Reader discussion: Common Denominator

Public reader discussion about Common Denominator in the WeRead Catalog by John D. MacDonald.

What's a book you've read that I should put on my bucket list?

By LunarRiver

This place is mainly for asking for book recs, not just talking about books in general. If you want general book discussion, go to /r/books or /r/literature. And if you’re only here to push your own book, you’ll get banned — use /r/wroteabook for promotion. Also, title-only posts will get removed. Put your actual request in the text box and be clear about what you want. Examples help a lot, like similar books or movies. No links in posts either, and please don’t make “should I read this?” or “is this book good?” threads. Meta posts about this subreddit or any other one aren’t allowed. For comments, just be polite and try to help. Don’t jump on people or act rude to them or to suggestions. Top-level comments should be suggestions or questions that help narrow things down. If you want to include a link, use the author’s page or an Amazon alternative if you can. Don’t link illegal stuff, and don’t use link shorteners since they’ll get caught by the filter. If Amazon links vanish, message the mods. And please use spoiler tags when needed. The format is: [Spoiler:](#s "something unexpected happens") If you have questions, message the mods.

The dumbing down of America, one banned book at a time

By door_counts

I’ve got this bad feeling about where America could be headed for my kids or grandkids. Like, by then we’ll mostly be running on a service/info economy, and most of the manufacturing will be gone overseas. The really big tech stuff will be controlled by just a small number of people, and regular folks won’t even really understand what’s going on or be able to push back in any meaningful way. On top of that, it seems like people’s critical thinking is slipping—like we can’t tell what’s actually true from what just feels good—and before anyone notices, we start falling back into superstition. And the media is where it really shows. Everything feels shorter now—those quick sound bites have gotten even faster—plus there’s way more content aimed at the lowest common denominator. You see more stuff that’s basically pseudoscience dressed up like it’s real, and it’s like ignorance is getting treated like something to celebrate. It’s scary, and I don’t know, I just feel like once you’ve been fooled long enough, it gets harder and harder to even consider that you were fooled in the first place.

Will literature become a lot less popular in the coming centuries?

By PageKettle

It kind of feels like most kids these days don’t really read—like, not even actual literary fiction or poetry. I was just wondering what you all think: do you think literature is going to basically die off eventually?

I hate it when you read a really popular book and expect to fall in love with it, but unfortunately it just doesn't work for you.

By patientjar1997

Just wrapped up The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, and honestly I thought I’d be obsessed with it. But I’m kind of feeling really disappointed 😭 It’s not like I hated it or anything—I did like some parts and I can tell the writing is good—but I just never really connected with the main character. I get why everyone else loves it, it just didn’t hit for me, I guess 🤷‍♂️

Why do book clubs always seem to deteriorate?

By orbitriver80

I’ve bounced between a bunch of book and film clubs as an adult, and after a few months the whole thing somehow gets worse—like the picks and the discussion both slide. The most recent one I joined actually started strong. We did East of Eden (which was awesome), then Small Things Like These, and those were really good too. But now people are pushing stuff like capeshit and Sarah J Maas type nonsense. I get that book clubs can be more about hanging out than anything, but this one is run through an independent book shop, so I figured it’d be better than that. It feels like this happens every time, and I can’t figure out why. I’m seriously thinking about starting my own.

Novelists as aphorists, essayists, moralists

By window_verse

I really love stuff by Proust, George Eliot, Faulkner, Goncharov, Tolstoy, and a few others where the books just casually toss in big chunks of commentary on life, people, art, war, society, whatever—right in the middle of the story, not instead of it. I keep wondering why modern fiction seems to have moved away from that. Are there any current authors who still do it, or is it basically gone?

My office is looking to start a book club but we all have different tastes. What are books that you think would be a hit for all of us regardless of our preferences?

By listensAnchor3742

We’re basically a tiny office book club of 3 (2 guys, 1 woman), and honestly we don’t overlap on what we pick to read very often. We’ve mentioned doing a “real” book club a bunch, but every time we try to actually choose a title, it turns into chaos and nobody can agree. I feel like a mystery might be the safest bet for us, but I’m open to whatever. For reference, here’s what we’re usually into: Me: mostly sci-fi and contemporary lit, but I’ll also read fantasy, classics, romance, and non-fiction. Non-fiction is the one I get bored with a lot. Guy co-worker: almost all non-fiction—usually about people, cults, crime, or some kind of weird/bizarre events. He’s read a little fiction too, and he said he liked some sci-fi. Girl co-worker: mostly romance (the more smutty kind) and non-fiction biographies. She does dabble in literary fiction and romantasy, but she hasn’t really liked the literary fiction she’s tried so far. Also… mind blown by all the suggestions and variety. We ended up making a wheel of books to randomly pick, and we’re doing a Saturday “Big Boy Brunch Book Club” where we eat and chat about what we picked after we finish.