Eragon. No contest.

Just noticed the username! Absolutely love it!

Dude, forget hugging, I wish I could BE Alyosha. He’s like, my absolute hero.

Alyosha, from The Brothers Karamazov

I understand the difference between the mean and median.

I’m saying that, when we speak of a non-numerical entities, such as “Americans”, “average” means “typical”, since one cannot add and divide humans. There is no value to calculate.

For example, if I say “the average Zebra lives in the savannah”, it’s clear I’m simply speaking of the typical zebra, right? Not some mathematical process involving numerical values associated with their various habitats. Same here. It’s likely OP meant to ask about the average number of books, though, not the average American.

It is important to note that, the way OP asked the question, the median American (or “the average American”) is exactly what you would be interested in looking at, not the average number of books all Americans have read.

I would like to point out to others commenting that “how many books does the average American read?” is not equivalent to “the average number of books an American reads?”

The first is indeed likely zero, while the second is probably around 1 or 2.

Jesus Christ what a book title lol

Oh no, this is on my reading list, I had been looking forward to it! I still hope I like it, just unfortunate to see it here. Does not bode well.

I like Chomsky a lot, but I don’t think he’s who you should turn to if you’re feeling so dispirited and hopeless. As I mentioned in my other comment, there are tons of other contemporary thinkers who are adept at pointing out the problems in our current social systems, but then also giving recommendations for how we can combat it. A lot of the time, it deals with focusing on things we do have control over, whether they’re community building organizations or simply reaching out to like-minded individuals.

I know everything looks really bleak, but there is still hope! I hope you feel better, friend!

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, I also highly recommend the classic The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, read it recently and it absolutely blew me away!

There are many leftists, American and otherwise, who write very much in the same tradition as Chomsky, but with far more of a focus on hopeful alternatives to the present order. Graeber, Solnit, and Bergman are the first that come to mind. Maybe they’d be a better fit for your current mental state!

Just fyi, your spoiler tags don’t work on mobile. (I think you need to get rid of the spaces.)

That being said, ya, great book. I think he really captures that theme of the importance of social acceptance

Slaughterhouse V by Vonnegut and Kindred by Butler are probably my two favorites. Probably because they sort of intertwine the time travel with implicit social commentary on trauma/PTSD and the legacy of plantation slavery. Most writers don’t really deal with such topics when discussing time travel, as if there’s absolutely no social overlap.

So many, but the one that sticks out the most to me is Nabokov’s Lolita. I’m glad I held off until I was in the mood, because it was not an easy read, but my god what a great book. Easily one of the best books I’ve ever read.