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What happened to a table of contents page?
Basically the title. Almost every physical book I have read in the past couple years does not have a table of contents page with chapters listed. I do read mostly fiction, is that why? Do I have false memories of books having tables of contents from childhood? Is that something that only happens in children's books? When I read ebooks a table of contents is normally upfront as linked pages. Is it just publishers trying to lessen pages printed to save a few bucks?
Neither complaining or celebrating the trend, just wondering...what happened?
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Essential Hemingway.
Just got my first Hemingway book: 'The Essential'.
I have been putting off diving into the author for years, but now, as I age, I find myself drawn to classics.
Is there a recommended order in which I should read his works. Chronologically, I assume, however, there may be letters and correspondence in between his works that might inform things further.
Newspaper articles etc. Thanks.
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Why this tiny bookstore is becoming one of LA’s most perfect Sunday hangs
https://laist.com/news/why-this-tiny-bookstore-is-becoming-one-of-las-most-perfect-sunday-hangs
https://redd.it/1tfph03
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Weekly FAQ Thread May 17 2026: Do you keep track of the books you read?
Hello readers and welcome to our Weekly FAQ thread! Our topic this week is: Do you keep track of the books you read? Please use this thread to discuss why and how you track the books you've read.
You can view previous FAQ threads here in our wiki.
Thank you and enjoy!
https://redd.it/1tfl7ep
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Any dumb eReaders? Kindle/Kobo/BOOX/Nook usability questions!
TL;DR: What I'm seeking:
1. wired transfer of books from iPad/iPhone or PC to the eReader
2. ePUB, PDF, and other format compatibility (or the ability to jailbreak and get compatibility)
3. dumb storage, the ability to use w/o ever connecting to wifi, no company having access to my library, pushing software updates, etc.
I've been wanting to buy an eReader for a while now but idk what to get. Essentially what I want (and I'm not totally sure it exists) is an almost totally dumb book storage device. I want to be able to turn it on and access my library, (no wifi) and I want to be able to send books from my iphone or PC to the eBook library with a wired connection without bringing it online anywhere. I'd like it to be just as close as possible to the concept of physical book ownership, and I don't want to find out that one day I can't use it without downloading "xyz" update from whoever sold me the device five years earlier.
I kind of feel like the kindle has the best hardware relative to the cost, but I hate the surveillance, data collection, etc. I've seen people recommend Kobo and BOOX but they're a lot more expensive. I can get a pretty top of the line used Kindle locally for like $50. I also currently have like 350 books on an ipad, would it be possible to buy a kindle, keep it offline and just move books from my ipad over to the kindle via a wired connection (formatting incompatibilities notwithstanding)? Does anyone know if it's possible to basically keep a kindle offline forever, away from updates and amazon eyes, and just use their nice hardware?
Is there an eReader out there that is capable of acting like a dumb device and just being a digital storage repository? I guess I'm wanting an eReader that is kind of like an external hard drive in terms of loading and storing books etc, but of course something I can carry around and read from.
Thanks in advance!
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Banned Books Discussion: May, 2026
Welcome readers,
Over the last several weeks/months we've all seen an uptick in articles about schools/towns/states banning books from classrooms and libraries. Obviously, this is an important subject that many of us feel passionate about but unfortunately it has a tendency to come in waves and drown out any other discussion. We obviously don't want to ban this discussion but we also want to allow other posts some air to breathe. In order to accomplish this, we're going to post a discussion thread every month to allow users to post articles and discuss them. In addition, our friends at /r/bannedbooks would love for you to check out their sub and discuss banned books there as well.
https://redd.it/1texmjv
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Yesteryear book questions regarding location
No real spoilers here just a question for discussion. I grew up in south central Idaho about 40ish min from Blaine County where Sun Valley is located. She mentions obviously so many times the family lived in southwest Idaho and goes on to talk about farmland and woods in the back yard.
Southwest Idaho is Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, even on into Oregon. Farm land is a yes, rolling hills and wooded areas is a no. Do you think she is meaning more north like into McCall?
She also mentions flying into Sun Valley, which is not possible the airport is in Hailey, little point but important if you are building a character who is an Idaho native. Anyway it says they fly into Sun Valley and drive 3 hours west, which gets you just past Boise. You mean you flew into a tiny mountain airport where only smaller planes and jets are allowed to then drive 3 hours across the high desert to end up near the biggest airport in the state.
Also I don’t get the prairie dress reference in the chapter discussing her family in her youth and that she links UT in. If you play that religious game why would you not center the story in southeastern Idaho and make it a fundamentalist Mormon group. She could have made it a prepper community and taken it to norther Idaho and the forest and rolling hills would have made sense there. I enjoyed the book but was annoyed by all of this.
