Hour 17: Book pairings, coincidences and resonances

[Christy]

Hi and welcome to hour 17!

Most of us have been reading for a good while now so I wanted to ask about the sometimes strange coincidences and resonances that come up when reading two or more unrelated books close together.

Have you been reading two books that have had an interesting coincidence or resonance with each other? Can you recommend any interesting book pairings, where reading the two books together leads to an experience more than the sum of the parts? Are there two books that you wish you'd read closer together because you think you would have got more out of them that way?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and recommendations

[Doni]

Oh man, this is such a great question and I feel like there have been specific little things that have come up today, but it's hard for me to grasp at them now.

But larger trends, I can take a swing at... My first book was Parenting on Earth. Its premise is that we can't focus solely on the welfare of our own children, but encompass all children, ultimately if we want to benefit our own children. The book I am currently reading is Justice for Animals which argues that we must treat animals well because of their unique capabilities to live out their own animalness. I feel very much that we SHOULD care about all children's lives. And I'm vegan because I believe we shouldn't make beings suffer (Singer's argument, not Nussbaum's, though I appreciate the subtleties of her argument.) However, there is an intuitive appeal to prioritize the lives of our children and children we know over children we will never meet. Also, though I love my cat and consider her part of my family, if I had to choose between saving my cat or saving a child, I would choose saving a child. Despite these philosophers attempts to delegitimize hierarchy in valuation of welfare, it seems that there is an intuitive hierarchy and I question why we have that intuition if it's misleading.

[Jamie]

There are some combinations that are a bit too much. I had a month last year where I was reading a lot of Russian and Ukrainian literature when the war began, which was mostly heavy stuff, and every time I tried to pick something else it was either about the African slave trade or about how horrible India is for poorer people. Even books that did not mention those topics in the blurb would turn out to be in one of those subject areas really.

[Christy]

Doni wrote: "Oh man, this is such a great question and I feel like there have been specific little things that have come up today, but it's hard for me to grasp at them now.

But larger trends, I can take a swi..."

That's really interesting. Do you think these links come from how you selected what to read for this (perhaps what you were thinking about as you made your selections) or is it more "organic"? Or perhaps it's a bit of both...

[Christy]

Jamie wrote: "There are some combinations that are a bit too much. I had a month last year where I was reading a lot of Russian and Ukrainian literature when the war began, which was mostly heavy stuff, and ever..."

Yes, that sounds familiar to me too. Occasionally I'll declare a moratorium on some topic or theme for a while but then it can sometimes creep back in anyway. One I've been trying to avoid lately is books with visceral violence but, like you say, you don't always know what's going to be in a book until you're reading it

[Doni]

Christy wrote: That's really interesting. Do you think these links come from how you selected what to read for this (perhaps what you were thinking about as you made your selections) or is it more "organic"? Or perhaps it's a bit of both..."

I've definitely been selecting as I go, so the theme isn't entirely coincidental.

[Christy]

Doni wrote: "Christy wrote: That's really interesting. Do you think these links come from how you selected what to read for this (perhaps what you were thinking about as you made your selections) or is it more ..."

Yeah, I guess mood-reading is a little more prone to linkages we partially create ourselves. Still, the resonances are often different (and usually more interesting) than what I'm expecting even when I'm aware of a few linkages going in.

[Doni]

Christy wrote: "Yeah, I guess mood-reading is a little more prone to linkages we partially create ourselves. Still, the resonances are often different (and usually more interesting) than what I'm expecting even when I'm aware of a few linkages going in...."

Although, I picked both of them up at the library yesterday because they were new non-fiction, so that was more arbitrary.