What are you reading in 2025?

[Belen]

With respect, just today, on a quick trip to the grocery, I was listening to the radio. I heard a powerful person speaking on the desire to return manufacturing to the USA with the idea that, "sitting behind a desk makes you a woman", that lack of traditional, hands-on manufacturing jobs was "feminizing" the country.

There is a very strong thread of anti-intellectualism in modern views of masculinity, which positions a man's value as based in the work they do, and that proper work for men uses their bodies and physicality, rather than their minds.

I still disagree since the education industry has been pushing college as the only method to get ahead since the 80s and have removed most of the vocational studies from schools. The main thread for decades has told kids that their are worthless without a college degree. I still see that as the main thread.

There has been a shift in college population over that same period with the balance swinging in the opposite direction and that is concerning but I disagree that it has anything to do with saying that education is not masculine.

I disagree with whoever powerful person decided to spout that nonsense but I still do not see it as any primary message or thread causing boys to see education as non-masculine.

 

[Belen]

On another note, I just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It is a fun read although I had forgotten I had previously read it until I was halfway through the book.

 

[Nellisir]

I do not pay attention to Hugo awards. I discovered a long time ago that the award in no way matches the type of book I may enjoy.

That may be, but it's useful for discovering authors and areas you might be interested in. You need to diversify your book discovery methods.

I like to browse books at the bookstore. I love the experience of exploring the shelves, seeing a cover or title that interests me, reading the blurb and taking a chance. That browsing experience has bitten for the last few years.

YES, which is why it's a BAD way of finding new authors and books.
Bookstores want to SELL books. In an ideal world sort of way they'd love to "grow the audience" and "open new markets", but they have to pay rent, and insurance, and salaries, and etc etc. Which means they have to sell things they know will sell. They serve the existing markets.

Women do most of the shopping. Women are generally better educated. Women are reading more. Love it or hate it, women are buying books. Arguing bookstores should stock more masculine-coded books to "grow the male audience" is asking bookstores to stock more books they likely won't sell.

I basically stopped reading for a few years because "I couldn't find anything good". Eventually, I realized that had to be naughty word. Absolute naughty word. So many books published each year, and I couldn't find a few good ones? It was nonsensical. So I did research. I combed lists of the best sf books, the best fantasy books. I went back 10-15 years in the NYT best sellers lists. I look at Pulitzer winners, and the Hugos, and a few others. I went through 10 years of The Years Best SF books and noted down authors that wrote short stories I liked. I dug into lists on Goodreads and a few other places (this was around 2010-2012). Then I weeded out books I was pretty certain I wouldn't enjoy (anything that mentioned "rollercoaster of emotions; heart-wrenching; sobbing"; anything about growing up in the 19-anything; etc; etc.).

I ended up with a list of...I dunno, a few hundred books, divided by genre and with an additional "Ooo, I really want this!" list. I didn't have much money but my town had a really big used book sale twice a year, so I went shopping. Came out with about fifty. Repeated that at the next sale. So on and so forth. Some I liked, some I didn't. Read a lot of historical biography; Scandinavian noir; and "literary" fiction.

The online experience for book discovery is awful in comparison. I spend my time trying to look at websites of major publishers to see what may be coming out. I do not use tiktok, twitter, FB, etc so I do not get the "feeds" from those publishers.

Neither do I.

My main discovery mode for books now is friends and coworkers or just adding authors to favorite lists and picking up their new books.

Find out who THEY like, and pick up THOSE authors. Check out lists - there are easily hundreds of "years/decades/centuries best SF" lists. Find ones that mention books you know you like.

 

[Nellisir]

On another note, I just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It is a fun read although I had forgotten I had previously read it until I was halfway through the book.

I've read it and have zero recollection of it. Skimming back through it is one my list because people keep mentioning it.

 

[Nellisir]

I'm going to talk to my GF about teaching, since until recently she was an 8th-grade English teacher - presumably one of the primary drivers behind the push to turn boys away from reading and intellectual pursuits.

Anecdotally I can tell you that my daughter, who has grown up surrounded by books, with two parents that read almost non-stop (I read fast but take breaks; my ex reads slow but constantly) and gets consistent honor roll in school...doesn't really read much. She honestly feels bad about it. She wants to, but it just...rarely sparks joy. And personally, as a guy over 50 who has worked in the trades since my teens, I've ALWAYS been the odd man out for reading anything but a menu or newspaper article.

 

[Richards]

I'm now on the third book in the Joe Ledger series, The King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry. Somebody's using the biblical plagues to tear down world economies and profit from the chaos, and it's up to Joe and his Team Echo to find out who and put a stop to them.

Johnathan

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I still disagree since the education industry has been pushing college as the only method to get ahead since the 80s and have removed most of the vocational studies from schools.

This must be a regional thing.

For the past 20 years, Southern California -- which is hardly what the "they're feminizing our women" crowd thinks of as a macho place -- has been putting in tons of vocational stuff into public schools, including whole career tracks through high school that don't channel students toward college, but prepare them to go straight into the workplace in industrial jobs, medicine, etc.

I suspect the culture warriors may not be actually responding to the facts on the ground, but to what they want their audience to believe are the actual facts on the ground.

 

[overgeeked]

I suspect the culture warriors may not be actually responding to the facts on the ground, but to what they want their audience to believe are the actual facts on the ground.

Exactly. Yet another absurd variation of the same easily disproven nonsense we’ve had to fight off in every geek-nerd subculture for the last 15-20 years now.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I think it's pretty clear that the problem is 1/3rd of the books are Tchaikovsky, and that genre is just kinda meh for me. (I'm not sure why his characters almost all leave me cold, but they do. The spider was cool though.)

I did like the 1812 Overture (ducks...)

 

[Voadam]

I did like the 1812 Overture (ducks...)

My favorite is the Nutcracker. My sympathies are with the Rat King though.