Anyone with thoughts?
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The Guardian's 100 best novels of all time - Middlemarch, Beloved, Ulysses top the list
https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/100-best-novels
https://redd.it/1teo1zl
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New Biography of Ethel Kennedy, Written by Her Daughter Kerry, to Debut This Fall
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a70795692/kerry-kennedy-ethel-kennedy-biography-preorder/
https://redd.it/1telu1g
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apologetics. I thought at first she was just failing to really sell the idea that humanity un-changed by aliens was worth perserving, like she thought that idea was just didn't need defending at all while also painting a picture of humanity so bleak and depraved that she seemed to be fighting against her own themes. As the series went on, I stopped thinking she did think that this was worth perserving, that actually she really did think that the only hope for societies would be to be forcibly dragged into enlightenment by more powerful and advanced outsiders.
https://redd.it/1te5kaw
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The surprising dismissiveness toward Lord of the Flies
We often hear the term Orwellian used to describe our modern world. Others argue Brave New World is a more accurate map of our distractible society, and we even see suggestions that we are now living in an Idiocracy. Does Lord of the Flies have any modern applicability?
Whenever it comes up on Reddit, the top comments usually dismiss it as a product of its time; a cynical response to Victorian castaway tropes like The Coral Island. Others argue the behavior is just a result of British private school trauma. The most common gotcha is the real-life story of the six Tongan teenagers, where cooperation trumped all.
I agree that if you dropped 40 boys (aged 6-12, mostly 'littluns') on an island, it wouldn't necessarily end in chaos. But Golding wasn't writing a survival manual; he was writing a political autopsy.
To me, the story is a timeless study of how democracy fails.
>!A fragile system of rules and procedure (he who holds the conch can speak) that is brushed aside the moment people get scared. An imagined threat (the Beast) used to justify the dismantling of order. !<
>!The prophet (Simon) who realizes the Beast is just a dead airman and is killed for trying to bring the truth. The literally shortsighted boy (Piggy) who ironically has the most foresight. He sees exactly where the savagery will lead, but because he lacks the right social standing and voice, his rationality is treated as an annoyance. !<
>!The leader (Jack) who gains power by promising protection against the Beast. And finally the average people (Samneric) who aren't inherently cruel, but are eventually co-opted into the machinery of fear just to stay safe.!<
It's one of my favorite Nobel Prize in Literature winners, and I'm glad I studied it in school. It helped me, as a teenager, understand why people turn to leaders who promise protection against the other (real or imagined), and how those who bring rationality to a crisis are so easily unheard.
I worry when the response to this book is "it couldn't happen here" or "they aren't like us." That response fails to recognize the common humanity, both the capacity for good and the vulnerability to fear, that Golding was trying to warn us about.
https://redd.it/1te75d7
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Tennessee school system has banned ‘Roots’, as thousands of other books face similar conservative challenges
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/tennessee-school-system-bans-roots-145549693.html
https://redd.it/1te1u40
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Every Book In The World
Earlier this week I listened to "Every Book In The World", a radio play by Nick Warburton, about Sir Thomas Phillipps who had a maniacal obsession to own a copy of every book in the world. (Fwiw, this predated the idea of a "copyright"/"legal deposit" library by about a century.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00771l3
Inevitably, he didn't succeed, but he did amass around 40,000 printed books and 60,000 manuscripts by the time he died in 1872.
Perhaps not surprisingly, disposing of his books after his death proved to be something of challenge -‑ incredibly, the final portion of the collection was only sold 134 years later, on 7 June 2006.
More info on Phillipps at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas\_Phillipps
To paraphrase from the play, Phillipps's aim was not to actually read the books (not that he could ever have done so), it was simply to own them.
So, whenever, like me, you get mildly concerned about the number of books you own, and especially the number of books you own that you haven't (yet) read, comfort yourself with the fact that your situation could be a lot worse.
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East of Eden Netflix trailer
Why does it look like they’re making Cathy the main character? And also trying to make it seem like she’s redeemable?
I thought she was supposed to embody true evil. The entire trailer was a monologue of things I couldn’t imagine her saying.
I hope they don’t try to make her an anti hero type of character.
https://redd.it/1tdsyvk
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‘Tojo’ Review: The Man Who Led Japan to War
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/tojo-review-the-man-who-led-japan-to-war-10d8c975
https://redd.it/1tdn0r2
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The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson, looking for varied perspectives on it, what's your take?
Have you read this story? If not, the post contains spoilers even though I've tried to keep it largely free from them.
