‘m a little grumpy about this one. It will probably show.

See, I’m coming to realize that nobody gives a floppy fuck about books (and movies) you really care about. People are too busy and too self-involved to really honor (or even consider) any recommendations you might offer.

This came to me at Christmas at a family gathering. The night before, I’d just finished a short anime series, Odd Taxi. It came from a YouTube video by a Anime expert who listed the ten most overlooked animes, this being one of them. It’s got childish art (everyone in modern Tokyo are cartoonish animals), It looks like it was some sort of Zootopia sort of thing. So, okay, I took the recommendation and watched it.

And of course, it blew me away. The story dipped and soared, and the final episode brought everything together. I loved it so much I bought the series so I could loan it.

And of course, nobody has DVD players anymore. Is it because the technology is gone? No, not really. Think about fading media, books and DVDs. The point is, those media types are loanable media. You can hand them to others so they can discover and enjoy what you loved. Yes, but press a story on someone and look what happens. I said that I had it coming on DVD and my family, every one of them, shrugged it off. Sorry, no player. How fucking unfortunate. Dodged that bullet, right?

And books? Well, those you can just set somewhere and eventually lose them. Lose a couple and and nagging author guy will get the hint, right?

I’ll say this – EVERY BOOK on my Best of 2025 were, in some ways, recommendations. Friends. The baristas at the coffee shop. I listen and I usually consider looking at whatever people tell me is great. But that’s rare. The closest you can come to this are people telling you about good series on steaming services. And big deal for that. You gotta have the service to see it (and that’s a coin-toss chance). And usually people exchange recommendations and neither honor them.

Over my life, I’ve read hundreds of jaw-dropping books and stunning films, little-known tales that bring me joy. My chance of EVER sharing these are slim to none.

I suppose I’ll never learn – I’ll keep recommending things until I die and my candle goes out. And you’ll all be left in your streaming StarWars-franchise amusements. Whatever the fuck, right?

>>>MY BOOKS FOR SALE. DARE YOU<<<