bookaboutbooks

A Year of Reading: A Month-by-month Guide to Classics and Crowd-pleasers for You and Your Book Group | Elisabeth Ellington, Jane Freimiller

NataliePatalie 😱 4d

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Blueberry

A Year of Reading: A Month-by-month Guide to Classics and Crowd-pleasers for You and Your Book Group | Elisabeth Ellington, Jane Freimiller

Your 'year of reading' from Goodreads has a different look this year.
Edit: 😆, it doesn't. It's the same at the website.

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Blueberry

A Year of Reading: A Month-by-month Guide to Classics and Crowd-pleasers for You and Your Book Group | Elisabeth Ellington, Jane Freimiller

5⭐

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Robotswithpersonality

The Thing The Book: A Monument to the Book as Object | Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan

pick

Chalk this up as another book doing battle with its own subtitle 'a monument to the book as object', based on the introductory discussion of The Thing periodical, it's clear that non-traditional formatting is key in the minds of those putting together the magazine. So when they decided to make a book, what you get is partly an exploration of books, their components, the way they tell stories, 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? but also partly an art object, something to engage with rather than read.
There are a number of written pieces I find interesting for different reasons, but I'd argue there were an equal number of entries that I can't review because I didn't interact with them as I do with a book. As little as I might find myself qualified to discuss the merit of a book, that dwarfs my readiness to talk about the relative values of art. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 3/? Regarding the written works that I perceived and enjoyed as short stories or essays, my favourites:
Footnotes by Jonathan Lethem, yep, the entire text of the essay is in the footnotes. Terry Pratchett would be proud. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 4/? The Artist as Bookmaker by Gwen Allen, a short history of other objects introduced as books, and artists making books that were art first, nad where that blurred line might be going in the future. Loved delving into the creative minds of the past, a little worried about the implications of the conclusion. 6d

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? A Note to My Students by Andrew Leland, cheeky commentary, the role of academia in determining textual value meets the wide-eyed wonder that is realizing how much can be done with text to make stories. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 6/? The Fire This Time: Razing the Book by Andrew Hultkrans, could be dismissed as a product of its time diatribe against ebooks, but I think the concern around information retention threated by format viability and licensing is a perennial concern it's always good to add more well-spoken voices to. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 7/? Endnotes by Rick Moody, a tad surreal, but I happily floated along, again, once you realize the author is choosing to tell some kind of story entirely in end notes it's just fun to bounce about in the creativity for ten pages 6d

Robotswithpersonality 8/? Questions for a Reading Group by Starlee Kline, reading group questions feel like a ripe format for creativity and parody, and the author makes a short narrative that seems to poke fun at how off topic a reading group might get, how provocative or awkward questions might get, how nitpicky they can get, but also how a person might approach a work written by someone they know, and how people can be petty, and the good old standby 'divorce/having 6d

Robotswithpersonality 9/? an acrimonious ex means you might start blurting out grievances regardless of the time or place
6d

Robotswithpersonality 10/10 ⚠️ The Hearing Trumpet: A Character List, big warning on this one, among the dated language used is a particular transphobic character description; while telling a tale solely through a character list and accompanying descriptions is a neat premise, it's not so great that you can't skip it to avoid the harmful sentiment (may just be a result of being published in 2014?) 6d

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Robotswithpersonality

The Thing The Book: A Monument to the Book as Object | Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan

Going to be thinking about this one for a while. The amount of old tech I've seen upcycled into art certainly bears out the idea...

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Robotswithpersonality

The Thing The Book: A Monument to the Book as Object | Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan

Not the LIBRARY book! 😱 DUDE! ☹️ Darn right, contract not renewed. 🙎🏼‍♂️

GingerAntics Shocking that they wouldn‘t want him returning to chew up and spit out more of their books. 🤦🏼‍♀️ 1w

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Robotswithpersonality

The Thing The Book: A Monument to the Book as Object | Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan

Well DAMN. 📚♥️

Ruthiella Yikes! 😬 2w

GingerAntics Someone is not playing around! Return his book or so help you! 2w

dabbe 😱 2w

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ChaoticMissAdventures

The New York Times Book Review: 125 Years of Literary History | The New York Times

New York Times Best Books of 2024.

What do we think of this list?

I have only read 2
Fiction
All Fours - Miranda July ✅
Good Material - Dolly Alderman
James - Percival Everett ✅
Martyr! Kayeh Akbar
You Dreamed of Empires - Álvaro Enrigue
NF
Cold Crematorium -
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here
I Heard Her Call My Name
Reagan
The Wide Wide Sea

Suet624 I was really happy they put Martyr on the list. 3w

ChaoticMissAdventures @Suet624 I just got Martyr from the library! Excited to tackle it. I think I am going to get to all the fiction books since they are all on #ToB The NF books I am a bit luke warm on. 3w

Kitta I really didn‘t like all fours tbh. 3w

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Suet624 Oh, I didn‘t realize Empire was on the TOB. I guess I‘ll have to check that one out. 3w

ChaoticMissAdventures @Kitta it is super controversial! I read it during Camp Litsy, I personally enjoyed it but I think most people did not. 3w

ChaoticMissAdventures @Suet624 I have heard really mixed reviews, but luckily I think it is short! 3w

Kitta @ChaoticMissAdventures I read it for Camp Litsy too, it‘s not something I‘d normally read so I was glad to broaden my horizons even if I didn‘t enjoy it. I kept being like WHY are you doing this?? The whole way through lol 3w

ChaoticMissAdventures @Kitta oh for sure!! LoL it was wild. But I kind of liked that an older (than what most books are centered on) woman was depicted just out there being ridiculous. Some scenes went way too far though. 3w

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PaperbackPirate

The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading | Phyllis Rose

🤩 I rearranged and dusted one of my bedroom bookshelves on Friday. That felt good, and ooh, I think I see a few open spaces on there now!
🔝 This is just the top. There are 4 more shelves on the bottom.

#shelfie #shelfiesunday

Ruthiella Looks fantastic! 🤩 3w

TheBookHippie So, shopping soon.. (edited) 3w

AnnCrystal 👏😎👍Love the colors of your shelving and walls 😍💝. 3w

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bookwyrm7 So beautiful! Your decoration is gorgeous 💖 3w

dabbe 🤩🤩🤩 #yayforopenspaces 3w

PaperbackPirate Thank you @Ruthiella ! 🤩 3w

PaperbackPirate Lol! 😇 @TheBookHippie 3w

PaperbackPirate Thank you @AnnCrystal ! We have a colorful home. 🤩 3w

PaperbackPirate So kind @bookwyrm7 ! Thank you! 😊 3w

AnnCrystal @PaperbackPirate 👏🤩 love that! My family has a colorful home too ☺️💝. 3w

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