Books (General)

[snow vessel]

||mad at matti?||

[snow vessel]

ADOW 35 ||whaaat||

[ripe tide]

What what?

[uncut shoal]

||Is that the torture chapter or the magic placenta chapter||

[snow vessel]

SC same ||I don't exactly remember the scene but I suspect some/a lot of it is just him lashing out because he's upset||

[snow vessel]

ADOW 35 ||ended with her collapsing after "conceptio" was mentioned as the next stage after (al)chemical marriage||

[ripe tide]

🍿

[snow vessel]

Well I was gonna take a break now but I guess I gotta keep reading xD

[analog geode]

I stayed up until 3am to finish the first book

[snow vessel]

I'm kind of genuinely surprised how much this book is keeping me wanting to keep reading

Mainly given the length of chapters and the book, yknow? I usually feel less pushed to go for one more chapter in these sorts of books

ADOW 36 early ||HUH? A chimera???||

👀

[uncut shoal]

I saw that on a House episode once

[ripe tide]

This is so fun

[uncut shoal]

||I'm not sure if it works on fraternal twins, though||

||But that's okay||

[snow vessel]

Oh I think I see where this is going

It'll probably be confirmed in a few lines

But my guess is ADOW 36 ||the chemical wedding is the absorbing/merging of the two twins||

||oh, nvm, it seems like she and Matthew are having a kid???||

[uncut shoal]

||They haven't actually had intercourse yet||

[snow vessel]

||yeah, I forgot||

||the issue is if they do, they could have one, it seems||

Adow 36 ||so if I understand correctly, it might be possible for creatures to have a mixed child, but the Congregation ban on mixed relations is (purposefully?) stopping that from happening. So the six of them are going to war with the congregation, in whatever form that takes, to end that ban||

[ripe tide]

Yes that’s what’s been implied. (I’m not confirming or denying the part Thats in a question mark)

[snow vessel]

ADOW 37 ||OH SHES USING HER POWER||

||she's fighting back!!||

[ripe tide]

Yesss

[snow vessel]

It's so good

||HUH??!?!?||

||is she making a deal with a goddess to revive Matthew?!||

[ripe tide]

👀

[snow vessel]

||she saved him with her blood||

||It seems like there was a literal, actual involvement of some form of the goddess||

[snow vessel]

TVA 8 ||are we doing a flashback in a flashback xD||

[hollow hedge]

Not much harder than Brandon, but maybe a tad

[old bone]

The focus on Abercrombie's books are way different than Brandon's tho

so like also consider that

[hollow hedge]

sure, there are some very significant differences in the realm of themes, and Abercrombie's can be somewhat more violent, but I found when I read them that there was so much more heart and charm than I expected in a series described as grimdark

the main reason not to read them would be, they're pretty violent (I wouldn't give them to my mother), and they can be pretty cynical

[junior dew]

Abercrombie I think does not write action well at all

First law to me was decent. Good character writing. Little in the way of actual plot. Good narration if doing audiobooks. Enjoyable but it’s not my first recommendation

But yeah the way he writes action really doesn’t work for me at all

[oblique zodiac]

https://youtu.be/IblWqEsoIDQ?si=FeDFrwk1_hw_S5Rm

This video got me interested in Red Rising and First Law both at once!

My choices for my next book after I finish Swordcrossed are those 2 and Stormlight(reread)

[wraith lynx]

Red rising propaganda!! Wooo 🥰

Easily the best series I read this year

[somber timber]

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

[wraith lynx]

ITS THE TRUTH 🗣🗣

RR clears pretty much everything I touched this year and I read a fair amount tbf

[long sorrel]

watching the honorific mentions made it very clear to me that I am very likely not going to overlap with this person, period

Lol, Riyria Revelations being called "moder and fast paced" is kind of to me too

(I do like those books but they're not those things)

[somber timber]

I don’t know anything he’s saying but he has powder mage and Jade city in the thumbnail too

Hopefully he’s not doing bad marketing

[long sorrel]

yeah, it's not like I disagree with some of it

It's more like...

the way he has experienced those books is so not overlapping with mine than even in the books we both think are good it isn't for even the same reasons

I think Riyria is modern compared to... the one series he was talking from the 40s, sure?

[somber timber]

Those books def feel a little outdated

[long sorrel]

So, what I'm saying is that I don't think he's doing bad marketing

just, wildly differently experiencing the same books

Well Riyria is 10 years old, but it is pretty traditional in its content

while Titus is from the 40s

Since it's a "best ever"

I suppose it makes sense

[somber timber]

Oh

Ever

Hmmmm

I would… hmmm

Best

[long sorrel]

you okay?

[somber timber]

The thought of putting Riyria in a “best ever” list broke my brain

[long sorrel]

lol

Yeah I don't disagree

I quite enjoyed it though, way more than I thought

I feel he reads a lot of very traditional-beats series though

I don't know if I could do a top 10 trilogies though

[somber timber]

They’re fun! They’re like a nice home cooked meal

[long sorrel]

I got so attached to the characters

but that's all

[somber timber]

It’s a fun romp!

It’s pulpy!

But like best

No

[somber timber]

I don’t know if I’ve read 10 trilogies per se

[long sorrel]

sure you have

[somber timber]

Riyria isn’t even a trilogy! It’s 6 books!

[long sorrel]

it's currently published as a trilogy!

But, I can count 6 off the top of my head that I know you've read

so you've probably read 10

[somber timber]

Oh I did finish a darker shade

But all of these have extensions

[long sorrel]

they're still trilogies

you also finished the 2 RJB ones

Era 1

Broken Earth

[somber timber]

Powder mage Jade city

Okay yeah you’re right I can probably get to 10

[long sorrel]

with darker shade and if we count Riyria that's like 7 already

have you, idk, read lotr?

[somber timber]

Ummmmmm I think I did the audio books once like 15 years ago

I had a paper back book set but it smelled so bad I refused to read it

[astral atlas]

Chaotic evil: Any three books are a trilogy

[low hill]

No.

[astral atlas]

This year I read a trilogy consisting of Emberdark, The Pilot, and The Wicked King

[long sorrel]

If I go to my storygraph faves I can pull:
Witness for the Dead
Sworn Soldier (I'm unaware if a 4th book will exist?)
Emily Wilde
Daevabad
Foundryside
Folk of the Air

This is from storygraph faves alone

[somber timber]

Mmmmmm RJB trilogies

I was looking up the discworld quote he used in the author’s note at the end of A Drop of Corruption last night and they put a release date in august on book 3 which matches his update from a week ago

[long sorrel]

I am not counting Divine Cities cause I haven't finished, and although I've Tainted Cup and other books from trilogies on my faves, they're not completed so not trilogies I've read yet

[somber timber]

he’s just cemented himself as my current fav author and I got distracted

[long sorrel]

I am split between RJB and SA Corey guys because Mercy of God lives rent free

[low hill]

Why are we counting trilogies anyway?

[long sorrel]

and then while i loved Schwab before I think Bury Our Bones has made her creep up so high now

[long sorrel]

we were commenting on this video. Vecna

[low hill]

Oh, videos. They don't exist.

[long sorrel]

Then there's obviously Kingfisher

I'll throw my entire kidney at her, thanks

[somber timber]

I have still yet to read them because the expanse show is so firm in my head that idk I just struggle with the books

[long sorrel]

Mercy of Gods is an entirely different series though

so you can just ignore the Expanse if you don't wanna read that

(I mean I'd recommend reading it, but it is 9 books)

[somber timber]

I went to look up how much mercy of the gods is and it’s currently advertising me tainted cup too

[long sorrel]

You should read tainted cup, it's pretty good

[low hill]

It was fine.

[somber timber]

Oh hey Fonda Lee has a blurb for mercy of the gods book 2

Mercy of the gods general || they named the planet THAT!||

[long sorrel]

Yup

[somber timber]

So we have tainted cup, a Fonda Lee blurb, that name, and you’re raving about it

~~World is def telling me not to buy it ~~

[long sorrel]

you should check the TWs

i think none of them will specifically bother you though, but just in case

[somber timber]

Hmmmm I think I’m good with those listed

[long sorrel]

I think the strongest ones that come to mind are Mercy of Gods ||Suicide ideation, mental health struggles and then Banished mentioned it felt claustrophobic in some section, which isn't listed on the TW and I hadn't thought about it, but it's there||

[somber timber]

Okay I should be fine then. Hmmmmm should I wait to buy it thought. It will probs be on sale because the new one comes out in April

…… nah

[long sorrel]

no clue how sales work, imma buy it the day it comes out

so excited

[somber timber]

Good year of books coming!

