Jordan Mattox

They pick ten each year, and I’ve read three and working on a fourth. Reading the comments section was a fascinating exercise in watching people not listen. While I admit these would not be my top ten, picking a top ten from all books is a fraught exercise anyway. And of course the people complaining are the ones most likely to benefit from reading the recommended books.

I am watching this same activity in a group on Facebook. I follow a group called Serious Non Fiction. Most of the time spent in the comments is not discussing the ideas of the book, but policing the definition of serious, drawing and redrawing lines.

Probably the biggest problem here is that no one is actually reading these books. Maybe in the future, we will just read titles and debate the merits of the jacket cover description and stop reading books entirely. Seems likely.