unearth.

I'm very curious about all the people who make themselves plough on through books they aren't enjoying. How do you do it? Do you have a regular routine of reading time? If I'm trying to read a book I'm not enjoying I find I'll do anything other than pick it up, so I end up not reading at all.

>57 wandering_star: Like some have said, I've gotten better at choosing which books I'm going to read, so I have fewer failures. Like you, if I'm not enjoying a book, I end up not reading at all, which makes me unhappy. Eventually I either grit my teeth and plow through it, or I put it aside. I do not have a regular reading time, but squeeze it in around my other activities.

>57 wandering_star: Yes, I tend to read in the evenings after work and gym as a wind down before bed, so as someone who generally doesn't like leaving a novel as a DNF I will generally just plough on at my usual reading time, probably at a faster reading speed than normal to just get it done. It's only because I'll have already invested quite a lot of hours giving it a chance to get going, so it feels more annoying to finish partway through.

>57 wandering_star: I find I'll do anything other than pick it up, so I end up not reading at all.

so true! I could never force read a book. esp as I get older, I dont have time reading books that wasnt meant to be Even in school I learned to skim and get the basic idea

>57 wandering_star: If I have won the book, I really try to finish. I do not like the F word used over and over and will not finish and put that in my review. My local library has challenges and one book, I could not finish. One librarian also said she could not finish it either. It was a local author.

Question 1: Following Threads

I try to at least check in on and quickly skim everyone's threads to see what they're reading. What that ends up meaning, in practice, is that I bring up all the threads for the group (well, for all the groups I'm following, in fact, but this is by far the most high-traffic one) and click on threads with unread posts, starting from the oldest and working my way up. Except I'm often doing this only when I have a spare few minutes, here and there, so I tend to only look at a few at a time. Which is why it takes me so long to get to higher-traffic threads (like this one!): by the time I come back and refresh, they've moved back up towards the top again.

It's not a very good system, I fear. More often than not, by the time I see a post I might have had something to say to, it's either so old I might feel a bit odd going back to it, or else other people have already chimed in with whatever I might have wanted to say, anyway.

But I suppose it at least feels fair and egalitarian in its inefficiency? :)

I actually only use the star feature on my own threads. That way I can pick out very quickly if someone has commented on them.

And that, my friends, is why I respond so quickly on my own threads and so slowly on everyone else's.

Questioni 2: DNF:

I am a compulsive book-finisher, and don't DNF stuff even when I really, really should. Partly out of optimism (It might get better!), partly out of a deeply misplaced sense of pride (I finish what I started! This book will not defeat me!) and probably mostly out of sheer stubbornness and completist tendencies.

Come to think of it, there may be a psychological commonality to my answers to both of these questions! And possibly to why I'm so backed up on both LT threads and my TBR.

>57 wandering_star: As a stubborn book-finisher, if I'm reading something I'm not really enjoying, it does take me longer, as I'm way more prone to seizing onto any distraction to put it down. But I'm also a one-book-at-a-time reader, and I, like, can't not read at all. That would be unthinkable! So they all do get read. :)

>57 wandering_star: I'm one of those who feel compelled to finish any given book I've started. It may take years, but I'll get there. I suspect it's something in my nature akin to >36 thorold:'s I was brought up in the sort of household where you don’t leave food on your plate, and that seems to apply to books too — if I’ve decided that I’m going to read something, it usually gets finished, which did make me chuckle.
There's hope though. I actually DNF a book in December, binned it, and now I can't even remember the title: a small liberation!

>55 labfs39: "bookmark stuck" great description, and oh too true.

This next question comes from a conversation on Lisa's thread. She quoted Anne Fadiman, so here goes. This question doesn't necessarily have to do with spousal relationships; it can be anyone you've shared quarters with: siblings, roommates, you name it.


image from RedRoseConsulting

QUESTION 3: Mergers and Acquisitions

A few months ago, my husband and I decided to mix our books together. We had known each other for ten years, lived together for six, been married for five. Our mismatched coffee mugs cohabited amicably; we wore each other's T-shirts and, in a pinch, socks.; and our record collections had long ago miscegenated without incident... But our libraries had remained separate, mine mostly at the north end of our loft, his at the south. We agreed that it made no sense for my Billy Budd to languish forty feet from his Moby Dick, yet neither of us had lifted a finger to bring them together. - Anne Fadiman

Are you mentally able to integrate your book collection with that of another?

If not, what is your main reservation or fear?

If yes, how do you work out details like shelving, which book goes with which? What if one person thinks bookshelves are for interior design and the other thinks they are for books?

Who gets to read a newly acquired book first, what becomes of finished books, and all those other quandaries which go along with book ownership?

Are the books inscribed with individual names, joint names, or not at all?

If this is a new merger, what happens if there aren't enough shelves to accommodate everyone's books?

Should you part ways with your book sharer, how would the book separation be negotiated?

Q3:

If all goes well, there will be a library merger with my OH some time soon. That isn’t too scary, really, because it turns out that although we share a lot of interests, we have had relatively little overlap in our actual book acquisition. His library is full of botany, zoology, gardening, cooking and visual arts, all areas where mine is quite thin, so if we put them together there would not be much intermingling on the shelves. The main problem, since the plan is that he will move, will be deciding what it’s worth shipping across the ocean and what should be discarded, which could be painful. The second problem would be finding shelf-space, which probably means I will have to accelerate my own pruning programme…

My daughter and I live together, and she keeps all of her books in her very large bedroom, while I have taken over the rest of the house. So no intermingling, although she gleefully reminds me from time to time that when I die, they all become hers. If she sees me taking more than a few books to the library sale, she reminds me that I am giving away her inheritance. :-)

I've never had a problem intermingling books or determining the shelving arrangement, because I've always been the bigger reader and thus "expert". Since I'm a chivalrous, rather than carnal, lover of books (per Anne Fadiman), I never write in them, so no inscriptions. Despite interfiling my books with others, I keep strict intellectual provenance via LT, so separating them out has never been a problem.

I do tend to overwhelm people with the sheer number of books and bookcases that move with me, but as the old adage goes, love me, love my books!

Q3 As I mentioned when this subject came up on Lisa's thread, when my girlfriend (now wife) moved in with me in my San Francisco apartment, we had enough on our plate with the move-in to consider merging books. But we didn't have to worry about having shelf space for all the books, because she brought her book cases along with her books. It was just a matter of shoving them in somewhere. But after we got married and then moved from SF to a house in Mendocino County, it just seemed entirely natural to blend them all together. There were a few duplicates, I guess. We kept whichever copy was the more meaningful to the person whose book it was. I think we kept both copies of Catch 22, though. Maybe two or three more.

>68 rocketjk: We kept whichever copy was the more meaningful to the person whose book it was. I think we kept both copies of Catch 22, though.

I have a hard enough time getting rid of my own duplicates! Sometimes I have multiple copies because they are different translations, or I have it in French and English, or I have a Folio and a paperback, or the edition I had in college and a nicer edition. So many reasons/excuses.

>69 labfs39: "Sometimes I have multiple copies because they are different translations, or I have it in French and English . . . "

Ha! Here's our Czech language copy of Catch 22, purchased in Prague during the first international vacation Steph and I took together.



So for many years we had three copies. When we downsized a bit for the move to NYC, we decided we didn't need both an English language hardback and a paperback, so we got rid of the paperback. So I was about to say we were down to two copies, one in English and one in Czech, but then I remembered I have a copy in my Modern Library collection as well. But that collection is mostly my own corner of the craziness.

Are you mentally able to integrate your book collection with that of another?

been doing so for 35 years. Met him sitting outside the apts reading I noticed he his sci fi book and as we conversed found out he also read fantasy, history and science which was just fine for me and we had othr things in common. Dated for a few years each bringing home reads that both of us enjoy and realized we were ready for a merger. Moving into one apt , we decided separate by genre then alphabetical

If yes, how do you work out details like shelving, which book goes with which? What if one person thinks bookshelves are for interior design and the other thinks they are for books?

I am fortunate that my sharer is good with a hammer, coz when we bought a house, he made our shelves, and have managed for the most part to share.I am fast realizing that his LEGO collection is taking up way too much space for books. But he has found ways to move pieces that will give me more space.

Who gets to read a newly acquired book first, what becomes of finished books, and all those other quandaries which go along with book ownership?

whoever buys it is first, and If we dont want to keep it, take them to the indie trade counter

Are the books inscribed with individual names, joint names, or not at all?

our old books have our names in them, but post 1990, none

Should you part ways with your book sharer, how would the book separation be negotiated?

with great difficulty.......as long as he takes his legos its fine, he can take his old books too (I actually like the legos alot just could use the space!!!

I've never had to really intermingle libraries. The couple people I lived with liked reading but didn't have many books.

