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kleinbl00  ·  1781 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Slate's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years

Okay, that was accurate but glib. Of their 50 I have

- not heard of 13 of them

- been recommended maybe 18 of them

- have been meaning to read two of them

- have read 3 of them

I would characterize this as a list of books that people who haven't read recommend to other people to read so that you can look like the sort of person who has read lots of books that people talk about. Somewhere on here there's a list of most-recommended, least-read books compiled by comparing Amazon sales with the density of their Kindle highlights.

Sam Quinones' Dreamland is totally worth reading. George Packer's The Unwinding is totally worth reading. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is annoying AF. It's a season of The Real World framed as capital-L Literature. I worked with Toph eggers. He's aaight. But Staggering Genius was so fucking annoying that I have a hard time enjoying McSweeny's.