I agree that it's rather annoying to jump characters for a new book, but Shift establishes a ton of the backstory (the entire book is backstory, really) and helps connect a bunch of the dots that Wool shows you or alludes to, but doesn't explain.

Dust gets back to the characters you know and love and moves the story forward from very shortly after Wool ends, so you do have that to look forward to.

Lol good point xD

Got it. Confused why Murakami’s book cover is showing up as part of OP’s post…

I finally finished reading Acceptance. It didn't really answer any questions and only raised new ones. I don't think it really contributed much to the overall story.

I generally don’t, either. With specific people who have asked for recommendations or whom I know like genres I have on occasion, but it’s tough, especially for people who read a lot.

Just to be clear, as an example, I gave it to a friend of mine; she has a master's degree in art history and literature, and is specialised in folklore and fairytales. She found it a good and easy read, had some interesting remarks on it from a professional perspective.

A different friend is getting into Eastern philosophies, so I gave him the Tao of Pooh.

That's the kind of people I mean when I said "people who I think will appreciate it"

I gave books as presents to 3 different people this month! I like to choose a book based on a genre I know they love and surprise them with my pick. So far it has only been successful and they've all seemed to love it!

What's so good about it? From Wikipedia it seems like Fallout?

I love giving books as gifts!

But I also make sure the person knows I have no expectations of them to read or keep the book. I gave the book because I thought they might like it, but they're under no obligation to spend their time reading it.

ETA: the majority of my book gifts are to people I am very close to, whose taste in books I am very familiar with

If you are doubting and even come here to ask us: no.

I see how you could feel that way, but he's written 2 of my favorite books ever, Anathem and Cryptonomicon.

It was 9 books, and none of the baroque cycle, I did a write-up about it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nealstephenson/comments/11ty9l9/a_year_of_nothing_but_neal_stephenson/

tldr: would read again. Lots of it, anyway.

I think that’s what put me against it. I really liked the characters in Wool and I wasn’t ready to commit to a different version of that same world. I’ll have to get over it and check it out, tho.

I used to feel greedy when making a wish list, but now I consider it common courtesy

Only young kids books. I don’t presume to know what books will catch someone’s attention or what they’re going through in their private life that may make reading certain books difficult.

I originally picked up 'Wool' because of the author (Hugh Howey). He was one of the first successful self-published authors. Here's an article about him and his writing journey that you may find interesting...

How Hugh Howey turned his self-published book into a book deal.

Shift is a prequel about how things got set up. I'm only 1/4 of the way through it, but am really liking it.

Already started!

Top notch book. Next two are still good but the OG is so damned good

The whole series is amazing. 100% read them all.

Yeah this is pretty much what I was going to say. Learning additional information doesn't mean anything makes sense. It actually just makes it more existentially horrifying.

Also isn’t the Alchemist kinda self-help? You never do that unless asked.

IF you liked Wool then check out Philip K. Dick's short story "The Defenders"(1953) and/or his book "The Penultimate Truth" (1964).

I read Wool years ago, but I’ve been hesitant to pick up Shift and Dust for some reason. Those are just as good?

The best gift I ever gave was a book. I got it for my husband's grandmother. She was in her 80s and hard to buy for. I found a biography about Gracie Allen and gave it to her for Christmas. She looked at it and her face lit up. She put it away with her other gifts while we continued to celebrate that day, but I saw her go in and pull the book out and sneak read a few paragraphs three times that day. It made my day that she liked it.