Books (General)

[long sorrel]

Notable that part of the reason he was killed is because he was gay

Though most of it was due to political ideas

It's been almost 90 years since huh

[ripe tide]

Yeah I know.

[minor sleet]

Any recs? Garcia Lorca, obviously

I’m idly plotting a quest of a survey of world literature

That way whenever I meet someone from another country I have at least one topic of conversation with them about their home

[ripe tide]

For Spanish literature (as in the country) or any literature in the language?

[minor sleet]

Second one

[ripe tide]

I mean I have to say One Hundred Years of Solitude.

By García Márquez.

There's also a bunch of short stories.

[minor sleet]

Ive read that one and he totally deserved his Nobel Prize

Just the first and last sentences alone are fantastic

[ripe tide]

Yeah. Those are my favorite scenes

[minor sleet]

How do you beat “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” There’s so much going on there and it grabs you immediately

[ripe tide]

Absolutely

And the temporal construction of that

[minor sleet]

Why is this guy getting executed? Did he deserve it? What about this prompts him to have a flashback? Why did he have to discover ice?

[minor sleet]

Yeah!!! It sets up how weird time is in Macondo

[ripe tide]

The House of Asterion by Borges, Pájaros en la Boca by Samanta Schweblin, Un Cuento para Eurídice by Cristina Peri Rossi are a couple of short stories I really enjoy

[minor sleet]

I found the Schweblin novel in Libby but the rest I’ll have to try a physical library for

That’s not one of the Borges novels usually stocked and Peri Rossi doesn’t seem widely translated

[ripe tide]

These are all short stories, try to find them online

[minor sleet]

She has a very strong, striking face in her Wikipedia portrait though

[ripe tide]

Graffiti by Julio Cortázar is also incredible

[minor sleet]

Got them, except the Peri Rossi story

I’m getting just a million and one hits for Greek myths and it’s not listed on her Wikipedia page

[ripe tide]

Yeah that's one i had trouble finding online

Its in her anthology cuentos reunidos

[royal carbon]

Do I finish DCC or start and finish my book club book?

[low hill]

Probably the one that presumably has a deadline.

[quaint tendon]

What book in DCC

[royal carbon]

This Inevitable Ruin

I should probably also finish my Libby books soonish

[cloud socket]

I'm... 76% of the way through This Inevitable Ruin? I mostly listen to audiobooks when I drive or if I'm folding laundry and I WFH so it's taking me a while to get through, but dang there was a scene that made me tear up this week (DCC7 ch 68 ||it's when Carl and Katia are in her dream viewing her worst moment and past!Katia's snuggling the baby with brain cancer 😭 ||)

how long is your book club book? This Inevitable Ruin is also surprisingly long

[mortal wren]

Sry I know I am late to the library flex, but this is my last recorded index

[quaint tendon]

No read this inevitable ruin

https://tenor.com/view/supervising-devil-on-your-shoulder-angel-on-your-shoulder-conscience-kronk-gif-13015310

[cloud socket]

or be like me and juggle 4-5 books at a time lol

[royal carbon]

The Everlasting is only like 300 pages, feels small compared to the 700 or so still to go for DCC

[minor sleet]

Not this year, right?

That would br like 4 a day

[junior dew]

I still need to read that. Will probably start it after I’ve gotten my 52 books for the year since I’ve been behind all year

But I am officially on the Cradle hype train

[quaint tendon]

Loved inevitable ruin

Bedlam bride might still my favorite.

But inevitable ruin felt like a book length sanderlanche and I mean that in the best way possible

Plus it has one of my favorite Carl quotes in it

[cloud socket]

TIR 69 ||like there's obviously some kind of meta game re: in-game gods in addition to the whole AI sentience thing that Carl isn't aware of, and I worry my piecemeal listening will prevent me from connecting some of those dots but we'll see. I did laugh a couple chapters ago when someone mentioned legally, Carl is de facto leader of Earth because he's done the most organizing on behalf of crawlers||

[lucid isle]

I’m 70% through OB but really want to start on Golden Son now.

[low hill]

In a move mostly designed to frustrate Usha, I have decided to read Ascension next but not that Accession. The one by Nicholas Binge instead.

[long sorrel]

I appreciate the thought

[uncut shoal]

Lifetime total. This year is about 150 or so

[minor sleet]

A much less insane number

[royal carbon]

When I was still good about tracking my best year was around 120

[junior dew]

Dang y’all read fast

I got 60 last year and that felt like a solid number

Hitting 52 this year is going to be close

[royal carbon]

One a week seems like a decent floor

[junior dew]

Yeah for sure. I’ve had light and heavy months this year

Cradle has saved the 52 per year goal for me this year

Since I have 5 remaining and they only take 2-3 days each typically

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 2 ||Well that's an immediate reminder of how dark these books are||

[ripe tide]

Yeppp

[brazen pilot]

4 ||I don't remember if Case was in The White Rose||

||Okay I wish I remembered the ending of TWR better because I did not remember Croaker stopping Raven from killing the Lady but it sounds like a baller scene.||

5 ||I do not like Smeds as much as I liked Shed.||

7 ||it's funny how they're just throwing sticks||

9 ||they pushed the landlady down the stairs lmao||

[brazen pilot]

Silver Spike 11 lmao

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 13 ||I do have to wonder what exactly is the purpose of it. Just bluntly saying, from the very beginning, that we're following a character I don't feel comfortable sympathizing with. It feels, honestly, a bit like a lesser version of Shed. And in general I feel like prior books had a more subtle interplay between rooting for the characters and forcing you to face the disgusting sides of them. But maybe the point is to force it out of subtlety? Not sure how worthwhile I feel such a point would be. But I'll keep reading.||

The Silver Spike 14 ||I didn't expect the book to be such a direct followup, with whether the Dominator might get freed again to be an immediate question. I sort of read the end of TWR, with Toadkiller Dog, as like, the beginning of an eternal siege. Not for Toadkiller Dog to immediately make moves. But I do like this. The ending of TWR was neat, and it would be too easy if everyone just decided to leave the spike alone. People like Tully would come up with stupid plans. I'm also pretty sure the Wicker Man is the Limper and I like that – gives us a chance to fully settle things between him and Raven.||

The Silver Spike 15 ||It feels like, however things go, they would have gone a lot better if Raven just went to Darling instead of chasing Croaker.||

[lusty meteor]

you zoomin

[brazen pilot]

the chapters are short

i'm only like 35 pages in

[lusty meteor]

oh its one of those glenn cook books

[brazen pilot]

yeah it's one of those

[brazen pilot]

||oh my god they're still chasing him raven you dolt||

18 ||the tower mages made limper hear their laughter for days 💀||

||EVEN HE WENT ALL THE WAY TO BERYL||

[proven token]

Reread The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet when I was getting over covid/flu vaccine side effects yesterday

||I was like "Oh yeah I remember this book being really cute and safe and cozy" and then I turnd the page and the chapter is Intro to Harmagian Colonial History. That scene is so good and so brutal.||

||Rosemary x Sissix is probably my favorite ship in all of sci-fi.||

[glass blaze]

It's not every day I get a name-ping that isn't talking to me or about cooking. 😄

[untold leaf]

Finished Tales of Newel and Doren. As Fablehaven-set youth fantasy novellas go, it was okay. Not the best, but it had a surprisingly interesting thing going on with its ending.

[light drum]

Permutation City All ||Thus book left me fundamentally confused abkut a fundamental idea to the plot and made me think ||

[mild lance]

Children of Time Part 6 ||I’m honestly shocked at how reasonable Arvana is being now that she properly understands the situation. She’s gone from being a delusional egomaniac to actually pretty cool||

[snow vessel]

Swordcrossed 12 ||honestly, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this whole situation. I know it's a business marriage and they arent married yet, but I still feel bad for sofia(?), with her betrothed off romancing a guy. I'm sure it'll work out well, but there's just part of me that worries she'll get screwed over||

[snow vessel]

13 ||lord, luca is going to get them in trouble sooner or later ||

[long sorrel]

He would never? He's just a little angel 😇

[snow vessel]

Oh yes, obviously

He would never do that

[long sorrel]

https://tenor.com/view/grinch-gif-7196328019405537697

Man I love Luca so much

[snow vessel]

SC gen ||Mattie isn't much better though, tbf||

[long sorrel]

Maybe I should reread (I say every time)

[snow vessel]

||these two are both disasters||

[long sorrel]

Depends in which way

||they're both down bad and walking disasters ||

[snow vessel]

||well Mattie is less purposefully a problem, but...||

[long sorrel]

||Luca has all the Whimsy ||

||the chaos goblin energy 😍 ||

[snow vessel]

||I keep taking day or so breaks from this book and then immediately being reminded just how down-bad and disastrous they both are when I start it again||

[long sorrel]

Okay I'll stop, I was trying to get some work done lol

[merry galleon]

Just finished 141 pages of Elvenbane!

I got sucked into it

[idle trellis]

Well, name checks out

[spring turtle]

okay so either the parent who filled out their kid's TTRPG club form misheard or there is an elementary kid who is reading the Farseer trilogy

I'm hoping for the latter because that seems kinda neat

[junior dew]

Dayum, that’d be impressive

I feel like so much would fly over the head of an elementary schooler

[spring turtle]

they probably meant Ranger's Apprentice, but still

[jagged lake]

If they can manage to follow the plot while escaping the Robin Hobb emotional egg beater then I envy them.

