I create an Amazon wishlist for different genres and that way I can just pull it up and see what’s on my list when I get to an independent bookstore.

I’m a psychotherapist, some of the best ways I’ve found to build rapport with clients is to ask what they read and learn about their interests. You can tell a lot about someone’s favorite books and what genre they enjoy. When I was in person I usually had the book I was reading on my desk in the event of spare time and it humanized me to some more distant clients. When they saw me reading the Annihilation series by Van Der Meer they realized I also have a life outside the office and can have a nice casual conversation about ecopolitics and horror. Not only does it help with rapport, but I also can know a tiny bit about a lot of random things when I read widely that turn out applicable to my work. Had a client with a very niche history special interest that happened to align with a book I was listening to at the time, so for coping we talked about reading a chapter before doing the thing they struggled with as a distress management tool.

Quackery by Lydia Kang

The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris

It Ended Badly by Jennifer Wright

Rabid by Bill Wasik

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn

The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi

The Body Keeps Score by Bessel can der Kolk

These are just the audiobooks I enjoyed most, might be a nice start. I read lots of clinical psychology and social justice so my picks are rather narrow.

I mark up all my nonfiction I’m learning from, but not my fiction as I just read them for pleasure.

We’re in hardcore Midwest misery; tbf the biggest demographic that used the library died off in the last 5 or so years (age + covid) so with that and less and less funding, we’re lucky we have a school and adjacent library for them. The school district went from 2 elementary schools, a middle and high, but now we have all the kids in the high school.

The village I’m in has “Covid” hours & “school” hours in place 10am-1pm 2 days a week if the wind blows and the bird snorts at 3:27am on the third Friday of the month and won’t participate in any interlibrary loan, won’t post the catalog or anything schedule updates and if you call during post hours you can’t speak to anyone; forget email.

Basically my county in the US “has” a library in name only. It was absorbed by the high school about 10 years back and it quit being available to the public. Mostly farmers, Amish, and retired illiterate folks that worked at factories long shuddered.

I don’t have a library, so it’s buy the book in whatever format I want if I want to read it. I’ve been thinking about what to do with my books; when I move I’ll often post stacks that I’ve read and won’t return to on social media and give them away or sell them (a dollar or two or if it’s a friend they’ll get me a coffee or some candy I like). Other books I just donate to goodwill or the local shelter/youth center. There are only a few books I’m holding on to because I love them, that I haul with me from home to home.