I can appreciate that they’re in a somewhat difficult position, with the law on one side and what’s morally right on the other side, but also this is exactly the sort of scenario where everyone needs to band together to demonstrate that an unjust law won’t fly, and IMO trying to weasel out of it with a half-measure is just appeasing the wrong side.

In an ideal world all the libraries, schools and publishing companies would just ignore this and carry whatever books they see fit, and give the legislators a choice to either back off or go after them all at the same time.

The North Korea section of the book was so creepy, I still think about that from time to time.

It really is a “give an inch, take a mile” kind of thing. Like as a society we’re already ridiculously generous to religious people - every city has multiple, un-taxed, absurdly opulent buildings for them to use as much as they want to do whatever they like in, plus there are huge networks of religious schools that get tax-payer funding as well, and they’re still out in the streets preaching and interfering with almost every other aspect of existence - shutting down libraries, getting films banned or altered, messing with politics etc. It’s ludicrous IMO.

I own it but haven’t read it yet, but apparently Edith Grossman’s translation of Don Quixote is supposed to be great. Also I just learned she died a couple of weeks ago, RIP.

I am convinced that there’s not a book written that can’t be improved by the addition of a Sassy Robot Sidekick.

I really like Homage To Catalonia, it might actually be my favourite Orwell book.

Also most Bill Bryson books. I read One Summer, America, 1927 recently and really enjoyed it, but A Short History Of Nearly Everything and At Home were also highlights.

I was going to say Ursula Le Guin but someone beat me to it lol.

So instead: I haven’t read all of her books yet, but I’ve really liked everything by Emily St. John Mandel that I’ve read so far. Station Eleven was great (and the TV series is even better somehow!) and Sea of Tranquility was super interesting.

Good for them. They’ve been there for over 450 years, it should be on the Olympics to work around them IMO.

I might have a similar situation coming up, but I think what I’m going to do is essentially just get rid of most of my books and then try to re-acquire them at the other end of the move. Apart from a few specific ones where the physical book itself is important, like a couple of signed copies I have and some well-worn ones that I’ve had forever.

I’m also working on cataloging everything in BookWyrm so I can keep track of what needs replacing. Bit of a pain but I just don’t think I can physically transport that many books.