If the other person and I had similar tastes I wouldn't mind merging shelves but if they had loads of books from genres I really don't read I wouldn't want to. My bookshelves are kind of a calming wallpaper for me. I largely own books I've already read and loved, many make me think of my parents or childhood, so looking at my shelves is comforting. Suddenly mixing in a lot of thrillers or pulp SFF or recent YA would ruin that.

Many years ago my mom and I were considering moving back in together and if we had I imagine we would have combined libraries (though organized under my system). Since we're big library people rather than rampant book buyers, many of her books (excluding travel books) were ones I grew up seeing on the shelves at home so the comfort aspect wouldn't have changed.

Physically our books are mixed in places, but not always. On LT i use a tag for the owner of each book. 🙂 i have read a number of my wife’s books. I’m not sure she’s read any of mine.

After 27 years of marriage, our libraries are merged, but it's more accurate to say that his small collection has been swallowed up into mine. He enjoys reading, but he's not attached to his books, outside of a few favorite authors and has little interest in how the books are arranged, so that's on me. He is good at building bookshelves and I am good at filling them.

Since he likes science fiction and fantasy and I do not, there's little overlap in our reading and no arguing about who gets a book first.

Q3

In childhood I shared a lot of books with my brother but had no trouble keeping a portion as clearly "mine", because he was younger and, as it turned out, not a reader. Later on, as I started buying books independently with my allowance, my biggest rival but also book-pusher was my mum. I went through a period when I was affixing hand-made ex libris stamps in my books, but I never wrote my name in books, something she always did. A few times she expropriated thus my books--not nearly as bad as the few times when she loaned them out never to be returned. Coulda been a problem had I not left!

Since I started to live on my own it was only during my brief marriage that I had another person's books in the same room with mine, and I did not like it one bit. My ex was heavily into all things New Age (and yet, go figure, a physicist... not the least proof that physicists will believe anything) and I cringed a lot whenever I'd catch a glimpse of yet another Rudolf Steiner, or Buddhist this or that etc.

Ironically, all the subsequent relationships were with people whose interests synced much better with mine, but there was no question of merging households. I suspect I'm probably "unmergeable" at this point...

QUESTION 3: Mergers and Acquisitions
I’ve known M’sieur Raton before I got financially independent, hence before I or he started to seriously build our book collections. Hence, merging our bookshelves was never really a question. It just happened along the way, through moves and constant buying.
Being the biggest buyer and the nerdier book nerd, I am the one responsible for organising the shelves.
As we have little overlap in our book interest, the merger is more like a coexistence. He has the SF shelves, as well as the science non-fiction, while I have the lit fiction and the (sparsely populated) non-science non fiction shelves. So, no issue around who gets to read a book first. In the unlikely event we both want to read it, I guess it’s the one who buys it (ie who puts it in the pile of books we are buying if we visit a bookshop jointly) who gets to read it first. The main overlap is probably in the plays section, as we like to read the plays we go to watch beforehand (a taste we developed together in the past couple of years or so).
No plan to unmerge, but I asked the question to M’sieur Raton, and we agreed, that despite having fairly different tastes, a separation is just not possible as our bookshelves (and boxes) do work as a whole and, I would add, are a great picture of who we are both as individuals and as a couple. But we agreed that if things come to the worst (but we can depart amicably), I would take the Alvaro Mutis books (an author that has been important for both of us where we were younger, but I’m the one who bought and read it first and who made M’sieur Raton reading them) and he would keep Greg Egan books (an author that entered into our book collection recently, that we enjoy both, but it’s fair to say that M’sieur Raton enjoys it much more than I do). But, finger crossed, our bookshelves will remain as a whole for a very long time (well, M’ni Raton already said there is no way she will keep all those books, so I guess it won’t stay together much longer than us...

Thinking about this question proved to be rather interesting, and the answer far more personal than my usual postings. Of course, I knew that personal bookshelves tells a lot about you, but did not realise maybe it said so much about us as a couple.

Currently reading The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters and recently finished All We Were Promise and I look forward to our book group discussions.

After 44 years of marriage our collections still remain largely separate. Our only joint sections are travel guides and maps, and a handful of authors, otherwise our reading is totally different. We do borrow books off each other with the odd crossover. Both of us are non-inscribers, both have a functional way of sorting (mine more nerdy), and there are enough shelves, although only because I had a major clear out last year (my collection remains far and away bigger, so it was in my court!).
I have no desire to even think about parting ways!!

Going to answer Question Two before I even look at question 3:

When does a book become a DNF?

I very rarely DNF a book. Sometimes, especially with eBooks, I start them and come back to them off and on until I finish them -- this is usually a non-fiction book like The Warburgs, which took me years to finish, and right now, I'm on year two of reading Unbound. When I do DNF a book, it's usually because I think the writing is bad, or I simply tire of a character. This recently happened with The Comanche Kid. I got so tired of the main character's whining, and then she did something toward the middle of the book that upset me, so I just decided to drop the book. I find I'm more open to the idea of not finishing a book I begin as I get older, but then I probably won't begin it if it doesn't look that interesting enough to finish.

Is it a gradual process, the book just drifts away, further and further down the pile, or under the bed? Or does it get chucked almost immediately?

It's usually a gradual process. However, there are exceptions: I couldn't make it past the first chapter of Twilight or that historical novel about the cathedral by Ken Follett or the first Diana Gabaldon book.

What happens to it now?

If it's an electronic/audio book, it languishes in my library forever, although I occasionally go to the effort of actually deleting them. If it's a physical book, it gets donated.

If you keep the book, do you ever find yourself picking it up again after months or years?

Yes. I fully intend to eventually return to The Histories by Herodotus, for example.

What's lurking in your potential DNF list right now?

Nothing really. I tend to only purchase books that look like something I'll finish, but I never really know until I start it.

>79 janoorani24: I couldn't make it past the first chapter of Twilight or that historical novel about the cathedral by Ken Follett or the first Diana Gabaldon book.

heh you and me both

>80 cindydavid4: :))

image from CBC Nova Scotia. This is an approximately 8,000 item collection from the late Murray Deal. It was offered for sale in 2019 for $5,000 Can

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/murray-deal-country-music-record-coll...

Supplemental to QUESTION 3

Not only are our book collections a huge part of our identity, but so are our music collections, and maybe film collections. If you have any of these, take another look at QUESTION 3 above (>65 SassyLassy:), and think it through with regard to these other collections.

Would the responses be different, or generally the same?

Question 3:

The one time in my life I've lived with a partner -- which was a very long time ago, now -- we kept our bookshelves scrupulously separate. I think we both found the idea of doing otherwise unthinkable. Well, I know I did. Hell, decades later, I still resent that he walked off with my copy of The Screwtape Letters. (I don't even love The Screwtape Letters! It's well-written but philosophically terrible! But doggone it, it was mine!)

We did have a merged music collection, much of which we bought together. This was in the era of CDs, that's how long ago it was, and those CDs was the only thing we argued about in the breakup, in terms of who got to keep what.

I have zero intention of ever cohabitating with anyone again, though, so my books will forever remain MINE ALL MINE. :)

Q3 - somehow I've ended up as the only major reader in our house, so bookshelf separation isn't a thing. Except for the bookshelves in the kids' rooms which have a few untouched novels remaining on them, every bookshelf in the house is heaving under the weight of my books. My husband contributed around 20 books to our home together, and I've bought him maybe 5 more in the last 21 years.

It's great in terms of available bookshelf space and knowing where to find all my books, but still - it makes me a little sad (especially with the kids - I can't tell you the hours I spent going to the library with them every week and the amount of books for them I bought when they were younger. I really thought they'd stick with it, but phones and social media chat won that battle.

>83 bragan: My precious...

>82 SassyLassy:



This is 50% of our book collection and 100% of our record collection. The books are not integrated - these are his that he wants to keep (with the small stack on top being German books I picked up a little free library). Mine are behind his on that shelf, except for the ones that are in a drawer, waiting for me to read them and get rid of them. So you could say the books aren't really integrated at the moment.

The records are 90% his and 10% mine since I just started buying any in the last year and a half. They're totally integrated though, we decided to just shelve them by release year. The older ones he got from his stepdad's collection, so I guess that brings actual purchases more in line with 70%/30%.

Collections like the one in the question post give me the heebie jeebies but at the speed we buy, we're in no danger.

>86 ursula: Collections like the one in the question post give me the heebie jeebies but at the speed we buy, we're in no danger.

Restraint as shown in your picture both inspires and terrifies me:)

Don't run away - it's not necessarily a quick answer!

The Birthday Marc Chagall from marcchagall.net

Marc Chagall called "love" the primary colour of his paintings.

QUESTION 3: Love

Combining the word "love" with Valentine's Day, may lead to thoughts of a partner, current or past.

