This has been yet another sick week in our house, so there has been a lot of escaping into reading some good books.
This week disappointed me. I had it in my head that I would get our schedule completely back on track. Instead, our entire family came down with a cold and we didn’t leave the house. We haven’t done one activity that has been on our schedule this week, and I haven’t been able to workout once. Hopefully, it’ll be better next week. And hopefully I will not have to wipe my daughter’s nose every two minutes soon.
With all that extra down time, I read a bit more than usual, so I have two books that I finished. So let’s get to the reading.
Reading Social Media News
A lot of changes will be happening with AI this year to respond to the MANY concerns about its usage. The latest news is that Meta is improving its disclosures. Every step forward that we can take to identify when AI is used means that there is less misinformation in the world. And we really need to do everything we can to combat that.
Buffer gave us numbers for what I was already feeling: Threads is getting 73.6% more engagement than X/Twitter. This has become one of my favorite channels. I love channels that make it easy to connect with new interesting people, and that’s exactly what Threads is doing right now. But Facebook and Instagram both used to do that easily as well, and they no longer do. So Threads may be my favorite network for the short-term, but I’ll enjoy it anyway.
Reading Books, Books and More Books
Past
I’m confused about the point of The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight. And it’s disappointing because of how readable it was. Knight is an excellent writer that didn’t know how to tell this story. The climax of the book was boring because of how muddled it had become. She abandoned some of the storylines or gave them lip service just to finish them off. This could have been a good story. All of the ingredients were there. It just failed in the end. Knight really needs an editor that can help her with pacing, and I think she’d have a great, long career. Unfortunately, she didn’t have that with this book and it showed. Score: B-
I also happily read The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It was a slim book, clocking in around one hundred pages. It’s focused on my favorite parts of her book, Braiding Sweetgrass. I’ve lived in a community for the past three years that at times feels very separated. It’s been my mission to help change that. The ideas in this book give me so many good starting points. I had been experimenting with aspects of the gift economy for years but didn’t have a name for it. So this gave me a wonderful vocabulary and ideas on how to expand on what I am doing. I look forward to reading more on this. And I’m excited for the change volumes like this will create in the world. Score: A- (just because it’s so slim)
Present
I have a book waiting for me at the library. I’m really excited to read this book. My daughter has been sick enough that I can’t go pick up that book. Yes, this is depressing. In the meantime, I guess I’ll read the other library books that are just sitting in my house. I picked up Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange not too long ago. It sat in my house because of other books I HAD to read. But this is a good book to read after The Serviceberry. I don’t know that much about how horribly the US government treated Native Americans, and it’s time I learned more. I know this will be a hard read (probably why I put it off). Hopefully I’ll get a lot out of reading it.
What are you reading? What books are you looking forward to?