Anyway, this is probably all very tangential to the book itself but I'm very much looking forward to reading it.

(I do think some corners of the internet are holding on to this more than others. Tumblr and AO3, for example, feel like places where some still post solely for their handful of mutuals rather than trying to reach everyone).

The problem is that the internet has always been kinda bad at discoverability and "frictionless" big platforms haven't helped.

We'd also have to accept smaller potential audiences in return for more engaged audiences (and avoid groups that only care about their own niche, restricting creativity).

In my optimistic moments, I can see that pushing more people to start putting more effort in to discovery & community building.

Certainly not enough for a massive restructuring of the mainstream but enough to see a flourishing of other stuff in much smaller groups.

I believe there's just as much weird, creative output on the internet as there used to be. I'm not even sure it's harder to find than it used to be.

It's just so much easier now to lose an hour to accepting what the algorithms dictate and settle for that rather than seeking out something new.

Got me wondering whether we could be on the precipice of an increase in internet counter-culture again (in an interesting way, not more 4chan). It feels like there's an increasing amount of disillusionment with algorithm controlled feeds and censorship on the big platforms.

And feel free to keep up to date with tracking my reading over on Storygraph: app.thestorygraph.com/profile/just...

A Place Called Perfect by Helena Duggan

A quick-to-read YA book about a town where the populace go blind and receive special rose-tinted glasses that shape how they see the world.

Starts a bit twee but becomes an interesting intro to social apartheid and the problem with making things "perfect"

Darkly by Marisha Pessl

Fun YA mystery about a reclusive board game designer who hid/destroyed an unfinished masterpiece before she died. In the present, a group of kids are invited to the secret island factory to try and investigate rumours of people going missing while playing the game

Life is Strange: Heatwaves by Brittney Morris

Something lighter after those. A YA Life is Strange tie-in with something to say about climate change and the politics of small towns. I enjoyed this but I'm biased towards anything with Steph in

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 by Eman Abdelhadi, M.E. O'Brien

Fascinating fictional history of how the world moved to a commune-based system of organisation through interviews with people who had different exposure to the world before, during and after