However, there are all kinds of other forms of love: for family, for country, for the natural world, for pets, for place, on and on. Then there's attachment that seems to exist in other species, certainly between animals, and some authors would have us believe, between robots or other machines.

Broadening things this way, which books do you think best encapsulate love, unrequited or otherwise? Are there books that give a different perspective, one you hadn't considered before?

You can let us know your favourite love story too while you're at it.

_____________
Edited to correct image display.

need to think more about the first part but I can name some fav stories far pavillions, the time travelers wife, much ado about nothing, jane eyre, north wood(love of nature) princess bride ,possesion so far anyway

Q3: Love

I started typing something and deleted it again several times: this isn’t an easy question.
The trouble seems to be that romantic love as it happens in novels, plays and films is really a particular narrative convention that doesn’t have very much to do with the way real people behave(*), so it doesn’t compare sensibly with the other kinds of “love” you talk about, which are all quite real, but cover a huge range of actual feelings, from sentimental affection or simple greed right through to completely selfless devotion. No-one loves pizza so much that they would sacrifice their lives to protect it. (And it would be kind of defeating the object…)

It’s probably safe to say that all worthwhile books are written because someone cares deeply about something (even in the worst case, they at least care about writing a book readers will want to read), so it doesn’t make much sense to pick out books that express some kind of passion. But I should pick out something, otherwise this is just going to be a “Bah humbug” post. What about my old standby, The letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1845-1846, which is a wonderful real-time account of two intelligent and extraordinarily articulate grown-ups finding each other? To be read side by side with both their poetry, of course. Robert and Clara Schumann are another of my favourite sets of “great lovers of history.”

——

(*) Mr & Mrs Bennet behave like a real couple who care deeply about each other; Elizabeth & Darcy behave like characters in a novel who have to overcome a series of obstacles placed by the author

There are four love stories that I find remarkable:

First teacher by Tschingiz Aitmatow

Der Mann aus Zelary by Kveta Legátová

Our souls at night by Kent Haruf

The forest of wool and steel by Natsu Miyashita about the love to music, pianos and the forest.

Interesting question. The books that jump out at me aren't to do with romantic love. To the Lighthouse blew me away as there was such a strong sense of a mother's love. The Book of Ebenezer le Page also made me think very much about love, as the protagonist (although spiky on the outside as times) shows such depths of gentle compassion through the novel. Kent Haruf's Plainsong trilogy similarly just oozes plain old fashioned family love.

As good fiction is always about tension, I'm struggling to come up with novels which stand out as stories of true romance. Flawed love sticks with me much more, such as in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Henchard gets it wrong so many times - both romantic and familial love - that by the end your heart simply aches for him.

On Chisel Beach is also a fabulous book on how destructive miscommunication can be, no matter how strong the initial love.

here at the end of the world we learn to dance love the quote "If you haven't fallen in love by the end of the dance, you haven't danced the tango."

>89 cindydavid4: The Time Travelers Wife is the book that made me think about this question. Really. Even though i read in previous life (2006)

>92 AlisonY: i just read To the Lighthouse and it definitely fits.

Hmm. Having coming across so much literature that fits this love question, I don’t know where to begin. But it’s love of the author for their characters and creation that i think about most. 2009 saw Wolf Hall and The Children’s Book published and these epitomize what i mean, but especially the Byatt. Last year I read Pearl by Sian Hughes. She started writing her book as a teenager, and continued to rewrite over the decades. That’s a lot of love. It comes through.

I think the book which spoke to me most strongly and realistically about love, and different types of love, is Their Eyes Were Watching God.

For poetry my go-to for expressing/pondering love is always Carl Sandburg, particularly a few in the volume Honey and Salt.

>88 SassyLassy: To clarify, do mean fiction, or all books?

Because when I look at the memoirs I loved, many of them have a strong love element. I think it's more challenging to pull off realistically in fiction.

Q3 - Love

Love in fiction
My immediate thought was Pride and Prejudice - the love story that every other that came after tried to emulate. I also immediately thought of Like Water For Chocolate - but is that one more passion than love? I'll have to reread it.

Looking at my library, I will offer these 5 star reads (in no order):

All My Puny Sorrows, Miriam Toews - love of a sister for her mentally ill sister
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte - okay, I do NOT support this as a novel of romantic love, but Cathy's ghost at the window, and Heathcliff digging up her grave . . . ack! Such a messed up book. Love it.
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor - heartbreaking novel - not romantic love
Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen - love of the author for Kenya, colonialist as it is
Sophie's Choice, William Styron - love of mother for her children
Atonement, Ian McEwan - okay well that was a really sad ending
February, Lisa Moore - portrait of grief
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson - a novel I expected to be twee, but it was lovely!
Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, Peter Goldsworthy - ack! devastating novella about parental love

This exercise makes me want to reread all of these books.

>97 Nickelini: I find Like water for chocolate has more to do with passion and stupidity than with love. Tita loved him with all her heart, Pedro too but he was stupid. Anyway, thanks to this fact, the story developes its way, including passional moments.

>97 Nickelini: same thoughts for major pettigrew one of my fav books I read for a bookgroup and was pleasantly surprised and btw that cover is my all time favorite

>90 thorold: this isn’t an easy question That makes me happy!
Also love the distinction in your footnote.

>91 BuecherDrache: Unfamiliar with three of these four, and haven't read the fourth, so a good list to contemplate.

>92 AlisonY: It was books not necessarily dealing with romantic love which I was after, so thanks.
Noting the second mention of Kent Haruf

>94 dchaikin: Love of the author for their characters and creation always shines through, and you've got two of my favourites there.

>95 mabith: I should have thought of poetry, and plays too for that matter. Thanks for bringing it up.

>96 Nickelini: >97 Nickelini: Again, I should have thought of memoirs. Whose would you select?
Wuthering Heights is always on my list, and I thought of February too. The anniversary just passed (Feb 15).
Reread away!

>98 BuecherDrache: Chuckle.

QUESTION 3: Love

This is a question I struggle with, as there are so many kinds of love.

I think War and Peace would be a hands down answer, as it manages to encompass so many kinds of love, in this world at least.

Other books I thought of were:
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson - a grandmother and granddaughter's love for each other without being maudlin

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - I struggle with this one as I'm not sure if George loved Lennie, or was committing a compassionate act

A Tale of Two Cities - when I was a child, I thought the Sidney Carton thread was a real love story, but now I wonder if he was just in love with the idea of love

Gone with the Wind - I'm convinced Rhett really did love Scarlett!

Wuthering Heights as >97 Nickelini: says - I could read that again and again

Also as >97 Nickelini: says, February

One more would be No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod, for its overriding love of place, and the love of family.

I know I will think of yet more once I post!

I haven't posted an answer to this because I've been trying to think of examples, but have just read a very good story about love between old friends, which I think fits here: "Bad Teeth" by Margaret Atwood, about two women who have been friends for 50 years. It's in Old Babes in the Wood.

>102 wandering_star: Just read Old Babes in the Wood with my bookclub this past year. Great pick of a story, and there are so many in that collection which fit.

QUESTION 3: Love

However, there are all kinds of other forms of love: for family, for country, for the natural world, for pets, for place, on and on. Then there's attachment that seems to exist in other species, certainly between animals, and some authors would have us believe, between robots or other machines.

For love of place:

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot - Herriot's love for Yorkshire and his animal patients is heartwarming

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez - Lopez paints the arctic with words

For love of family:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - Meg's love for her family and her willingness to risk her own life to save her brother was such an inspiration for me when I was young

Sophie's Choice by William Styron - already mentioned by someone else - but Sophie's love for her children burns in my brain

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy - Heartrending. One of my favorite books, but it's so sad, I don't recommend it for everyone.

Broadening things this way, which books do you think best encapsulate love, unrequited or otherwise? Are there books that give a different perspective, one you hadn't considered before?

The All of It by Jeannette Haien - Novelette that explores a different sort of love born out of extreme loneliness

You can let us know your favourite love story too while you're at it.

Well, I made a long list of favorite love stories last night, but will only include two here:

The Lymond Chronicles - all six books, but particularly the last, Checkmate, by Dorothy Dunnett

Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson

Munro's Bookstore in Victoria BC

QUESTION 4: Bookstores

Well out there in the world, it's been a week, as they say around here. So, as a distraction, here's a flight of fancy, a complete indulgence.

You are able to travel to any bookstore(s) in the world you wish. Money is not an object for this trip. Fictional ones count here too.

Which bookstore(s) would you choose?
What sort of books would you be looking for there?
While you're at it, where would you eat? - Definitely not in the bookstore I hope!

>105 SassyLassy: Question 4: Bookstores
Oh, I would immediately head for Hay on Wye! What would I be looking for? Nothing in particular.... Where would I eat? Hmmm. Maybe at Red Indigo. I love Indian food and it's vegetarian friendly.