I can't quite come up with a word for how those books made me feel. Sadgitated, maybe?

[hoary path]

The Last Wish (A Question of Price Chapter) ||I am enjoying The Witcher so far, but honestly the fight scenes are the worst part. They are very much just action -> action -> action and ‘the witch took three steps forward like lightning, then six steps and rotated’. The absolute best part is all of the dialogue. The interactions and conversations and subversions are the best parts. There was one chapter that was literally just Geralt talking and it was amazing. I wish the non-talking parts were just as good, hopefully that improves in later books. (Also, I could do less with his descriptions of some of the women, especially with the younger ones or in the non-sexual scenes 🤢 ) I haven’t played the games, gonna try and do the full book series before I jump into those||

[minor sleet]

You actually should not play the games before the book as they spoil the ending of the series

[hoary path]

Yeah, that’s what I meant

[minor sleet]

Oh misread my bad

[hoary path]

I still appreciate the warning though!

[wet belfry]

Would not play Witcher 1. The best possible Witcher 1 experience is watching Joseph Anderson's critique of it

[alpine drum]

honestly I think Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 work better if you haven't played Witcher 1 but have read the books

I dislike pretty much all the changes they make from book canon which they start trying to fix in W2 and continue trying to fix in W3. Treating W2 as "Geralt is still kind of out of it" and W3 as "Geralt remembers who he's supposed to be" worked for me

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/tainbocuailnge/781826120501903360/and-it-really-was-awesome-is-the-thing

[hoary path]

I am a Joseph Anderson enjoyer 👀 I probably will attempt it at least since I know there are story choices in it (and the witcher 2)

[wet belfry]

Witcher 1 is a swing and a miss on nearly every count but the self-contained plot unique to the Witcher 1 experience is so good that I think it makes it worth it

[wet belfry]

Witcher 3 has a way to simulate these choices in-game. A shockingly small number of them even matter

Joe goes over all the choices and their consequences for W1 and W2

W2 is an odd duck, but actually playable. W1 is not playable

[hoary path]

Got’cha

[marble sinew]

W1 makes bold gameplay decisions that don't really pay off. Even in the modern version that's made things saner

I'm sure if you can get in the groove of it, it can be a good time, but the learning curve is rough and the skill expression doesn't feel skillful

[tight kindle]

I might buy it as my next book

I need A Strange and Stubborn Endurance too 😭

(and then going through Thriftbooks I find the Forbidden Library series by Django Wexler which I loved and also want to own)

[wraith lynx]

About to go on a 7 hr car trip! Got TWK with me

[minor sleet]

Try not to kill the other people in the car

[long sorrel]

Oooh ~~

We await

[wraith lynx]

We await indeed!

Id be more excited if I didnt have less than 10% of SoTF left but what can you do

[low hill]

TWK?

[long sorrel]

Lol why don't you have SotF with you??

[wraith lynx]

Its reaaaally big

[wraith lynx]

The Wicked King!

[mortal wren]

Bruh

[wraith lynx]

Update: I brought it with me

[random dome]

https://tenor.com/view/kitty-cat-cute-slamming-gif-17531055

[valid cloud]

I may not be Cosmic, but I just finished The Wicked King. It was excellent! Thanks to everyone here for recommending the series so much, lol.

[long sorrel]

ooooh ~

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/sancastarcs/798698130842501120/a-storm-of-swords-is-the-book-where-each-of-the

Song of Ice and Fire

[long sorrel]

all raections are appreciated anyway

[uncut shoal]

What's up?

[tight kindle]

Is the Wicked book worth reading? My family says it's not but their primary criticisms involved ||swearing, being crass, and sex|| which don't bother me whatsoever.

So is it like a well written book or are there problems that run deeper than that?

[zinc flicker]

It’s not like the movie / musical

It’s an interesting book and I enjoy it

But it’s definitely the sort of thing that might traumatize kids who unsuspecting parents buy the book for

The musical and the book are distinct things tho. Beyond surface level things, they are very VERY different.

[snow vessel]

I've definitely heard things about the content

[zinc flicker]

Yeah. It’s not an overreaction to say it’s R-rated to an extreme.

I would not underestimate what you are walking into.

[analog geode]

Where is it on a scale of Brandon to Malazan

[zinc flicker]

I’m tempted to say more graphic than Malazan but that is probably wrong given I was a traumatized 12 year old when I read Wicked

So let’s say at the level of Malazan

[tight kindle]

Interesting

I'm probably putting it on the list

I'm very curious

I have to get opinions from people other than my family because the things that affect my enjoyment of a book are very different than the things that affect their enjoyment lmao

Also you can buy very pretty copies 😌

[zinc flicker]

I think the book is good but it’s… it’s a lot.

[somber timber]

I’ve heard it was not great

[minor sleet]

It’s bizarre

Being traumatized by the book at age 12 after first seeing the musical used to be a theater kid right of passage. So nice to see a revival of the custom

[zinc flicker]

Yea haha

Exactly

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/11/21/wicked-for-good-book-series-gregory-maguire/87378037007/

[zinc flicker]

Seeing the amount the books are publicized in stores next to things about the musical has made me wince a lot

[minor sleet]

I did my best to stop my former store from ordering a million copies of three different editions of it

It didn’t work

[minor sleet]

jokes that are 1000 years old and still funny

Njal’s Saga is so funny

Also called the Saga of Burnt Njal for uh, no reason don’t worry about it

[cloud socket]

I think I read Son of a Witch but I don't remember going further with Gregory Maguire's Oz books

Today's used book acquisition: Michael Whelan's Works of Wonder

[minor sleet]

Does the book have his bizarrely horny Elric art

My favorite is this one

[ivory cypress]

nameless land 4 ||tbh i think the reaosn i'm having a hard time carrying on is because i legit hate the prince and i hate his whip. i kinda want him dead||

[ivory cypress]

nameless land 34 ||please please please kill prince gevulin by the end of this, he is truly so revolting. end him.||

[mild lance]

Children of Time all ||well that was a lot more optimistic of an ending than I was expecting tbh. I dig it though. Loved the worldbuilding of this book and I am very curious to see where the sequels go. Perhaps we see a more successful attempt at Kern’s experiment?||

||it’d be nice if someone could engineer all humans into having empathy irl||

||wait actually: if the other planets they’re going to also had the same experiment, did they have the same oversight that allowed the nano virus to take hold in the invertebrates? If so, what happens on a planet that also has monkeys?||

[charred swallow]

||Its a fun ending in that it is both optimistic and horrifying. Humanity has been changed without consent into something else, and might not even be possible to consider human anymore, but its also probably a good thing. Our monkey brains really don't like the idea of that kind of loss of control though.||

[mild lance]

||I’m inclined to call it a good ending under those circumstances. It was better that and at least one species going extinct.||

[charred swallow]

||I also really like the subversion of more typical scifi tropes like "humanity created something horrifying" or "humanity created something better than it and now must pass to move on for better life". We're getting dragged kicking and screaming into this new world too.||

[cloud socket]

weirdly I don't see any Moorcock flipping through- multiple Asimov, Anne McCaffery, Heinlein, Piers Anthony, and Edgar Rice Burroughs though. I'll probably flip through it tomorrow

[long sorrel]

I love the 4h jump and 30ch jump in comments with no one else commenting in between

[grim veldt]

-# this is why I do not liveblog here very often

[junior dew]

|| Yeah it’s a fantastic read. Book 2 is my personal favorite of the series so I would say you’re in for a treat! And a fourth book is on the way next year! ||

[junior dew]

|| Huh, I never thought of it like that. I think you have a really good point, but I always saw it as an unequivocal positive change in humanity. But I also constantly crash out over how awful and vile humanity is, and how lacking in empathy so many people are ||

[uncut shoal]

Suneater 2 ||mmmmm he just met the ancient AIs. Verrryyy interesting and cryptic heh. Reminds me a lot of Hyperion right now||

[sleek jungle]

children of time all ||I don't know why you would consider them inhuman just because they got their empathy turned up to 11. It's not even brainwashing humans into peace with spiders. The empathy granted by the virus doesn't remove war as an option for them ||

[ivory cypress]

i finished the nameless land

||AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH||

||thank GODDDDDDDDDD i feel i have never rooted for a love so much as i've rooted for this one. oh my god. what a story. what a BLAST.||

||god. kate elliott is SOOOO GOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD||

god this is so good. i love these books

i need moarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

(and so we shall)

[deft stream]

@long sorrel Do you recommend me reading half a soul?

