What we’re about
Looking for something interesting to read and some interesting people to discuss it with? Join us, a group of book lovers from around the Las Vegas Valley, who love to read, think and discuss. Our group values all opinions and welcomes a healthy discussion that includes many perspectives. Come read between the lines with us, because that is where the reading ends and the thinking begins!
Since we send multiple reminders before the meetings, the following policies apply. If you need assistance setting up your notifications to get these reminders, let us know.
No-show policy: If you sign up for something but your plans change, you need to update your RSVP at least three days before the meetup. We meet in restaurants and need an accurate head count to make reservations. Also, we often have a waitlist and want to make sure that those on the waitlist can come if you can't. Repeated no-shows (e.g., two or more) will be removed from the group.
Late-drop policy: Much like no-shows, late drops (changing your RSVP within 2 days before the meetup) are disruptive and make it difficult to deal with our restaurant reservations. We understand that things happen sometimes, but when you drop at the last minute, you've taken a spot that someone else on the waitlist could have had. If you late-drop two or more times, we will move you to the wait list for any future meetings that you are signed up for.
Upcoming events
12
"The Sirens Call," Christopher L. Hayes
Divine Cafe at Springs Preserve, 333 S Valley View Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, US“An ambitious analysis of how the trivial amusements offered by online life have degraded not only our selves but also our politics.” —New York Times
Amazon: 4.6 out of five stars (1,168 ratings)
Amazon Editors' pick: Best Nonfiction
Goodreads: 3.9 (5,907 ratings)
We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens’ Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance.
Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. As Hayes writes, “Now our deepest neurological structures, human evolutionary inheritances, and social impulses are in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human.” The Sirens’ Call is the book that snaps everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future.10 attendees
Past events
601