I absolutely did not like the story. It made little sense and was hard to read. It gave me no insight into the ways and cultures of the people it claims to be based on. Except a bit about cents of course. And of course, the flavour of the sea was there a bit, but not really much of a consequence; he was a sailor and he could have been a sailor who was from elsewhere as much as he was from Hawaii.
I'm well aware it's a very old classic and my feminist side dislikes the narrative - to be very honest the fact that men don't seem to have grown at all through the ages is what aggravates me more - Keawe might as well have been a modern man, only now actively identified as toxic. The girl, his wife, the way the author has written her, makes me angry at the author too. She is the only one who gains nothing and her's is the sacrifice most glorified. "Sacrificial love cannot be bought" - while this seems to be the theme per internet summaries, i don't see that anywhere in the story. She is obviously impressed by his wealth. He needs to use the bottle twice to "possess" her. Beyond their sacrifices they are unable to happily love each other till they are rid of the very devil they used to be so happy together. I do not see the merit at all in this narrative.
I also wonder if the drunk at the end is supposed to signify something that would have made more sense in the religious symbolism of those times regarding alcoholic sin? Or perhaps not? Perhaps the poor imp finally has a companion? Everyone curses the bottle so, but not a single person hesitates it's benefits. The only person in the entire story who does not gain anything from the bottle is the girl.
Despite all my viewpoints as a reader, i still read this story, and want to know if there is anything to gain from it, anything to appreciate that i perhaps missed. Perhaps, like many classics, it's read for some sort of insight?
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Researchers stunned by a forgotten medieval book in Rome hiding the oldest English poem
https://apnews.com/article/old-english-manuscript-poetry-bede-caedmon-hymn-latin-italy-106769c014901cf06d8a56839d56ac90?utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwdGRzaAR2uVVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR4cZH_AKjlGjEuab-XDB3vA83FevUHl99em4zYjGzoOl2ptfqxPWrCWOIknCA_aem_GToh1D8MLWVmwAypcsXISw&sfnsn=mo
https://redd.it/1tfs5oz
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Other Women by Nicola Maye Goldberg, Has a Book Ever Made You Miss Someone You Don’t Even Talk To Anymore?
When was the last time you read something that wasn’t a thriller but a slice of life that kept you up at night reading but also thinking? Feeling?
Good writing is when even if the book is short (and kindle tells you it’s only under 3hrs long to finish the book), it keeps you engaged. The words hit home, have you nodding along, makes you angry when sleep catches up and you realize you have to continue it TOMORROW! Almost 24hours later! Making you wish you had no work, so you could cozy up and finish the ride, or has you finishing up work real fast so that you can make time to finish this.
Other Women was one such book, It’s essentially a love letter, in the disguise of writing to the ‘one’ , ‘the one that got away’, but in reality, a letter to oneself. It’s about love, dealing with the aftermath of heartbreak, aimlessly living, grief that strikes out of nowhere, remembering the heartbreak, career, dreams, just life, wandering, living, as a woman.
It’s in second person POV and this is right there along with couple of other books I’ve read in second person and loved, because it’s not something every writer can do well, but Nicola does it beautifully.
The writing is very intimate, raw, relatable but also reflective. It makes you want to put on some music, immerse yourself in it and just think, dissociate, float away.
We’ve all had our moments, where we’ve felt like penning a letter or writing numerous emails to that friend, or lover, or someone that was once special, to tell them what they meant to us, and still do. What their absence does to our lives and how moving on from them would take great strength that I can only explain it by quoting from the book:
“I never really wanted to be free from you, but now that I was, I would have to build a home inside myself, and I would never invite you in.”
https://redd.it/1tfnuv0
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Korner and Werner series by Katrine Engberg
Does anyone know why this series has all been translated from Norwegian to English, with the exception of the second book in the series “Blodmane”, which translates to blood moon in English? I can’t find an answer anywhere. I love this series, and “Nordic noir” in general and it truly bothers me that the second book was skipped. Is there a reason? So bizarre that publishers would translate an entire series but skip the second book? Is there something controversial about the book? It makes me want to read it even more! Someone anyone if you have the answer I’d be so happy! If there is a better sub to ask please let me know! TIA
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I just finished Berlin Game by Len Deighton, and it definitely scratched the itch Smiley series left.
Le Carre is just a wizard. I read most of his books, and they ruined other spy fiction for me. I couldn’t get into most of the books I tried afterward, not even fantasy which I usually love. So I ended up taking a long break from reading.
Just today, I discovered Len Deighton. The first chapter of Berlin Game gave me the same feeling I had when I first read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. I finished it in one sitting.