[long sorrel]

Yeah, I think so

[long sorrel]

YEEEEEEEES

[long sorrel]

Nameless Land ALL ||I knew you'd like it! I loved Raven, but also I sorta thought "the only way this works is if somehow the prince dies and the Haunt takes over" and then like SO MANY THINGS HAPPEN IN THE LAST FEW PAGES I WAS GOING INSANE even though I did think he'd come back. And yes I somehow generally don't care if people have happy endings but it was so so so painful the way El just goes "I must appreciate everything I am giving even if it's only a few days with the Haunt" and and and ARGH, thank god though!||

||Also idk about you but I grew sort of attached to the Prince, even though I'm absolutely fine with him being dead ||

[ivory cypress]

nameless land all ||RIGHTTTT like i was feeling the number of pages shrink and they were barely at genia's place and NO IDEA how all these bits of plot were going to resolve and then when it was confirmed the prince's injury was mortal i was like. the haunt will come in. there's a reason the book emphasized his healing factor so much. it's gonna be the haunt. and i wasn't even sure it was gonna be PERMANENT. this could easily have been a trilogy but honestly, el has NEVER cared or been interested and i'm also glad the story didn't force her along into intrigue she doesn't care about||

||i ended up OKAY with the prince. i never minded when he pulled rank on effing duenn and co., and saw some moments of a different better man he could have become and in a story that grew beyond this, i could see myself coming to love him, but i'm with el - i'd take the haunt over him no matter what 😩 ||

||i guess i DO root for astaylin to take over and maybe that's what the next books will cover||

[long sorrel]

mhmmm

[ivory cypress]

||minaylin truly does seem like a dangerous element||

[long sorrel]

We need moooore

[long sorrel]

||Yes! But I am also rather interested, he seems like an extreme antagonist but is also with what little we know so far, could be a really interesting antagonist 👀 we'll see||

||I also need to know what El actually is, I'm so curious!||

[ivory cypress]

well i do... 👀

[ivory cypress]

nameless land ||it's SO interesting! what could that be! i really love this world||

[long sorrel]

@jagged lake If you didn't see what Grey said the other day, Kate Elliot is working on more books in the same world of Witch Roads

[long sorrel]

I want a book about someone going around cataloguing spores

Like, bring Emily Wilde here

[ivory cypress]

(kate elliott has a great patreon, particularly for aspiring writers too)

[long sorrel]

Also one thing about Nameless Land all ||I was so worried it was gonna have a "happy ending" but without the Haunt because the story really felt like it could go the bittersweet way of everyone ends happy but they cant reunite again||

||It was so much more tense than book 1, too||

[ivory cypress]

||yes1!!! because the thing is that elen is so mature and resigned herself to circumstances. everything DID seem impossible, everything DID seem like she could never have what she wanted, at every turn! it was just my kind of happy ending. i am kind of in disbelief that kate DID THATTTTtTT 🥰 ||

[jagged lake]

Nameless Land ||I feel like there's a decent chance he's dabbling in sorcery, and that's what the Haunt felt. Unrestricted access to the most secret information in the Empire? If there's any record of sorcery, it's there. The acid seems like a good way to cover your tracks after using sorcery to eradicate a Vigil.||

[long sorrel]

||I do love Elen's attitude towards everything, just Absolute I liked her female characters in Spiritwalker a lot and obviously there's a lot of things going there that aren't here since they're very different books but they were the age they were and living what they were living. El is just... I think I admire her||

[long sorrel]

I hope you're right!

[ivory cypress]

nameless land general ||she's kind of the idea of the adult age female protagonist for me. el might have ruined me for all others||

[long sorrel]

Specifically I want to see where the author goes with that

though it is clear I'll be happy with whatever she puts together

[long sorrel]

YES, this

[merry galleon]

I finished Elvenbane! It only took me 4 days!

[merry galleon]

nice

[proper silo]

Erha 300 (finally, I found more time to read) ||Man, they are like... Really making sure Mo Ran is dead dead dead. Killing his body, then sending off each part of his soul, then destroying Taxian-jun... I'm still sure he'll come back somehow by the end of this but now I'm starting to wonder if he'll just be a ghost hanging around in the afterlife||

301 ||I love how this is an exact mirror of chapter 1, complete with Xue Meng getting frustrated with everyone and rushing ahead to confront Taxian-jun (and also Taxian-jun being already dead/dying)||

||...except now Mei Hanxue go with him||

||Just confess already ||

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/vaspider/801458106693484544

[proper silo]

Erha 303 ||Future Xue Meng! Finally I have a full set of past and future Chu Wanning disciples 😌 ||

||And I can't help but notice he's accompanied by future Mei Hanxues too||

||Gee, Mei Hanxue, how come author let you have four versions of yourself?||

[proper silo]

Erha 305 ||I wonder, if Hua Binan knew killing Mu Yanli would open the demon realm gate that much more easily, would he do it? Like obviously she's his sister and confidant, but I can't help but feel like she loves him more than he loves her||

[spring turtle]

Saint of Steel books 1-4 acquired

[minor sleet]

Nice

[long sorrel]

any special edition? 👀

[spring turtle]

Now I get to wait for when Tor announces a rerelease of them with fancy hardcover editions this summer. It's inevitable

Not the fancy new ones. Just the Argyll ones

[long sorrel]

which are those

[minor sleet]

Tor and Kingfisher do have a great thing going for them

[spring turtle]

The fancy new ones are the ones with people on the covers and iirc they're UK editions

[long sorrel]

Which are the argyll ones?

[ivory cypress]

I resisted getting a physical copy of swordheart, but since I KNOW I'm picking up a copy of daggerbound next year, maybe I should

[spring turtle]

The ones that look like this

[long sorrel]

I'm resisting the spanish Nettle & Bone copy

[long sorrel]

Aaah, these are my fave

I want em

[untold leaf]

I Am Not A Serial Killer Chapter 7 ||What the actual heck was that? This book just did a total genre-flip. I almost feel like it was falsely advertised, because I had no prior indicator this was a fantasy book.||

I also found out this is a seven-book series. I thought it was a standalone.

[long sorrel]

That's a moment for sure

[snow vessel]

I believe it's a trilogy and then another series. But I could be wrong

[minor sleet]

On January 1, Nancy Drew enters the public domain

The book is/will be 95 years old, making ~five generations of fans

[mild lance]

Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes team up against Dracula, lfg!

[minor sleet]

Yes that is exactly the kind of energy the public domain tries to encourage

[hollow hedge]

is it one of those things where they can only reference material that is so old, and books might gradually join the public domain? Or is it a 'life of the author' thing where a bunch of the originals join at once?

[alpine drum]

Former i believe

Apparently there have been new Nancy Drew books as recently as 2003

[wet belfry]

It is the former, asterisk, which is why Disney has gone to great lengths to differentiate Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse from more modern iterations of the character

[alpine drum]

I think the natural drift in the character would probably have been enough

[minor sleet]

So for example, Jan 1, Nancy as she appears in her first book Secret of the Old Clock (published 1935) is fair game

But you can’t used material from the 1950s rewrite of Secret of the Old Clock, or her second appearance the Hidden Staircase, or the book from 2003, or the movie with Emma Roberts, or the CW show

[alpine drum]

Damn, there go my 2026 plans...

[hollow hedge]

The Hobbit's public domain entry might become a mess in that sense, as the original text might become more prominent

(Hobbit) ||making derivative works with the original Gollum scene, not being able to reference Bilbo explaining that version as a lie, etc||

[minor sleet]

Also Carolyn Keefe is and always has been a pseudonym & the original author died in the 1980s so I’m not sure how life of author +50 would even work

[snow vessel]

Swordcrossed 14 ||I think I've been going a lot slower with this book because I tend to be more... temperamental, I guess, with romance/smut||

||unfortunately I'm not always feeling super up for the level this book is often hitting||

[ripe tide]

I had always understood it was a pseudonym for a bunch of different people. Not an RJ situation but a whole group that wrote under that name.

[craggy cargo]

Same situation as the hardy boys I think? It's just a pseudonym and not even a situation where there's a consistent single writer who passes it down to another, it's dramatically different authors off and one with one or two guys at one point who are doing the majority of the writing.

I remember reading them and being weirded out by one in particular which was actually dark and serious and had their overweight friend go to a poor country with starving people and have a crisis of faith about eating and whatnot, only to end with the conclusion that he liked food too much to care.

Those books are such bad mysteries in general. I remember one where every non recurring character is secretly a bad guy, including a random hotel receptionist or something who does nothing in the story but they're like, "he was working with them too". He only exists to say one line and apparently be a villain.

[craggy cargo]

Oh, after some digging, the original writer was an amazingly prolific author who wrote a lot of both the series. So the original Franklin W dixon and Carolyn Keefe was the same person. That makes sense.

[proper silo]

Erha 307 ||Goddamn, like, Shi Mei was a villain but getting crushed to death is a hell of a way to go ||

||At least he did something good with his final moments?||

[long sorrel]

I keep clicking on your spoilers hoping it's not a terrible spoiler

but I keep getting bombed

[proper silo]

[long sorrel]

I had expected this though

I was like, nearly certain

[proper silo]

Ye, it's not that much of a reach

[long sorrel]

by the time I ever reach that volume it'll have been years anyway

Erha 307 (ish) ||Yesterday's about Mo Ran being dead was a bit more, but people die and undie like crazy here so kinda ||

I'm only here for the down bad anyway

the rest is like extra-goof/insane

From reading your spoilers i do see I've foreseen stuff and that makes me happy (like that one foreshadow I mentioned that it's in like book 2)

[proper silo]

Ye, the way the book rewards readers who notice the foreshadowing is great

[long sorrel]

I'm rewarded by your spoilers

I'm realistically never reaching the end

These type of long convoluted sometimes cycling stories tend to bore me (no matter how good they are, nothing wrong with the story, it's just a me thing)

So my usual way is, binge it in one or two goes, then forget forever

[minor sleet]

You can tell that Erha was written a chapter at a time and not heavily revised/edited when giving a print run

[proper silo]

Erha 308 ||there is something immensely funny about having an avengers assemble moment where more than half the people present had to be threatened into participating by the other half ||

[long sorrel]

That sounds right

it'd not be very believable otherwise

[minor sleet]

What a little blackmail between reluctant allies?

