Flying blind reading whatever 1000 Books to Read Before you Die says. This next list is themed around this book.

We need to talk about Kevin was a fantastic read! Best book I’ve read this summer after Paul Auster’s 4321. Now discovered an actual columbine shooter parent has written their story and interested to see the truth after fiction. Has anyone read it?

Three chapters in and I'm loving it. My plan is to stop and read other Beevor books relevant as they come along the time line of this one. So Stalingrad will be my first pit stop when I reach it in this book etc.

Finally, I received my author copies of my book, The Invisible Girl. Seeing my first published book in print is an incredibly exciting moment, although I have to admit that it also comes with a few concerns.

I published the book through both Amazon and Lulu. The copies I'm holding in these photos are from Amazon. While I followed Amazon's recommended formatting guidelines and researched the settings other authors use, I'm still a little unsure about the interior layout. In particular, the inside margins seem a bit unusual to me. Perhaps it's just my perception, but I've also heard that Amazon's print quality can sometimes vary.

I have also ordered author copies from Lulu, although they haven't arrived yet. I've often heard that Lulu offers better print quality than Amazon, so I'm curious to see whether that proves to be true. I'll have to wait a little longer to find out.

I'd love to hear about your experiences with publishing printed books. Were you happy with your first printed copy, disappointed, or simply surprised by the final result?

For those who may be interested, The Invisible Girl: A Silenced Childhood in Communist Hungary is not an easy read. It is a nonfiction memoir that recounts the abuse I experienced during my childhood. It is not a book for everyone. I would recommend it to readers who are prepared to confront difficult realities and who genuinely care about creating a world where children are protected and heard.

Unfortunately, far too many children continue to suffer abuse while society fails to safeguard them. By sharing my story, I hope to raise awareness and encourage meaningful conversations. Perhaps, together, those who have the ability to influence change can help build a future in which no child has to endure such experiences.

If you'd like to learn more, my book is available on Amazon in both eBook and paperback formats:

https://a.co/d/03JYLRYX

Joined an American library in my very non English speaking city and finally got my hands on this baby 🥹 Only 50 pages in so far, but already couldn’t be happier with it. You know the feeling when a book is hitting the exact kind of curiosity you’ve been wanting to explore? Well, it’s that for me. Morality, free will, humans’ best and worst impulses, and their correlation with brain development, genetic inheritance and cultural context. If anyone has read/is reading it too, I’d really like to hear your thoughts!

my first time reading both and I am hooked to each page. both are intense in their respective ways.

Taken in the mezzanine of the Hotel Champlain Burlington (Vermont) with a latte from the in-house cafe. Book purchased at Toadstool Bookstore in Keene, New Hampshire as a surprise, wrapped-up non-fiction selection in the vein of the ‘Date with a Book’ gimmick more commonly associated with fiction/romance novels.

I've been wondering about this and wanted to hear what others think.

When you're studying a non-fiction book (or even a textbook), do you find it more effective to:

• Read as much as possible in one long sitting to maintain context and momentum, or
• Divide the book into smaller sections and study them over multiple sessions with breaks in between?

I'm interested in both comprehension and long-term retention. Have you noticed one approach working better than the other? If so, why?

I'd love to hear about your personal experience, especially if you've experimented with both methods.

Hi guys, I'm trying to get through Nietzsche's Beyond Good And Evil, and it's giving me a tough time. It's been 2 hours, and I've only read 20 pages (quite thoroughly though). I'm trying to analyze each page. It's not that I don't like this book, it's just that it's dense and I need to analyze every word, sometimes reread passages. Do you think I should pair it up with sth lighter? Or do you have any tips on how to get through tough books?

I’ve started reading *Meditations* by Marcus Aurelius. Honestly, some of the sentences are very short, yet incredibly profound and full of meaning. What are your thoughts on this book? I know it’s an old classic, but you know what they say: everything unread is new! :)

If you are looking for a new memoir to read, read Suffer a Witch. It’s the author’s memoir on surviving SA at the hands of her youth pastor and it’s written in verse. Throughout there are also the author’s letters to women who were wrongfully accused of witchcraft throughout history, or had their stories exploited, or used their voices to speak up. I have around 100-150 pages left to read, but I think it’s going to be 5 stars!

Currently reading it, I’m at the first part of the book: The Seductive Archetypes (it contains 2 parts)

It’s a great book. Greene uses storytelling to explain the different seductive archetypes, mostly with real historical accounts.

He really brakes down the underlying psychology of what makes each of the sexes attract to each other

Slowly you begin to understand the behavior of certain people from your past experiences, while otherwise it would remain shrouded in mystery and confusion on your side.

I would recommend to read this book if you want to understand the behavior of the opposite sex, understand the subtle tactics they use whether it’s intentional or not, or understand why you feel the way you feel towards them.

A word of caution to the reader: it does contain deep truths and psychological levers that work on both sexes and will seduce both

But it’s you who decides to use it positively or negatively, and if you’ll use it negatively karma will punish you.

Anyone else struggle with this book? I’m a big NF guy but this one is just not doing it for me. Feels like I’m walking through knee deep sand. I have no want to pick it up.

Hello everyone. I've been trying to read books more often but find myself struggling to stay engaged or even just stay focused on what I am reading. Like I am zoning out a lot.

When I was a kid I used to read a lot of story books, and in the past I was consuming bucket loads of (don't judge) fanfiction. But I mean like, incredibly well-written fics that could very well be publishable-quality. So I know I can read a lot and I know I enjoy it, even if I am slower than the average reader. But lately I've been more interested in wanting to read more about phylosophy & spycology, or books that are the equivalent to a documentary about real-world, educational subjects. For whatever reason, I really struggle to stay engaged. It's not always because it's written in academic verbatim, or that I don't know enough about the subject to easily spring off of, I just can't seem to make my brain shut up or not wander off. Even fiction as of late feels like a challenge to digest and stay entertained in. I can't tell if it's the narrative voice that is making it hard to stay present or what.