[long sorrel]

I'm waiting on 6 between now and July I think

[somber timber]

I think I’m at 3 and then waiting on RR7 news

Oh and whatever the new Brandon book they announced

[wraith lynx]

Red god is gonna ruin my life

Calling it now for future refrence

[somber timber]

Me: I’m excited for this book it’s gonna be fun

Cosmic: this book is gonna devastate me

[low hill]

Vecna: Eh, it's a book. consumes

[somber timber]

https://tenor.com/view/marge-simpson-eating-paper-eating-page-book-gif-18132062

[junior dew]

Hmm I wonder if I’d be able to do a top 10 trilogies

I probably could? Especially if I dipped into middle school warrior cats reading from… like 20 years ago

Since those were all trilogies and there were like 3 or 4 trilogies there

[wraith lynx]

mine is just eragon 10 times

[junior dew]

Eragon isn’t a trilogy

[wraith lynx]

RIGHT

Its not 😭

You get the idea 😂

[long sorrel]

Yeah we did only count trilogies tho

Like we purposely didn't count 2 or 4+ books

So Eragorn is out

[junior dew]

Hmm wait most of the realm of the Elderlings books are part of trilogies

[long sorrel]

Yep

I think those count

[junior dew]

Yeah I could do top 10 trilogies for sure

[long sorrel]

Ive read way more than 10 i just don't know that I could pick a top 10

[junior dew]

I think I’ve probably done few enough trilogies that a top 10 would be pretty easy to pick out

Top 5 delineation may be a challenge

I guess Children of time can’t count anymore since a fourth book is on the way

Yeah I’ve read enough great trilogies to make a top 5 a challenge. Top 10 would probably be fairly easy

Broken earth, beartown, all four RoTE trilogies, mistborn, and Lilith’s brood are probably all givens.

I would need to reread the 2nd and 3rd three body problem books to see if I’d put them in there. Been a long time since I read those

I’d probably still put Children of Time in there tbh even though there’s technically another book coming

It just feels criminal not including it

I’ve read some other trilogies that I enjoyed, but I don’t know that I’d feel justified putting them in a top 10 trilogy list just because they just aren’t on the same level as the other trilogies. First law, cruel prince, his dark materials (also been so many years since I last read that one), etc

I could cheat and put Dandelion Dynasty in there even though it’s four books. Particularly as it’s only four books because books 3 and 4 combined was too big to be bound into one book and had to be split up

So yeah:

• Broken Earth
• Children of Time
• Dandelion Dynasty
• Beartown
• Farseer
• Liveship Traders
• Tawney Man
• Fitz and the Fool
• Mistborn
• Lilith’s Brood

That would probably be my top 10 trilogies currently in no particular order with the asterisk for Dandelion Dynasty and Children of Time

[somber timber]

Men at Arms discworld moist series || I really enjoy all the scenes with the patrician and vimes. Enjoyed the ones with him and moist too. They’re always fun||

Also || idk what it is about this book but it just feels more interesting than guards guards. Like that one felt a little more weird and silly. This feels more grounded ||

[ivory cypress]

r/fantasy asks for a top ten every year, and I can usually come up with a list for them, but I feel bad about it every time haha

it's standalones OR series altogether, so I can vote for The Goblin Emperor and One Piece on the same list

[long sorrel]

Yeah, I suppose it's interesting to put some conditionals

There are series I like as series but not as individual books and viceversa

Comes to mind that I like SA as a series, but a lot falls apart when I analyse it as individual books.

The opposite happens with Era 2

[wraith lynx]

Interesting 🤔

[wet belfry]

The r/fantasy list is mostly fascinating to me to see where peoples' heads are at rather than being useful as a list of what I think is good or to look for good recommendations

[ivory cypress]

yeah, sure, it's what people think are their favourites of all time

[low hill]

Got there eventually. My Christmas books.

[junior dew]

I would really struggle with a top 10 standalone or series list I think

[ivory cypress]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1jjif55/rfantasy_top_novels_2025_results/

last year's results

all the ones on top you expect to see

[junior dew]

Wow first law being so high baffles me

[ivory cypress]

but i look to see whether MY faves made it on the list at all

world of raksura, world of the white rat

it's a BIT broader than just series

cause all books in a universe kinda count - altho for brandon you'll see mistborn, stormlight, and cosmere as separate entries

[junior dew]

What’s interesting to me is that even though I’ve been loving DCC this year, have generally been rating the books 5 stars, and would recommend the series particularly as audiobooks, there’s no way it’d be even close to being in my top 10 books or series I think

[ivory cypress]

sometimes your favourite in a year just still don't crack your list of top ones

[junior dew]

Oh for sure. DCC isn’t anywhere near my favorites of the year either probably

My favorites of the year by far are The Girl With the Louding Voice and Sword of Kaigen

As both stand out as immediately some of my favorites of all time

This year did give me a new least favorite series of all time as well in Percy Jackson

[ripe tide]

Whoooo. Have you been watching the show?

[low hill]

-# Least favourite.

[junior dew]

I have not. I don’t really watch much TV

[ripe tide]

Oh oops

[junior dew]

And yeah, least favorite. Probably the only series I wish I could go back and not have spent my time on

[ripe tide]

Misread

Rip

I’m tired

[junior dew]

Apologies 😭

[ripe tide]

Didn’t sleep great last night and museum days are exhausting

[junior dew]

Hope you manage to find some time to rest!

I’m more and more eager to check out the Daevabad trilogy

I think I’m finally slotting those in after I do Licanius

[ripe tide]

Do you think you would have enjoyed it if you read it as a kid? I think we’ve had this discussion before.

[junior dew]

Probably yeah. I remember enjoying one of the movies as a kid

[long sorrel]

It is just favourites isn't it?

I didn't hate Percy Jackson as much but defs felt it was such a waste of my time

[junior dew]

The r/fantasy list is definitely interesting

[long sorrel]

Probably because i did seriously try

Like ACOTAR is way worse but I dedicated 1h of my time to it

[junior dew]

I don’t even hate it. It’s just probably the worst thing I can recall having read. I have yet to read anything truly terrible

So even though I would have liked to spend my time on something else, I still don’t hate it or think it’s terrible. Just wasn’t for me

[long sorrel]

I think I have a special place for Black Prism

In my negative reads

[junior dew]

See yeah I haven’t read it and have no plans to

[long sorrel]

For all it could have been

[junior dew]

I think I own it

[long sorrel]

For how cool the magic system is

[wet belfry]

Yeah you get one vote and that vote is Your Favorite Of All Time

[long sorrel]

But everything else is just... blergh

[long sorrel]

Yeah I can't do that

[low hill]

Starless Sea. shrugs

[ivory cypress]

r/fantasy you vote for ten things

that big list is not everyone's single top fave

[junior dew]

Yeah top favorite is really hard. Maybe one year I’ll do a reread of a bunch of my favorites to see what I’d really put as my number one.

Right now I think my gut tells me I’d put either The Girl with the Louding Voice, Homegoing, Sword of Kaigen, or The Fifth Season there?

[ivory cypress]

also curious conversation.... even though i've disliked books before, it's hard for me to get to "and i wish i'd never read them"

[long sorrel]

I'm too recency biased

[ivory cypress]

how would i know if i didn't try them? 🤔

[junior dew]

I’m also quite recency biased, which is why I’d need to do some rereads

[long sorrel]

I think the one book I wish I hadnt read was some smut I tried a few days ago and it had such bad grammar, after 20 pages I hit a "your stubborn" and just deleted the book
Does that count

[alpine drum]

Its a very popular series rhat many people like. Its not as if the list is normalizing for a books well knownness

[junior dew]

I think it’s just more so “I could have done other stuff with that time. Read better books, play some games, do game dev, write, whatever”.

[junior dew]

It’s a hindsight thing

[ivory cypress]

i think for me it's that i read quite fast so it's not really ... a loss? of any kind

i more shrug and go "well, i tried it, not for me" and then just forget about it. and it still gets to be a number on my book list for the year

[ivory cypress]

are you surprised that lots of people like it?

[wet belfry]

I'm surprised that it as commonly people's Favorite Of All Time

I have been for years

[junior dew]

Yeah I was just surprised because while there’s stuff I think it does well, there’s other stuff it really doesn’t.

