thank you for these recommendations. I'll write back here after I read one of them.

It’s a quote from the slideshow that OP posted. I assume it was included in support of the idea that librarians are meant to be impartial stewards of information.

I’m betting you don’t need a library to find something that offends you, though.

In my opinion, it is actually a lot better to read out loud. Tone of voice is super important for meaning, and you literally can't hear the tone as the author intended if you're reading things silently. So personally I think it's the other way around, I think reading silently is vastly inferior. People can swear up and down that they can read a million words a minute silently, but then they are just missing the point of reading, which is to hear the writer's voice.

The author is basically speaking to the reader. When you read a book out loud you are hearing the author.

Of course there's a time and a place for everything. Usually if I can't read something out loud, I will at least whisper the words quietly to myself. Furthermore, I think it's the silent readers who should practice reading out loud, which is a basic thing that every good reader should at least know how to do, even if they don't do it all the time. I think you should be comfortable doing both, but like I said, it's a more powerful experience reading out loud.

It’s my favorite book and one of the few I’ve reread. The audio version is great too. No complaints here.

We had to read a condensed/annotated version of this in 4th or 5th grade.

I remember my mind being blown. It gave me all kids of ideas about alternate dimensions and the things I was seeing…like quick lines in the corner of my vision and what they might be.

I’ll bring it up now and then but no one else knows what I’m talking about and didn’t have to read it in school.

Libraries offer a plethora of digital content, internet access and computers for people who can’t afford them at home.

You say homeless people just hang out there, but it’s the only place they can 1) apply for jobs 2) find the help they need 3) connect to the internet free of patronage 4) be inside

I respectfully disagree with you and find the fact that you personally do not go to the library to be completely inefficient as a reason they’re obsolete.

They also do a bunch of free services for the public like learning English as a second language, community activities for children, providing meeting spaces for local groups. My local library even has authors come visit for free meet and greets, getting books signed, and listening to the author talk.

Oh. And free books because not everyone can pop on Amazon and have it delivered to their door haha

Libraries are so important to community and without them we’ve just about privatized literally everything and cut off all public resources for those in need.

Edit to add also museum passes! They can make trips to expensive museums cheap or even free.

>Oddly anti-book

Nothing they wrote was anti-book

Does your local elementary school carry Mein Kampf?

My biggest problem with it was that it seemed like he was covering ground in the second half that he already did in "The Talisman," and I liked that previous book better.

I enjoyed reading it, it was interesting but definitely a big superficial. The end was definitely surprising and made me tear up a bit.

It was the second book I'd read by the author after giving her another chance and cemented that her writing style is not for me. Personally, I think her books have interesting concepts, even if they aren't exactly original, but she can't quite make it work as a book.

Oddly anti-book given the subreddit.

Also, I would suggest that is kind of the point of The Day the Librarians Disappeared. School libraries serve so many other roles: meeting spaces, learning commons, exploration/maker spaces, and just a safe space for students.

Maybe I am just waxing poetic, but I still see a need for school libraries. And a need for books, be they digital or physical. Current attempts to break down systems like libraries and classrooms are truly insidious.

I think you would like some of Schopenhauer's work... said to be painted with something I could, borrowing, call "cheerful" pessimism...

Also, disagreeing with a saying of a stoic doesn't mean the philosophy in general is wrong...

and I don't they promise you'll live a eudaemonic life... instead, I believe they advise one to be "cautious" and to lower their expectations and expect the worst, as not to be so shocked, when the bad things happen... but also, it's not like they encourage inactivity! No, they encourage one to do what he can, what he can control, and to not postpone things, and to have the courage to do what you should do, so as to live life not burdened by the consequences of the opposite of that...

and, Man, from what you mentioned, I couldn't but say, like they say, I feel for you! and for the people who commented... I hope you the best!

and also for who wouldn't read the books I suggested, It gives me the feeling that made me write the post! When people reject what would help them!

[removed]

I immediately rented the audiobook after reading this post.

Having read King for decades, and knowing the structure of the book coming in, I was simply disappointed. Not surprised, just disappointed. I'd agree that the first half was 2/5 but at least I cared about the characters at that point. Once things started moving to the other world it was just all downhill for me.

By "editorialized" I think you mean something more like "abridged." But whatever you meant, the Cliff Notes is neither of those things.

It is a summary of the story with some analysis. It's good for faking essays, not so much for experiencing a piece of literature.

If you can't read it, you CAN just put it down. I recommend sort of doing a split between slogging through it and ditching it: power through it at a rapid pace, and don't stop to reread paragraphs and sentences. It's not really doing the book justice, of course, but you might jist find through doing this that you're actually into the story, and then you'll find that you're reading it with interest and pleasure. I experienced this minor phenomemon several times while cramming books as a undergrad with poor time management skills. And if you don't gain interest, at least you'll have learned to read a little faster.

Classically, libraries were necessary because printed text was the only reasonable way to disseminate information. The fact that Harvard had some information in its library didn't help me much if I lived in Grand Forks, so we needed a public library. The fact that downtown Grand Forks had a public library didn't help me much if I lived 10 miles outside of town and needed to do a school paper for tomorrow. And so forth.

But this does not describe the modern day. The last time I entered a library for a book was almost a decade ago - and the only reason I did so was because it was sufficiently obscure that it didn't exist in digital format. Despite the fact that I use the written word far more than most in my professional life, it's almost entirely digital at this point. I don't need a library down the road because I can read directly from the largest compilations of the written word in the world from the comfort of my own living room.

This is the reality that most school children are growing up in. While we old fogies can wax poetic about the joys of a physical book, this is little different than the folks who love vinyl rather than mp3s - it's their particular hobby rather than the core element of civilization it once was.

Nor are librarians particularly useful these days. Google does a better job of cataloguing and indexing information than the best librarian ever did.

Indeed, if you actually visit a library you'll recognize that relatively few of the patrons are there for the books. Modern libraries are primarily a public 'third space' - they're more about giving the homeless a place out of the rain, parents a place to dump their children for a few hours or local community groups a place to hold their meeting than they are about the materials they're nominally intended to warehouse.

I get it. No one likes to see the world they liked so much as a child change. But if you're concerned about books, you shouldn't be concerned about libraries - the vagaries of IP law are more important than some building you probably loved as a child and now never get around to visiting.

And… Sphereland!

I will let you know!

Yes the second quote is the beginning of the book! I definitely loved the writing style personally.

It reads like fan fiction to me too. Especially the first book, Perfect Marriage.

All the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones books are like this.

Master and Margarita, I read it first in high school and have reread it twice, both times made me cry.

>as far as fanatic legions of super soldiers go, the space marine crusaders leave the freemen yihadists in the dirt.

Maybe in a "Vs battle" sense.

As actual characters, the Fremen are far more interesting, both individual and as a group.

Like you said, 40k is shallow and dumb. I love it (I own both the ebooks and physical copies of the entire Gaunt, Eisonhorn, Heresy series, and a ton of other odds and ends, 100+ books)

But even though I love it, it's also dumb. really dumb. Pro-Wrestling-in-space dumb.