Question 4

My current favorite bookstore is Exile in Bookville, which is located in a gorgeous art deco building an easy walk from the Chicago Art Institute. It specializes in books in translation and from small presses and I could happily spend hours browsing. I've never made it further than the entry and fiction room, but my son told me they have an excellent room of stationary supplies and a friend loved their art section. Someday, I may have enough time there to see more than the fiction room.

As for food, that immediate part of Chicago isn't overly blessed with great restaurants, but there's a small kiosk selling Chicago dogs on the walk between the store and the museum that does just fine. And there's a nice French place called Bistro Monadnock that is in another glorious building with fantastic wrought iron bannisters that's not too far to walk depending on how many books I'm carrying with me.

But if we're given the option of any bookstore in the world, it seems a pity to travel just a few hours from home, so I'll go with the Dussmann's in Berlin, where there's an entire English language bookstore inside and a lovely cafe with a living wall and very good coffee, although it would be a shame to spend too much time inside Dussmann's when there's all of Berlin just outside the door. Can I postpone my trip until late Spring and then take my heavy bag of books and sit outdoors at a cafe next to the Spree?

>106 WelshBookworm: yes!!! they are not gorgeous palaces like some, but they are filled with book like no where else. Spent a day there, and have always wanted to go back. BTW Sixpence House: Lost in A Town Of Books is a an excellent book about the town its history and how it developed into a town of books as well as the authors thoughts on books, other topics.

I feel like my attachment to various bookstores is based more on non-book memories than anything else. We were library people primarily. Plus, when you have mobility issues you find a lot of bookstore layouts (including new-books stores but especially used stores) are really difficult to get around. Maybe having been assistant manager at the local indie bookstore before I got sick has also removed some of the magic.

Ideally I'd like a time machine so I could go back to when Trans Allegheny Books was open in Parkersburg, WV. It was a very large used bookstore, and part of the second floor had a glass floor which mildly terrified me as a kid. The fear had to be faced though, because that's where the plays were and I was ten or eleven and deep in my theater stage (thanks to my dad directing high school productions in our area). I remember being utterly shocked when my mom agreed to buy me a few Pelican editions of Shakespeare plays (being bought anything outside of birthdays/Christmas was fairly rare, especially books the library would have). I still have them, The Tempest and Twelfth Night.

Q4 Bookstores

If I could travel to any bookshop in the world (or not in the world), I think I’d be chiefly looking for surprises. It would have to be a bookshop that I have never heard of, in a city I don’t know, and one that has never featured in a selfie on Instagram, that has never been visited by anyone wanting to tick it off as a destination on a list of ten best. It would not have a coffee shop on the premises, there would be no cute little notes from staff-members pinned to the shelves, there would be no magnets, postcards or tee-shirts on sale, if there was music playing it would be BBC Radio 3 (ca. 1975), the only way to discover where a given category of books was shelved would be to go and look at the books and try to reconstruct the bizarre mental processes that led to books on Beethoven being in the basement whilst books on J S Bach were on the third floor. And of course, in the middle of all this inefficiency, the books would actually be marked with a clear and surprisingly reasonable price, and the proprietor would magically appear at the front desk at the moment you want to pay. And would even more implausibly be willing to accept the form of payment that you actually have with you…

Given a time-machine, I’d love to revisit the radical Grass Roots Books in Manchester as it was when I was in my late teens (but with my present tastes and budget). And it would be fun to see City Lights in San Francisco and Gay’s The Word in London as they were “back in the day”.

Constrained to the real and possible, Hay-on-Wye (>106 WelshBookworm:) and Dussmann in Berlin (>107 RidgewayGirl:) would be on my list too. Also Loganberry Books in Cleveland, which is surprisingly time-and-space bending and run by ladies who don’t go in for cute. And Foyles (and numerous other bookshops) in London, Donner in Rotterdam, Athenaeum in Amsterdam, ….


The dimension-defeating back room at Loganberry Books

>105 SassyLassy: Given the time, I would go to as many bookstores as I could in New York City. I would try to find all the books on my Wishlist and then some. Then I would try to find an all-day breakfast place or a cafe with a funny name within walking distance.

Q4 Bookstores

Which bookstore(s) would you choose?
What sort of books would you be looking for there?
While you're at it, where would you eat? - Definitely not in the bookstore I hope!

I would choose bookshops that are well known to me, have a diverse collection of books that are mainly unknown to me, have good places to eat within walking distance, and are in cities where I've met up with other members of LibraryThing in the past. In no particular order:

City Lights (San Francisco): I loved going there as soon as it opened, after having a leisurely breakfast in Caffè Greco on Columbus Avenue. Most mornings there was a fellow African American man (Scott?) working at the front counter, who played jazz that was almost always unfamiliar to me, and we had great conversations about music and books. I had a special carry on tote bag whose sole purpose was to bring back books from San Francisco to Atlanta, and it was always filled until the seams were crying for mercy.

Daunt Books (Marylebone, London): This became one of my two favorite bookshops in the capital after London replaced San Francisco as my preferred vacation destination. The bookshop is visually appealing, and, like City Lights, it has a great selection of fiction and non-fiction books. I would almost always go there with close friends from LibraryThing, and we would have lunch in one of the nearby superb restaurants before or after our visits there.

London Review Bookshop: For several years and until a few months ago it had a lovely Cake Shop that was within the Bookshop in a separate space.

Other bookshops: Book Culture (NYC), Strand Books (NYC), Head House (Philadelphia).

QUESTION 4: Bookstores

You are able to travel to any bookstore(s) in the world you wish. Money is not an object for this trip. Fictional ones count here too.

OK, I'm going to be a bit self-indulgent and at one "dimension" to the word "travel:" i.e. time travel. There are quite a few vanished bookstores that I would like to visit:

There used to be a bookstore in the French Quarter in New Orleans called Olive Tree Books. I think that was the name. Anyway, it was a combination of old, obscure books, some classics, and a whole wing of dusty old glass bottles and other "antiques." Oh, how I used to love to browse there during my New Orleans days.

In San Francisco, the area in the Mission neighborhood around 16th Street and Valencia used to be a used bookstore hub, back when such things were common in larger cities. The one I remember best and would love to spend time in again was called Maelstrom Books. It was fairly large and rambly. They had a whole back room of bargain book novels that was charmingly labeled, "Unpopular Fiction." I still have the copy of Angel Pavement by J.B. Priestly that I bought off one of the "Unpopular Fiction" shelves.

There are of course a ton of vanished New York City bookstores. The one that comes to mind first is Gotham Books. What a marvelous place that was.

And, saving the best for last, I would love to go back 10 years in time and spend a day or two once more running my own used bookstore, Village Books in Ukiah, CA. Unfortunately, the fellow I sold it to closed it a while back. I can't blame him, though. I asked the man who runs the flower store next door what happened, and he told me that Covid just slaughtered the bookstore's business for too long a period for the store to remain sustainable.

OK, enough daydreaming about time travel. As to currently operating stores:

Of course I would love to see Buenes Aires' most beautiful bookstore, El Ateneo Grand Splendid, again. But it's a giant store with, understandably, a very small English language section. So I think instead I'll magically appear at the front door of Walrus Books in the San Telmo neighborhood of BA, a very funky, friendly and well stocked English language used bookstore.

In Porto, Portugal, just a couple of blocks from the fancy-schmancy bookstore that always has giant lines because of its beautiful details and because it was one of J.K. Rowling's inspirations for writing the Harry Potter books one can find the more useful and booklover-lovely Livraria Chaminé da Mota. That's the store I'd love to return to for an afternoon.

https://livrariachaminedam.wixsite.com/chaminedamota

And, yes, I'd love to pop back to San Francisco with a snap of the fingers for a bookstore crawl, most specifically, as Darryl has already mentioned, City Lights Books in North Beach, as well as Green Apple Books in the Richmond District.

Some years ago I visited the Library El Sotano, not far away from Bellas Artes in Mexico City. In that time, they started the idea of a bookshop-cafeteria which was really nice. After looking here and there, choosing all kind of books, you could sit comfortably with a cup or tea, a delicious piece of cake and have a bright look at the people and books around. I'd love to go back there, though I'm afraid they have changed this snugly concept.

In Cluj Napoca, Romania they have a library like the one in Mexico, in a real basement, with a cafeteria, refreshing limonades and a small terrace full of flowers. Most of the books are in rumanian, buy they also have a good assortment of English books.

>113 rocketjk: I've only been to Green Apple Books once, but it has a great selection of books. The aromas coming from the neighboring Asian restaurants was intoxicating!

>114 BuecherDrache::Your description reminds me of the bookshop in Cambridgeshire that my friend Rhian (SandDune) took me to several years ago, Topping & Company. After we purchased our books the bookseller also served us tea and scones with clotted cream and jam, free of charge.