I think it’s just a series I’ve soured on a bit more as I’ve gotten some distance from it. I still enjoyed it and plan to read the other standalones and sequel trilogy one day, but I’m definitely not in any rush to do so.

Granted I also am not high on LoTR either. I plan to read the 2nd and 3rd books eventually too, but again I’m not in a rush as I’d rather first read stuff I’m more excited about

[junior dew]

No, just surprised by how high its placement is relative to other series, particularly given how low the first trilogy is on plot and how poorly imo the action is written.

Character work is definitely fantastic

[ivory cypress]

fascinating

[wet belfry]

Yeah I'm firmly in the camp of "not only is it not for me I don't get why the people who like it even do like it, its pretty mid"

[ivory cypress]

yeah this isn't me as a fan, this is me as someone who read the blade itself and decided no more abercrombie

but things i don't like continue to be popular

just easy to wrap my mind around that particular fact of life, i suppose

[junior dew]

So I was actually thinking about this recently and if I were reading the physical book idk if I would have finished the first book.

So how much did Stephen Pacey’s performance bringing the great character work to life carry the work for me? Possibly quite a lot

[untold leaf]

Welp, now that I've finished The Will of the Many, it's time to read Six of Crows for the three or four days I'll still have it.

[lusty meteor]

I think first law is a well known book tube darling. I dnf’d it in book 3

[junior dew]

Yeah I can super easily understand not liking first law

Which is why I’m so surprised to see it so high

Like I expect it to be high

Just knowing how people feel about it

Even if I wouldn’t put it in a top 10 or top 20 myself

But number 2 is what shocked me

[lusty meteor]

Its also pretty old. I think it has some staying power bc of that

[ivory cypress]

it's like, for me, Abercrombie, Pierce Brown, James Islington, (and Chris Ruocchio tho i will never rec him again due to Reasons) are all in the same... bucket. they're of a Kind

[lusty meteor]

I think it also got a popularity boost from being a finished series comparable to asoiaf

[ivory cypress]

i don't get them, i don't get why people love them, but they do, and they feel all... similar. to me

[lusty meteor]

Sun eater seems to have taken over the world, should give that a shot at some point

[ivory cypress]

sun eater has entered my "anti rec" list, very prestigious

(that's ruochhio)

[junior dew]

Huh that’s interesting to me having been kinda middling on WoTM myself and having heard what I’ve heard of Sun Eater (negative).

I wonder where I’ll fall on Red Rising when I get to it this year

[lusty meteor]

Malazan be 6 is crazy

[lusty meteor]

Is this for in story or out of story reasons

[junior dew]

Is the Ruochhio stuff new reasons or reasons previously discussed

I am glad to see RoTE in the top 5 at least

[ivory cypress]

Ruocchio has managed to make that a BOTH

a reason that straddles both

i'll dm anyone who asks, but it might be against our policies, so out of an abundance of caution...

[junior dew]

Green Bone I still need to get to book 3 with my gf. I enjoyed the first two books, but unless book 3 is ground shattering there’s no way the series cracks my top 20

[wet belfry]

I suspect people are predisposed to like Green Bone because the pitch involves The Godfather

[lusty meteor]

I also dnfd green bone in book 3 lmao

[low hill]

I almost did in two.

[wet belfry]

I liked it plenty but also don't think its a top 10 for me

[lusty meteor]

It is less godfather and more economics posting at the end

[low hill]

First Green Bone was the best.

[untold leaf]

At least the #1 winner on the list is validated, but I think Sanderson needs to be higher.

[brazen pilot]

if i had a nickel for every series duck dnf'd in book 3

[untold leaf]

Bias, I know. Look where we are.

[lusty meteor]

Idk why this keeps happening

[brazen pilot]

had to drag you kicking and screaming to not dnf farseer that way

[junior dew]

I’ll be honest, I don’t think Sanderson cracks my top 5 these days

[lusty meteor]

Tbf that part of farseer is a drag

[junior dew]

Idk if Sanderson would even crack my top 10 these days

[untold leaf]

I should have dnf'd the Michael Vey series at book six, but unfortunately I stopped at seven. Anyone read those books? They definitely went downhill.

[ivory cypress]

sanderson has been out of my top ten for years

[junior dew]

If we’re talking series + standalones

[untold leaf]

Sanderson is still my #1 fantasy author. I mean... here we are. I really can't think of anyone who does it better than him. Just in general.

[brazen pilot]

the only reason sanderson might not be out of my top 10 yet is that i might not have found 10 i like more than him yet, but i have full confidence i will

[junior dew]

I do really love Tress. But even then I don’t know if I could justify it being in my top 10

[brazen pilot]

he's solidly in the category where i like him a lot, i think what he does is great and i want more of it, but what i'm really looking for is stuff beyond that

[untold leaf]

The Licanius series was the first fantasy series I read since I started reading Brandon's books that I really loved and felt was on par with Brandon's writing.

[lusty meteor]

Malazan
Realm of the elderlings
Stormlight
Adoiaf
Cradle

I think that is the list

In no particular order

[untold leaf]

And even then, Licanius isn't the best. It's certainly lacking in characterization, but I think it more than makes up for it in narrative scope and the way everything in the hyper-convoluted enormous plot fits together perfectly in the end in the most mind-blowing ways.

The only reason I decided to read WotM was because I knew it was Islington. My trust in the author was what sold me on it more than anything else.

Now, I've only read the first Hierarchy book, so I'm not qualified to compare it to Licanius just yet.

[ivory cypress]

my top authors are Martha Wells, T. Kingfisher, Kate Elliott, Lois McMaster Bujold, Katherine Addison, Victoria Goddard, Robert Jackson Bennett, that's just off the top of my head and i don't think it'd be hard to come up with three more i like better/think are better than sanderson

[junior dew]

Yeah I mean don’t get me wrong I love Sanderson and his novels. But I’ve just read so much exceptional stuff at this point that needs to be in my top 10 list

[ivory cypress]

oh, Marjorie Liu, i hope she writes more after Monstress is over

[junior dew]

Sanderson still gets in my top 10 trilogies at least

[brazen pilot]

sanderson gets in my top 10 books because yumi

[junior dew]

Yeah Tress I think would have been in my top 10 still last year

But I’ve had a really good reading year

[untold leaf]

I don't know if I could even make a list of top ten individual fantasy books, but most of them would be Sanderson.

He's still my #1 author, and Mistborn is still my #1 series.

[lusty meteor]

i think over time brandon has lost that mythic status some authors get for me. i wonder if this is bc the distinguishing factor of his work is scale, and once you get used to the cosmere it necessarily feels smaller than when it started, almost like by learning more you are making yourself like it less. contrast this with hobb or erikson where the more i put in the more i get out

[junior dew]

Favorite authors I would have to think about. Sanderson could perhaps make it in the top 10 there just due to sheer quantity and consistency

[brazen pilot]

ranking series feels weird because the line between series and book gets tricky. maybe that's just because GGK is my favorite and i don't know if i should put The Sarantine Mosaic at the top or that universe in general, when that universe isn't really a series.

[junior dew]

Yeah it’s all just vibes in the end and where you want to draw lines

[brazen pilot]

like, ranking books is fine because i'm comfortable comparing standalones with individual books in a series. but ranking series feels like it's supposed to represent each collective story, but what if there are individual books that i like more than some collective stories? should i not count those because they aren't a series? it's all arbitrary but it doesn't feel quite right as a way to express and represent my tastes, to me.

[untold leaf]

Ranking is always about vibes and opinions, yeah

[low hill]

I find ranking things in general to be weird.

[idle trellis]

Damn didnt expect first law to be second

[long sorrel]

Oh, I'd like to know if you have the time to explain

[junior dew]

That’s totally valid! I personally would do a top 10 myself combining series and standalones just because doing top 10 favorite books would probably be way too hard for me. Essentially treating it just as a “here are some of my top recommendations/here’s some of the stuff I’ve read that I enjoyed the most or that had the most impact on me, some of which are standalones and some are series”

[untold leaf]

Logically, I find ranking to be strange, but my brain also feels a need to do it for things, like a compulsion to categorize. Maybe it's OCD. Like, when I see people making rankings of things, I want to do the same for myself. Not for any real reason other than to see what I really think of it and then share it with others. There's nothing to really get out of it.