[long sorrel]

Yeah! Standard friendship beginner

[proper silo]

Erha 309 ||The gates to the afterlife are but a revolving door to Mo Ran||

||perhaps he should consider getting a frequent flyer card||

[minor sleet]

||Local grim reapers hate him! Learn one man’s neat trick to return from the dead repeatedly!||

[proper silo]

Erha 310 ||Meatbun: "Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts are pitiable creatures who don't deserve all the bad stuff"||
||Also Meatbun: "Your named Beauty Feasts for this story are Hua Binan the main antagonist, Song Qiutong my personal chew toy and MO RAN apparently"???||

[minor sleet]

Song Quitong deserved better

Her crimes are (checks notes) ||trying to survive a world of misogyny as an orphan who is literally primed for sexual exploitation||

[proper silo]

I can only imagine the author based her on a specific real person she disliked, nothing else explains the way she's treated in the story

[minor sleet]

That wouldn’t surprise me

[proper silo]

Erha 310 ||The demon lord: "Look, all I want from you is to abandon the love of your life (whom I'm repeatedly insulting), never return to your homeland, never reclaim your body and also serve me forevermore. I don't understand why you don't like the idea."||

[long sorrel]

It never gets better?

I think you must be right, cause the way her story goes is kinda gross 😭

[proper silo]

Song Qiutong is the worst part of the book, unfortunately

[long sorrel]

Yeah

For the 2 books I read it was the only thing that had me going "what are you doing "

[minor sleet]

This guy need to work on his elevator pitches

[proper silo]

Honestly though, I think she and ||Xu Shualing's backstory being awkwardly inserted in the middle of the showdown with him|| are like, the only bad parts of the book

[long sorrel]

And this means a lot given the author is completely crazy in her writing but I was in for the ride for all the absolutely most horrible crap like "hell yeah!" just not Song Qiutong 😩

[minor sleet]

The author’s third book is even more insane and unhinged but there’s a distinct lack of Dunking One Woman Misogynistically For No Reason

I really don’t get it

It’s not in the first book either but that’s mostly because there aren’t really women characters in Yuwu

[proper silo]

It's so weird too cause like, only Song Qiutong gets it of all the women

[long sorrel]

Yeah it's also like... Just her?

[minor sleet]

Which really makes me think Rasarr is right

And she’s based on someone the author hates irl

[long sorrel]

Though MoRon's mom is depicted like she's complerely stupid

Errr

Not his the other guys

You know who i mean

[proper silo]

Xue Meng's?

[long sorrel]

Yeah

[proper silo]

She gets way better later on

[long sorrel]

I expected so but wasnt sure

There's like no women in the first 2 books

Erha up to vol 2 ||there's the ghost lady who is "the nice girl other women are jealous about" which is also slightly sexist cliche anyway 😭 ||

Though none of that bothered me like Song lol

Only Song bothered me

[proper silo]

I think it's kind of part and parcel of the genre, unfortunately

Though, Thousand Autumns is better at it

[long sorrel]

Yeah that's why I ignored everyone else

[proper silo]

As is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, although there it's part of the whole running gag of, "this was supposed to be a harem story before the main character accidentally turned it into a gay romance"

[long sorrel]

But that doesn't mean I'm unaware of what's going on just choosing to not engage it while reading

[minor sleet]

Because she’s an open rival for Mo Ran’s affection

[proper silo]

Yep, fair, fair

[minor sleet]

Allegedly

[minor sleet]

Thousand Autumns is so good

[long sorrel]

Id rather these stories had no women at this point

[minor sleet]

Bai Rong my beloved

[proper silo]

Bai Rong best girl

anyway, back to Erha

310 ||Chu Wanning, stop using the candle dragon as your personal therapist, it's not very good at it||

[minor sleet]

Little pest

[lucid isle]

I really want to like a Game of Thrones but I don’t

[proper silo]

Erha 310 ||Awwww, they finally reunited. That's legit sweet ||

311 ||man, this whole chapter so far is "Xue Meng is terribly sad about everythign that happened"||

||Which like, valid, but still, give my boi some peace and joy||

311 ||I'm sorry, what? What is this... body-sharing arrangement? ||

||damn Chu Wanning, how come the author let you have two Mo Rans?||

[minor sleet]

Is that a blessing or a punishment?

[proper silo]

...both?

Alright! There's still extras left, but I'm doe with the main story now and you know

this may be recency bias at play, even with all its flaws (and there are a few), this may very well be one of my favourite books ever

[long sorrel]

wow

[proper silo]

This book is simultaneously extremely funny, ridiculously horny, incredibly melodramatic and patently absurd, and yet at the end of the day it still feels very... heartfelt, if that makes sense?

[long sorrel]

wow

I do understand what you mean, i can tell all of those things frmo the couple of books I've read but wow

[proper silo]

Like I would't say it's the best book I've ever read, I'd give it a solid 8.5/10, but I can't help but love it

[long sorrel]

Oh, yeah I definetely will fight you on "best" but completely fine for it to be your favourite

I'm surprised in a non-judgemental way, like it does all of those things in a really well put together way

[proper silo]

Yeah

[long sorrel]

It's just things that overall don't work for me to have something be my favourite

[proper silo]

[long sorrel]

Although

I will tell you Erha vol 2 ||The scene where they're both going solo with each on one side of the wall and Wanning can hear MoRan was 😳 ||

[proper silo]

Oh absolutely yes

[long sorrel]

favourite scene out of the entire 2 books

Something about that specifically always has me literally blushing

[proper silo]

Yea i get what you mean 💯

[long sorrel]

Like I read a similar scene on another book recently and I was thinking to myself "why is this making me blush" and then I thought "wait this is the second time and it's the same scene, something's going on here, thanks brain"

Then you have completely depraved scenes and i'm like "haha, aight" with no reaction

[proper silo]

we all learn something about ourselves by reading Erha, I guess

[long sorrel]

Fairly I learn it the other day when I linked both scenes

[proper silo]

fair, fair

[long sorrel]

Everything else Erha had to teach me I had learnt prior

Well... so far

I do give it that this author can and might surprise me

Which is fairly uncommon

[proper silo]

But yeah, Erha has the vibe of like... an explicit AO3 longfic, and I mean that in the most flattering way possible. Like the author writng whatever the hell she wants purely out of love for the characters.

[long sorrel]

I think the beauty of the unhinged here is that it's unhinged to be fun not to appease a crowd

so it's not like shock value, it's a more "free" way of writing

[proper silo]

💯

Now I suppose there are still some extras in this book, and the rest of the extras releasing in February, but I can get to that later

[long sorrel]

What's next in the Rasarr log?

[proper silo]

I was going to read Yuwu, but then my parents demanded I tell them what I want for Christmas, so long story short, I'll read Yuwu in December 🤔

Now it's gonna be either Peerless (the Thousand Autumns sequel), or Guardian (this one's urban fantasy, which I haven't read in a good long while)

Or maybe I'll take a break from danmei and try Will of the Many, not sure yet

[long sorrel]

OH, I think imma ask for Nettle & Bone for Christmas from my mom, or bday from my dad

She bought me a sorta expensive gift for my bday (which is 10d before christmas) so I think the 15 bucks Nettle & Bone gift for christmas would be better 👀

Also, Folk of the Air special edition releases on Monday so I can probably go pick it up then 👀

(thats my bday present to myself)

[proper silo]

happy birthday!

pre-birthday?

post-birthday?

[long sorrel]

pre

[proper silo]

happy pre-birthday!

[long sorrel]

it's on the 16th but thanks

[minor sleet]

I wasn’t a fan of guardian

I quit another one by that author too so I thinki just don’t like her style

[long sorrel]

who's the author?

[proper silo]

Priest

[long sorrel]

ah found it

Oh the cover of vol 1 is cute 👀

[proper silo]

the covers seem to suggest a rather drastic genre shift, which has me very intrigued

(also, only 3 volumes!)

[long sorrel]

hmmm ~

3 volumes only sure is a plus

Also am a sucker for disheveled, cigarette hanging in mouth people 😩

(not so much irl but in like anime style, damn)

like this

[proper silo]

It sure is a look 💯

[long sorrel]

yeah the cigarette doesn't do much for me irl, positively or negatively

[proper silo]

I generally dislike it irl, but I can see the appeal in artwork

[long sorrel]

yeah, as someone that smoked for 15 years (5 years without) I don't dislike it but it doesn't do anything

[low hill]

He's cute, shame about the cigarette.