>105 SassyLassy: It was an odd feeling to open your post and see that picture of Munro's, because I was just there yesterday and the day before that. And I bought Black Ice, Thomas King's latest off that very shelf.

I've been to bookstores all over North America and Western Europe, including several mentioned already. Munro's still stands up as my favourite. It was wonderful to be back there. It has fabulous atmosphere. And right next door is the fabulous Murchies for bakery items, fancy cakes, sandwiches and endless tea.

If I can't have Munro's, I do like to browse through university bookshops

>110 thorold: - It sounds like you're describing an impossible bookstore, so I hate to disappoint you, but Munro's is pretty much what you described. Maybe not BBC music, but perfect music for book browsing all the same.
And I know Munro's gets a lot of love on ClubRead, but it's not an Instagram spot. People in there are there for the books. But it's Heaven, so there you go.

>116 Nickelini: Taking note — I think the OH has some long-lost connections in Victoria BC, so you never know, we might find a reason to go there at some point…

>117 thorold: If you get a chance, let me know and I'll see if I can meet you at Murchies :-D

>118 Nickelini: OK! Don’t hold your breath, though… :-)

>115 kidzdoc: Yummie!! That's a good combination 😊 Food for the body and nourishment for the soul. 😍

>112 kidzdoc:
The Cake Shop has closed?! Your post took me straight off to their site, which confirmed it. Do you know why? That's always been an absolute 'must visit', when in London, and whilst LRB is a great bookshop, it'll be half the place it was without it.

I keep meaning to visit Daunt, but it's always been a bit out on a limb for me.

>121 Willoyd: I don't know why the Cake Shop closed. The first member of LibraryThing I met in person shared lunch there back in 2009, and since she works nearby I'll ask her to see if she knows. I agree, the London Review Bookshop was made very special by the fabulous fare in the Cake Shop, but it would drop well below Daunt Books in my rating of favorite London bookshops.

Daunt has a great selection of books, but what I liked in particular was its categorization of books by country, region or city, regardless of the type of book (non-fiction, fiction, travel guides, maps, etc.). It's also one of the most beautiful bookshops I've been to, situated in a lovely Edwardian building, there are plenty of good restaurants on or near Marylebone High Street, and it's very close to the library where one of my closest LibraryThing members works.

I am reading this thread and making lists of bookstores that I would like to visit one day.

QUESTION 4: Bookstores

I would also like to travel back in time to bookstores that don't exist. Specifically, I'm thinking of one called 'New and Secondhand' in Bombay, which shut down years ago. My dad was a regular and would take me as a child. Often the stacks of books were taller than my head, and there was no system of organisation - one simply browsed and dug and hoped for gold.

In a similar vein, there is a street-long, open-air book market in old Delhi, right beside the remains of the Old Fort (the Purana Qila). Vendors have warehouses of old and secondhand books that are spread out on mats on the floor - you have to walk, and browse, and kneel on the pavement. Post-Covid, it has been much diminished. During the Delhi winters, you can get a particular type of dessert called 'daulat ki chaat': it's made with raw milk that is mixed with cream and cooled on an ice slab (so impossible to make in summer if you do it the traditional way). Then in the early morning while it is still cold, it is whipped until light and fluffy and topped with saffron, sweet milk solids (or other toppings too). I used to go on Sunday mornings, get an early morning bowl of this, and then spend hours bookshopping while still on a sugar high. Happy days.



A picture of one part of the street book market. Most books are sold for around Rs. 200/- (USD 2.30).

>124 rasdhar: That looks like heaven!

>125 rocketjk: It really does, specially together with the Winter Drink 😋

>124 rasdhar: Lovely photo and description!

Purely on the basis of it being a thing of beauty, I've had on my wish list for a while a visit to Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal. It almost was a dream realised in April of this year as we were going to do a city break to Porto, but then switched destinations at the last minute. However, it's fairly cheap to catch a flight to from where we are, so I hope to go some of these years. Some friends who've been to Porto have said the queue to get in is outrageous, so I have a fear that the reality of the experience my not match up to the social media images.



Beyond that I'm honestly not picky - I can find joy in just about any bookshop, even the big chains when they're in different countries. I have some very happy memories of being in Barnes & Noble in NYC a couple of years ago - there are always displays relating to local authors who I probably wouldn't come across in book shops in my own country, so that's probably my go-to if it's a large chain bookshop, as well as interior magazines I wouldn't find in NI.

If it's a secondhand bookshop (which I love the randomness of), who knows what I'm likely to come out with, and that's what I enjoy about them. I like when secondhand bookshops belong to charities - it feels like a nice win / win.

The eating one is trickier. Eating often feels like a chore that gets in the way of other things I want to do rather than being an indulgence, but ideally I'd be looking for an ambience that feels relaxing to the soul and food that is super fresh, bursting with flavour and healthy.

>128 AlisonY: The queue to get into Livraria Lello is outrageous. I'll have to look at the photos I took across the street from the bookshop, but I would guess that 50-75 people were in line outside of the bookshop when I visited in 2018, most of whom I assume were Harry Potter fans. I realized it would take an hour or two to enter the bookshop on a particularly hot late June day and that going there wouldn't be an enjoyable experience in all likelihood, so I skipped my planned visit.

>128 AlisonY: & >129 kidzdoc: Livraria Lello is the shop I was referring to in >113 rocketjk:. When Steph and I were there about 3 years ago, the crowds were more like two or three hundred rather than 50-75. It's a very beautiful place, but in reality, Alison, I'm afraid you'll never see it anywhere near as empty as it appears in that lovely photo you posted. But when you get to Porto, whether you take the time for Livraria Lello or not, definitely stop in to the other Porto store I mentioned, Livraria Chaminé da Mota. In the front window, they have a small sign in English (or maybe it was in Portuguese and I used Google translate), "Don't take pictures. Buy a book!" As I remember it, the two stores are just a few blocks away from each other.

Q4: Not a bookstore per se but there used to be a square in the center in Sofia which was reserved for booksellers of both new and old books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaveykov_Square

When I moved to Sofia in 1999, this was a dream come true for the girl from the small town (we had 1 proper bookstore in my town and 1 person selling books in a stand in the city center) - a place where you can find both new and old books but more importantly, the bookinists (as the sellers were calling themselves) - the people who could answer any question about almost any book and find any book you need (I've spent so many hours just sitting with some of them and talking about books, life and all - a bit like Club Read). Being out in the open made it an unpopular choice for work for people who did not care - try to sell books when it is raining or snowing and you are under a tent (no permanent structure in those days - just the tents. And because there were more booksellers than space and some were too small to afford the tents (the rents were steep even back then), one of the streets leading into the square had ended up being a smaller version of the square - with more booksellers lined up - usually with a small table with a few boxes and books on top of it. You could spend days looking through boxes of books and finding treasures.

The square still exists but it had been "cleaned up" (being in the middle of the city and all that) so most of the older booksellers cannot afford it anymore and moved away so it is not what it used to be. Now it is a lot more commercial and a lot more about the selling than the books. And most of the people who cared had either moved on or died.

>122 kidzdoc:
Yes, a visit to Daunt Books now definitely needed next time in London!

Must admit, I've otherwise not got any bookshop on my list that is a 'must visit', although I have several that I love spending time in. Generally, I much prefer small, usually local, bookshops, as large shops are not great for browsing, and all tend to be a bit anonymous, i.e. samey. Seeing how shops are curated is perhaps my greatest interest - for instance I got great pleasure back in October in a combined book/fabric shop in Rochester (can't remember name, sorry), where there weren't many books, but what they had was fascinating (interesting, non mainstream, fiction mainly) - far more pleasure than any Waterstones, Foyles, Hatchards etc, however excellent they can be.

And, perhaps even more fun, are second-hand bookshops. So, perhaps I would join in with those who would aim for Hay-on-Wye, which, when my parents lived just down the river, was a regular haunt.

So lovely to read all these accounts of bookshops, both visitable and non. Joining in with the love for Daunt (including the shelving approach), LRB (also shocked that the cake shop is gone!), Topping (I used to live in Ely - so if I was going to visit Topping I would definitely also go to Peacock's Tea Rooms by the river) and Dussmann’s. I have only been to City Lights once and I bought so many books that I had to post them to the UK, and the woman in the post office thought I must have been studying in San Francisco rather than just visiting for a week!

I think if I could go anywhere I would like to revisit a few bookshops that don’t exist any more - two from the towns I lived in as a child, which were just smalltown bookshops and probably had a very ordinary selection, but are places where I remember spending many happy hours browsing. (Happily, an excellent bookshop has opened almost opposite one of these locations - Rother Books).

I also have happy memories of a couple of secondhand bookshops which were so packed with books that you could barely squeeze through the stacks, and there was no chance of successfully removing one from near the bottom. One of these was in Brighton, which I used to go to quite often. One was in Bombay and I only went once but it's really stuck in my memory.

