I love such lists. Thank you!
Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
41–50 of 69 posts
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found the sci-fi tag interesting and a managable 32 books! https://odd-lots-books.netlify.app/?q=tag%3Asci-fi
Why are they recommending a China Miéville book which won’t be out til the end of the year? I mean, it’ll probably be good, his stuff usually is. But I don’t think even reviewer copies have gone out yet? And while Ann Leckie’s Translation State is great, I think you pretty much have to read the Ancillary Whatever books first; otherwise it’ll just be baffling.
yeah I didn't notice the CM wasn't out til september and searched for it too.
The I wasted time reading (very mixed!!) reviews for the ones I'd not read so I just pulled the trigger on Revelation Space and will see how I get on!
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#43If you enjoy the podcast or the newsletters, I do recommend the Discord ( https://discord.gg/oddlots ) - the folks there are generally very smart and it is a great place to discuss everything from the economy to climate to transportation to defense.
Very smart people on discord sounds like an oxymoron: why would anyone very smart contribute to the siloization of knowledge and support grow a corporate entity possessing highly questionable incentives? Discord is not a great place to discuss anything of substance.
If that's not clear to some now, it will be once monetization kicks in and the inevitable blowup and loss of accumulated knowledge follows.
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#44PSA: 99.999% of people should ignore most of the entries on lists like this. I devour reading material. I love books - fiction, non-fiction, audio books, trade paperbacks, newly minted hardbacks, old musty stuff in a basement, all of it - and subscribe to Literary Review and Granta , and check in on London Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement when I can. I subscribe to quality newspapers and periodicals,…
Some of us lack access to good physical bookstores which are curated and allow for casual non-biased exploration. Amazon and other digital players never picked up on curation or segmentation, their store fronts are hot messes similar to digging through a random bin of books at a second hand store. To top it off they skew your opinion with customer ratings visible next to every single title.
So a list like this is a somewhat working digital alternative to browsing books in a curated bookstore.
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#45PSA: 99.999% of people should ignore most of the entries on lists like this. I devour reading material. I love books - fiction, non-fiction, audio books, trade paperbacks, newly minted hardbacks, old musty stuff in a basement, all of it - and subscribe to Literary Review and Granta , and check in on London Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement when I can. I subscribe to quality newspapers and periodicals,…
For someone who wants to sell the idea of not wasting time on reading, you're trying to waste a lot of time with your comment. You wasted mine for sure so I'll hopefully help somebody else with my short comment:
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- op basically says: don't pay attention to recommendation lists
- they assume you plan on reading all books recommended there or none
- they do not present an realistic alternative to finding books you might like
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Especially the last point is what I missed from your comment because it is actually a good idea to browse through other peoples recommendations to find similarities in taste.
Like in this list, I looked at the SciFi section and didn't find Neal Stephenson. Which, for me, is a sign of good quality together with other books I've already read. There are other books I have not even heard about. I might check them out and it would be a logical thing to do. Nothing wrong about it and chances are good that I might like it. They are certainly better than a wild guess.
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#46Love the podcast! But this seems just way too broad, basically what I would see in a curated local book store that I have anyway. Maybe this was the intention, but seeing all those books without the context why they were originally recommended on the discord doesn't seem to add a lot of value.
> curated local book store I used to live in central London, so I know what you mean, but here's the thing: LOTS of people don't have access to curated local book stores, so doing the same thing but doing it online does add value. I live in rural Germany now. Reaching a brick-and-mortar bookstore is a 30mins drive, looking+paying for parking, 10 mins walk, and then the bookstore won't be curated at all. It'll be a br…
> Find an online community that has self-selected for some kind of criterion
I’ll add onto that: find real-life friends/acquaintances who are both not brain dead and read books. Frequently ask them “what are you reading lately?” Not only does this lead to good conversations and deeper friendships, it results in an endless stream of book leads.
Most of the good books I’ve read for the past several years have been curated for me by two friends who are prolific readers and do all the work for me of finding new books. I occasionally find something they haven’t read, but they certainly do most of the heavy lifting.
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#47PSA: 99.999% of people should ignore most of the entries on lists like this. I devour reading material. I love books - fiction, non-fiction, audio books, trade paperbacks, newly minted hardbacks, old musty stuff in a basement, all of it - and subscribe to Literary Review and Granta , and check in on London Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement when I can. I subscribe to quality newspapers and periodicals,…
Unlike Krasnol, I found your comment helpful. Especially, the idea that knowing what to ignore is at least as important as knowing what's out there. Ignore the haters :)
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#48By the way, one of the best financial podcastst
Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#49Re: Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
#50Love the podcast! But this seems just way too broad, basically what I would see in a curated local book store that I have anyway. Maybe this was the intention, but seeing all those books without the context why they were originally recommended on the discord doesn't seem to add a lot of value.
> curated local book store I used to live in central London, so I know what you mean, but here's the thing: LOTS of people don't have access to curated local book stores, so doing the same thing but doing it online does add value. I live in rural Germany now. Reaching a brick-and-mortar bookstore is a 30mins drive, looking+paying for parking, 10 mins walk, and then the bookstore won't be curated at all. It'll be a br…
That's fair - I just bought four or five books, a couple by authors I am aware of already and a couple experimental.
These days I look out for books that look a bit different from the ruts I mine and this list has been helpful in that regard.