NPR: Books We Love | Hacker News Reader

NPR: Books We Love

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37 pointsAmorymeltzer9 comments

I consider myself fairly well-read, so I was surprised to find that I didn't spot a single book I had even heard of before on this list.

2013 staff picks (60):

>Biography & Memoir (15/60) 25.00% >Book Club Ideas (19/60) 31.67% >Comics & Graphic Novels (1/60) 1.67% >Cookbooks & Food (5/60) 8.34% >Eye-Opening Reads (15/60) 25% >Family Matters (15/60) 25% >For Art Lovers (2/60) 3.34% >For History Lovers (19/60) 31.67% >For Music Lovers (3/60) 5.00% >For Sports Lovers (2/60) 3.34% >Funny Stuff (8/60) 13.34% >Historical Fiction (4/60) 6.67% >Identity & Culture (6/60) 10.00% >It’s All Geek To Me (6/60) 10.00% >Kids’ Books (6/60) 10.00% >Ladies First (3/60) 5.00% >Let’s Talk About Sex (2/60) 3.34% >Love Stories (7/60) 11.67% >Mysteries & Thrillers (6/60) 10% >No Biz Like Show Biz (2/60) 3.34% >Nonfiction (25/60) 41.67% >Rather Long (11/60) 18.34% >Rather Short (5/60) 8.34% >Realistic Fiction (11/60) 18.34% >Sci Fi, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction (8/60) 13.34% >Science! (7/60) 11.67% >Seriously Great Writing (12/60) 20% >Short Stories, Essays & Poetry (4/60) 6.67% >Tales From Around The World (13/60) 21.67% >The Dark Side (17/60) 28.34% >The States We’re In (4/60) 6.67% >Young Adult (4/60) 6.67%

2021 staff picks (179)

>Biography & Memoir (34/179) 18.99% >Book Club Ideas (67/179) 37.43% >Comics & Graphic Novels (7/179) 3.91% >Cookbooks & Food (11/179) 6.15% >Eye-Opening Reads (50/179) 27.93% >Family Matters (44/179) 24.58% >For Art Lovers (10/179) 5.59% >For History Lovers (33/179) 18.44% >For Music Lovers (12/179) 6.70% >For Sports Lovers (4/179) 2.34% >Funny Stuff (11/179) 6.15% >Historical Fiction (14/179) 7.82% >Identity & Culture (70/179) 39.10% >It’s All Geek To Me (12/179) 6.70% >Kids’ Books (3/179) 1.68% >Ladies First (47/179) 2.63% >Let’s Talk About Sex (17/179) 9.50% >Love Stories (30/179) 16.76% >Mysteries & Thrillers (18/179) 10.06% >No Biz Like Show Biz (15/179) 8.40% >Nonfiction (84/179) 46.93% >Rather Long (14/179) 7.82% >Rather Short (9/179) 5.03% >Realistic Fiction (34/179) 18.99% >Sci Fi, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction (15/179) 8.38% >Science! (8/179) 4.47% >Seriously Great Writing (49/179) 27.37% >Short Stories, Essays & Poetry (25/179) 13.97% >Tales From Around The World (34/179)18.99% >The Dark Side (23/179) 12.85% >The States We’re In (52/179) 29.05% >Young Adult (6/179) 3.35%

I didn't feel up to pulling data from each year in between, but I think the staff picks from these two years is interesting enough to observe. Most interesting points for me: "Identity & Culture" in 2021 is up nearly 30 points compared to 2013; "Science!" is down by more than half.

Interesting contrast. In a way, this quantifies how NPR has ideologically shifted over the years.

NPR's fascination with and fetishization of race is sad to see. The fact that they list the 1619 Project (an ahistoric and well debunked project) as a "book we love" was all I needed to see. The mask fell off and the leftist/wokeism bias is on full display.

Everything has bias. What’s wrong with a leftist bias? Isn’t a complaint of bias in itself bias?

Everything has bias. What's wrong with an alt-right bias? Isn't a complaint of bias in itself a bias?

A publicly funded media arm having an ideological bias is scary.

Isn’t bias simply a matter of perspective? Isn’t it simply relative to one’s own bias? A consequence of how one measures it?

>Isn’t bias simply a matter of perspective?

No, there are objective studies of bias.

>Isn’t it simply relative to one’s own bias?

No, there are left, center, and right sides of the political spectrum.

>A consequence of how one measures it?

No. You can objectively measure these things regardless of where you personally lie on the political spectrum.

There's literally a science behind this: political science [0]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_science

My top concern about its bias is how overtly biased a publicly funded radio station is with its embrace of wokeism — an ideology that is overwhelmingly unpopular with the public.

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