I find there tends to be two general categories of books; those that are exciting and interesting, so much that I want to recommend them immediately, and “slogs” that are just slow and unappealing regardless of the content. Some I get the jist of fast and a lot seems irrelevant like What is to Be Done, some like Fresh Banana Leaves the writing is just dislikable and repetitive. This is in sharp contrast to books like Half Earth Socialism or State and Revolution where I may be familiar with some of the content, but I really like the style and new information and want to recommend to people.
Do you agree with this categorization? Are there any books that you feel strongly about either way? I’m sure I’ve heard a lot of your recommendations before, but I want to know what will actually be fun to read, because some aren’t even if the content is good. I want to know which to prioritize reading.
Edit: to answer my own question: socialism or extinction is top tier
It takes a lot of effort, but it’s really hard to find English-language modern books that don’t devote a small section for denouncing “authoritarian dictatorships” at some point, with very vague accusations and scant evidence. I’m not sure if it’s just them covering their asses from being called “tankies”, or some publisher-mandated insertion, but it’s usually small enough that I can ignore it.
But I try to never fully trust a book. If I want to cite some fact from them I usually do a little bit of independent research to make sure that what they were saying holds up.
Yeah, even the best books I criticize as much as I can during and after reading them. I will say though, that there a lot of great books that aren’t anti-communist, there’s just also an even larger mass that are pretty good overall with a little anti-communism slipped in.