From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

The Circle (The Circle, #1)

Dave Eggers

Start date: May 2, 2017

Finish date: May 30, 2017

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What Members Thought

May 26, 2017 Haze rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-books-read

Let's get this straight; this book scared me. I am not giving it 5 stars because I loved it, I'm giving it 5 stars because it tells an important story, one that I believe can actually happen, is already happening, has already happened to an extent.

Perhaps it seems ridiculous to some because the events in this book seems way too extreme and we think things will never get to that. But often things happen so gradually that we don't notice until it's too late and our tolerance for bullshit has incr Let's get this straight; this book scared me. I am not giving it 5 stars because I loved it, I'm giving it 5 stars because it tells an important story, one that I believe can actually happen, is already happening, has already happened to an extent.

Perhaps it seems ridiculous to some because the events in this book seems way too extreme and we think things will never get to that. But often things happen so gradually that we don't notice until it's too late and our tolerance for bullshit has increased. Think boiling frog metaphor. I mean, ask me a year ago if I believed Trump could be president. Then look at all the nonsense and really unethical actions he's responsible for, and continues to commit, and yet he is still in office. Tell me our tolerance isn't increasing. Tell me we haven't tried justifying these actions of his. What would be the breaking point that would finally wake people up? Or will we just bury ourselves further in the sand?

In regards to the story however; people needing validation from other people, living a life online and often neglecting loved ones, contriving ideas for videos and posts that would get the most approval from others... already happening now. What worries me most is the hive mind mentality. Being influenced by what the majority says and does, agreeing with what the people in power say, not giving others the choice to think differently or live differently... Because we have to realize that this is already happening right now with issues like abortion, vaccinations, gay marriage...

The point is that I believe that everyone should have a right to their own opinions and choice of lifestyle, but that no one should ever have the right to impose their beliefs on anyone else. This book scared me on a primal level because I would rather die than have my freedom of choice taken away from me. It scares me because I see it happening now and I don't know how to stop it. It scares me because even though this story is a cautionary tale, I don't know if people who choose to be blind will see it and/or understand it, and I worry that they will try to impose their blindness on everyone else. ...more

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Feb 25, 2016 Krissy marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Shelves: pgs-500-599

DNF at 20%~ Normally I try to make it to at least 50% but with this one I just couldn't do it. It was so mind-numbing. I'm lucky I got as far as I did. No way could I sit through another 13 hours of audio. Sorry. ...more

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Jan 01, 2015 Joyce rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club-choice

Annoying yet eerily prescient. I agree with Mr. Eggers that there is a temptation to share because it is so easy. Kind of like using a website to catalog all of the books I'm reading. The difference, I hope, between me and Mae Holland is that I know the entire world is not interested in everything thing I do or think. This parable about the pitfalls of social media is worth reading. Much of what he describes is already happening. I was just reading about Jay, who has been made famous in the Seri ...more

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Jul 08, 2017 Beth rated it it was ok

Shelves: wobble, towerv, sf

This didn't work for me. Mae felt like a caricature of a vapid young woman, the kind of millennial that people like to make fun of but that I never seem to see in the real world. The vibe was some guy making fun of females that overuse social media, which wasn't helped by the way that the people who took principled stands against it were all male (as were the majority of people with skills beyond PR) and our Mae was easily steamrollered by anyone with her eagerness to be seen as "nice." It felt ...more

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