[idle trellis]

same, feel free to dm me about it, I was interested in starting sun eater

I think book rankings for me change based on the mood im in

I think it becomes super hard to rank books if you read outside of just one genre

[junior dew]

Yeah I think for myself I wouldn’t rank within a top 10 at this point. Things shift around too much

[brazen pilot]

the appeal of quantification is that it brings order and focuses the kind on certain types of information, letting you reach definite conclusions at all, but at the cost of being unable to represent more qualitative information

[idle trellis]

I find rankings that belong only to one series of books more compelling

give me a ranking of I dunno, wheel of time

[ivory cypress]

i think sanderson doesn't really offer me what i REALLY like in books anymore

[idle trellis]

because the books are in dialogue with one another

[ivory cypress]

and then i found authors that did, and boom, here i am with a majority female author fave list

[long sorrel]

Sanderson does the magic worlbuilding universe for me and nothing else.

[idle trellis]

Sanderson for me specifically was the eye opener towards fantasy as a genre

the introduction to it

[somber timber]

giggles

[long sorrel]

Like, I find the books fun but past that they don't offer anything above other books

[idle trellis]

I think Sanderson has his own unique style, he offers comfort

I know what im getting into when I read sanderson

[ivory cypress]

to me sanderson doesn't even do the magic worldbuilding thing for me, because i find his worldbuilding shallow, nothing feels like a real place where people actually live

[somber timber]

Same

[ivory cypress]

i will quickly and easily take a less "interesting" world if it's built thoughtful and deep

[idle trellis]

first law is a banger

Grey what other fantasy do you enjoy

[brazen pilot]

brandon does very clean character arcs, where characters have flaws, face obstacles, progress, struggle, and in the end overcome them. and he's really good at hitting those beats without feeling like he's just following a hero's journey formula, but instead making it feel specific to each narrative. and he's very good at tying that character progression into the plot. and all of that is great, and something i really enjoy. but when other authors push beyond that kind of structure and get weirder, messier, harder to understand but more rewarding to figure out, i can like it even more, and that's just not something sanderson taps into in his structure.

[untold leaf]

I think what holds Sanderson above other authors for me is the massive crossover of the Cosmere. A shared universe that multiple different fantasy stories take place in. I gobble that stuff up. It's exactly what I want to see in my fantasy and it's exactly the kind of premise I have for my own fantasy story ideas. I love the idea that so many stories can take place in a shared universe and influence each other in ways big or small, and Sanderson is the only author I know who really does that. It's a huge inspiration to me.

[ivory cypress]

if brandon had more stuff like way of kings, this would be a different conversation, but i don't think i've felt like i did with way of kings ever again

[long sorrel]

Right. It is mostly purely the mechanical aspect for me. Though

[idle trellis]

very well said, I think sanderson is super capable of being more weird he just doesnt want to

[long sorrel]

And I love that, but only that

[idle trellis]

Way of kings felt absolutely magical the first time around

[ivory cypress]

i'll quote my own post above and go authors more than book or series name, but: Martha Wells, T. Kingfisher, Kate Elliott, Lois McMaster Bujold, Katherine Addison, Victoria Goddard, Robert Jackson Bennett. Marjorie Liu. of course i HAVE to give a shoutout to Tolkien because i literally genuinely believe in my heart no one has done it like him

[untold leaf]

That being said, I also love Brandon's books for their emotional impact, their magic systems, their worldbuilding, their well-written narrative, their characters, lessons, morals, all of that. And those are things I can find to love and appreciate about multiple other authors too.

But that cosmere crossover aspect is the extra boost.

[junior dew]

I think favorite author would be a really challenging list for me because how do I go about defining that metric? Do I weigh quantity/consistency higher? If factoring quantity, how do I weigh quality across quantity? What do I do about authors who have read some of my all-time favorite books, even if I either haven’t read some of their other books yet or have and haven’t put them quite as highly? Etc

[untold leaf]

(No one does worldbuilding quite like Grampa Tolkien, though. He remains the king.)

[brazen pilot]

i just let that all mix into a soup in my head and feel out which one sparks more joy

[somber timber]

It’s funny because I don’t normally do favorites for media I like a lot of things and don’t really rank them. But like RJB is just so distinctly my fav author in my head.

[ivory cypress]

for me, i don't overthink it: my favourite authors are ALSO the ones that do quality things. i raaaaaaarely experience the situation where i LOVE an author i think is only popcorn/"trashy but fun" or whatever terms we want to use

my favourite authors give me things i love, do it well according to my metrics, make me feel the most emotions, etc

sanderson is down on the list because i think multiple other authors do it better on multiple axes and personal metrics

[brazen pilot]

if an author is "trashy but fun" and still one of my favorites, then that means they're really good at doing the trashy thing, maybe finding ways to be meaningful through what we call "trashy", and avoiding the usual pitfalls. and i'm perfectly fine standing by that being a kind of quality.

[idle trellis]

popcorn doesnt have the emotional weight, its meant to be superficial fun, something that anyone can pickup and enjoy with the least amount of effort, no barriers involved

[ivory cypress]

sure, but in that case, i don't find it hard to place them in a ranking either

[brazen pilot]

agreed

[long sorrel]

Sometimes popcorn can send me crying because I'm a crybaby, though generally not with media but like, it can happen

[idle trellis]

I find that happens in anime a lot

mainly because the performances of the actors are so good

demon slayer did that to me

[ivory cypress]

one piece (the manga) has made me cry multiple times, so you know what, one piece is a mainstay on my ballot for r/fantasy's listings year after year

[idle trellis]

one piece is amazing

[long sorrel]

I don't think i cry with anime, I have cried with manga but I don't generally cry with the staple emotional moments

[idle trellis]

I like how one piece puts at the forefront empathy above all else, every single badass moment in one piece is someone sacrificing themselves, or showing kindness even towards enemies

in one piece being kind is cool

[junior dew]

Well so for example - Robin Hobb is high on my list. RoTE is one of the best series I’ve read with some of my favorite characters. And that series had 16 books, four of which were kinda mid but who cares.

Meanwhile Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare are some of the most moving books I’ve ever read, so even if I have only read 1-2 books from those authors I feel like they have to be included in any top 10.

And Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang was such a good book, but I’ve not read anything else by her. But even though I loved that book and very well may include it in a top 10 of all books and series for me, would I put her as an author in a top 10 author list for me even if there are other authors who have put out a lot of stuff I’ve really enjoyed?

It’s all fraught

[ivory cypress]

i cry when the characters cry, and boy do the one piece characters cry. he does not draw pretty crying, it's always SO emotional, and you know. that gets me. (one piece first saga.east blue) ||nami "help me" you will always be immortal to me||

[idle trellis]

I have to finish RoTE, last 2 books 😭

Genuinely scared to read them xD

[long sorrel]

I remember this one manga, it was a fun silly action seinen, it had this guy doing clay figures and one day he presents them to the emperor and the emperor just smashes the figurine and tells him to not waste his time and the guy just goes sad and leaves. And this isn't "an emotional" moment in the manga, obviously it's a "this guy sucks and the MC is sad" moment, and it is hardly relevant at all in the story, but to me I felt like the full weight of the dismissal of the things you love, inside and I hyperempathized so hard with that, and god I just cried for like 30 minutes. I could cry rn thinking about it. Which is wild, there was nothing special about the scene.

But then you give me heartfull emotional scenes and I'm like "k"

[ivory cypress]

you know what makes me cry - altho hmm this is a movie adaptation not the book itself - but - in Emma, when Emma is mean to the one lady already kind of struggling with being an outcast, i have cried furiously over that, like, sobbing with anger and pain over that

it.... is not really supposed to get that reaction, i realize

[long sorrel]

like, common example for everyone. RoW (nuclear spoilers) ||I could have laughed when Teft died, I just, didn't care?||

[ivory cypress]

haha

[idle trellis]

RoTE made me cry a lot, malazan as well

[ivory cypress]

oh you know what tho. big same. though for different reasons maybe. RoW ||because it was so like. such an obvious "make moash the big bad puppy kicker for REAL" thing and i was just like, so over it!!!||

[long sorrel]

i did cry like a baby with Hands of the Emperor, again, hyperempathized with adult loneliness. (Even though that isn't even a thing I feel! But I see it around me! And I don't like people feeling it!)

[long sorrel]

I think this is part of what made me almost laugh

[ivory cypress]

it was SO over the top!!

