Welcome to the Book Nook! The weekly thread for all book nerds on The Avocado. This is the place to talk about books you’re currently reading, discuss genres, ask for recommendations, and post serious literary criticism.

This week’s prompt: Coming of age stories. Do you enjoy reading them? Any favorites or least favorites?

Ideas for prompts are always welcome!

Posting pictures is fine as long as they are book related, but I would like this thread to continue to be a NO GIF/YouTube/social media embed zone. Thanks, and happy commenting!

Today’s literary birthdays:
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647), German entomologist, naturalist and illustrator (RIP 1717)
Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719), German poet (RIP 1803)
Giacomo Casanova (1725), Italian memoirist (RIP 1798)
Francisco Balagtas (AKA Francisco Baltazar, 1788), Filipino poet (RIP 1862)
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798), German poet (RIP 1874)
Hans Christian Andersen (1805), Danish playwright, poet, novelist, travel writer and author of fairy tales (RIP 1875)
Émile Zola (1840), French novelist and playwright (RIP 1902)
Nicholas Murray Butler (1862), American philosopher (RIP 1947)
J. C. Squire (1884), English poet (RIP 1958)
Harindranath Chattopadhyay (1898), Indian poet and playwright (RIP 1990)
Roberto Arlt (1900), Argentinian novelist, short story writer and playwright (RIP 1942)
George MacDonald Fraser (1925), Scottish novelist and short story writer, creator of Flashman (RIP 2008)
Kenneth Tynan (1927), English theater critic (RIP 1980)
Ed Dorn (1929), American poet (RIP 1999)
György Konrád (1933), Hungarian novelist and essayist (RIP 2019)
Anne Waldman (1945), American poet
Sue Townsend (1946), English novelist, playwright and humorist, creator of Adrian Mole (RIP 2014)
Tua Forsström (1947), Swedish poet
Daniel Okrent (1948), American historian and author of books about baseball
Joan D. Vinge (1948), American science fiction novelist and short story writer
James Vance (1953), American comic book writer (RIP 2017)