No thinking required

I love to read. I also love looking for and discovering new authors whose work takes me down new planes of thinking.

I also love meeting and surrounding myself with people, places and things that are different. They nudge me out of my habitual thought-ruts and encourage me to entertain and embrace lots of different perspectives.

While I can see why this landing page from bookbub.com might be attractive to some, I see another flight feather being pulled from the wings of independent thought and free will. 

It tells “readers” that their editorial team will find great books for you at very low prices. A classic “appeal to the head and the heart” copy-writing tactic. 

It tells “readers” that “Book lovers have now become practically obsessed with this concept. In many cases, they’ve downloaded hundreds of books and saved hundreds of dollars. 

Translation:

• Booklovers, like others, are obsessed with “cheap”, not "good" goods.
• The more you buy the more you save.

Bing-book*-buying, reduces each book’s economic and intrinsic value. Each treasure becomes devalued to little more than cheap commodity status.

Over time this commoditization brings down the “value” of the entire book* category as well as the “book reading experience”.  

Sadly most of those books* will never be intensely read. Do the math. 

Of greatest concern is how this kind of social media content curating affects the choices groups and individuals make – including the value of free will and independent thought.   

*or anything else.