Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
Yup! Literally a 15 minute drive from my house. However I was 11 when it happened, so I don't recall reading much more than the comics and occasionally the sports sections of the Globe.
What are you reading in 2025?
- Thread starter Elodan
- Start date
Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
I think a lot of people didn’t hear about it. I only heard about it in 2008 while reading a book by Loren Coleman I think (and I have lived in Mass all my life but a five year stint in San Diego)
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
Reading mostly non-fiction in the last little while. Most of it is explicitly political so I won't get into it here.
I'm re-reading a few of Paul Ekman's books Telling Lies and Emotions Revealed. Ekman is the body language and facial expression expert who was the basis for the main character in the TV show Lie to Me. I'm also rewatching that show. I loved it. I came across the Ekman when doing a research paper on body language during my library science masters program. I became interested in his stuff after seeing the myth about 90% of communication is nonverbal. It's an urban legend, like the alpha wolf nonsense. The source of that 90% lie is research done by Albert Mehrabian. He's not talking about all human communication. His research was specifically about whether someone liked another person, and the nonverbal component was 55%, not 90%.
Mehrabian, A. (2009). “Silent Messages” -- Description and Ordering Information. Retreived November 10, 2009 from "Silent Messages" -- Description and Ordering Information
I'm re-reading a few of Paul Ekman's books Telling Lies and Emotions Revealed. Ekman is the body language and facial expression expert who was the basis for the main character in the TV show Lie to Me. I'm also rewatching that show. I loved it. I came across the Ekman when doing a research paper on body language during my library science masters program. I became interested in his stuff after seeing the myth about 90% of communication is nonverbal. It's an urban legend, like the alpha wolf nonsense. The source of that 90% lie is research done by Albert Mehrabian. He's not talking about all human communication. His research was specifically about whether someone liked another person, and the nonverbal component was 55%, not 90%.
Mehrabian, A. (2009). “Silent Messages” -- Description and Ordering Information. Retreived November 10, 2009 from "Silent Messages" -- Description and Ordering Information
Jeffery Deaver has a series of thrillers (The "Kathryn Dance" series - four novels to date) based on that concept - she's a member of the California Bureau of Investigation, and she's an expert on interrogation and kinesics. Once she sets up a baseline, she can tell when a person is lying. They were pretty good reads, but then I'm a Deaver fan anyway so I may be biased.
Johnathan
Johnathan
Kiyal
Explorer
I couldn't agree with you more about modern publishing. Its been like this for years now for me. i keep checking new releases but finding anything new is extremely rare these days.
Belen
Legend
I went to B&N a few weeks ago. It was littered with labels like “as seen on booktok.” I met a guy browsing books and he was really struggling and I just mentioned that I was finding it difficult to find material too.
He was in his 20s and there was virtually nothing that was not romantasy or modern on the shelves. There were some Sanderson, Rollins, and Jordan but not a single McCaffrey, Moon, Williams, etc on the shelves.
I gave him a long list of series and authors to try while he added notes on his phone.
The shelves were full of books that all looked and sounded identical. It was sad.
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
(I like a lot of those books - it's great that there are books from other voices also now on the shelves). And I will note that a lot of older books have been updated to have the "new-fangled" trade dress. Wheel of Time for example.
Belen
Legend
I read a wide range of authors. It is not other voices but everything looking and sounding identical. I am not a fan of romance novels so I am going to stay away from them. The books are fine to have romance in them but I do not consider that a "romance" novel.
The Wheel of Time books just look bad now with the TV covers but they still look different than the barely there art we get now.
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
Like all the trends before it, romantasy will fade. It’ll just take time.
If you’re looking for interesting non-trendy stuff, I’d suggest staying out of the chain bookstores. They stock whatever sells best and strip the rest.
Look for independent and used bookstores. Books don’t have to be brand new to be new to you. Check your local library. Interlibrary loan and WorldCAT are great. Check places like Goodreads, Storygraph, and LibraryThing.
Unless you’re really young, a speed reader, and independently wealthy there are already more books in print as of today than you can possibly read in a very long lifetime. With tons more printed every year. There’s entire galaxies of books out there just waiting for you to find them.
If you’re looking for interesting non-trendy stuff, I’d suggest staying out of the chain bookstores. They stock whatever sells best and strip the rest.
Look for independent and used bookstores. Books don’t have to be brand new to be new to you. Check your local library. Interlibrary loan and WorldCAT are great. Check places like Goodreads, Storygraph, and LibraryThing.
Unless you’re really young, a speed reader, and independently wealthy there are already more books in print as of today than you can possibly read in a very long lifetime. With tons more printed every year. There’s entire galaxies of books out there just waiting for you to find them.
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