Ooof I strongly disagree with this. I love books but I have lost count of the number of times I have see a request for a book recommendation and thought, there's no book for that. Sometimes you have to do the thing, fail and do the thing again. Sometimes you need to talk to real human beings. Sometimes you need to talk to a doctor.

Libby is the library app in the USA. If you are not in the USA check your local library service for their e-book service.

Kindle unlimited is the Amazon option.

Agreed, I absolutely loved how Safehold explored how a technology base is required for technological advancement. But I really wish he had made this a series of trilogies, where each generation build on the achievements of the generation before. Because we go from Battle of Lepanto to the American Civil War in a decade. It's too much.

I also agree with you that there is a problem with the goodies being too good. Because there is very little peril in the later books.

I would just like to recommend his War God series though. It gets very little love and the original 3 books are great. He restarted the series more recently though and those books are shite.

One of the worst things we can do to ourselves is become too serious. There is this Calvinist hangover in Europe and North America that if it is fun it can't be good for you. But all the Science shows that learning through play, through music, through group interaction and through movement is far more effective than miserable rote learning sat at a desk. Which goes quadruple if you are neurodivergent in some way. Reading is a way to learn through play. Not just filling our head with facts (although that can happen too) it is about building a brain architecture, linking neural pathways, and exercising those neurons.

I think reading expands our ability to empathise with people, because we literally step into a characters shoes and see things from their perspective. Which makes it easier to do with real people. It can also show us perspectives of people from different races, physical abilities, gender, cultures.

But I think we need a balance of a lot of different experiences to really build a whole brain. Gaming, art, sports*, music, socialising with friends, all of it builds brains.

*Sports is another area which people get annoyingly serious about. Casual fun games for the non athlete start to disappear as kids get older.

I buy cheap paperbacks and let them fall apart. No matter the quality of the book steam will damage it eventually. The paper will swell and mould develop. I have probably replaced my favourite bath books a couple of times. I am a bibliophage rather than a bibliophile, so the physical book is not as important to me, but there are certain books which have a sentimental association which I would never bring into the bath.

I read on my phone sometimes. It's a piece of crap Xiomi with a cracked screen so I'm not bothered if I kill it.

Yes, welcome to the Murderbot fan club. You will not be disappointed.

btw I recommend reading Fugitive Telemetry before Network Effect. Timeline wise FT happens before NE and I feel it works much better in that order rather than publication. Loads of big splashy exciting adventures happen in NE and it feels weird to go back to a relatively small adventure after that. When you are just dying to know what happens with Murderbot and [redacted].

I tried to read PD James but in the 2nd book I think she is a struggling Private Detective trying to keep her partners old business going but she employs 2 people and is able to buy a small flat in central London for 7,000 pounds.

First off I would just like to say people saying but there were only Europeans in Europe are missing out on a lot of current research. But I feel the most useful thing to do is highlight non-white authors writing SF&F. So a non exhaustive list of people I can remember of the top of my head.

- Marlon James

- SA Chakraborty

-Evan Winters

- Yoon Ha Lee

- Octavia Butler

- Tade Thompson

- Aliette de Bodard

- Rebecca Roanhorse

- Karen Lord

- Stephen Graham Jones

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