I mean, it’s not le Carre but I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a classic Cold War era spy fiction, and there’s just something about Cold War espionage that acts like a magnet for me. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
https://redd.it/1tf37yy
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I've made a silly little website that spits out a random excuse that I can use when I buy yet another book that I'll probably not read, maybe you'll like it
https://excuseforanotherbook.com/
https://redd.it/1tev25j
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Simple Questions: May 16, 2026
Welcome readers,
Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread.
Thank you and enjoy!
https://redd.it/1teoazk
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Gift ideas?
My wife has been collecting used sci-fi / fantasy books recently and I was thinking about birthday gifts. Her favorite book is 20000 leagues under the sea... was thinking about getting her a leather version of it but wanted to see if I could get some reddit suggestions! She's mostly been collecting used paperbacks, so I'm not sure if a nice book would look too out of place or nice.
Recently helped her install new floating bookshelves. I could do more but she's a bit picky on location so I'd have to hash it out with her.
Maybe really nice themed & matched bookends? Right now she just has basic metal ones.
Would love suggestions!
https://redd.it/1telx8k
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Truly, A Short Stay In Hell
This book was genuinely such a needed read for me! I'm on such a literary high right now, and I can't wait for the next journey I go on!
One of the themes that I picked up on this is the act of putting in effort can be enough. That love is enough. That you don't need to make some grandiose effort in order to be enough. That sometimes it truly is the thought that counts.
I would love to hear what thoughts any of you guys have!
https://redd.it/1tefsba
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So I hated Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis/Lillith's Brood
This was my first Octavia Butler exposure, and I'm posting this in the hope that someone has a dramatically different read on this series than I did, but the way I read it, found the series shockingly repugnant. So if you love this series, and think I've absolutely missed the core themes at play here, please let me know, because I would *love* a totally different perspective on this series.
First the good:
Butler has a real talent for dialogue. Her writing is dialogue heavy and I always enjoy this kind of storytelling, and her dialogue really hits for me. The characters feel alive and full of personality.
This book as some of my favorite aliens. I love creative aliens and Butler knocks it out of the park with the Oankali. They really feel alien, from their unique reproductive methods to their strange but robust systems of ethics. 9/10 aliens.
Now the bad:
The bad is literally all of the thematic content of the books.
When I finished part 1, I felt a little conflicted about it. The aliens are not... malicious, but they do completely strip humanity of autonomy, and many humans are understandably angry about this. The whole thing has a very "white-man's burden" sorta feel to it, the aliens see themselves as saving humanity from itself, and that the protestations of humanity are basically the irrational screams of violent apes being dragged out of the darkness by saviors they're too small minded to understand. What rubbed me the wrong way by the end of Dawn is that Butler doesn't seem to push back on this at all. She presents humans as the violent, irrational, cruel, monsters the Oankali see them as. I kept waiting for the "yes, humanity has these deeply embedded problems but there's something beautiful here that is worth preserving", but that never comes. There is nothing beautiful worth preserving, humans resisting the Oankali are primitive morons.
But hey I solder on into book 2, "Adulthood Rites", thinking maybe she'll push back on the Oankali's interpretation of humanity a little bit, and show that for all their brilliance, advanced technology, and wisdom, there's something about humanity that they can't see or understand that they're going to destroy forever. Instead we get a story about a young Oankali/Human hybrid who is permanently compromised after being kidnapped by a resistor village and raised among humans who becomes a sympathizer for some reason. He then pleads with the other Oankali to create a colony on Mars for purebred humans to have another go at not wiping themselves out. The other Oankali agree to this but tell our protagonist that this is cruelty, because it's inevitable that the Mars colony will wipe itself out again because of the fundamental nature of humanity. We're given absolutely no reason to believe they're not 100% correct in their assessment. I can't help think about the North American reservation system, where the natives are forced off their land to barren chunks of the continent, but Adulthood Rites absolutely sides with colonial forces here and basically says "wow shit's really going to suck for those who don't assimilate and have to go live Mars. They're going to fail because they're such savages, honestly would be kinder to just kill them."
Then we get to the last book, Imago, which I am *so desperate" to see some kind of shift in tone on, some kind of pushback on the Oankali. Instead we get a couple Oankali/human hybrids who are physically dependent on human mates for survival and use custom crafted pheromone to make humans fall in love with them and break down the resistance of the last stronghold of un-modified humans on earth so they can be create a new community for the next population of hybrids. This is treated as a good and optimistic thing.
So I went into this specifically because I was reading a lot of scifi written by white men, and Butler is one of the genre titans, so I thought "I really should read some Butler for a fresh perspective."
