4d ago

Reading recommendations for work?

My work is up and down like a yoyo at the moment, to help avoid doom scrolling during quiet patches I've decided to start reading (nobody at work is going to pay attention to plain text on my screen, we're all in the same boat).

I've got a copy of Naomi Altman's The Power to start off with ... any other recommendations?

(Obviously can't be anything smutty or very funny because I need to be low-key, and lighter stuff would be easier to pick up and put down when I have actual work to do)

Thanks in advance :-)

27 comments

I liked the power! I'd recommend Vox as well its a feminist novel.
time travellers wife is excellent but has really sad bits. Her fearful symmetry is also a good read.
Have you read Sarah Waters books at all? I find her engaging without being too taxing. I like the little stranger best... from what I remember tipping the velvet and fingersmith have a fair bit of smut.
If you like dystopian stuff Lockdown is one of the best I've ever read, it depends if you find that taxing.
- Thank you :-)
  I'm not a big reader, hence the question in the first place - usually I just stick with graphic novels and the news, but it's time for a change!
  
  Ooooh what graphic novels do you like?

No romantasy smut? I'm fresh out of ideas then I'm afraid...
- Ha! Yeah, I'm afraid so - not only do I not want to have that sort of thing on-screen just in case someone reads a couple of words over my shoulder, I also don't want to get all wound up at work
  
  There's a particular way of sitting and flexing your thigh muscles that can help with that.
  << >>
  
  I do rather enjoy working from home playing the audiobook versions out loud in my office. Results are inconclusive as to its effects on productivity, testing continues.

Ooo! Ooo! Children of Time! I love Children of time! I will never not recommend Children of Time!
The humans fought amongst each other and mostly died. But they seeded a world that was supposed to have hyperintelligent monkeys! But there are no monkeys and now it has hyperintelligent jumping spiders! We get to follow their development and conflicts and then all of the spoilery spoiler stuff and it's great. One of my favourite books. Are you afraid of spiders? Good, that's a plot point in the book!
(it's not very light though sorry)
- Thanks, I'll add it to my list, it sounds great :-)
  I'm not afraid of spiders though, I had a pet tarantula once
  
  Tarantulas are very cool! I'm kind of afraid of spiders but they are both incredibly cool and incredibly cute so I refuse to be afraid of them. One of my favourite spiders is phidippus johnsoni!
  Also shoutout to cellar spiders and that neat little anxiety dance that they do.
- This is the book I've been reading during electrolysis sessions ... and I'll never know if that's the reason I hate this book or not.

@foxglove@lazysoci.al did you see this thread?
- thank you! 🤍

I think a suggestion mentioned in Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber was to use a terminal based browser like lynx and spend your time on the web, e.g. reading and editing wikipedia articles. Most passers-by won't recognize the text on the screen as a browser and will think you're working.
- Yeah, I've converted the first book I'm reading to plain text and have it just down the side of my screen :-)
  I don't have to bother with a bookmark since I just delete what I've read so far, which is also handy.

If you can find some collections of folk tales, most of them can be very charming, and they're typically short, perfect for taking little bites at a time.
- I've already read a lot of mythology stuff at work, it's very interesting but I'm ready for more contemporary input :-)

I'm just going to recommend three books with "hollow" in the title.
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle's wild crows (i.e. "those idiots"), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ®.
But when Big Jim's eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to think something's not quite right. His tried-and-true remedies—from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim's loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis—fail to cure Big Jim's debilitating malady. S.T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he suddenly discovers that the neighbors are devouring one other. Local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of Seattle's dangerous new predators.
Humanity's extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a cowardly crow whose only knowledge of the world comes from TV.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become.
House of Hollow by Krystsl Sutherland
Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they're changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous. But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.
- Thank you, they all sound really interesting ... especially the first one!

27 comments