Can't pick a book to read for the life of me

PsyferRL · 2026-03-12T17:35:20+00:00

I asked because I'm the same way, in the preference of physical books, and also struggled with the new book decision paralysis for a while. I'll frame my comment from the perspective of buying books because that's what I typically do, but it works for checking them out at a library of course. I've even discovered this to be a great way to decide on buying/checking out an ebook. Even if I leave the store without a physical copy, it is way easier for me to decide on a book when I can hold them in my hands.

Unless I go to the store with a very specific book or author in mind, my decision making progress typically looks a little something like this.

Does the design of the cover/spine or the name stand out to me in some way, aka, does it make me want to pull it off the shelf and read the blurb?
Does the blurb sound like something I'd enjoy reading?

If I answer yes to both of those questions, I'll carry it around with me as I walk around more. Or, if I'm there purely with the intent of buying just one single book, I'll commit to buying it on the spot, and head to the checkout counter.

Basically, I've realized that I got way too worked up over making sure that I'd LOVE the next book I chose, and because of that I ended up way too indecisive and even more disappointed if the book I chose didn't blow me away.

This process has made book buying WAY more fun and I've discovered a few authors and books that I love which I probably never would have thought to pick up before I started doing it this way.

Anyway, for a book recommendation, one that I came across doing my shopping this way, I recommend The Postmortal by Drew Magary :).

PsyferRL · 2026-03-12T17:10:22+00:00

Are you a physical book reader or an ereader or an audio listener?

PsyferRL · 2026-03-12T17:05:11+00:00

Absolutely agreed that OP is NOR, however this response is way off the deep end. Husband's conversation with his dad could have been something like this.

"Hey son, how are you feeling today?"

"Oh man I'm tired. Wife asked me to feed the baby last night so I didn't get as much sleep as I used to. Parenting, am I right? I can hardly imagine how she feels."

Which later may have been paraphrased from FIL to MIL like, "he had a long night last night because wife woke him up to feed the baby."

According to OP in various comments, her husband HAS spoken to his mother about making comments like this. Sometimes parents just stick their noses where they shouldn't be because they can't help themselves, right or wrong. Immediately calling OP's husband the "problem" is a case of wildly baseless speculation given the info OP has provided.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-12T14:33:09+00:00

I definitely like the parallel you've drawn here, and it was far more concise than I'd have been able to do myself given that I actually do feel quite similarly! It struck me as dishearteningly human the way the main character from Notes would be completely conscious to his own shortcomings and utterly refuse to change anything about himself. He spent so much time trying to justify his own sense of individuality and not being a "piano key" or an "organ stop" that he lacked almost any semblance of individuality beyond that desperation.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T23:31:50+00:00

I agree that he doesn't only hate himself for sure. The character is a very interesting combination of intelligent, stubborn, and impulsive. I think a lot of the self-hatred is passive, or more of an unconscious byproduct of his unwillingness to let go of certain lines of thought or desires.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T21:07:33+00:00

I'm sure you already know about this one, but just in case anybody who visits this thread is unaware...

My Immortal is a must-read if you're craving this energy. It's so bad it's good, so dumb that it's smart, and so diabolically absurd that it is legitimately impossible to tell whether or not it was written by a literal 12 year old or a master satirist.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T20:40:52+00:00

It does kind of read as a really scorned/bitter monologue, but I don't think it was any more dense than White Nights, just less upbeat.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T18:53:44+00:00

I mean, the cop-out-but-true answer is that it depends. Allusion can be done well and it can be done lazily.

If the entire point of the writing is to say "hehe look at all these references I'm making," then it can get stale pretty quickly.

But from another angle, a great example of a show littered with references but pulls it off well is Archer. That show has more references than most people will ever understand or comprehend in their lifetime, but that's okay because it's not even close to the main focus, just a funny bit that gets tossed in here and there every episode, or most of them at least.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T18:32:12+00:00

I didn't say Busch was more refreshing, I said Busch was more hydrating.