[idle trellis]

if this is too mean ill delete it

[ivory cypress]

well i did have a ping reply of "dude"

ready to go

lol

[long sorrel]

It is more a bit insensitive than mean

Since that's a very real world problem

[ivory cypress]

like you know the odds of there being addicts in this chat

it's a very common real life problem

[idle trellis]

it is indeed, I am not dismissive at all, I just think making jokes about a tough subject makes me actually get closer to it, but I will delete it if it makes people uncomfortable

[ivory cypress]

i deleted

[idle trellis]

alright

[ivory cypress]

that's not the kind of joke to make that makes it allll good

like in gallows humour: the person in the gallows making a joke is gallows humour. someone NOT in the gallows making a joke at the expense of people there is just part of the execution. you feel?

[long sorrel]

It is, I understand, without malice, but how someone going through it is what matters here, perhaps a joke to make in private when you know there is no harm being done for certain.
I have very dark humour too and it isn't in any way dismissal, but I have to be aware that I can be actively harming people.

[idle trellis]

I would say intent is at the core of it, but its also hard to understand intent in an online chat

[ivory cypress]

and as a mod: to let things like that go says something to people unfamiliar with the people in chat about what kind of server this is

if this was someone's first time lurking in books chat to see what's up, this communicates things about the server personality and thresholds for stuff that we do not want?

[idle trellis]

that makes sense

[long sorrel]

Imagine someone who is going through it right now, or someone close to them is, and try to think of how much they will try to analyze over your intent instead of just, being slapped in the face first. Maybe they can work it out later, but the harm is done

[junior dew]

You know what? Looking through what I’ve read, I think a top 10 authors list wouldn’t actually be that difficult for me to put together?

I think the only contenders for a top 10 list currently would be Robin Hobb, N.K. Jemisin, Ken Liu, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Octavia Butler, Abi Dare, Yaa Gyasi, James S.A. Corey, Fredrik Backman, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Brandon Sanderson, Will Wight, M.L. Wang, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and maybe Matt Dinniman?

Probably wouldn’t be too terribly hard to cut that list down from 15 down to 10

[long sorrel]

I think I can put top 10 authors yeah 🤔

[junior dew]

Matt Dinniman would probably be the first one I cut

There’s still some difficulty probably there in deciding how to weigh consistent quality vs standalone excellence

[long sorrel]

I think I might slip CS Pacat in there unabashedly (she does MM smut, if you Google be aware of TWs)

I don't even know why I like the books so much, but they're there

[junior dew]

Mario Maker Smut!? /s

[long sorrel]

Yes!

[wet belfry]

Are you surprised, really?

[long sorrel]

Kon pls, I'm antinintendo!

I only pass metroid

[idle trellis]

nintendo switch 2 😭

[ivory cypress]

foz Meadows is probably going on my list based on the strength of that duology alone

[long sorrel]

And id absolutely read metroid smut

[long sorrel]

Oh damn... yeah

... so maybe 10 is too short of a list

[idle trellis]

what new authors are you excited to read in the future?

new as in, new for you not that they are new to writing

[junior dew]

The funny thing here for me is from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie I’ve read only Purple Hibiscus and I hated that book (highly) in that it was very upsetting, but it was a fantastic book and I was like I can’t not give her her props, even if I’m still upset about that book when I think about it (highly)

5/5 book. I’m never reading it again

I need to read more of her books at some point

[somber timber]

Oh that’s me with the movie Dunkirk. Fantastic movie that I will never ever watch again

[somber timber]

Read this as anti innuendo and was very confused there for a sec

[junior dew]

Idk if this is addressed to everyone but the list of authors I’m most eager to check out that I have yet to read at all are:

S.A. Chakraborty(Daevabad trilogy), Robert-Jackson Bennet(Tainted Cup series), Colson Whitehead(Underground Railroad), Wayetu Moore(She would be king), Ursula K Le Guin(Left hand of Darkness, and Earthsea novels), Pierce Brown(red rising series), Adam Higginbotham (midnight in Chernobyl), Mark Lawrence (book that wouldn’t burn), Katherine addison(goblin emperor), V.E. Schwab(there’s a bunch)

Quite a few on that list that are popular here or really loved by some here, along with some other recommendations I’ve gotten

[long sorrel]

Samantha Shannon, Tamsyn Muir, Becky Chambers are probably the ones I've never read before but I'm looking forward the most that came to mind?

I'm sure there's more

I have a few others on my tbr but I think those are the ones I'm most excited about.

[somber timber]

Oh I should read the chambers book I’ve had in my kindle library for a few years

[junior dew]

Oh yeah Samantha Shannon is on my list too. Tamsyn Muir I’m curious about but have no strong feelings for as I don’t know anything about the Gideon the ninth books

[long sorrel]

I know just enough to be really looking forward to it

[junior dew]

Ahh neat

I’ve technically read a little Kingfisher (part of Defensive Baking before the book got auto-returned on Libby). But I’m curious to check her out a bit more too

[snow vessel]

I think most of the series I read this year are all becoming favourite series xD

Gosh I'm looking back and man i read so many books I really enjoyed

Malazan, locked tomb, folk of the air, the vampire chronicles, the summoner's circle books

[oblique zodiac]

I enjoyed the Wheel of Time the most this year, I guess

[snow vessel]

I'm hoping to reread a lot of wot next year

[wraith lynx]

See now you're starting to sound like me 😂

[snow vessel]

I like stuff easily!

And I read good books

I don't know if I've read enough trilogies to rank trilogies though...

[wraith lynx]

I do too! It's not my fault the 12 books I read are in my top 12!! 😂

[snow vessel]

Good reading year, then?

[snow vessel]

For fantasy trilogies, I think it'd be:
Cruel Prince
Mistborn era 1
Powder mage

I don't remember reading any other fantasy trilogies

[long sorrel]

Technically all my books are on my top of year

And the bottom too

[snow vessel]

How does that work? /gen

[versed agate]

her top of the year is a listing of all the books she's read this year, in order

[wraith lynx]

Sure was! I read so many books and next year I'll actually hit 20

-# cradle having 12 will help

[snow vessel]

Ahhh

I did not realise I've read 41 books so far this year

Next year I want to finish the vampire chronicles and malazan, maybe reread some of wot, and turn my attention to some books/series I've had on my list but not gotten to for a while

-# mercy of gods, emily wilde, the devils, darker shade of magic

[wraith lynx]

Im so hyped to start the devils

I have an order

After I finish Folk of The Air, its Fractal Noise, then Raven Scholar, then Broken Earth and theen its the devil's!

[snow vessel]

Ooh

I... can never stick to orders

At the moment, my plan is to finish ADOW, reread the end of WOTM, read SOTF, and then reread dracula

-# and then probably malazan #7

But I'd be surprised if I perfectly stick to that, given my track record

I might try to read lotr next year

[long sorrel]

I have just finished my 218

[snow vessel]

How was it?

[long sorrel]

It was fine

[long sorrel]

@ivory cypress the book I was reading had your name (like real name) and it reminded me of the conversation the other day about the variations and such and I was like "oh, it's like Grey's variation" and so I was going to tell you but then it turned out it was a dog's name

[ivory cypress]

omgggg haha

[versed agate]

https://tenor.com/view/we-named-the-dog-indiana-gif-14919084183570341414

[snow vessel]

ADOW 39 ||oh! This is how we get 3 daemons in the group!||

[long sorrel]

It is an odd name to give a dog, it took me 3 lines to realize it was the dog 😂

[ivory cypress]

for real??? wow haha

[long sorrel]

Man I slept 2h last night so I was making time to not go to sleep too early, and now I've hit the wide awake window 😭

I guess I can read some more

[snow vessel]

||ok not quite but close||

[lusty meteor]

Based!

[lusty meteor]

||i think its the fact teft gets the absolute perfect death scene. Couldnt draw it up any better. No hanging threads, no missed potential. Idk what he would have done had he lived||

[junior dew]

Broken earth yesss

[wraith lynx]

Mhmmmm! Im so excited!

[snow vessel]

Is it too far from the end of the year for me to tier list my reads...

