Shelfies #29: Ian Forrester

I'm not much of a reader in the traditional sense of books. However I do listen to a lot of audiobooks every year.

As a dyslexic person, the notion of reading physical books is pretty painful, as they are not formatted in a comfortable way for my brain. Ebooks are a close second to audiobooks, but a screen of audiobooks and ebooks wouldn't have the same effect as my physical book shelf. With all this said, my physical shelf is made of books I have collected and share with friends.

I mainly listen and read non-fiction books. Maybe my fiction is covered with my large Film and TV collection. Some interesting books worth mentioning:

The Dyslexic Advantage which outlines the huge advantages of a dyslexic mind and shatters the stereotype of dyslexic as purely a learning problem. This book is regularly shared and quite worn. I did have the revised and updated version of the same book, but its been lost in the work internal post, while trying to get it to the neuroscientist authors to sign it while on a tour in the UK. The book is truly incredible and shifts the perspective for everyone who I share it with. It is surprisingly academic but the case studies make it easy to relate to.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, is a book full of words which are half made up or related to different cultural references around the world. It conjurers up new thoughts and I found it inspirational in many ways. Most of the words are on the website with the same name, however compiling them into one book brings them the importance they deserve. If I was to use a word from the book itself, it would be “looseleft”.

Sherry Turkle's Alone Together is a classic, and is as relevant now that it was when it was written. This became clear to me when visiting Tokyo and experiencing the impact of technology on our social interactions. It’s easy to see the line towards the social isolation many feel now. 

There is a book which I stopped reading and just can't bring myself to keep on reading. Dataclysm is by the founder of OkCupid. It sits next to Love in the Time of Algorithms and The Mathematics of Love on my shelf. The future of dating is a important subject for me and related to the theme of social isolation. Although quite old, I couldn't get past the point when the book describes a “successful match” as four messages exchanged and the most-replied to message being "Hi".

I put the book down fearing for the future of human kind. I couldn't read any more at the time, but expect I will one day.

Ian Forrester is a Manchester-based emerging tech geek by day, DJ and dyslexic autocorrected wordsmith by night. You can find him navigating the ever-evolving digital landscape for BBC R&D, or sharing his unique views on the fediverse and his blog, Cubicgarden.com. He's on a long running quest to explain the endless problems of modern dating in a book (due this year). However it comes with a warning – the advice may come with the occasional typo.

Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin. If you are interested in sharing a shelfie, please let us know.