[long sorrel]

meanwhile in the anime art style the cigarette is a plus 😌

[long sorrel]

This reminded me of Shion Karanomori from Psycho Pass

You're making me post this, Grey, it's all on you (I absolutely didn't have the image ready)

Psycho Pass all ||she happens to be lesbian, too 😩 ||

[ivory cypress]

i gotta watch psycho pass again

[long sorrel]

I've watched it maybe 5 times

3 of those it was me forcing people to watch it

with something close to consent ofc 😌

[proper silo]

oh my

the red dress and lab coat is quite the combo

[long sorrel]

yes

She's a great character

she's the police department lab analyst/tech

She's also considered a criminal and insane as are all the people that work at the police except the actual police inspectors

[quaint tendon]

HWFWM book 7 without context

[mild lance]

My brain tried to read that acronym as “How Wi Fet Wour Mother”

[quaint tendon]

Look the books acronym is very frustrating idk what to tell you

[tight kindle]

Seveneves 2 ||astronomicalbodyformerlyknownasthemoon.com.
Absolute cinema.||

3 ||President Flaherty?
That's... A name for sure.||

[analog geode]

Ooo Seveneves, I gotta finish that

Seveneves vague ||It was very bleak and I wasn’t in a good headspace so I took a break||

[tight kindle]

It's like the only thing I haven't read on my Kindle

Very good so far

[north scaffold]

I DNF'd it a long time ago and have no intention of ever picking it back up.

I remember actively disliking it.

[analog geode]

You should check out Snowcrash next, it’s my favorite of his books

[tight kindle]

I tried Snowcrash

Got fifty pages and put it down

Just so dense

[analog geode]

It’s less dense than Seveneves!

Cryptonomicon is his super dense one

[north scaffold]

I loved Snowcrash.

It had such a fun energy to it.

Also it's the book that originally named the torment nexus metaverse.

[analog geode]

The opening is truly iconic

[north scaffold]

The opening is peak cyberpunk

[long sorrel]

I dnfed snowcrash on page 30

I might pick it up again some day but at this point i doubt it

[north scaffold]

DNFing Stephenson books is a fine way to experience them in general because their endings are just "well the book just ran out of pages here kind of arbitrarily" anyway.

So just decide for yourself how many pages it has.

[long sorrel]

That sounds awful

[tight kindle]

Unless seveneves gets way more dense it's been much better to read

[charred swallow]

the book ends when his supply of coke does

just like most authors of the time 😛

[tight kindle]

Although it might be that I'm reading seveneves on my Kindle and Snowcrash was a mass market paperback

Sometimes the medium screws with my enjoyment of a book

[analog geode]

I’ve never actually read one of his books, it’s all been audiobooks

[tight kindle]

That would probably also help

[wet belfry]

I mean to be fair I don't think Stephen King is actually representative of authors

[minor sleet]

Also he did notably quit coke and continue writing

Sorry, quit coke and being an alcoholic

https://www.tumblr.com/spiribia/777660814376206336/when-enkidu-dies-gilgamesh-covers-his-face

The Chaos Project

when enkidu dies Gilgamesh covers his face, veiling it “like a bride”. Haha (sudden low voice through gritted teeth) the ancient Mesopotamians are running circles around us. I need you to get your ass on the field and give me your best yaoi or we can kiss these quarter finals goodbye

-# #talks

Tumblr · Mar 10, 2025, 7:32 PM

[mortal wren]

notin, you just won. thats all

man i keep arriving late to the party

[merry galleon]

I told my dad that there is a list of books I want for Christmas, but he’d have to wait until December 11th because two of those books are getting released. So I’m hoping that when he orders them it would arrive before Christmas.

[mortal wren]

ugh that reminds me

time to practice whitespace

[wraith lynx]

TWK 7 ||These people, including Maddy, are gonna regret not listening to jude... but also now Maddy at least understands jude is on a mission.... but I can be on a mission with him if yall know what im sayin 🥴||

[long sorrel]

I sure do

[snow vessel]

...I have the opportunity to buy books on voucher money

I shouldn't... but what if

[long sorrel]

Why shouldn't you

[snow vessel]

Christmas soon + was planning on not buying books unless I'd already read them for a while, for space's sake

Library has a lot of them... maybe I should stick to that for now...

[merry galleon]

It took a little while but I finished the Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima! It’s getting really interesting.

[merry galleon]

I’m giving in. I need to feed my Dragon Rider addiction, and I’m starting with Titan’s Nest by TD Orel

[spring turtle]

please lemme know how that one is. it's on my wishlist

[merry galleon]

What about Fourth Wing?

[quaint tendon]

HWFWM book 7 chapter 46 and also HWFWM general || I have to say, thank you to the character Suramere** for being the first diamond ranker, or indeed gold and above adventurer for being an actual jack ass. I know Shako from the builder cult exists but he runs a cult of course he sucks. One of my long standing problems with this series is the sheer amount of like. “Good Nobility” we run into. The gellers, the mercers for the most part. The remores, etc. everyone’s like “oh man Jason is super correct hard work is the best adventurer machine.” It gets tedious when there’s nothing in between complete evil or bastions of good guy stuff||

Edited cause I completely messed up a spelling lol

Something this paragraph reminded me of that I loved while reading the Cradle series

Cradle general feelings in comparison to HWFWM|| in those books you rarely get more than two people who agree on what makes a true and honorable sacred artist. Not to constantly talk down on HWFWM but it does make cradle feel more fun and fleshed out. ||

[merry galleon]

You mean Titan’s Nest? I read the sample chapter and || it was so good that I’m intending to order the second book||

[merry galleon]

I already read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. || the way the author approached the enemies to lovers trope was so bad that DNF’d it||

me too

I stopped at iron flame

[long sorrel]

talking about enemies to lovers

[wraith lynx]

:))

[long sorrel]

Folk of the Air tomorrow, y'all I'm not going to shut tf up about it once I get my hands on the special editions

[wraith lynx]

And you shouldn't!

[long sorrel]

Cosmic, if you don't read faster you won't be able to click on any of the stuff I post 😌

[wraith lynx]

gasp trueeeeee~

[long sorrel]

So you need to finish both books in the next like 15 h

[zinc flicker]

I did not like TFW

I’m reading a Kiss of Iron and that is also mid 😭

[wraith lynx]

You could read TCP again queen

[merry galleon]

can I ask an offtopic question about cosmic's pfp?

[zinc flicker]

😭

[wraith lynx]

What about it?? 👀

[merry galleon]

Did you draw it yourself? Your pfps are very good looking and sweet!

[long sorrel]

I read these type of books for very different reasons than you, but maybe I can make a list of stuff that could check out if you want? And have some conditions/genres. (No I don't have victorian vampires )

[merry galleon]

unlike mine

[wraith lynx]

Oh no I dont draw them! I use a free character creator online called a picrew

[long sorrel]

This cosmic pfp is so cute! But the gremlin cosmic fits cosmic too 😌

in my head cosmic is like a mix of the 2, cute chaos gremlin

[zinc flicker]

Yesssssss.

I get the sense you do know what I like at this point

I do have Paladin’s Grace ready to read

And I think I’ll like that

[long sorrel]

It's okay if i DM you I take it?

Yeaqh paladin's grace is gonna be so right up your alley

I mean, it has paladins

which is already screaming Monkeygirl

[zinc flicker]

Yes

[long sorrel]

I'll message you later then

[zinc flicker]

Thank you

[long sorrel]

Y'all since when does discord give you freaking

prove your'e not human to send friend requests???

wtf???

[zinc flicker]

That’s such a confusing one too

[long sorrel]

Yeah, look what i had to do to be your friend

It's the thing that's crisscrossed but it took me a couple of seconds to understand wtf it was asking of me

[wet belfry]

Captcha must be training AI for IQ tests or something

[long sorrel]

right!?

[alpine drum]

they have been doing this for basically the entire history of captchas

[wet belfry]

I know they've been training AI the whole time but this looks more specifically like an actual IQ test question

[quaint tendon]

I think I might be a robot

Cause I have no clue what to click

[long sorrel]

Tbh "icon" is also poorly worded

there are no "icons" the way I understand this word in this image

Thus why it took me a couple of seconds looking at it

like it's technically an icon but it's not what I immediately understood

[north scaffold]

Huh I just Friended Kon (somehow we are Steam Friends but not Discord Friends) and it didn't ask me anything.

[long sorrel]

It had never asked me anything

I think I have a few people here whom I'm steam friends with but not discord

[north scaffold]

Discord Friending isn't terribly useful, it just lets you add people to groupchats.

You can DM anyone anyway Friend or not.

[long sorrel]

unless you've DMs restricted

which many people do

it didn't ask me anything for you

so idk

[north scaffold]

Special Monkeygirl anti-bot security it seems.

[long sorrel]

😭

[zinc flicker]

(I am dms restricted lol)

I can still accept the dm but it gets put into a buffer page so I can sort out scammers

[jagged lake]

While this might be true, there's definitely a point in Seveneves where if you "finish" before that point vs. after, you'll have a very different experience. I'm still missing the rest of the book, having made it to the end, perhaps especially because of having done so.

[jagged lake]

Line figure? Or maybe that would be even less clear than icon.

[long sorrel]

I'd have called it symbol I guess?

trying once again to get this umber down

[minor sleet]

Those are beginners numbers

I also have a physical book not on my app

[long sorrel]

but have you started them all

[minor sleet]

I’ve started 2 of them, one audiobook and one ebook

Plus the physical book

[long sorrel]

5 then, I'm technically only readong 1 book but I've started all of those 😭

I hate it

5 is a lot too, I don't like to read more than 2 at once

[minor sleet]

No, three. One per format

[long sorrel]

aah

I can read!