[junior dew]

Nah

[brazen pilot]

I need to start being more annoying

You need to read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

[junior dew]

I’ll be doing mine soon. Just need to finish DCC 7 since I’ll definitely finish it before the year ends

[brazen pilot]

It's not that Broken Earth isn't amazing and you'd love both but the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is even more targeted at you

[junior dew]

I need to check out her other works

[snow vessel]

my reads this year, ranked

-# I threw in ADOW beacuse I'm only about 50 pages off the end

[mild lance]

If y’all are looking for other Jemisin stuff to read

Dreamblood Duology is great and criminally underrated

[minor sleet]

I was gonna say “Emberdark” in the same tier as “fourth wing”??? But then I read the Star number to the left

[snow vessel]

Emberdark in the same tier as FW is less that I feel theyre the same quality and more that I dont feel either of them fit in the tier above/below

I dont seem to have retained 90% of emberdark so my rating might not be entirely the fault of the book

[minor sleet]

I just thought you were tanking them both at 2 stars/d tier

Ranking

[snow vessel]

Not quiteee

[analog geode]

Capped off the Vorkosigan Saga with Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I think it was good that I didn’t go into it expecting action. It was an excellent epilogue to the series, a story of moving on that hit me right in the feels. Highly recommend it and the rest of the series

Now I don’t know what to read next

[uncut shoal]

It's awesome in how it brings it all back to Cordelia

And seeing Miles from Cordelia's PoV is

[analog geode]

She really does know him better than anyone

[uncut shoal]

And quite reasonably can't stand him

I'm rereading Curse of Chalion now because I realized I don't remember a thing about it

[snow vessel]

ADOW 41 ||yknow, literally none of this book has gone where/how I expected||

[analog geode]

Oh, I just realized that Brandon has read them

[snow vessel]

Aaaaaand ADOW done

[ripe tide]

Can you elaborate?

[ripe tide]

What did you think overall?

[snow vessel]

ADOW all ||I think like... things like the elias book being (seemingly) a whole series plot point, going to france, matthew's character, the knights, the importance of cross-creature relationships, the themes about love, going back in time all weren't really things I was expecting. From the start, I was sort of expecting book 1 to be more... trying to discover the origins of the species from the manuscript. I liked the book, but this was just me sort of reflecting and going "huh, this didnt really align with many of my guesses of where we were going"||

[snow vessel]

I liked it!

I think I had some things I was unsure about around 50%~, really enjoyed the latter 50%, and I would say I'm more excited to read book 2 than I expected

It did a lot of things and had a lot of themes/elements I didnt expect, but I think work with what it is doing

[ripe tide]

Nice nice

I’m glad you ended up enjoying it.

[snow vessel]

Oh and I have a lot of questions about the mechanics of ||time-walking|| but I expect that'll be covered more in book 2

[ripe tide]

It definitely will+

[earnest grail]

Spotted Tailored Realities in the local bookstore that barely stocks any Brandon Sanderson books. It felt like a sign

Anyways, got Gideon the Ninth

[snow vessel]

YES

Good choice

[proper silo]

Peerless 90 ||I appreciate that Feng Xiao has the self-awareness to realize pretty fast that he is, in fact, falling for the guy he's been badgering and engaging in a totally-healthy rivalry with for the last few months. It's a little refreshing.||

[minor sleet]

That’s because he’s a perfect, beautiful, wonderful human being that everyone is blessed to be around

[proper silo]

found Feng Xiao's alt account

[merry galleon]

I don’t know when Sigra’s Roost is going to be back on Amazon for paperback. Apparently, the author is having some issues with the printer. Hopefully soon. I feel a little better mentally to continue Titan’s Nest now and when I finish it I want to start the next novel in the series.

A bit of interesting news on my reading challenge this year - I breezed my way to 50 BOOKS! I do not think that I’m going to hit that number next year, but I might try to beat that record.

[oblique zodiac]

Nice! I read about half that because of my studies and my strange prejudice of reading new books

How do you all balance academic reading with reading for enjoyment?

Something really really depressing just happened to me and I've never been so inspired to read Stormlight. But at the same time, since what just happened is related to academics, I feel like I should focus on that aswell

[royal carbon]

Back then? Not sleeping much.

[merry galleon]

I would say priorities. Think what is more important to tackle, and possibly once a week - treat yourself to reading for enjoyment. But it’s all about finding that balance yourself.

[ripe tide]

I go crazy if I don’t read for fun during the semester.

[spring turtle]

this has not impressed me

[junior dew]

Finished DCC book 7. I feel like books 6 and 7 I have been less keen on.

Onwards to Licanius

[astral atlas]

-# 6 7

[idle trellis]

6 7!!!!

[junior dew]

https://tenor.com/view/mac-god-dammit-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-tired-exhausted-gif-25817473

[hollow hedge]

I sometimes actively avoid using those numbers together now but I feel like that also means they win

[tight kindle]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRhmelOEV0T/?

These are some absolutely gold book descriptions

blakeravenpenn

How many did you guess?

For anyone coming across our page for the first time, hi! We’re Blake and Raven Penn, authors of the award winning epic fantasy series, the Skystone Chronicles (yep, it’s that green dragon book in the video). We’re looking for our audience, and if you like fun, magical, dragon rider adventures starring a dangerousl...

Likes

2013

Instagram

The Emily Wilde one just makes me want to read the book more

[ancient bay]

I also got Dungeon Crawler Carl

These were the books I got from a gift card for Chrimmus

[long sorrel]

okay the Emily Wilde one is very precious, completely accurate, I love it

[junior dew]

I just picked up a copy of House of Leaves at B&N tonight

[long sorrel]

I did guess Six of Crows, too

[versed agate]

I had Eragon in the first 5 words

[long sorrel]

I entirely forgot what Eragon even is about

like I read it once in 2007 and that was it

[tight kindle]

I just finished They Both Die at the End and ||shocker, they both died 😭
But I got very invested in it and wish so badly that they got more time.||

[rugged tartan]

Video games feel empty rn and while I've been enjoying The Hellmouths of Bewdley, its uh... maybe a little intense for me right now, and definitely the kind of stop and start book I was looking for as a break room read. Anyways, I'm finally getting around to this now

[analog geode]

One of my favorites

[untold leaf]

Six of Crows is kind of interesting so far.

SoC general ||I initially assumed Kaz Brekker was a middle-aged man, or somewhere in his 30's or 40's. I must admit, him turning out to be 17 is a little disappointing to me. It's just such a common trope for the protagonists to be teenagers to the point of being clichéd. I honestly would have found it more compelling if the main protagonist was an older fellow. Just for the sake of variety.||

[lucid isle]

I got 10 books for Xmas, happy days.

(4 were presents to myself)

[analog geode]

Finished Katabasis. Great book, even if it did have some mistakes

[minor sleet]

That’s how I feel about most of Kuang’s books

I’m excited to see what her writing is like when she’s in her 40s, has more experience, and trusts her audience more

(And feels less like she needs to our noses in the message)

[analog geode]

I’m more peeved that she held up a square root as a mathematical operation that always results in 1 answer

[proper silo]

oh gods, that statement just gave me psychic damage

[oblique zodiac]

Swordcrossed 20 ||

"How long have you been in love with your brother's betrothed?"
WHAT?||

||I hope the ending is good.||

||🤮 ||

||Oh my goodness. How do people read these things?||

[oblique zodiac]

Swordcrossed Chapter 21 ||Oh wow. This chapter reminds me of K-dramas||

||> People were probably staring at them. Nothing could have made Matti care.
Ah yes. I do know this feeling. When I'm in love, my life revolves around this one person. I see nothing else.||

Swordcrossed Epilouge ||Ah yes. It wouldn't be a good ending without one last smut scene||

Hmm

Swordcrossed was okay. I enjoyed it

Swordcrossed ||It did feel a bit odd at how everything just wrapped up easily at the end||

||But it did however remind me of.. certain emotions I haven't felt in years and that was great||

[ivory cypress]

I don't remember specific chapter things, what is this in reaction to?

[keen marlin]

I've been reading the series over the past month while I've been ill and it's done good for me.

[ancient bay]

||Well, it's a YA book so it's not too surprising, but I think Kaz is interesting to be a teenager. His character type is so frequently a jaded middle aged.man, so having that character type be on a TEENAGER is very interesting||

[ancient bay]

I will probably read it after Cradle and maybe ReZero

I already ruined my plans to read LotR or His Dark Materials after Cradle and ReZero lmao

[keen marlin]

I've been liking it more than Cradle. Got maybe three episodes into ReZero and gave up though lol.

[ancient bay]

Out of curiosity, what made you give up?

Depending on the aspect I might be able to convince you to give it another go

[keen marlin]

Couldn't stand the main character, which I know is intentional in the beginning, but when I was watching it I wasn't in the right headspace to power though.

