Regarding your last question, there is a books commumity.
Comradeship // Freechat
Talk about whatever, respecting the rules established by Lemmygrad. Failing to comply with the rules will grant you a few warnings, insisting on breaking them will grant you a beautiful shiny banwall.
A community for comrades to chat and talk about whatever doesn't fit other communities
Ooh, and there's a literature community too (that I found while looking for book related stuff just now).
Arron Bastani is a British guy with Iranian heritage, he's one of the co-founders of Novara Media, a left-wing media organisation in the UK. He's fine, has decent, consistent left politics. I've read the book, but it was when it came out, so a few years ago now. Whether it's good or not depends on your outlook given that its thesis is one of techno-optimism, it didn't really win me over but you may feel differently.
Thanks. I'm not one for techno-optimism but maybe it has some good ideas.