[minor sleet]

It helps that one (the physical book) is non fiction

[long sorrel]

I've one almost almost done so should be 9 in a bit

then I'll see...

most of them are at like, chapter 5 for whatever reason

[low hill]

If we're playing the "Who has the largest To Read pile" game...
-# But I only have one on the go at a time.

[long sorrel]

You know my tbr isn't 10 books

neither is Codenames!

[low hill]

No, it's 43 apprently. :P

[long sorrel]

That's for inminent read I'm sure they've a lot more

[minor sleet]

I like to horde the idea of reading books

[low hill]

It's a separate hobby to reading them.

[merry galleon]

I read about 20 books this year!

14 of them are the wheel of time books

2 is fourth wing and iron flame

1 is isles of the emberdark

1 is dune

2 are korean books

[jagged lake]

Books in Korean, or books about Korean?

[merry galleon]

In korean

oh yeah

22 books after I finish hierarchy series

[jagged lake]

One that happens to complement library holds nicely, since it means you have a much better shot of having a book available at any given time. I have the unfortunate habit of only looking for books when I have nothing to read, which doesn't work as well.

I should probably read some stuff in French, since I haven't really since high school, but the couple of times I've tried I probably made the wrong choices (generally some literary classic which was originally written in French, which ends up making things harder for myself).

[junior dew]

I’m at 46 so far this year. Pushing to get my 52 at this point

[minor sleet]

Hell yeah one a week

[merry galleon]

crazy

hmm

I might push for 27 if I successfully reread stormlight

in a month

[junior dew]

Yeah last year was the first I tried for 52 in a year and I managed to get 60

This is my year so far

[wide olive]

Well... When you start reading light novels the numbers mysteriously jump up (every volume = 1 book and volumes are rather short)...

[untold leaf]

I'm at 33 books so far. I'm behind.

[small bloom]

I just reached 75 on Friday, which was my new goal after reaching my previous goal of 50 back in July

[low hill]

• November: Ascension [Nicholas Binge].

Well, that was a month...

[long sorrel]

Everything okay??

[low hill]

Most of November was Memories of Ice, but also I was very busy and ill...

[long sorrel]

I hope you're fine now

[quaint burrow]

Katabasis 20 ||Am I the only one who hates every single main character?||

[ripe tide]

You're meant to, its fine

||Though I'm surprised you seem to be including Peter in that||

[junior dew]

My aim to finish 10 books in November has failed. I thought there were 31 days

[royal carbon]

There are now

[wraith lynx]

10?? Shoot, I got 1.5 🤣

[low hill]

-# Also no.

[wraith lynx]

Aww vecna :((

[junior dew]

Trying to sprint as quickly as possible to the 52 for the year so I can start doing other stuff lol

[snow vessel]

I got 4 in November

Apparently I read 300 pages in one day?? That must've been the one manga volume I recorded

xD last month I read a malazan book, memnoch the devil, and a politics book. Quite... different styles

[long sorrel]

I don't want to look at my november reads

[snow vessel]

Bad books?

[long sorrel]

I think...

-# I think I've ready mostly only smut.

[ivory cypress]

😅

[long sorrel]

What's up with y'all and November?

[snow vessel]

HOW

[low hill]

I spent it writing.

[wraith lynx]

Im sorry, my aura must have infected the air or something

[ivory cypress]

November was a weird time

idk

[wraith lynx]

See

[snow vessel]

Usha just casually almost topping my yearly reads in one month 😭

[ivory cypress]

a weird difficultish time

they were GREAT books though

[long sorrel]

Better than my selection then

[low hill]

I was also ill for at least a week.

[long sorrel]

Okay so out of 32 I read, Nameless Land, Snake Eater, the 6 books and short stories of The Magpie Lord and Half a Soul, that weren't smut

[ivory cypress]

and i count reading days so that chart on the bottom isn't "days i marked a book as finished", those are days i read

[long sorrel]

Oh

[low hill]

I also count by books I started in the month, because that's when they get added to the list. So Memories of Ice was something like the 25th to 25th?

[long sorrel]

this is mine

[long sorrel]

Mine get counted the day I finish I think?

since i mark start day and finish

[low hill]

Oh, I think LibraryThing lists them by when I finish them. But I don't.

Not sure what I'll start tonight, as I finished Ascension last night. Probably something shorter than the next Malazan though...

[long sorrel]

Ascension! =P

[low hill]

But not that one. :P

-# For starters, I don't own that one.

-# That can go on my Christmas list though.

[long sorrel]

I know but it was funny to tell you to read Ascension after Ascension!

[ivory cypress]

but you know, Monstress Volume 10 releases tomorrow 👀

[long sorrel]

Damn, I still haven't read 8

I feel at this point I'd need to reread the whole thing

I have forgotten some things

[quaint burrow]

Katabasis 20 ||He's a misogonist, also, the first thing he thought when he saw Grimes and Alice in the room, is that they were having sex, and not any foul play. And he told some people that they were having sex. He's also condescending to other people. So... Yeah I don’t like Peter||

[low hill]

Oh no, it can't. Not out in paperback yet.

[long sorrel]

Am here waiting for an email saying they got my books at the store like

https://tenor.com/view/pablo-escobar-pablo-stan-twt-standing-grandpa-gif-15901735077073339091

[junior dew]

Genuinely how do you have time to read that much and do other stuff

[long sorrel]

do... other stuff?

[ivory cypress]

you were warframing just yesterday!

[junior dew]

And E33ing

[long sorrel]

I did warframe and play lies of P yesterday!

[wraith lynx]

Raven Scholar was a 5?? Oooooo grey oooooo 👀👀👀👀

[low hill]

Theoretically you work. :P

[wraith lynx]

I wanna read it so bad

[long sorrel]

Anyway, I do read pretty fast but i do put a lot of my free time into reading

[junior dew]

That too

[junior dew]

I feel like you’ve gotta read faster than pretty fast

[long sorrel]

Well yesterday I was meant to be working but I was in a terrible mood so decided I needed to game away the day (so that was me using my work time to game lol)

Which I will pay for today

[long sorrel]

I read faster than average but I don't think I read faster than Grey or Vecna for example

some books I'm not reading full sentences though, it's not like I'm skimming-skimming but it's a light way of reading, which is way faster than say, if I'm reading malazan

[low hill]

I think you put more time towards it than I do. I'd get through about 40 books a month if I didn't have other things to do (as evidenced by my holiday speeds).

Kate Elliott question.
I've read Crown of Stars and Spirit Walker, and preferred the former. What would people recommended of hers that's closer to that?

[long sorrel]

Exactly! You read about 30 minutes per night and I read like 2-3h but sometimes 5

[junior dew]

See I’m a fairly slow reader myself. I could probably get ~15 books finished in a month max, but that’d even be pushing it and they’d have to all be short books (~300 pages)

[ivory cypress]

all of her series have fairly distinct voices from each other

it's hard to say - what is the reason for the preference

[low hill]

Vibes, mostly...

[ivory cypress]

maybe her Crossroads trilogy then

[snow vessel]

My reading pace depends a lot on the book, as well

[low hill]

Mind you, I don't think I've got all of Spirit Walkers so I should also finish that...

[snow vessel]

I think WAT is 300-400 pages longer than Midnight Tides, for example, but MT took me probably a bit over a month to read, while WAT took me 10 days

[long sorrel]

Malazan is much much slower to read than WaT

[snow vessel]

Eeeexactly

Certain books are just slower than others

[long sorrel]

you can skip half of the words in WaT and get the full content

[junior dew]

Yeah likewise. My month was largely Hierarchy and Cradle, both of which are pretty speedy/easy reads. But the hierarchy books even took me about a week when I was pouring most of my free time into reading them, since they’re longer books

Cradle I’ve been able to consistently finish each book in 2-3 days generally

[snow vessel]

-# I dunno why but non-fiction always takes me ageeees

-# I think I just struggle with finding motivation to get through more than 5 pages a day

[low hill]

OK, 7 books, a scarf, and some bookmarks should do it...

[ivory cypress]

depending on the non fiction, I do feel the urge to lower the book every few pages, stare into the middle distance and have a think

[snow vessel]

A few pages of non fiction always feels like 20-30 pages of fiction to me

[low hill]

That was the other reason November was slow, I cut out my "1h after work" reading time to focus on NaNo. So I only had more like 20 minutes a night, and most nights I was just too exhausted to even do that...

[long sorrel]

Was NaNo good? 👀

[low hill]

I wrote 64,000 words.

[long sorrel]

ooooh, so yes

[low hill]

At the expense of my reading time... :)

[junior dew]

Worth

[long sorrel]

Generally if I'm feeling this I just won't read it.

Which is different from specifically reading something slowly

but if it's because I don't find the motivation that's probably a DNF for me

[snow vessel]

I probably would as well, but because it's (so far) applied to all nonfiction I just try to work through it

It's not about the book, I just suck at reading information even if it's interesting information

[alpine drum]

I think I did 3.5 books in November.
No Life Forsaken
A Little Hatred
The Trouble with Peace
Halfway through Wisdom of Crowds

Overall I am quite enjoying the Age of Madness trilogy (the latest Abercrombie books set in the First Law universe) but November was hectic for me

on that note: Does anyone have recs that I could read on my upcoming flights to and from Nexus? If I can't think of anything I may reread ASOIAF... it's calling to me

[long sorrel]

any narrowing it down?

