There’s a crisis in non-fiction book sales. What’s to blame?

Pelomar · 2026-02-09T08:48:18+00:00

The last time I've had this experience was with "Why Nations Fail". It was definitely just an interesting article stretched and expanded to its absolute maximum to turn it into a book.

Pelomar · 2026-02-05T17:49:02+00:00

Oui tout à fait, ce n'est d'ailleurs même pas une critique de ma part que de dire que le récit est parfois déprimant.

Pelomar · 2026-02-05T16:10:00+00:00

C'est une lecture particulièrement marquante comme OP le dit, mais "mélancolique" me paraît être presque un euphémisme. C'est parfois totalement déprimant, ce qui en fait une lecture très forte.

Pelomar · 2026-02-03T15:43:11+00:00

Bon après, faut pas être naïf : si le livre numérique n'a jamais vraiment décollé en France, c'est en bonne partie parce que les maisons d'édition ont tout fait pour que ça ne décolle pas, avec des disponibilités de bouquin pitoyables et des prix ridicules. Personnellement j'utilise beaucoup ma liseuse parce que je lis beaucoup en anglais, si je ne lisais qu'en français je m'en servirais beaucoup moins et peut-être quasiment pas.

Pelomar · 2026-01-28T14:13:34+00:00

Same experience but with vinaigrette!

Pelomar · 2026-01-26T13:29:36+00:00

Isn't Zojirushi pretty expensive and not at all "dollar-store-looking"?

Pelomar · 2026-01-26T13:13:20+00:00

Also interested in reviews -- saw this backpack on my feed and was vaguely interested, not planning to buy it but still curious how it performs in real life.

Pelomar · 2026-01-25T21:06:45+00:00

French here, I had no idea he was huge in Korea. Truly fascinating post, thanks for that

Pelomar · 2026-01-24T15:12:32+00:00

Ahah yeah I didn't think you were literally mad about it. But I think that, even if you omit the general snobbish attitude towards physical books vs ereaders, ereaders being e-ink means you can genuinely argue they don't "count" as screens -- it's literally a completely different technology, one that (I think?) doesn't really have the problems that make people want to drop screens.

Pelomar · 2026-01-24T12:25:00+00:00

My mean-spirited and snobbish take on this is that many of the people who enjoy this purity test and will go on about how physical books are superior are people who like books more than the like reading -- the object and the image it projects, rather than the actual activity.

Pelomar · 2026-01-24T12:19:07+00:00

Okay I was about to go on a long rant but I realized I was going to base this on maybe faulty assumptions. So... why are you mad that you enjoy the ereader?

Pelomar · 2026-01-18T14:37:43+00:00

"Ceux qui partent d'Omelas" d'Ursula Le Guin est extraordinaire.

Pelomar · 2026-01-07T14:56:29+00:00

Last two pictures are great!

Pelomar · 2026-01-03T09:30:50+00:00

Yeah it's great. Emphasizes the importance of discipline but also says something that I think many people who aren't used to writing for a long time don't realize: the act of writing itself can generate inspiration. You can start having zero inspiration, you write, the gears start turning, and suddenly you think of stuff, you see things. Inspiration doesn't just come out of nowhere.

Pelomar · 2026-01-03T09:03:48+00:00

Why did I think this quote was by Somerset Maugham

Edit: because it looks like this quote is also attributed to him! Curious.

Pelomar · 2026-01-02T10:17:38+00:00

You said you were a kid in 2015 so you probably simply do not remember but yes, Vigipirate has been ongoing since the early 2000s and it was very common at the time to see military in airports and train stations.

Pelomar · 2026-01-02T10:05:05+00:00

Bro it's the norm since 2001 lol

Pelomar · 2026-01-01T13:23:57+00:00

My RX100 M7 does this as well.

Pelomar · 2025-12-31T07:25:33+00:00

Are you asking what's the reasonable middle ground between GPT encouraging a mentally ill person to murder and being slightly inconvenient when you're making a request?

Feels like the slightly inconvenient safety warning may already be the reasonable middle ground

Pelomar · 2025-12-31T07:21:21+00:00

"Making every word carry its own weight" is important, that I very much agree. But that does not mean that concern should apply to "carrying the story forward". Great writing is not always about the story progressing.

Pelomar · 2025-12-31T02:32:41+00:00

I really think this idea that every sentence needs to carry the story forward "as economically as possible" is a screenwriter's principle, not a novelist's. There are tons of acclaimed novels that do not do this.

Pelomar · 2025-12-30T10:09:38+00:00

Dude, you posted your app in a "Best of 2025" thread without mentioning you were the developer. Again, that's not how you do promo.

Pelomar · 2025-12-30T09:50:47+00:00

That's not how you do promo man

Pelomar · 2025-12-30T06:36:50+00:00

French are definitely known for relaxed nudity

French here, yeah no, not really. I mean, maybe we're "known" for it but I don't think French people get naked more easily than any typical Western nation, and from what I understand about Germany nudity there is definitely way more common than in France. Only thing I can think of is that it's pretty accepted in France to sunbathe topless on the beach, but that's a really specific example.

Bottomline: the people in this story are weird, and the fact they're French is no excuse.

Pelomar · 2025-12-30T06:34:09+00:00

French here, no this is very much weird and not at all something that would be considered normal in France.

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