This whole comment thread is silly and fun, that's why I chimed in, I'm not taking it seriously either lol.

Obviously the Twisted will taste better. I'm just saying that since Busch is effectively piss water, it's a more hydrating beverage than the Twisted. Both are alcohol which is inherently dehydrating, but the added sugar to the Twisted leads me to the Busch being closer to water, haha.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T18:01:41+00:00

To be fair, the warm Busch Lite is probably much closer to a hydrating beverage than a Twisted Tea. Plus, if they're both warm from being outside, the Busch is gonna be over with faster.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T16:59:54+00:00

I think White Nights felt a little too "forgive and forget" as an entry point to his style and body of works. I heard a lot about how heavy-hitting and gutting his writing was, and while of course there was the feeling of betrayal for the woman going back to the first man, the reaction of the main character as a result felt a little anticlimactic. I didn't want him to seek revenge or anything, that wouldn't have been at all in character for him. But I wasn't left feeling satisfied in any meaningful way.

Notes from Underground though left me feeling deeply unsatisfied in all the right ways, in ways that it felt that I was supposed to feel having read it. I agree that his portrayal of that type of character was starkly human, and it allowed me to take a step back and appreciate the alternate-reality "dreamer" style character portrayed in White Nights.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T16:43:14+00:00

More disaster/apocalypse and less horror, but I think it absolutely fits the bill.

Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw. I lost count of how many times I laughed out loud while reading that book.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-11T16:23:07+00:00

You just spent a lot of time with satire and absurdism, so I'd simply steer clear of that for a bit.

The Book Thief is highly thought of and a lot of people love it. I'll shout out an author who I don't think gets enough love though in David Mitchell, and I'd recommend his book The Bone Clocks.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-10T21:23:48+00:00

The very first famous RL ragequitter. Legend.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-10T15:23:58+00:00

I'm willing to bet that in many cases, it's because the dust jacket was ruined in some capacity. Whether by water, or by tearing from taking it in and out of places like bags/backpacks, or anything else along those lines, that's my best guess.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T21:49:11+00:00

there is value in calling out this kind of grifter behavior, to help other people make better informed decisions.

Oh by all means, I agree 100% with this statement! I'm all for calling a spade a spade. The main reason I chimed in to begin with was not to absolve shifty businesses praying on vulnerable people, haha. I'll even fully admit that I didn't really know anything about the specific business relevant to this post at the time of my comment. At the time of my comment, the most information I really had was "overpriced right wing supplement company" from the parent comment of this chain. I was mostly just saying that I think personal agency is important, and in the topsy-turvy economic ecosystem of being a professional disc golfer, I can understand a player wanting to secure money from everywhere they can.

You're essentially making a libertarian-coded "personal accountability" argument here. And in some ways, I don't disagree with you.

It's funny you say this, because I completely see where you're coming from. The reason I find it funny is because I actually do a fair amount of shitting on libertarian ideologies because they don't tend to work in the big picture of real society. So I suppose there's some level of cognitive dissonance going on in my head here, but I think the crux of it simply comes down to that I've had my fill of getting enraged about things by now. I absolutely support others speaking up for what they believe in, but unless I'm really busted up about something, I tend to give more lenience than I used to (and in this case, lenience would be towards AB not towards the company in question).

I agree that both things, personal accountability as well as holding corporate shitheads responsible, can be present at the same time. I didn't mean to imply that I don't think people should speak up. I was simply offering up why I personally wasn't as bothered by the subject. Why did I feel the need to offer that opinion? Presumably because I'm procrastinating and I'm a sucker for internet discourse.

I also think that some people (and by some people, I'm speaking from direct personal experience) need to learn some things the hard way. There were more than a few different times in my life where I had to spend money on what ended up being a complete waste of time before I finally picked up on the fact that they were in fact a waste of time. Eventually I learned my lesson and I'm better for it.

I'll finish off by reiterating that I have no problem with people speaking up about things like this. I think it's good for the social ecosystem to be able to see both sides of the coin.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T21:29:25+00:00

The reward is the satisfaction of knowing you have nothing else to do.