[wraith lynx]

prepares my argument for eragon regardless

[alpine drum]

I feel like something lighter would be nice after finishing another round of Abercrombie torturing his characters (which yeah makes ASOIAF a weird choice)

[alpine drum]

I feel like I read Eragon when you were still in diapers

[alpine drum]

to further narrow it down: lighter but not cozy fantasy or a pure romance

[low hill]

I think I shouldn't start one of the books that I bought to help fix the Lévesque plot when I'm in the middle of writing a different book, so perhaps I'll start The Will of the Many or The Society of Unknowable Objects tonight.

[long sorrel]

How do you feel about What Moves the Dead 👀

[wraith lynx]

hey ill have you know i read the IC in like 2015-16ish so it wasnt THAT long ago 😂

[alpine drum]

that's Kingfisher right?

[long sorrel]

yep

I'm going through my 5* reads

[alpine drum]

you know I said I wanted a lighter read but looking at the blurb I'd be down for horror

[long sorrel]

Recency bias wants to recommend you Witch Roads but idk if that's gonna be up your alley or not 🤔 It is not cozy but it isn't tense-tense like other stuff

[long sorrel]

It's not very hardcore horror (since I can't deal with that) So I think it's still pretty light

other Kingfisher horror (contemporary rather than fantasy) are less light

[alpine drum]

light horror sounds like it'd hit the spot

[long sorrel]

Dollmakers: The MC is kind of insufferably but it's a pretty good book and the magic is
It is more in line with reading Sanderson (but better prose and lower stakes than "the universe will end")

[long sorrel]

It's 3 books so if you like the first one that'll give you 3 to read then, and if you do like that series I do also recommend the contemporary horror she has

the series Shades of Magic if you haven't read has a quite well crafted plot but it's lighter both in read and drama than stuff like ASOIAF

[long sorrel]

Oh hmmm I keep forgetting about that book, I wonder if I got it or not?

Oh, I do, okay, one day then

[low hill]

:P

[junior dew]

Cradle. The correct answer is Cradle

[alpine drum]

already done

[junior dew]

Hmm Alien Clay by Tchaikovsky was a fun read

I’d recommend Beartown by Backman, but that’s not exactly a light read. Fantastic book and series though

I’m realizing how few of my primary recs are light reads lol

Recursion by Blake Crouch is fun

[proper silo]

Man, I was going to give you my Erha recommendation spiel but then you said lighter and not romance and even I'm not that delusional

[junior dew]

Yeah I was about to be like oh yeah you have to read Broken Earth if you haven’t, but that’s super not light so…

[proper silo]

Hm... have you read Johannes Cabal books yet? The first one is called Johannes Cabal the Necromancer. It is, the title might imply, about a necromancer in an alternate history early 20th century who's sold his soul to the devil

Now he wants to get it back, and to do so, he's tasked with running a haunted carnival

There's five novels in the series total (plus a free novella over on Tor/Reactor), and each of them is a slightly different "early 20th century" subgenre (so one's a play on gothic horror, one's pulp action, one's riffing on lovecraft mythos, etc.)

[celest cloud]

any abercrombie fans in here?

[alpine drum]

I am, currently reading Age of Madness trilogy. Think ive read all his other books

[celest cloud]

including the devils?

[alpine drum]

Yeah

[celest cloud]

nice, what's been your fav books so far?

[alpine drum]

Several other people here have read The Devils as well

[hollow hedge]

I'm sure, I read the original trilogy and most of the standalones in the middle? I started The Devils but lost interest halfway through for reasons I don't remember

[low hill]

The Devils is the only thing of his I've read.

[celest cloud]

my 2 favs are best served cold and the devils, pretty similar books and both funnily enough are the only ones to have adaptions in the works afaik

[celest cloud]

honestly, its one of his best, how did you like it?

[alpine drum]

I think First Law is also vaguely in the works but I think The Devils is the one thats most likely to actually be adapted

[celest cloud]

was james cameron the one who asked to direct it?

[alpine drum]

Best Served Cold has been optioned for a while iirc

[celest cloud]

i think it was, i know it was a big name

[alpine drum]

Hes attached, might just be as a producer

[low hill]

I enjoyed it.

[celest cloud]

im doing a reread, and i NEVER reread anything ever

the only books ive ever reread are cytoverse cause theyre just so refreshing

[alpine drum]

I quite liked Red Country
Age of Madness is on the mind though and I think its got his best character work

[celest cloud]

certainly his best character work yeah

but idk, he has some really stand out moments in the other books that hit the hardest i think - trying to parse the books is difficult for me, i kinda forget what happened in what book

its like that for me with all big series i read

the heroes too is so good, i loved it, his standalones are some of his best work, i might do a reread of them too after the devils

[alpine drum]

Best Served Cold is good stand alone but I feel like it really benefits from having read the First Law trilogy first

I have always been confused as to why its getting adaptation attention first

Best Served Cold + First Law ||The king stuff is throwaway but the Eater stuff and Bayaz politics is pretty out of no where if you haven't read First Law||

[celest cloud]

its always been my favourite and its the only book ive bought for friends like 5 times, i think it works great as a standalone, the first law world is a good backdrop, but imo you dont need to have read it to fully enjoy bsc, a few mentioned of different characters here and there are all you get really, and shivers

[celest cloud]

hmm, maybe, i never noticed

best served cold: im kinda sad we never got any more of ||monza|| in the other books, they were my fav character

[alpine drum]

FYI spoiler tagged stuff needs to be labeled

Like you could say
BSC ||im kinda sad we never got any more of monza in the other books, they were my fav character||

To indicate that the spoiler covers Best Served Cold

[minor sleet]

@ripe tide mouthful of birds was so good!!!

Thank you for the recommendation

[ripe tide]

Youre welcome!!

[alpine drum]

- cat talking to Veronica about its dinner

[celest cloud]

@alpine drum what would be the other 2 in your top 3 is red country is your fav

[alpine drum]

Idk if Red Country is my fave

[celest cloud]

then if you had to say your top 3

no order

[alpine drum]

Top three in no particular order would be Red Country, The Trouble with Peace, and Last Arguement of Kings

[celest cloud]

the age of madness books you can really see his development as a writer, i feel every new book of his just gets better somehow, standalones were better than first law (imo), age of madness were better than first law and has some of his best character work, and i feel the devils kinda brings it all around with a fresh coat of paint

for me it would be the devils, best served cold and the heroes

its funny how different people favourite different books, i think thats a really good sign for a writer

what about your top 3 characters?

mine would be monza, gorst and cosca, but others are up there too, i love glokta as a character

logan too, love reading them

[alpine drum]

Logan, Glotka, Shivers

[minor sleet]

https://tenor.com/view/lick-cat-gif-19263091

[junior dew]

I’ve read the original trilogy, BSC, and the devils

Not sure I’d say a fan so much as I enjoy some of his stuff

It’s tricky with him. Original trilogy wasn’t as interesting of a plot. Characters were fun though. BSC and the Devils were pretty solid.

The way he writes action really doesn’t work for me though

[quaint burrow]

Mine 👀

[ivory cypress]

oh brothers karamazov mention

[random dome]

!!!! Brothers K!!!!!

[celest cloud]

i agree, personally id recommend the heroes if youre gonna read another one

the heroes is pretty unique

[zinc flicker]

I wanna read Brothers K

[ivory cypress]

I exclaimed but I'm in the same boat, it's on my tbr aspirationally

[junior dew]

I’ll eventually get back to his other stuff but it’s low on my list

[random dome]

It is one of my favorites

I do think Grey would really like Alyosha's max cleric vibes

[long sorrel]

Oh my god, Feather I read "max cervic vibes" and i was so so so so confused

[ivory cypress]

you know me.... all about cervices....? :?

[long sorrel]

I didn't get my confirmation email to go pick up my books 😩

[random dome]

Sometimes all you need is a sweet cleric boy just doing his best and trying to keep the faith even when the world is not going so great for him

[wraith lynx]

Im listening 👀👀

[random dome]

And that's why my favorite character is... Okay it's Ivan sorry of course it would be Ivan, the miserable uptight cynic who keeps failing social situations because he gets distracted by how smart he is 😩

[minor sleet]

Ignore the calendar saying I’m still reading Crossroads of Ravens, that’s a glitch and I finished it this morning

[random dome]

Dmitri is also a hot mess but like, in kind of a cringe fail simp boy kind of way

[quaint burrow]

I am still soooo early to have developed any opinion on any character

They only just met Zossima

[random dome]

I will admit I do not remember much of the plot of brothers k but I do remember the boys themselves

(and the two Ivan chapters I've gone back and reread multiple times...)

[wraith lynx]

Wait... I am so silly, the book is about two brothers???? I am LISTENING 👀👀👀👀

[ivory cypress]

three?

[random dome]

Three!

Dimitri, Ivan, and Alexei Karamazov

[wraith lynx]

[random dome]

(who metaphorically represent ||the body, the mind, and the soul|| respectively)

[wraith lynx]

Ohh thats so cool!