Finally I would also like to go to Foyle’s as it was some decades ago, when it shelved fiction by publisher rather than by author's surname, and where you had to queue up once to pay your bill and get a chit, then queue up again to get your book. At the time I found the shelving by publisher frustrating; now I would love to look through the shelves of indie publishers.

>129 kidzdoc:, >130 rocketjk: Good to know. I'm glad you've saved me from unnecessary disappointment. Squashing myself in shoulder to shoulder with hordes of people is not my idea of a good time.

>134 AlisonY: This is one of the two photos of the queue I took across the street from Livraria Lello in 2018. You can hardly see the bookshop in either of those photos:

>135 kidzdoc: Horrible. I'll admire it from a distance.

>135 kidzdoc: Wow. I can hardly imagine having to wait in line for a bookstore. That photo is a first for me.

>135 kidzdoc: It was at least twice that many people when we were there a few years later.

Speaking of bookstores - unless I drive an hour to the Twin Cities, there is a definite lack in this more rural part of the state. However, there is now a bookstore coming to Hutchinson, about 15 minutes away. The grand opening is this Saturday, and I am planning on going. I think it'll be a mix of new and used. It is called The Book Keepers.

>139 WelshBookworm: you reminded me of a bookstore in wisconin made out of a slurry that was delightful to explore, cant remember the name, but remember the helpful elderly couple who cut some prices for me. They passed away a few years back and most of the boooks went to another book seller whose name I also dont know.

here we go "Bill Geist visits a very unusual bookstore near Princeton, Wisconsin. Lenore & Lloyd Dickmans’ bookstore is set on a farm, and the books take up 12 buildings, one of which was built from a slurry tank that once brimmed with cow manure. They are voracious book-collectors…”

>140 cindydavid4: Now, that would have been fun to see!

>128 AlisonY: Wow! Thats a beautiful library! It invites to dream and read, but is it inside so crowded as outside??

I love your photo and your nice text 😍

>142 BuecherDrache: Sadly I've not been, and given what the others have said regarding the queues to get in it's dropped way down my to do list.

So far nobody's mentioned the book store cat. It seems to me that this is a fixture in non chain book stores no matter where you may be. Maybe I've been imagining them, however, when there are unpleasant aspects to them, there is no question but that they are real!



from Voltaire and Rousseau, Glasgow

>105 SassyLassy: Question 4:

You know, my first impulse was just to be super-boring and say Powell's, even though I've been there many times and while it's a great place, it's surely nowhere near the most beautiful or exciting or charming bookstore in existence. But I do love it so!

But on second thought, I might instead pick The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, because reading the proprietor's books about his experiences running the place (Diary of a Bookseller, etc) did leave me really wanting to see it for myself. Plus, hey, free trip to Scotland!

>144 SassyLassy: my fav cat was at the kings english in SLC would jump from the shelf to your lap and snuggle up and it just occured to me my local indie doesnt have one! mmm that gives me an idea..

>143 AlisonY: It's sad, but I would do the same...

>144 SassyLassy: Cats and books are a perfect combination! But I'm not sure if there are german libraries with cats or viceversa 😽

Question 4: Bookstores

Sadly I'd need a time machine to travel back to most of my favourite bookstores:
the original This Ain't the Rosedale Library in Toronto
Pages the one on Queen Street, again in Toronto
Red Herring Co-op Books in Halifax NS, which looked pretty severe, but was filled with so much unattainable elsewhere at the time



Should >110 thorold: ever open a bookstore, I will be right there, and should I ever get to Cleveland (less and less likely) I will visit Loganberry

>116 Nickelini: Was thinking of you when I posted that picture. Vancouver and Victoria both have some great bookstores.

>109 mabith: Found my t-shirt, and it was Trans-Allegheny I visited - absolutely marvellous!

>145 bragan: I just might get to Wigtown this month!

As editorial comment, I was happy to see people doing their eating and drinking adjacent to bookstores, not in them

QUESTION 5: Enjoy vs Appreciate

Recently Alison made a distinction between appreciating an author's writing versus enjoying the actual book. This hit home, so I wondered:

Is this a distinction you make?
Are there books where you do both (appreciate and enjoy)?
If reading offered only one, which would you choose?

Q 5: Enjoy vs Appreciate

Is this a distinction you make? — I'm not sure. If we're talking "pleasure vs. pain" then obviously there are good books all the way along that scale (and bad ones...); if we're talking "style vs. content" then of course you can have a useful and perhaps even enjoyable book that is clumsily written, but you can't have a bad book that is saved by its style. If it is, then it wasn't a bad book to start with. There's no point to good style unless it is doing something useful in the book.

>150 thorold: I'm pretty much with Mark here. I wouldn't make a distinction between Enjoy vs Appreciate. Instead I'd say there are different ways to enjoy books. Or maybe it's better to say that there are different reasons to enjoy them. I never enjoy books that are poorly or boringly written, even if the subject matter and/or plot are interesting. For me that's like trying to enjoy a lovely sunset while someone's continually poking you in the eye with a stick. I guess the closest I'd come to that Enjoy vs. Appreciate dynamic is in the case of a boringly written history book that nevertheless provides information I'm particularly interested in learning about. Happily, nowadays publishers seem to be looking for historians that also know how to tell a compelling story, and those histories full of drily presented facts are mostly a thing of the past. I do still read such old timers from time to time, though.

ditto the two above. i find no distiction, just my enjoyment of a story and appreciate that it was written

>149 SassyLassy: QUESTION 5: Enjoy vs Appreciate
Is this a distinction you make?
I do. I can appreciate a book for any number of reasons (literary merit, intent, a valuable point of view, scholarly research, etc.) without necessarily enjoying the reading of it. I'm glad to have read it, but recognize it is "not for me."

Are there books where you do both (appreciate and enjoy)?
Of course, those are probably my 5 star books.

If reading offered only one, which would you choose?
Well, now, here is where maybe I don't make a distinction. Sometimes I choose a book because I know I will enjoy it. And sometimes I choose a book because it offers something I want to experience.

QUESTION 5: Enjoy vs Appreciate

I generally wouldn't consider either term especially meaningful. If I "enjoyed" a book, it was a pleasant way to pass the time, but so what. I don't know that I've ever said I "appreciated" a book; that's a word I'd use to convey thanks and recognition of effort.

So then I guess a question is what words would I use to praise a book? I might find a book engaging, compelling, encouraging, disturbing, informative, enlightening, all a combination of content and style, but also entangled with my level of interest. I don't have enough words for all the various nuances. Maybe I'd use the key words if the balance is off? I enjoyed the clever turns of phrase but ultimately didn't learn much. I appreciated the research but the presentation was plodding.

QUESTION 5: Enjoy vs Appreciate

I think the intent of the distinction comes from how odd it might feel to discuss "enjoying" a book that has disturbing/horrific content -- The Brothers Karamazov, The Passion According to G.H., The Things They Carried were phenomenal reads and I appreciated how stylistic or content choices opened my mind. I'm not sure I would say I enjoyed reading about the Vietnam War or the the end of TPAtGH were something that really gives me the heebie-jeebies happens.

QUESTION 5: Enjoy vs Appreciate

I do make the distinction, but more often when talking about movies than about books. In part that's because film is a more collaborative art film, so there might be some elements of a movie that I can appreciate -- a performance, the score, an effective bit of camerawork -- while thinking the movie as a whole is a failure that I didn't enjoy. More broadly, I might be able to appreciate that everyone involved was doing fine work while acknowledging that the movie simply didn't speak to me.

But the main reason that I am able to get to that place with a movie is that a movie is relatively short. I am more willing to invest the 2-3 hours into a movie that I don't fully enjoy than I am to make the much greater investment of time to finish a book that I'm not enjoying. If I'm not enjoying a book, I'm not going to devote my limited reading time for 4 or 5 days to finishing it, and the fact that there might be one really interesting character or crisply written scene isn't going to be enough to pull me through it. And since the book is going to be the product of one creator (occasionally two), it's far less likely that there's going to be that single element to be appreciated; an author who's failing in general is likely to be failing in all of the specifics as well, and there's no one who can rescue him the way an actor or a composer might partially atone for the failure of a director.

QUESTION 5: Enjoy vs Appreciate

For me these are two different categories altogether - they may match for some books or not.

Enjoyment is purely subjective - I can enjoy a poorly written book because it is a new chapter in a long running series I really like or because I like the author's ideas. Or I can enjoy a book with wooden characters just because of the ideas or because of the story itself. And sometimes I enjoy a book because it is just interesting (memoirs of non-famous people for example) and I do not care how clunky the writing is. And I enjoy "popcorn fiction" -thrillers I will forget tomorrow, fantasy and science fiction books that do not anything new but are readable enough...

