/r/whatsthatbook is an English language sub

[conuly]

All the posts are in English. All the responses are in English. I am reasonably certain that most of us are native speakers, perhaps even monolingual.

So why is it that twice in the past week I've had to tell people that if your book is not in English, you need to tell us what language you read it in so we have a chance of finding it? (Special points to the person who said "I read it in my language" and then needed to be asked again what language that is.)

Several times a day people say things like "I read it at the age of 13 and I'm 47 now" like that means something, and occasionally when I tell them to just do the math and spit out a calendar year they go "I didn't think some arithmetic was such a big deal!" and - honestly, yeah, no, I don't actually have any confidence that people have better reading comprehension skills than they have writing skills, so please, help me help you.

If only I could find some way to explain this to people without insulting them. You'd think none of them would be smart enough to figure out that I am insulting them, but somehow, that always gets through.

Comments

[redbird]

I'm reminded of something in Samuel Delany's The Motion of Light in Water: he had for ages been telling people "my father died in $year when I was $age," and then someone who knew what year Delany had been born in did the math, and asked him about it, because Delany hadn't been that age at any point in that calendar year.

Somewhere along the line, he'd made that mistake, and kept repeating it that statement about his family, without checking the arithmetic. You shouldn't have to do their arithmetic, but it might not help if you did, because how many memories are tied to specific ages, rather than things like "when I was in college" or where someone was living?

[conuly]

That's why I ask for the latest possible calendar year and age. I get that people estimate, but we need a number to work with.

[ayebydan]

Ah yes, the one book released the year you were born. We will find it right now. People are trying.

[conuly]

LOL, well, they usually do give more details than that! I'll be fair, they do give more information. But it can be like pulling teeth to get them to give it in some sort of useful, organized format.

Your age when you read it (approximately) is useful, and so is the publication date! "I was in the 5th grade and now I'm 59" is a lot less useful.

[frandroid]

I hate that thing where someone writes an email/post/whatever, and it would have taken them 10 seconds to do the thing and copy the answer, as opposed to make dozens or hundreds or thousands of readers have to do the same 10 second thing to get your point. Like, empathy, people. And stop being so fucking lazy. I'm the laziest person around and I don't do that shit.

[nancylebov]

I'm convinced that some high proportion of people don't really have theory of mind-- they don't understand that other people's minds are different from their own.

[chez_jae]

"Help me help you" is one of my favorite phrases, and yes, I have actually said that to customers before.

:/