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dancingtongue · 80-89, M
Tie between This Way Up! (given to me by my granddaughter) and The Secret Life of Groceries (given to me by my son). Read concurrently.

robertsnj · 56-60, M
Dial 911 and Die. I am American. It is a book written by a lawyer outining at the state level why the police have no duty to protect you and advocates that personal safetly is more of a personal responsibility in the USA The stories are court public opinions where the victim dialed 911 and the police were inactive or really slow to the call.

The book lists court cases for I think almost every state as examples and talks about the Supreme Court Case of Town of Castle Rock vs Gonzales that probably impacts lower courts opinons.

it is an anti- police book but more of a book pointing out police are not obligated to protect you (if you are American) even if you dial 911.
Nobody recommends books to me. I am a hermit, a man who exists outside space and time. I inhabit my own world. It is not a world without traffic or weather or the low-grade irritations of daily life, but a world in which those things arrive already filtered, already subordinated to an inner rhythm that has long since ceased to synchronize with the calendar or the market or whatever book is being praised this week as “urgent.”

When people say, You must read this, they are usually talking to one another, not to me. Recommendation presumes a shared present, a common pulse: the sense that we are all standing in the same moment, looking at the same horizon, worried about the same things. I am not. I am elsewhere—sometimes decades elsewhere—sitting with a sentence that has already survived its own moment and no longer needs witnesses.

Books come to me the way memories do: without announcement, without justification. I do not discover them; they resurface. A line half-remembered suddenly insists on being completed. A voice I have not heard in years clears its throat. I open a book not because it is new but because it has waited. The waiting matters. It means the book has detached itself from fashion and entered a slower orbit, one governed less by relevance than by necessity.

There is a peculiar freedom in this exile. I do not read to keep up, to be conversant, to have opinions ready for deployment. I read to inhabit another consciousness fully, to submit to its tempo, to let it rearrange my internal furniture. The cost, of course, is social. You cannot easily discuss a novel you are rereading for the fourth time when everyone else is busy ranking the ten best books of the year. But that conversation has never tempted me much. It is too vertical, too evaluative, too eager to conclude.

My reading life is horizontal. One book leads sideways to another: an allusion, a shared anxiety, a common cadence of despair or delight. A Russian novel opens onto a French diary; a philosophical aside sends me back to a poem I read at seventeen and misunderstood entirely. Time collapses. Influence becomes conversation. The dead are not dead at all; they are merely quieter than the living, and infinitely more patient.

This is what it means, I think, to exist outside time—not to reject it, but to refuse its pressure. The present is loud. It shouts its claims. It demands attention in the name of urgency. But literature, real literature, does not shout. It murmurs. It waits for the reader who is willing to slow down enough to hear it.

So no one recommends books to me, and I do not miss it. I live among my own recommendations, accumulated over a lifetime, stacked not on shelves but in memory, each one marked by the moment it entered my life and the person I was when it did. I am a hermit, yes—but not a lonely one. My solitude is crowded.
swirlie · 31-35
@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays
In that case, I will take the liberty to act on behalf of the OP of this thread to place a black check-mark in the 'no' box of this question beside your name.

...and you are welcome in advance.
LavidaRaq · F
I am currently reading The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. I’m not finished yet, however it’s such a different kind of read. I don’t want it to end. I’m sure it will be a favorite that I will reread.
It was a recommendation on ticktock of something different than the norm and rarely brought up. Which it is.
LavidaRaq · F
@LadyGrace it’s a beautiful read. I’m enthralled.
@LavidaRaq I'm sure. ❤🫂
LavidaRaq · F
@LadyGrace let me know what you think, if you decide to read it..
DearAmbellina2113 · 41-45, F
Ruthless Creatures . It's a mafia romance. It's not my cup of tea but my work bestie loved it and begged me to read it.
GerOttman · 70-79, M
Dr. Mary's Monkeys - Edward T. Haslam

Recommend by my dad. Very interesting and compelling story!
Not sure it'd be considered a book, but the program plan which was recommended by my boss.
Thevy29 · 41-45, M
The way of kings by Brandon Sanderson. It was recommended by a fellow SW user last year, year before. I forgotten their name.
Rokan · 36-40, M
Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child by John M. Gottman is a guide for parents on teaching children emotional self-awareness and regulation through a five-step "emotion coaching" process, based on Gottman's research on parent-child interactions.
Harmonium1923 · 56-60, M
I’m currently reading The Ministry of Fear on the recommendation of @SmoKin.
SmoKin · M
@Harmonium1923 my copy came today!
Harmonium1923 · 56-60, M
@SmoKin Outstanding! I’m about halfway through.
SmoKin · M
@Harmonium1923 SLOW DOWN! My dad has joined the group he’s 84
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
Never.

My taste in literature is too esoteric.

Why I don't even listen to movie critics. It's a waste of time.