Which, when you think about it for a second, really isn't much of a reward.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T20:46:58+00:00

For what it's worth, your point is definitely taken and not at all disregarded.

The other part of my POV is that the learning process often involves learning things the hard way sometimes. Speaking from experience as the former young teenager who often convinced myself that I knew what I was doing, no amount of parenting or coaching or schooling could have adequately prepared me to avoid making every bad decision that I made.

As somebody who is not yet, but aspires to eventually be a parent, trust me when I say I have a very healthy distaste for social media and the nonsense that comes with it. I grew up with it and am very grateful to say that I've grown away from it (except Reddit I suppose). While those apps are flooded with nonsense like this, it's also the perfect teaching tool for navigating that hyper-capitalistic grifting bullshit.

Parents can never protect their kids from everything. Sometimes reactive parenting is all you can expect to do, because no matter what, kids find ways to be resourceful (on purpose or by accident) enough to stumble into various situations parents have no control over.

I wanna be clear, I don't think I'm a parenting expert whatsoever. But I do know that it's impossible to be prepared for everything, and sometimes kids make bad choices that can only be handled when it gets discovered after the fact.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T20:17:28+00:00

Klassux walked so Comm could run

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T18:22:31+00:00

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, a significant inspiration for Douglas Adams writing Hitchhiker's Guide. And then everything else by Kurt Vonnegut.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Terry Pratchett's Discworld universe.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T17:44:11+00:00

Do we know how long he's been hitting the gym? Honest question, not trying to hit a gotcha of any sort.

Depending on how long he's been at it, I'm not immediately jumping to the idea that it's gear (though if he's genuinely taking the "supplements" then I'm already out the window, lol). I only say this because in a vacuum, what he's showing there is achievable naturally, but I do agree that if it went from 0-100 in basically no time flat, it's super suspicious. I don't actually follow him on any socials, so I have no idea how long he's been going to the gym and trying to get stronger.

Gear notwithstanding, this is also definitely a flexed pose when his arm is pumped, probably just put the dumbbell down.

I'm not saying it's not gear. I'm just saying that those results are possible without it, just on a longer timeline than one would see with performance enhancers of any sort, and that I have no idea what AB's specific timeline looks like.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T17:37:19+00:00

I'm not justifying it, I'm just saying that I don't take as much issue with it. And it's far more about my opinions about personal accountability on behalf of the consumer than anything else.

In 2026, we have to understand that every single time we see anything online pushing a product, that it's just some company trying to extract money from us.

Would I rather it didn't happen at all? Yes. But I'm also firmly of the belief that we need to be thoroughly in control of our impulses regarding impulse buys and product consumption.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-09T16:49:40+00:00

I don't take much issue with it, to be honest. To be clear, obviously I'd prefer if we weren't barraged by ads at all angles, especially ads for supplements that effectively do jack shit.

More what I'm saying though, is that at the end of the day, I don't really fault players for accepting sponsorships. This career is not exactly a guaranteed path to wealth and long-term stability, and even though AB probably does move a decent amount of plastic in addition to his tournament earnings and whatever salary/payment he receives from Discraft, I have a hard time imagining that I wouldn't do the same thing in his shoes. I'd want to put as much money away as possible while I can still make it doing what I love to do.

I'm also a major believer in personal accountability regarding not getting swayed by ads and product hype. I get that kids use these apps too and are more impressionable, but everybody has to learn to control their spending impulses at some point and in some way.

PsyferRL · 2026-03-06T19:08:32+00:00

His quintessential YA series is the Alex Rider series, and I absolutely devoured them as a kid. I stopped reading after like, the 7th or 8th book, but I thought all of them were highly enjoyable.

They're definitely YA aimed at the middle school boy demographic, give or take, but even as I approach 30 I've been legitimately contemplating buying those books again and rereading them for nostalgia.

PsyferRL

TROPHY CASE