[ancient bay]

Cuz there's some early stuff that gets better, either intentionally or not

Okay then yeah lmao

If you already know it's intentional then I can't say much more

Subaru is honestly peak, and I actually think you probably stopped before my first favorite moment, I think it was in Ep 4

[keen marlin]

I'll probably go back to it at some point, but there's tons of good anime out there that I haven't watched so it's down the list.

[ancient bay]

But in general it's not until next the end of S1 that he gets his first big development breakthrough and gets a lot better

[keen marlin]

Fair enough

My partner and I have been on a donghua kick lately anyway, and we're only ~150 episodes left on being caught up with One Piece.

[ancient bay]

ReZero hauuuuu~!

[keen marlin]

Can highly recommend Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) and Lord of Mysteries there.

First one is a yaoi romance story with a heavy dose of action/politics.

Second one is semi-cultivation mixed with some western magic, set in a Victorian England-esque steampunk fantasy world.

[ancient bay]

Lord of Mysteries I watched episode 1 of the series, and I planned to watch more but ep 1 was so confusing

[ancient bay]

https://tenor.com/view/yapping-emilia-rezero-yap-gif-16983551422627407455

[keen marlin]

First three episodes are pretty confusing because the Chinese animation industry requires an action sequence in the first three episodes, so they had to rush a bunch of stuff to fit one in.

[ancient bay]

Huh

Interesting

Maybe I'll just read the novel

[keen marlin]

It slows down a lot after that.

Can also recommend that. 😄

I've read the whole thing and it's well worth it.

Reminds me of Sanderson a bit, in that the focus is on the world building and magic system.

If you're in the mind for a villain protagonist, Reverend Insanity is also a good Chinese novel.

[ancient bay]

Hmm

[proven token]

I was so busy with a family trip that I forgot to post about finishing Ball Lighting

Very good sci-fi and critique of the Military-Industrial complex, 8.5/10 would read again.

[orchid obsidian]

SoC general ||I aged all the characters up in my head about 10 years. Did wonders for my reading experience.||

[long sorrel]

Yeah I just, ignored their age

It makes no sense their age anyway

someone posted recently that she had changed their ages in a new edition? Pretty weird tbh

[orchid obsidian]

yeah there was some controversy recently about references to ages being removed, but it wasn't announced or explained, it was just done quietly

[long sorrel]

Yeaeh

I didn't age them all 10 years but their personalities are a bit older, even with the whole "forced to mature quickly"

So I just ignored their age and didn't think about it

[orchid obsidian]

I think the Netflix show also put the idea of them being older in a lot of people's heads. It was hard to imagine them as teenagers after watching that.

[long sorrel]

Oh, hmm, i've seen nothing of it so it sure wasn't that for me

SoC gen ||they're just too hypercompetent for being 17 and too emotionally mature in many aspects||

[crisp totem]

Hmm hmm hmm https://www.xda-developers.com/calibre-web-is-like-jellyfin-for-ebooks/

[tight kindle]

||Me who just realized they weren't actually all mid 20s: ||

[long sorrel]

is this from the same calibre as calibre? 🤔

[crisp totem]

I don't think it's by the same people, but it's meant to be used alongside a Calibre library

[long sorrel]

🤔 okay

[alpine drum]

What i would like is to link my calibre library to my wreader without hacky onedrive stuff

[mossy gyro]

Kingdom of Copper 1 ||What do you MEAN it's been 5 years?||

[junior dew]

Oh that’s interesting. I think I may have liked cradle as a whole more than DCC as a whole? Books 7 and 6 of DCC just didn’t hit as much for me. Idk if it’s just diminishing returns on novelty or what

[mild lance]

Dawn ALL ||this book was ... interesting. I really liked the world-building and how they made the aliens really different from humans. The sex stuff was weird and the Ooankali felt like they were really coercive with it which kinda made me uncomfortable. I feel like the second half of the book just wasn't what I expected or wanted. Kinda a shame since I really like Butler's writing||

[ivory cypress]

the thing with Octavia Butler is that she will write uncomfortable scenarios on purpose

[long sorrel]

hmmm, yeah I think I don't really like my library being online for some reason

I do have it very well organized though

[minor sleet]

Temeraire mid series || https://www.tumblr.com/dragoncharming/804217430219030528 ||

she trusted me enough to carry her

🔁 kithnkin

-# #temeraire

Tumblr · Dec 28, 2025, 10:38 PM

[alpine drum]

Canon

[minor sleet]

Every single time in the series too

[analog geode]

She understands her worth

[minor sleet]

Oh boy does she

[oblique zodiac]

It was a smut scene lol

[ivory cypress]

hm 🤔

[long sorrel]

Are you averse to smut in general?

[mossy gyro]

Aight I'm now three chapters in and unsurprisingly book is good

[junior dew]

Dawn all || Yeah like Grey said, this is all very much intentional afaik. ||

[junior dew]

And she does it very well

That series was wild

[oblique zodiac]

hmm
I'll admit, I secretly enjoyed the first scene in that book, but it did get a bit repetitive and uncomfortable

[mild lance]

Dawn all ||yeah I get that and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, I just had a hard time vibing with it personally. Also there were some parts like with Nikanj and Joe, where it felt like Lilith should have had more of a problem with it than she did so that kinda bothered me||

[junior dew]

The shadow of what was lost (TSoWWL moving forward) chapter 9 || Hmm, finding the setup for this really interesting so far. I have a suspicion my gf might be right and that I may end up enjoying this more than hierarchy, but we shall see.

Worldbuilding so far is pretty neat. The watcher just slicing the throat of Jin is wild. Foreshadowing that death is to come. Yeah I’m digging this so far ||

I feel like Islington does a pretty decent job of creating compelling questions/sparking curiosity

[junior dew]

Gotcha, totally fair

I can’t remember what is and isn’t known at this point in the series so I can’t really say anything in response based on how I interpreted things

[keen marlin]

Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 7 ||I've been enjoying the transition from reacting to the dungeon to Carl being very proactive in his galactic terrorism ||

[merry galleon]

Sigra’s Roost is available again as a paperback on Amazon! Yes!

[spring turtle]

Titan's Nest is arriving within the week

[minor sleet]

Slowly working my way through The Devil She Knows and I am having a hard time because I hate the main characters exgf and I don’t want her to get back together with Hannah and the whole plot is that she is trying to make a demon deal to get Hannah back

https://tenor.com/view/euu-gif-15447220641769978198

Me and the demon the whole time ^

[long sorrel]

You're making me want to read it

I've had it on a tab open wondering if adding it to the tbr or not

[mossy gyro]

Kingdom of Copper 3 ||okay things really suck in this city now. Nahri found some surviving slaves in an abandoned hospital, which is cool, but there's a financial crisis right before a major holiday and now the royal guard are allowed to loot Daeva homes||

KoC 4 ||right I forgot to mention earlier that Dara was revived by Monaiza but somehow as an original pre-nerfed Daeva so he's made of fire. Still no idea why anyone is working with the Ifrit but it seems at least part of the plan is overthrowing the Kitanis in Daevabad||

[random dome]

we're SO back 🙏

some spellings for you, if you like: ||Manizheh, and the Qahtanis||

[minor sleet]

To be clear, it’s a good book. I just hate one of the characters

[mossy gyro]

OH COME ON WHY IT IS SPELLED LIKE THAT

This is somehow even worse than trying to type things from WoT audiobooks

[random dome]

lets be real, you'd probably think the way i pronounced things was awful

b/c i got no idea

[mossy gyro]

Oh yeah lol

Is this how ESL people feel when they have to spell English words?

[crisp totem]

yes

[ripe tide]

Literally me with the Rook and Rose trilogy.

[mossy gyro]

I don't know that one

[ripe tide]

By MA Carrick. (Marie Brennan is one half of the duo behind that pseudonym) First book is The Mask of Mirrors.

[orchid obsidian]

Oh I have that, I’m really intrigued and want to read it

[ripe tide]

I’ve been really enjoying it.

Also I’m in their Discord server so it’s been fun leaving reacts there.

Honestly Jessie, I think you’ll like them, knowing what other books you enjoy.

[orchid obsidian]

That’s really good to know!

I really want to get back into reading more next year so I’ll definitely keep it in mind

[royal carbon]

The Rook and Rose Trilogy was great

[low hill]

The Mask of Mirrors was good. I need to read the third one though...

[zinc chasm]

Started reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and now I have to wait for the library book to come in 🫠

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/dragonocat/769339582374379520/my-vision-of-the-medieval-warriors-firestars

dragonocat

my vision of the medieval warriors, Firestar’s leader ceremony

it was hella hard to draw...

