Books
So in talking to others about books, and I read a lot of books. I find that I think about books in a different way than a lot of people. I don’t easily remember authors or titles. I remember plots and characters. The tone, or the voice, maybe even the structure. I don’t collect books to own books; I have a huge number of books because I love the stories, or ideas contained in them.
Some folks can recite almost every author in a particular genre. Or collect complete series. I jump around wildly. I am not a completist. I read the bones, the guts, the tissue, that the novel is made of. I argue with the ideas in a nonfiction book, and take notes.
I hardly ever buy or get a library book based on reviews, cover art, or blurbs. For nonfiction, it is because the book was mentioned in a previously read book, or article. For fiction, it’s usually word of mouth. I know a lot of book people. And they love to talk about books. This can be hit or miss; people have strange tastes, I know that I do.
This complicates my book discussions, as I might say, “This reminds me of that first contact SF novel with a dark, unsettling tone that never resolves.” And because I don’t remember Solaris by Stanisław Lem. The conversation kinda dies.
One oddity: when I talk to librarians, they get this right away. It might be that we both read with our bodies first and the metadata comes second. And just forget the metadata.
Here is an upcoming book that might help to explain this difference in my mental relations to books. I am navigational rather than computational.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/holding-paradox-a-navigational-approach-to-mind-and-consciousness-other-gifts-from-the-hippocampus-andrea-hiott/00fe9e327fb36a20
Anyway. Keep reading, and recommending books to each other.
So in talking to others about books, and I read a lot of books. I find that I think about books in a different way than a lot of people. I don’t easily remember authors or titles. I remember plots and characters. The tone, or the voice, maybe even the structure. I don’t collect books to own books; I have a huge number of books because I love the stories, or ideas contained in them.
Some folks can recite almost every author in a particular genre. Or collect complete series. I jump around wildly. I am not a completist. I read the bones, the guts, the tissue, that the novel is made of. I argue with the ideas in a nonfiction book, and take notes.
I hardly ever buy or get a library book based on reviews, cover art, or blurbs. For nonfiction, it is because the book was mentioned in a previously read book, or article. For fiction, it’s usually word of mouth. I know a lot of book people. And they love to talk about books. This can be hit or miss; people have strange tastes, I know that I do.
This complicates my book discussions, as I might say, “This reminds me of that first contact SF novel with a dark, unsettling tone that never resolves.” And because I don’t remember Solaris by Stanisław Lem. The conversation kinda dies.
One oddity: when I talk to librarians, they get this right away. It might be that we both read with our bodies first and the metadata comes second. And just forget the metadata.
Here is an upcoming book that might help to explain this difference in my mental relations to books. I am navigational rather than computational.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/holding-paradox-a-navigational-approach-to-mind-and-consciousness-other-gifts-from-the-hippocampus-andrea-hiott/00fe9e327fb36a20
Anyway. Keep reading, and recommending books to each other.