Before I will buy anything I do read the summaries. That usually will determine if it's worth it or not.
Katie01 · F
I don't think I've ever read a book
BohoBabe · M
@Katie01 Not even a comic book?
This comment is hidden. Show Comment
BohoBabe · M
@Katie01 Yes you are, now I'm gonna give you a wedgie.
Starchild1983 · 41-45, F
The silent patient. I’m currently reading it
ChipmunkErnie · 70-79, M
Ooo, no idea. I just buy/read what I like.
IPmyPants · 41-45, M
swirlie · 31-35
@Iwillwait
Okay, but let me point something out to you...

The question of this thread asked "What is the last book that you read specifically because someone recommended it to you?".

You replied "The Bible".

My question to you was, 'why was the person who recommended that you read the Bible, thinking that you were specifically in need of reading the Bible?

Obviously that person must have thought you specifically needed to read the Bible, so what had you done that had led them to believe that you should read the Bible?

How did they know that you had NOT read the Bible up to that point in your life?
Iwillwait · M
@swirlie They recommnded I read the Bible to gain insight.
swirlie · 31-35
@Iwillwait
Oh, I see. Well, that would make sense. Thanks for that!
possibly The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, or Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel García Márquez (both recommended by the same person)

I haven't read a book recommended by anyone in a long time, and I generally read non-fiction rather than fiction
Boeing · 36-40
The summer I read to Kill a Mocking Bird, a friend gave it to me...
Boeing · 36-40
@JohnnySpot is there a movie? I have not seen it
JohnnySpot · 56-60, M
@Boeing Robert Duvall plays Boo Radley, his first starring role.
Boeing · 36-40
@JohnnySpot I will get to watch it at one point...
A guide to a successful marriage - written by some feminist hating males


Never read the book and still married after 45 years and 5 months
Lostpoet · M
The Book Thief wasn't disappointed.
A Pillow Book by Suzanne Buffman
swirlie · 31-35
Anyone who recommends a specific book for you to read, is like someone who pulls a package of breath mints out of his pocket, pops one in his mouth, then offers you one as well.

The question is, why did he offer you a breath mint and why is he recommending a specific book for you to read?
Boeing · 36-40
@swirlie usually people have a good intention of wanting to help us, and whilst we are the authority that choses whether to allow that help or not, depending on where we are seeing our path unfolding, and only us can see - I am very well aware of that authority Swirlie.. What I had to work on though, to live a more fulfilling life, is to know when to take a step back and allow another - since the idea of Spirit isn't making sense to you and that's perfectly fine - so, to allow another to co-create.
Yes it was my self importance and my ego that got in the way, that didn't allow me to receive his gift at that time given.
Another truth that is very subjective, is how I read very little actually. People meet me and I might give an impression of reading books but it takes me months to finish one, as I read a page - and a page might need 3 days to digest. So very subjectively, the real reason for me is that I cannot read few books per year and then within them add the gifts. Although I am considering myself to be very lucky to be in a position to be loved enough to be receiving gifts - I think that is what makes me angry in your approach, that you focus on the personal choice and you completely dismiss the other person giving something - yes many have twisted personalities but they still gift from their soul -

Let's recap this, from my side at least!
My ex's gesture was sweet but the timing for me to read that book wasn't right. I think he asked from his sister, as she was more sophisticated than himself, to get a book for me, I never made sure but I was suspecting that from conversations, and what made me angry was that, he didn't put the time to get me a gift but asked from someone else to do the "job". And perhaps because of the perceived intentions, I blocked myself from receiving that gift. But also, perhaps the blockage was important - I read that book at the right time!
It was a story of a cat, and at the time I was volunteering at a cat sanctuary, all made sense.
All in all that's a great book ahahahahah I would recommend, it is written by a sweet Japanese woman and is full of care, easiness and tender insight, not forcing it into your face but gently in the background....I guess Japanese are talented with it..

Thank you for the conversation, I am glad I stayed so far:) have a nice day 🌸
swirlie · 31-35
@Boeing
I hate to be the one to bring this to your attention Boeing, but you don't actually know as much about Spirit as you give yourself credit for. This is because your ego is still very much intact and still very much in full control of your attitude, which quite frankly is very juvenile at best.

The reason you got angry at your ex-boyfriend was because you speculated as to WHO the purchaser of that book was, making the unfounded assumption that it was your ex-boyfriend's sister who purchased it, only because in YOUR opinion, she was more sophisticated than your ex-bf was.

That assumption you made about her and her brother was profoundly arrogant of you, since everything you judged them both on was purely speculative on your part. To this day, you still have no idea who's choice it was to purchase that book!

What I suggest you do is give up this bullsh*t path of self-discovery that you're on and go back to square one where you started and start over.

What you need to do is ditch the ego first and foremost and until you do, you will remain stuck at exactly the same place your ex-boyfriend and his sister dropped you off, which is where you still are right now.
Boeing · 36-40
@swirlie thank you for the time taken and your attention here.

Each knows for themselves of their connection and experiences and so allow another to have their knowing, while you are having yours.
So each can be the creative artist in their life and allow others to be the artist in theirs, no matter how hard it is sometimes to release the control - when things seem so obvious for one, another need to take the route they need to take.
When I refer to Spirit, You are not excluded..you are another form of It I am talking with. And I am included too.

I appreciate your seeing and your sharpness and your reflections.
Penny · 46-50, F
Atomic Habits and Ikigai

 
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