Appreciation for me tends to be a bit less subjective. I can appreciate good writing in a book that otherwise does not work. I can appreciate the author ideas even when the prose and execution is lacking (happens a lot in the type of SF I tend to like). I can appreciate the cleverness of a plot even if it annoys me at the time. And I can appreciate a different viewpoint (especially in fiction). But that does not relate to my enjoyment in any way or form.

Given I made the initial comment which prompted the question, I guess I should give my tuppence.

The original comment was in relation to the novel The Vegetarian, which is a good example of what I meant. I could appreciate this book as the writing was excellent and the storyline incredibly inventive and unique, but I can't go so far as to say I actually enjoyed it as I found it to be very dark and a little depressing. Therefore there are books like these where I will commit to reading until the end because I can appreciate the writing art and that the book is successful sewn together, but I won't necessarily entirely enjoy them, for a number of reasons. It might be that they're too bleak, or it's a genre I don't usually care for, or the subject doesn't overly interest me.

>158 AlisonY: I totally get that.

I do distinguish between enjoy and appreciate. There are plenty of books where I can see the skill of the writer and understand why people love the book but it's just not for me. Sometimes it's just my Straightforward Reader nature fighting with a book that's more nebulous or post-modern or whatever. When a lot of folks on LT were reading Study for Obedience last year I picked it up knowing it would likely be one of those I could appreciate but not really get into myself (whether that's Enjoy or just Find a Fulfilling/Exciting/Interesting Read). It's nice to challenge my own reading nature and get a peek into what others see in a work.

If I'm only picking up books I'm sure I'll enjoy that always seems like a bad sign for my mental state (given that unlike many I have all the hours in the day for reading, essentially).

Question 5: Enjoy / Appreciate

I’m another one who makes the distinction between enjoy and appreciate when it comes to certain authors. I always appreciate the writing of Ian McEwen, although I don’t always enjoy his novels. Nevertheless, I continue to read him for his clinical virtuosity. I wouldn’t make a steady diet of that kind of reading though.

>161 mabith: 2nd paragraph - agree completely

Q5

My mind jumps to books that are well crafted, that is writing is skilled and does many different things, but the books still don’t seem to come to life. And then i try to separate that from books that imitate other well-crafted books, but are basically bad books (the mythical MFA problem).

But another variation is when i can tell a book is doing stuff i would engage in, if I could get myself in the right state of mind, but i can’t do that.

And another variation is where i just don’t get it. Whatever it’s doing is opaque to me, or beyond me.

And another variation are books that do some things really well, but other things poorly

But mostly i worry about that 1st issue and I worry (no, really, i do actually worry about this) that i’m failing to read a book the right way and whether it’s the book or it’s me. 🙂

Q4

My best book store experiences are when the staff offers me something. So knowledgeable staff who has read many of the books I’m interested in and can talk to me about them in a helpful, even exciting way…. And, of course, wants to talk to me about books. I’ve really only had this experience twice. Once in a generic Israeli chain store in Tel Aviv. And once at Parnassus Books in Nashville TN. Neither experience involved food.

I do love City Lights and the (apparently rare) high quality used book stores. I have found one excellent used bookstore in my vicinity - Good Books in the Woods - The Woodlands, Tx, a Houston suburb.

>149 SassyLassy: sorry for my long gap between visits. These are terrific questions.

Not much to add to >161 mabith: - pretty much in complete agreement.

I've just finished Jhumpa Lahiri's Unnecessary Earth for a book group. I appreciated her writing, but can't say I enjoyed it. I can see why others have done (although here huge sales do surprise me). It does mean I might try her again and see if another book (full-length novel this time) scores more on the enjoyment front. More out of curiosity though - I'm in no rush to revisit!

>163 dchaikin: re worrying about whether it’s the book or whether it’s you - have you ever gone back to one of those books later, when your mind is in a different place, and found out which it was, or better yet, found that the book worked for you you after all?

> ‘round here it’s never too late to visit.

New question on Monday. Have been in Glasgow for three weeks. I’m tap tapping on someone else’s iPad and it’s an excruciating experience. I need my computer to do this properly!

>167 SassyLassy: one reason why i keep TBR shelves; the optimistic idea that the books I purchase will be read and loved by me is ever present. and I have indeed fallen in love with books that languished on those shelves. Hope springs e

>167 SassyLassy: rarely, but yes. I can think of two, Gilead and Wolf Hall. They’re now two of my favorite books, after rereading. They were good the 1st time.

>170 dchaikin: Happy to hear it works at least some of the time. Those are both excellent books in my mind - definitely worth the rereads.

Here I am back at my own computer. Being in lots of bookstores over the past month has made me think about this next question.


from Yorba Linda Public Library

Question 6: Reading Locally

One of the things independent stores often do really well is promote local books and writers.

How important to you is putting local books into your reading mix?

When you go away, do you look to see what's being promoted in that location; maybe pick up something from the local selection?

Have you discovered any authors whom you now follow from such displays?

Do you attend local book fairs or author readings?

Do you think enough is done to promote local writers?

When does a writer stop being "local" and no longer need promotion that way, or is promoting someone like Andrew O'Hagan in Glasgow a good way to mix lesser known writers in with the display?

Q6: Reading locally

In principle yes, in practice not very often…

I do like to read things that are locally relevant when I’m somewhere away from home, but I’m more likely to look for local history and topography than for fiction written by someone who happens to live nearby, unless of course they are a major author.

I always tend to gravitate to the local history shelves when I’m visiting a library in a new place — the other day we were in a suburban library we hadn’t visited before and I found that they had quite a wide range of books about local transport history that I enjoyed browsing through, but the “local fiction authors” display was dominated by a prolific author of romantic novels and an equally prolific writer of “Christian fiction” (a category I have never quite dared to investigate…). They had several shelves each, and I left them undisturbed.

About once a year I holiday with a group of friends in a Landmark Trust property somewhere in the UK: they have a very nice system of providing visitors with a broad library of books of regional interest on top of the usual maps and guidebooks, and there’s always something unexpected there to pique my interest. Often classic novels or poetry I haven’t read before, sometimes biographies, essays, books about local history or nature.

As far as bookshops go, it obviously must make sense to have the display, or they wouldn’t do it. Probably they get a proportion of “friends and family” sales, or people nosey to see what their neighbours are writing, as well as the passing visitor eager to mop up a bit of local culture. But it does get more artificial if you live in a major literary centre like London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam or Paris, where it feels as though 80% of the country’s literary output is concentrated. Perhaps the answer then is to zoom in to “neighbourhood authors”?

Reading locally isn't terribly important to me, but I think that's largely because "local" means Los Angeles, which is so much a dominant part of the media landscape that it doesn't have a sense of itself as something local. The Los Angeles Times, for instance, is our local newspaper, but it thinks of itself as (and is, to a large extent) a paper of national import.

I am focused more on reading globally than on reading locally (or even nationally). That said, I always like it when a Maine author does well. My book club has introduced several local authors to me (Lily King, Monica Wood, John Cariani) that I probably would never have read otherwise.

I prefer reading globally than reading locally, since most of the local authors write crime novels, a genre I don't really like.

We are fortunate to have some pretty good 'local' authors (West Yorkshire), across a range of writing, and I do include quite a number in my reading, mainly (but not always) because their books are often set in the area. It's certainly an element in the mix when I'm choosing which book(s) to read/buy, but I won't read an author simply because they are local. So, whilst there are several prominent crime writers in my area, I'm not really interested in reading them.

However, it's only a small proportion of my reading, perhaps 5%. My reading currently is, like labfs39, increasingly global.

QUESTION 6: Reading Locally

A newish independent bookstore and the county historical society promote local authors. The bookstore is run by a group of young women whose tastes (e.g. horror, fantasy, romance) don't coincide with mine. I go to a fair number of the historical lectures, author or not, and generally buy any associated book. My non-fiction book group read a memoir by a local author which we probably would not have chosen otherwise but we recognized people and neighborhoods, and are about to read a biography by a local filmmaker. My (former) fiction book group read a YA novel by a local author, and although I had not the slightest interest in the story, the author was a friend of a book group member and attended the meeting, and I was genuinely curious about the process of constructing the novel so ended up more engaged than usual in the conversation.

>172 SassyLassy: Q 6 Local authors . . .

Yes, I like to explore local authors. We have a fair number in the Vancouver and Vancouver Island area. I don't automatically buy or read, but I like to consider them. Probably my favourite Vancouver author is Douglas Coupland (most famous for Generation X). He has a knack of really capturing the nuances of Vancouver well.

I also like to read books from authors of places I visit, while I'm there if possible. London is an easy place for this, Hawaii and Queensland have proved more difficult.

