What are you reading in 2025?

[Paul Farquhar]

I got into a debate with someone a while back with someone who said that school libraries should only have academic works, and not contemporary popular fiction (including graphic novels, manga, etc.). My counterpoint was exactly what you said here: that schools should have things which make reading fun for kids, rather than seeming like work.

Eventually the debate shifted to "well, why can't they just go to public libraries for the fun stuff?" which went down an entirely different avenue regarding accessibility, parental oversight, and several other issues.

It would be odd to have any academic books in a primary school (age 5-10) library, but my partner, who is a primary English specialist, has had to fight for the inclusion of graphic novels and the like over just "classics" in school libraries, especially when she was working in a private school.

When I was at primary school I was slow learning to read (I was later diagnosed as dyslexic) I was not allowed to choose books from the library, and had to wade through boring reading scheme books aimed at significantly younger kids. Fortunately, my parents took me to the public library every week and left me to choose books for myself, whilst they went off to choose their own library books. Thus, I taught myself to read, and quite by chance read a few classics, such as 20,000 Leagues, The Jungle Book and Coral Island, along with plenty of pulp fiction.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

On the topic of Ulysses, one benefits from an annotated copy. Which one of course as one redditor stated "ask 2 Ulysses scholars the best annotated version, get 3 different answers"


My opinion, if one is not taking a class on it, to have the annotated version where the annotes (why isn't "annotes" a word?!?) stand in for the teacher, to some degree.

I enjoyed reading Ulysses in college - but it was my final semester and I had trouble a) making it to class and b) finishing the final paper on time. My prof took pity, giving me a D so that I could graduate. BUT I did enjoy the book, especially the puzzle-like nature of it. Still have my college text around here somewhere.

Just use it as an excuse to take a holiday in Dublin.

 

[Retros_x]

That attitude from my parents got me through the Satanic Panic. They didn't care what I was reading as long as I was reading.

My mother was pretty strict with buying me new toys and stuff, I could beg as I wanted in a store, she never just spontaneously bought me something I wanted - with one exception: books. That was her one rule, if I wanted a book, she bought it. Or got it from the library. I had my first own library card when I was 7 or 8!

I had a big reading lump when smartphones and PCs entered my teenager life but in recent years I rediscovered my love for reading and I am pretty sure the reading base and love for books I built in my childhood were important building blocks for my general development and now me coming back to books.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

This kind of stuff also makes up a big part of Don Quixote, which I'm still soldiering through.

You thought we resolved the question of whether writing or being a soldier is a more noble profession 100 pages ago? Ho ho, we're revisiting the issue again! Also, why all authors that Cervantes seems to think are crap truly suck, in detail.

There was a certain period of writing when authors seemed to like to stop in the middle of a story and add a few dozen pages on whatever topic interested them that morning, so long as it was somewhat vaguely related to the text. Or not. There’s an entire book within Les Miserables titled “parenthesis”, which at least alerts you to the fact that Hugo has decided to lecture you about something.

My deeply misguided parents thought my voracious fantasy habit was a waste of potential in middle school, and demanded I start reading classics, for some reason starting with Moby Dick. I was not, at age 11, ready for Melville, had a very bad time, and stopped sleeping so I could secretly read the books I actually wanted to read at night.

My parents didn’t do that — their evil plan was much more subtle; they bought me books in great series, but picked random volumes of them. So I read “the farthest shore” before “wizard of earthsea“, and one of the later dark is rising books before the early ones.

It left me excited, wanting to know more, and confused.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Enjoyment of reading needs to be instilled at a young age, before any formal study of literature. Otherwise it will always be a chore.

Absolutely. I grew up with books. Heck, one of my earliest memories is my mom reading Beowulf to me before I knew how to read.

My parents very much tended to the "if you can reach it, you can read it" thing. This got awkward: My mom worked as an OB nurse and had books on pregnancy and childbirth that I was reading when I was ... like four. My parents were fine with that, some of my friends' parents, though ...

Yeah, I don't know that my parents were all that aware of the contents of the books we were reading. They knew we liked fantasy and sci-fi, so they just picked stuff up. Read the Thieves World series at age nine. Re-reading those books as an adult, I think a lot went over our heads.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Yeah, I don't know that my parents were all that aware of the contents of the books we were reading. They knew we liked fantasy and sci-fi, so they just picked stuff up. Read the Thieves World series at age nine. Re-reading those books as an adult, I think a lot went over our heads.

Our parents certainly didn't know. Tanith Lee was kind of a lot for eleven-year-olds. They signed us up for the Science Fiction Book Club, though, and that was one of the offerings in the initial 10-books-for-$0.01 deal.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading PKD's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Definitely a head trip to read, reflecting on how fast celebrity can fade, the dangers of a police state, and how easy it would be to fall between the cracks.

I also read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. I feel like it hasn't aged well. He takes as granted that television as a medium is uniformly bad without taking the time to establish it as a fact. And I caught multiple assertions that in hindsight were downright factually incorrect.

Now I'm re-reading Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired.

Our parents certainly didn't. Tanith Lee was kind of a lot for eleven-year-olds. They signed us up for the Science Fiction Book Club, though, and that was one of the offerings in the initial 10-books-for-$0.01 deal.

Tanith Lee would be a bit difficult for an 11-year-old to read. Even setting the subject matter aside, her writing style could be very difficult to parse at that age.

 

[Desdichado]

Still haven't gotten around to reading my Solomon Kane collection. I've got that, plus Ray Feist's Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon up next in fiction. Also, I've got all four of James Silke's Horned Helmet novels now, after finding the fourth one on a used book site at a reasonable (ish) price for the first time in many years.

For gaming books, I'm reading the 5e version of Book of Fiends (I've read the 3e version many times, but never the 5e) and I'm re-reading the 3.5 Monster Manual for the first time in... I don't even know how long. I'm actually not sure that I've ever read it; I would have read 3e cover to cover when it was new, but I probably didn't ever do that with 3.5 before.

For non-fiction, I'm reading the Odyssey right now. For at least one definition of non-fiction.

 

[Nellisir]

My parents very much tended to the "if you can reach it, you can read it" thing. This got awkward: My mom worked as an OB nurse and had books on pregnancy and childbirth that I was reading when I was ... like four. My parents were fine with that, some of my friends' parents, though ...

I don't know when I first read Kafka, but...it was WAY before you should read Kafka. But it was there, and they didn't care, and I was bored....
(if I had to guess, I'd say about 11. The first time.)

 

[overgeeked]

I finished reading PKD's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Definitely a head trip to read, reflecting on how fast celebrity can fade, the dangers of a police state, and how easy it would be to fall between the cracks.

Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite writers. I love almost everything I’ve read of his. I haven’t read this ine yet despite it being within arms reach as I type this.

Tanith Lee would be a bit difficult for an 11-year-old to read. Even setting the subject matter aside, her writing style could be very difficult to parse at that age.

Entirely depends on the 11-year-old.