I was just shocked to find a trilogy of colonialism
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius is fascinating from a historical context, and a very resonant and thoughtful read overall
I've been making it a point to read more nonfiction in 2026, and especially Philosophy texts. Meditations is almost always recommended as one of the best introductions to philosophical narratives, as well as a great example of it overall. So that's what I started my journey with.
I can see why this book is so widely revered across so many demographics of readers. Not only is it a fascinating historical document into a singular mind, it's compelling as a work of philosophy in and of itself.
From a historical standpoint, it's pretty crazy that you're reading the most intimate thoughts and musings of a man from 2 thousand years ago, who at one point was one of the most powerful human beings in the world. But like any one of us, he had his insecurities, anxieties and contemplated his existence and his place in the world.
That's where the philosophical aspect comes in, and this I was very pleasantly surprised by. For something written 2 millennia ago, most of it still feels very resonant and applicable to contemporary times. I understand that Meditations is one of the foundational texts for the school of Stoicism, which is something I've always found fascinating (albeit not something I've really practiced in any meaningful capacity).
I actually found Aurelius' musings to be very comforting, and a balm to the soul, especially in the context of some stressful personal times I've been going through. A lot of the passages genuinely made me stop and think about myself and my own approach to life, the things that cause me stress and anxiety, and how meaningful they actually are. It's rare that a book actually makes me reconsider my own self in a different context, so kudos to my homie Marcus. There's so many times where it feels like you're being provided lived-in wisdom from a friend who means well.
I do love the fact that these were just musings that Aurelius had on a daily basis - it's not a self-help book full of fluff meant to sell copies. I think that's why it actually works pretty well as a self-help book because you can actually see this man, who had all the power, wealth and fame in the world, still question himself and the world around him, and work through the labyrinth of his mind through his journaling.
There are a ton of passages and entries that I found insightful, resonant and often profound. Here are some of my favourites:
"Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly."
"The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts."
"Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment - is this necessary?"
"The best revenge is not to be like that."
"When you start to lose your temper, remember: There’s nothing manly about rage. It’s courtesy and kindness that define a human being-and a man."
"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."
"The knowledge that there is nothing nature loves more than to alter what exists and make new things like it. All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it."
"'It's unfortunate that this happened' - no, it's fortunate that this happened and I've remained unharmed by it...the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is good fortune."
"You don't love yourself enough. Or you'd love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it."
Highly recommend this for anyone looking to venture into philosophy, looking for a cool historical document or even just trying to make sense of being human in an indifferent world.
https://redd.it/1te52rc
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Veronica Roth on the hate she got from Divergent article
"Divergent was very popular and overall well-received, but there was a lot of negativity that came with it, just because any popular work is going to carry that kind of negativity. I was young, and anxious, and soaked that in like a sponge" from this interview
https://redd.it/1tdxxt1
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Alberta public libraries disappointed with passing of Bill 28
https://www.caplibraries.ca/newsroom/alberta-public-libraries-disappointed-with-passing-of-bill-28
https://redd.it/1tdt4pf
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Weekly Recommendation Thread: May 15, 2026
Welcome to our weekly recommendation thread! A few years ago now the mod team decided to condense the many "suggest some books" threads into one big mega-thread, in order to consolidate the subreddit and diversify the front page a little. Since then, we have removed suggestion threads and directed their posters to this thread instead. This tradition continues, so let's jump right in!
**The Rules**
* Every comment in reply to this self-post must be a request for suggestions.
* All suggestions made in this thread must be direct replies to other people's requests. Do not post suggestions in reply to this self-post.
* All unrelated comments will be deleted in the interest of cleanliness.
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**How to get the best recommendations**
The most successful recommendation requests include a description of the kind of book being sought. This might be a particular kind of protagonist, setting, plot, atmosphere, theme, or subject matter. You may be looking for something similar to another book (or film, TV show, game, etc), and examples are great! Just be sure to explain *what* you liked about them too. Other helpful things to think about are genre, length and reading level.
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All Weekly Recommendation Threads are linked below the header throughout the week to guarantee that this thread remains active day-to-day. For those bursting with books that you are hungry to suggest, we've set the suggested sort to new; you may need to set this manually if your app or settings ignores suggested sort.
If this thread has not slaked your desire for tasty book suggestions, we propose that you head on over to the aptly named subreddit /r/suggestmeabook.
- The Management
https://redd.it/1tdrp6n
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Digging Up North Korea’s Christian Roots – Book Review
https://www.eurasiareview.com/08052026-digging-up-north-koreas-christian-roots-book-review/
https://redd.it/1tdn6rv
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