Similarly, I like to read books that reflect the season. Books set in spring, read in April, for example. The only time I purposefully read against season is when we have a long heat wave in summer and I find myself reaching for books set in the polar regions.

definitely read locally; we have several local authors here, including Luis Alberto Urrea and our indie has a kiosk with new locals.

I tend to look for local when it comes to history books. When I was at the Alamo in San Antonio, I browsed the gift shop and found a nonfiction about the Texas Rangers. When I was at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii I picked up several nonfiction books about Pearl Harbor: general histories and primary sources. When I was in Pflugerville, Texas I picked up another history at the gift shop of a museum there.

I just figure that a museum would be pickier in their nonfiction sourcing so I try to pick those up when I'm interested in the topic.

Otherwise in South Korea I went to the university book story of Seoul's Womens College and picked up two South Korean authors' books in English. I could have easiliy found these in a regular bookshop back home but the idea of buying them in South Korea added a layer of fun to the purchase.

Other than that, like others have said, since I'm currently based in Tokyo, reading "local" authors from Tokyo feels like cheating as most literature spawns from here. Likewise when I'm visiting my family in Paris.

Like a lot of folks have said, I think reading locally (it's importance, focus in bookshops etc) depends on where you are. I'm in West Virginia, a small state with a small population that many outside folks prefer to misunderstand rather than engaging with the complexities (though this is probably true of most places, some areas get more nasty jokes about them than others).

I like the local section in my bookstore for the history books particularly since that's my happy place, but I also like to be reminded of our fiction authors and the plethora of poets. It's important to me to be reasonably knowledgeable about our authors. I think the level of promotion differs a lot and having worked those events when I was employed I do think public engagement has increased from then. We rarely had author events with smaller local authors because if you're only getting a few people in for it that's depressing and difficult for everyone, especially the author.

There are authors who were born and raised here and went to college in West Virginia and then left and never came back, like Stephen Coonts, who I don't think needs to be in our local sections due to a combination of wider success and WV not being a topic in his books (and perhaps he's long thought of himself as a Coloradan). Then you get Jeannette Walls being listed as a WV author even though she only lived here for about four years in high school and I'm sure she doesn't think of herself as a West Virginian (don't get me started on Pearl S. Buck). This is the effect of being a small state and feeling like you have to cling to anyone with any fame who was born here and I find it frustrating.

>172 SassyLassy: Question 6: Reading Locally

I had to think about this one a bit. In general I like reading locally (the more local, the better) except it rarely ends up being "my local".

The library has a "local authors" shelf alongside the new books. Which sounds great and should have been perfect for me. But... I am yet to pick a single book from it. They seem to be mostly self-published (which is not a problem on itself) from the type that really had to go there because it won't be published otherwise - a half page shows enough flaws to know that I really do not want to read the whole book or the blurb really does not get it.

As I live in a very big city (Phoenix) and its metropolitan area is very heavily populated, I know that at least a few of the authors I read are local. But it mostly happened that way (and I do not remember the last book I read that was set here...)

>180 cindydavid4: Luis Alberto Urrea has Chicago roots, so we count him as our here in Illinois, too.

I like to read books written by authors from the places I've lived. It enhances my understanding of each place, something you more rooted folk may not need. I belonged to a Southern Lit book club when I lived in Greenville, SC and still pay close attention to what Hub City Books, a Spartanburg, SC based small press, puts out.

Here in Illinois, I keep an eye out for Chicago-based writers. There does seem to be less cachet in being a MidWestern author than there is in being a Southern author. But there's a book festival in Chicago every September that always has several local writers doing fine work.

looking at the author page scroll till you get to tags. Arizona is capitalized but I dont see Ill. explain pls

Part of what I'm wondering here is how an author goes from being a "local" author, to a regional one, then with luck to a national one, and for very rare birds, to being an internationally known author. It seems such a person would initially need support and promotion at the local level, but who does that come from?

>185 cindydavid4: Cindy, he currently lives in Naperville, IL. What is his connection to Arizona?

where is there an emoji for embarased beyond help? I saw him at two book readings and remember him talking about Mexico and SanDiego and for the life of me do not know how I got the idea that he had arizona connections. I think I need to turn in my know it all book lady badge Excuse me while I slink away

>188 cindydavid4: University of Arizona Press published his first novel and both his memoirs and he lived in Tucson for a time. He also writes about Arizona though so I consider him local to an extent as well. :)

But that also highlights how difficult the term "local" is in some cases.

whew ok Im not going crazy thanks :)

remember when we were reading books on Pauls Asian and African threads how hard it was to decide who is local. we tried but there were many that didnt get a firm lable.

>186 SassyLassy: I wonder if that’s a typical trajectory? I’d guess that most “local” fiction authors are really aiming themselves at national markets from the start, but local connections might give them an additional boost in exposure and sales, simply because it’s easier to market yourself in your own neighbourhood.

The exceptions would presumably be people who are writing books they themselves think of as being mainly of local interest, which would probably mostly be non-fiction writers — local history, memoirs, folklore, etc. Occasionally it happens that someone like that, who is already delivering something that readers locally appreciate and find useful, also gets a bit of TV exposure or has their cause taken up by a well-known writer or critic, for instance, and then it might turn into a phenomenon like James Herriot or A Wainwright. But usually it doesn’t.

I suppose Burns might be an example of the local - regional - national trajectory, initially publishing his poems by subscription in Kilmarnock and then reissuing them in Edinburgh a year later in a much larger print run.

When I'm on holiday I seek out books from local authors, as I hope to discover an author or title that's new to me, and it seems fitting to immerse myself in writing set at least on the country I'm in, but ideally in the locality.

I'm in Italy right now and have been in 4 bookshops but bought nothing yet, as mostly the international sections contain well known books I can easily buy at home which are written by international authors.

>188 cindydavid4: He was at the Tucson Book Festival, and The Devil's Highway takes place in Arizona. Honestly, it surprised me when my book club talked about him as a local. Part of that is due to one of the characters in Good Night, Irene is based on a woman who lived until a few years ago in Champaign, and he spent quite a bit of time talking to her.

The larger question of where an author belongs is a fascinating one. On the one hand, it shouldn't matter, but on the other, there's not much worse than reading a book written by someone who either has never been to a place you are familiar with, or who didn't spend long enough, but then write as though they understand the place.

>193 RidgewayGirl: based on a woman who lived until a few years ago in Champaign, and he spent quite a bit of time talking to her.

iirc its based on his mother, and a colleague of hers. and ok, I dont feel so dumb now, thanks!

>194 cindydavid4: Yes, the woman he talked to was one of the other Donut Dollies his mother served with.

When my wife and I lived in a very rural and small town part of Mendocino County in California, I made a point of reading a lot of the small, locally written and published histories of the area. And as others have said, when I travel I love finding books, especially novels, memoirs and short story collections, written about the localities we visit, written by locals from the area. Other than that, as an American, I'd say that there are some writers who make a living out of writing about the particular area they grew up in and/or live in. Definitely Philip Roth, for example, who wrote about the Jewish neighborhood of Newark he grew up in, would be counted as, mostly, a "Newark writer." Of course, any writer worth his/her/their salt would work more universal themes of human nature, etc., into anything they write. But most often, a trajectory for a modern successful writer in the U.S. would be growing up in one place, going off to college somewhere else, maybe going to grad school in a third place, publishing short stories in literary journals or magazines, and then selling a novel to a publishing house that is by that time perhaps marked nationally. I don't know if a writer following a process like that would necessarily start out getting a particular amount of support from the readers of the place they grew up in, unless perhaps they made a point of writing about that place. Now that I live in New York City, I do enjoy reading books set here. (Well, I always did, actually.) And having lived in Harlem for a year before moving to our current locale, I do have an interest in reading books that take place in that neighborhood, and supporting Harlem-based authors. We haven't gotten into the habit of attending literary events like readings yet, but I think that will come with time as we continue to settle in.

There are just about zero local writers in my neck of the Massachusetts woods. There's Nathaniel Philbrick, of course. And Bernard Cornwell lived on the Cape at one point (and maybe he still does), but I read books by these guys because I really like the things they write. Besides - as Nathaniel and Bernard live/lived on Nantucket and the Cape they don't really seem like locals to me; they are more local adjacent, really.

So reading locally is not at all important to me. Reading the good stuff - now that's what is important.

Many have mentioned reading local authors from places they are visiting when they are away. What would people "from away" be reading if they were picking up local authors where you live?

>191 thorold: James Herriot was one of the people I was thinking of on this trajectory. Like the Burns mention.

New quarter, moving on to a new thread, but feel free to still respond to anything above.

>198 SassyLassy: Many have mentioned reading local authors from places they are visiting when they are away. What would people "from away" be reading if they were picking up local authors where you live?


When I think of typical Vancouver authors, the first who comes to mind is Douglas Coupland. Two others I enjoy are Jen Sookfong Lee and Daniel Kalla