191–200 of 283 posts
I'd consider Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection to be fiction as well. Too long, shouldn't read: if you believe, your back pain will go away. I'm surprised to see the anti-scientific pseudoscience promoted.
> I believe the former is the case. I'm just curious why you hold that belief? I don't have an opinion either way, but I'm curious if that is an informed belief. I agree that it was a problem even more recently than a century ago. It was probably a problem as recently as 10 years ago. However, in 2017, it's not hard to be published. You can even self-publish. Unless the topic is related to the author's identity (i.e.…
http://jezebel.com/homme-de-plume-what-i-learned-sending-my-... I have posted it twice to HN, and it was essentially ignored, but it provides good evidence that women writers have a much harder time getting published simply because they are female.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://jezebel.com/homme-de-plume-what-i-learned-sending-my-... I have posted it twice to HN, and it was essentially ignored, but it provides good evidence that women writers have a much harder time getting published simply because they are female.
I don't disagree that this is a problem that should be solved, but it doesn't answer my question. Why should I, as a reader, just try to find quality interesting content care about the identity of the author. Authors are just individuals to me. Unless their experience by virtue of their identity is relevant to the subject matter at hand, why should use identity in deciding what to read instead of just relying on subj…
Sorry, it seems really obvious to me and I have heard it said before, so didn't feel I needed to spell it out: Female authors must be better than most to have any shot at getting published. So, women authors who do get published tend to be better authors than most male authors.
You aren't required to care. Whether or not you care is on you, but if you want quality writing, there is evidence that due to the fact that women are discriminated against, IF they manage to get published, their writing will be of unusually high quality.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read 2-10 books a week, depending on what else is going on in my life. Conditions allowing that: - I nearly always read on my phone. - I can read on my commute. - I read before going to sleep. - I read quickly.
How long is your commute?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read 2-10 books a week, depending on what else is going on in my life. Conditions allowing that: - I nearly always read on my phone. - I can read on my commute. - I read before going to sleep. - I read quickly.
Can I ask how fast your read? (words or characters/minute)
> I believe the former is the case. I'm just curious why you hold that belief? I don't have an opinion either way, but I'm curious if that is an informed belief. I agree that it was a problem even more recently than a century ago. It was probably a problem as recently as 10 years ago. However, in 2017, it's not hard to be published. You can even self-publish. Unless the topic is related to the author's identity (i.e.…
This is especially important in fiction books where you are immersed in the experience of main characters. If the authors identity mirrors yours, then the experience of the main character will not build my understanding of how other people live. At this point, you are reading only for entertainment (which is fine, but you must acknowledge and accept that).
Books, whether fiction or nonfiction, are stories. They present information in a narrative. That narrative will be determined by who writes it and how they've lived their life.
Do americans only read books on summer?
No, but it comes from two different traditions. The first, and most common, is the Summer Reading List many schools give their students for reading over the summer break. I knew people who had assigned reading, but our school didn't bother. The other was the family vacation and the "beach books" that were once part of the stereotypical beach vacation. Gotta do something while the kids play in the water. Summer books…
But thanks for the serious answer! Going all the way to the end of the page to find my grey comment. There was a sincere curiosity behind the comment.
> I believe the former is the case. I'm just curious why you hold that belief? I don't have an opinion either way, but I'm curious if that is an informed belief. I agree that it was a problem even more recently than a century ago. It was probably a problem as recently as 10 years ago. However, in 2017, it's not hard to be published. You can even self-publish. Unless the topic is related to the author's identity (i.e.…
Identity of the author matters because a writer's work is informed by their experience in the world. As a white male, I will view & experience the world differently from Jane Jacobs. Even in a book about facts, a person's relation to those facts reflects their lived experience. This is especially important in fiction books where you are immersed in the experience of main characters. If the authors identity mirrors yo…
> Unless the topic is related to the author's identity (i.e. it's about gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.), I don't see why someone should care about the identity of an author.
There are hundreds of thousands of non-fiction topics where the identity of the author is irrelevant (or at least one of the least relevant factors impacting the authors work). Why should I care in those cases?
If you struggle to get diverse voices inside your field, maybe you should read from diverse voices outside your field. I understand it is hard and I also gravitate towards comfortable reading, usually meaning from people that look like me. This is the problem. Start being accountable to yourself about it. 2 of 19 the books in the list are by female authors (both recommended by women). Looking for some good books from…
Ancillary Justice is an excellent book, and the choice to make the main character not really understand gender and use female pronouns for everyone really makes it obvious how much we normally assume people to be male in the absence of other info. Not by a female author, but on the topic of diversity, another one I'd recommend is Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. The author is a queer trans man. This book and Ancillary…
I'll be honest, I found Ancillary Justice a little boring since the characters aren't very complex. It's interesting in that it's from an A.I.'s perspective involving many simultaneous inputs (multiple sensors, people, etc).
Also, I have to give the obligatory fiction recommendation for Red Rising. That trilogy is like the roman empire in space, but the characters are what really make it.