Has anyone experienced this? I find it hard to read when my mind is busy, but even if I feel clear-headed my mind likes to tiptoe away without me noticing until I'm well in a few paragraphs down. I just find it sapping my stamina and I feel I don't make much progress. Any advice?

I'm reading A Childhood in Malabar by Kamala Das.

I'm reading it quite slowly as so many Malyalam words, mostly of family relations are coming on the way and I'm not familiar with Malyalam language. So, I keep on checking the end of the book and google for these, while reading it. Now, I've read like 50 pages and remember most of these terms (family relations like what's for maternal grandma, uncle, father, sister etc) and it's fun. And it is quite interesting learning more about the culture of Malabar (South-west Coast of India) at that time(time period is the second world war).

Share your current read and the experience.

My third Patrick Radden Keefe book and it just always amazes me how quickly he manages to hook you into the such obscure/niche stories that otherwise you might not have been interested in. Truly one of the greatest writers now, can’t wait to pick up his new book!

Also, recommend listening to his podcast called “Wind of Change”. So entertaining and maybe something you’ve never heard of before!

Any suggestions for other lighthearted reading on philosophy? :)

After resigning from my job that had a heavy schedule, I decided to take on reading again while I wait for employment. I have watched numerous youtube videos where influencers did the one book a week challenge, but it’s heavy on my end as someone who relearning to love books again.

At first, it started with ten pages per day. But since then, I have decided to adjust it with at least one chapter per day. I’m now reading Napoleon A Life by Andrew Roberts. I look forward to finishing it before the month ends. This is the second book I’m exploring since I started to challenge myself.

Do you have any recommendations on what to read next and tips maybe to ensure that the important details (dates and such) are retained by memory?

Thank you 💚

I’m looking for books that help me understand AI, think about the future, and develop first-principles thinking to solve problems at a larger scale. I’d love recommendations that are practical, insightful, and genuinely perspective-changing.

I love reading true crime and psychological profiling, but I stumbled upon a book recently that I just can't stop thinking about. It's called "The Serial Killer Against God" written by a former FBI profiler under the pseudonym James Ressler, and the entire thing completely deconstructs a mindset that absolutely broke my brain.

I never understood the mentality of people who are willing to destroy everything. Like most readers of this genre, I knew that severe childhood trauma can deeply break a person, but I could never wrap my head around how that pain mutates into a desire for total, absolute annihilation.

But this book describes a chilling turning point in a killer's youth where he committed his first brutal murder and just stood there, waiting for a lightning bolt or immediate cosmic punishment. When the sky stayed silent and nothing happened, his traumatized mind made a terrifying leap: that God does not exist, no one is coming to save anyone, and he is now above the creator himself.

Because of this, his desire to destroy turned into a specific mission. According to author he now deliberately targets religious groups simply because he hates what they represent. He even went so far as to infiltrate the church itself, not out of belief, but to completely gut it from the inside and replace messages of love with pure hatred, basically driving God out so he could put himself on the throne.

What's wild is that according to the author, this isn't some past historical case. This is a breakdown of a real person who is alive right now, actively operating, and actually has real leverage over nuclear capabilities through his network and connections to high-ranking Russian political officials.

Honestly, after reading the whole thing and looking into how he breaks down those connections to certain power structures and even doing some of my own fact-checking online, it feels terrifying.

I just wanted to share this here and get it off my chest because the reality of it is genuinely keeping me up at night. Has anyone else read this specific book or come across this profile?

or as long as I can remember, I wanted to write a book. Since my teenage years, I carried countless story ideas in my head. I started many times, but never finished.

Until now.

In January 2026, I began writing the story of my childhood. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I stayed up late night after night because the story needed to be told. By March, my first book was finished.

Then came the publishing journey: formatting, ISBN registration, copyright, designing a cover with AI, and learning everything that goes into bringing a book to life. It took time, but today it is finally available on Amazon.

This is not an easy or comforting story. I recommend it only to readers willing to face the reality of how vulnerable people are often treated by society.

What surprises me most is that finishing the book didn't bring the sense of accomplishment I expected. I wrote it so quickly that the feeling never really arrived. Maybe that's because this book was never just about writing, it was part of something deeper. Whether it's healing, closure, or something else entirely, I'm still figuring that out.

On Amazon there is a "READ SAMPLE" button to read the first chapter for free. If anyone would check it out and gave an honest review of that I wouldn´t mind. I am not afraid of bad review but cruel unnecessary views and opinion without any real explanation like: this is bad - and not stating what is wrong with the writing or what made them think it is bad would not help at all, thanks.

Today, I tried to read a self-published memoir I bought last year. The author was in a YouTube video exposing an online social predator and was a force of nature. Even though I normally don’t buy nonfiction, I wanted to support them. But I just cannot with the writing. To me, it’s nails on a chalkboard. Worse, it made me feel nothing, despite everything going on. I lasted a little over 30 pages before I gave up.

I avoided marking it on Goodreads and I’m glad I did. The last thing I want is to wreck reviews on a personal memoir, especially since it’s on a very sensitive topic (CSA). I’m going to donate my copy to the local library, hopefully putting it in the hands of someone who needs this kind of book. But I always feel bad when I don’t like a memoir. It almost feels like I’m judging someone for sharing their story and I don’t like that feeling.

Got this gem from Thriftbooks after getting an interest in the whole Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West story. Excited to read Violet’s letters. Can’t wait to get started! 😊