[ivory cypress]

I wonder if Libby has it

[minor sleet]

The book titled “The Brothers Karamazov” is indeed about brothers yes

[wraith lynx]

Reading the blurb makes Dimitri sound like a problem 🥴💕

[ivory cypress]

I am a cleric girlie

so I'll see 👀

I have exacting standards

omg there's no waiting list for this

ok

yoink

[random dome]

It's definitely old enough that you can find it for free online, so you might be able to find like, a pdf

[ivory cypress]

probs

[random dome]

17s Reads Classically Celebrated Russian Literature

-# for the cute boys

[ivory cypress]

I think I could probably renew this for as long as I want tbh

[random dome]

Probably, until a school English class assigns it or something

[ivory cypress]

ha, yeah

[random dome]

Other than that, probably not a lot of demand

Oh I hate that I googled the synopsis and the ai summary spit back something I immediately saw was incorrect, ugh

[ivory cypress]

turn off ai summaries for your search engine

[random dome]

I'm on my phone, it's baked in 😩

[ivory cypress]

huh? oh right you have a Google phone

[untold leaf]

I have nothing to contribute to this conversation other than the funny little factoid that I knew exactly who sent this message before I checked your profile just based on your phrasing. 😆

[random dome]

Brothers K ||Alyosha's whole crisis of faith is because the body does decay, and is seen as decaying rapidly, when it would have been a sign of saintliness/moral purity for the body to have remained as it was for a long time. It makes him doubt that his mentor wasn't as good of a person/spiritual leader as he thought he was, because there isn't a miraculous stasis. They got the whole point backwards!!||

[junior dew]

Wait, google phones don’t let you change your search engine?

[random dome]

The search bar baked into the home screen is always Google yeah

[junior dew]

Ohhhh yikes

[random dome]

I could go to a browser, but that's more clicks so I usually don't

[ivory cypress]

I always use Firefox

[random dome]

I do use Firefox as my mobile browser but I don't often go in there for just a quick search

I've deChromeified at least

Anyway, shout out to Fyodor Dostoyevsky looking at the father of these characters he's made up ||who is an objectively awful, hateful, lecherous human being|| and deciding he should be named... Fyodor

[long sorrel]

@minor sleet ! You read Cinder House? How was it? i got it as soon as it got out and then forgot about it

[long sorrel]

Anyone read Some Desperate Glory and if so any opinions?

[ivory cypress]

not yet, I got a copy but just waiting for it to be the Right Time

I like her other books I've read tho

[long sorrel]

it has pretty high ratngs it seems 👀

I see, I've not read anything by her

exciting

[ivory cypress]

let me know!

[long sorrel]

Oh, captive prince got localized to spanish?? really!?

[ivory cypress]

I'm not expecting it to blow my mind but my expectations are not low

[long sorrel]

Do you have any recs from what you've read from her? 👀

I'm going through my list for things to ask for bday/christmas still

[ivory cypress]

only the twofer I know of

https://app.thestorygraph.com/series/2398

[long sorrel]

oh uhm that's so short. I'll probably check that out first

[minor sleet]

It was good. Not a standout or anything but a very different take on Cinderella

[ivory cypress]

yeah they're little

[long sorrel]

Yeah, I mean, the Last Binding series was just fine, nothing crazy but I still had plenty of fun reading it

[minor sleet]

I didn’t really like any of the characters in that series until I got to book 3

They were all very bland but the focus on classism, disability, and the need of the society to change in book 3 worked a lot better

[long sorrel]

Really? I quite loved Violet

I found book 3 to be just about the same

as the previous 2 that is

[minor sleet]

I didn’t like Violet at all but I think that’s because I found her and her compulsive hiding of her true feelings too much like me

[quaint tendon]

What books this about

[minor sleet]

Queer romance trilogy by Freya Marske

set in the Edwardian period but with a secret society of magicians

[junior dew]

Audible sale has begun. My wallet is in danger

[alpine drum]

You could have just said set in the Edwardian period

[junior dew]

The fourth wing series is like $10 right now

Do I dare to subject myself to it?

[minor sleet]

I wished to provide additional context

[junior dew]

Also red rising books are all like $3-5

Taking book recommendations. Bonus points for short reads

[wraith lynx]

Eepy

Eepy I swear to the lord above if you pick FW over red rising I am going to implode into confetti

[minor sleet]

There’s this indie author who wrote a novel about a woman trying to escape with her life but contracted by a government to forge things for them. It’s called “Emperor’s Soul”

[alpine drum]

And why shouldn't they pick FW over Red Eising?

[minor sleet]

https://tenor.com/view/cane-stage-pull-cut-off-angry-gif-15911049

[long sorrel]

I did find her to be my spirit animal both positively and negatively
so I get where you're coming from

Trying to hide behind making everything a show? Couldn't be me

[junior dew]

I am 100% going to buy all the red rising books my gf doesn’t already have on her account. And I may just get the others she already does just out of convenience.

It’s a matter of whether I also get FW and its sequels for a collective $10 even though everyone says they suck.

I’ll probably get a few dozen books during this sale

[long sorrel]

what type of thing you're looking for? (Besides short)

[junior dew]

Hmm, not seeing it. Who’s the author?

[quaint tendon]

aubible sales

oof

i need to be responsible

[junior dew]

Uhhh… good?

Honestly pretty much just not non-fiction unless it’s really good non-fiction

[alpine drum]

Its from the author Brandon Sanderson who did the romantasy series Mistborn

[junior dew]

Granted I do plan to load my TBR into Audible later just to see what everything is priced at

[junior dew]

Huh, never heard of him

[long sorrel]

short is <300 p or less?

I'm sure i've something for you across all the smut /j

[junior dew]

Ehhh <400 pages maybe? More so thinking <12 hours on Audible lol

Granted it doesn’t have to be short. It’s just bonus points if so.

[wraith lynx]

🤔

Drat... eragon is 499 pages...

[junior dew]

8 hours on Audible is prime short book

4 hours on 2x speed

[marble sinew]

Just bite the bullet and grab more Will Wight books

[junior dew]

Good way to pad my numbers next year for the 52 books a year

[long sorrel]

Yeah but I don't do audiobooks so best I can do is measure in pages

any minute now

[junior dew]

Already read them all except murtagh which I have a physical copy of collecting dust because I can’t bother to care enough to pick it up yet

[junior dew]

Yeah that’s very fair

Any standout reads I’m happy to take as recs

[long sorrel]

Wait can I reuse AAKS recc and go for What Moves the Dead

[wraith lynx]

Welp Im out of ideas (ive only read 4 books and youve read 3 of them) 😂

[junior dew]

Oof cruel prince is more than the cost of a credit

[wraith lynx]

👀👀👀

[long sorrel]

Should we get Spooky to read Cruel Prince---

[junior dew]

Basically I just grab books on sale if they cost less than the cost of a credit

[quaint tendon]

Sheesh even on sale that’s a lot of money

[long sorrel]

Oh

[junior dew]

I will read cruel prince eventually

[junior dew]

That’s when you buy more credits

[long sorrel]

Any Schwab book (the adult ones not the middle grade ones)

[random dome]

Cruel Princeeeee

Also maybe someday I will go back and hate-read Fourth Wing just to suffer and see how bad it really is all the way through

[junior dew]

$7. Added to cart

[long sorrel]

That's a series of 3 books at present but each one is conclusive

(just fyi)

[junior dew]

They’re all $7 so I may just buy all 3

[long sorrel]

😅 What if you don't like it!?

[junior dew]

Will be basically adding everything to cart and then from there checking Libby availability against the cart

[wraith lynx]

Ill do it with you (this time fr I promise)

[junior dew]

Then I’m out $20

[long sorrel]

I'm willing to do a buddy read of Fourth Wing with you 2 just for the hate

[long sorrel]

A Master of Djinn

that's right below 400p, standalone (though it has 3 short stories preceding it that are really good and quite worth)

I'm so boring I always recommend the same things 😩

[wraith lynx]

Me, with eragon in my hands: look theres nothing wrong with the same 4 books 🥴

[quaint tendon]

https://tenor.com/view/thanks-jeff-gif-11560899552562590139

(bezoz)

[junior dew]

I appreciate the recs regardless! 5 hour books at 1x speed are . My numbers next month will be so padded

[quaint tendon]

bezos

[wraith lynx]

sneaks in brainworms to read murtagh

Okay im done I promise

[quaint tendon]

you ever realize how little you spell a name until youve already mispelled it

[wraith lynx]

👀

[junior dew]

Murtagh is so low on my list. One day. Maybe in a few years

[quaint tendon]

a vibe

[wraith lynx]

Dude by the time you read murtagh, murtagh 2 is gonna be releasing... which is probably a good thing 😂

[long sorrel]

I probably have more but I'm like, not sure what you like specifically

[junior dew]

By the time I read murtagh, the book following murtagh 2 will probably be out

[ivory cypress]

I'm always like. people always get to some good good recs ahead of me so I just have to plus one. but in general I'm like. is this a good time to recommend The Goblin Emperor

[long sorrel]

I was looking at that one!

And wondering "but will this be Spooky's thing?"

[ivory cypress]

mmhm

[junior dew]

My taste is fairly eclectic. I’m not too picky honestly

[long sorrel]

Yeah I get that myself too

[ivory cypress]

cosmic please read TGE

[wraith lynx]

Its on my list already!

[long sorrel]

The Goblin Emperor does a specific set of things really well and flawlessly and like
But if you're not interested in that set of things then it probably won't work at all

[junior dew]

$12 may push it to credit territory. Can’t quite recall.

This would be more convenient if Audible didn’t take away my 45 credits they accidentally gave me