Tumblr · Dec 8, 2024, 11:10 PM

[zinc chasm]

DCCch2 ||Usually I like character driven stories, but I actually really appreciated how a series of events pretty much out of his control landed Carl in the dungeon. Every step of the way was so believable (I mean, I've totally done the whole "I'm only stepping out for a second, how cold could it possibly- THIS WAS A MISTAKE"). The poor guy was doomed to this fate the moment he woke up from a bad dream. I like that we didn't have to watch him decide whether or not to enter the dungeon, I think the story really didn't need that, and this was much better. Great start to the book, count me in.||

[snow vessel]

TVA ch9 ||interesting that armand can't fly. I suppose you need the blood of akasha directly from akasha for that||

||I don't remember if we see anyone aside from lestat, Marius, and akasha fly. My guess is its just those three||

||maybe maharet or mekare could||

[ancient bay]

You won't believe this
But I think this man
Is Berstetz Fondalfon

[snow vessel]

I think next year I might try to read Paradise Lost finally

[low hill]

Whoops. Fell into a bookshop.

[minor sleet]

How’d that happen

[low hill]

It's a mystery! I was just casually walking along hte street and it must have ambushed me in a moment of weakness while looking for my lunch.

[quaint burrow]

These are perilous times

[minor sleet]

We must watch out for this. My physical tbr is down to a mere six books, so I feel especially vulnerable

…..don’t worry about how long my ebook and audiobook tbr is

[low hill]

No comment.

[oblique zodiac]

I am determined to read only korean books this year

I read mostly english since I was very young even though I'm korean, and I always felt.. a little behind when communicating with my highschool friends

[long sorrel]

Oh, Ben Alderson 👀

[low hill]

This is a name that is known to you then?

[long sorrel]

Yep

[minor sleet]

I read that exact book when it was just out

[long sorrel]

He has a somewhat spicy series

[low hill]

-# I had mentally earmarked that as "One Usha will probably be interested in" when I picked it up in the shop. :P

[long sorrel]

I don't know this book

[minor sleet]

It’s a gay haunted house story

[earnest grail]

I would offer suggestions, but I unfortunately do not read a lot of Korean books

[oblique zodiac]

yes haha

[minor sleet]

Only a few months old, part of the yearly October horror push

[oblique zodiac]

I plan on reading some nonfiction and I have no idea how people go through those

[long sorrel]

I just added it to the tbr

[low hill]

chuckles

[long sorrel]

I've read some books of Darkmourn Universe series. It isn't super good but it is entertaining for what it is. Which is various supernatural gay somewhat smutty books.

The first one has vampire btw

[low hill]

You have my interest, yes.

[long sorrel]

I know

[quaint burrow]

my ummmmmm tbr (very mild nsfw)

[minor sleet]

Vampire you say 👀

[minor sleet]

https://tenor.com/view/bigbird-one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others-gif-11251276

[long sorrel]

Guy gets sent as vampire sacrifice but with training to kill the vampire so they no longer have to keep sending sacrifices

I read... 3 of them?
2 is Fae, 3 is werewolf and 4 is what had most caught my attention

Which seems Merman

[quaint burrow]

I read that as Mormon.........

[long sorrel]

The cover for 4 is what made me start the series because it's gorgeous and fishy but i never got around 4 👀

[snow vessel]

I think the main 2026 tbr I have right now is to finish/mostly finish malazan, finish TVC, read/attempt the Anne Rice witches books, reread part of wot, and then I've got a bunch of random books... mercy of gods, emily wilde, the devils, etc.

Oh and I want to read some more classics if I can

[quaint burrow]

Usha in a couple weeks: well hello there

[earnest grail]

I think I would read a supernatural gay somewhat smutty book about a Mormon love interest… Actually no that's just Twilight but gay isn't it

[long sorrel]

Unlikely

[quaint burrow]

How far are you in Malazan now

[snow vessel]

Next up is book 7/10

[quaint burrow]

Damn end you overtook me.....

[earnest grail]

Oh while I'm here

[minor sleet]

Yes it is

[snow vessel]

:p

[quaint burrow]

I still have to read #4

[low hill]

I'm sort of tempted to read all of Dickens next year.

[long sorrel]

I have no specific plans atm

[minor sleet]

I keep signing up for book bingo challenges

[quaint burrow]

........ My first English novel (proper novel) was David Copoerfield......... I didn't understand like.... 25% of the words

[long sorrel]

Well, finish all the books I started would be great 😭

[earnest grail]

Has anyone here read The Rose Field (Philip Pullman; third book in The Book of Dust)?

[minor sleet]

Now I have to find books to read from Albania and Afghanistan and Bulgaria and Thailand and a few other countries

[minor sleet]

Damn starting off at a college level book

[low hill]

I got it for Christmas, but I need to read the whole trilogy still.

[quaint burrow]

Khaled Housseini?

[snow vessel]

I did 4 around mid this year, and then went back to back with 5 and 6 at the end because 5 really had malazan clicking with me

I'm hoping to make #7 my third read of 2026, and I'll probably hit 8 soon after

[minor sleet]

I feel dumb now. Of course the kite runner would work. And I’ve never read it

[earnest grail]

His Dark Materials is one of my favorite series but my tastes have probably changed since I last read it and also The Secret Commonwealth was… weird

[quaint burrow]

We had the abridged version in 8th grade.... I read the abridged version in it, but then I wanted to read the novel proper.... I never finished the book

[long sorrel]

Me trying to read LotR in English at 8yo like "I thought I knew English"

[snow vessel]

Oh I also want to get to LotR next year!

...goddangit how do I already have like 20+ books on my 2026 tbr

I was meant to be going in WITHOUT much to read 😭

[earnest grail]

I should read more next year

It has recently occurred to me that I really haven't read many books this year or the last outside of Sanderson

Pfhhh it's probably too late to buy anything for myself as a Christmas gift but I kind of want an e-reader

[quaint burrow]

I miss my prime, when I read 120 books a year without trying, without audio even

[low hill]

I could push to get to 80 this year, but it would feel partially artificial at this stage.

[snow vessel]

I kind of happily sit around 30-45 per year these days

[quaint burrow]

I was an introverted highschooler with no hobbies other than reading and no phone

Ofc I read 120 books a year

[snow vessel]

If I start doing some more non-fiction or audio I might be able to get through a little more

I think mainly next year I have 3 series I want to work through, and then all the other stuff.

[minor sleet]

I’m at nearly 200 but only because I started a new job where I can listen to audiobooks all day so I get about 3-4 done a week

[quaint burrow]

I WISH to have a job like that some day

[minor sleet]

I expect to break 250 next year but again, only because I listen to books at work

[quaint burrow]

Can you focus 100% on work and audio?

[minor sleet]

Yes

It’s very repetitive tasks and it blocks out my coworkers talking which is far more distracting

[quaint burrow]

Nice

[earnest grail]

…Ah, right, it's because I started reading more fanfic

[minor sleet]

I have also been blessed with the ability to do tasks and run my mouth, which is a curse for my family/friends/coworkers/acquitances/passers-by

[earnest grail]

I've been setting up a lot of daily/weekly goals to motivate myself to do more things again, might decide to finish a book every month

That'd be nice…

Somehow my mech brainrot is encouraging me to read history books

[low hill]

I usually aim for one a week, but never count my holidays into the estimate.

[quaint burrow]

You tend to read more during holidays, right?

[low hill]

Correct. Usually about 10 a week.

[snow vessel]

My goal is a few physical per month+1 audio. Though I've been taking more like 1.5-2 months per book for audio lately

[quaint burrow]

.... How long are your holidays

[low hill]

A week.

[quaint burrow]

Ah nice

I like it when we have 9 days of holidays

Well

5 holidays, and 2 weekends

Perfection

[low hill]

I tend to take 2-3 holidays a year for reading, so that's ~18-27 books on top of the 52. Which gets you to the ~75 that I actually get through each year.

[earnest grail]

So cool… I need to rewire my executive function to sit down and read because it's been fried for so long

[low hill]

Have fun with that.

[quaint burrow]

I lost my reading with uni.... Tho I'm slowly getting it back (hopefully)

[low hill]

Many people do.

[earnest grail]

Ah right, I'll probably get around to reading the rest of Kingkiller

[quaint burrow]

Do they get it back?

[earnest grail]

The first book was exactly as I had heard it described: really beautiful prose, offputting main character

[low hill]

They seem to. I did.

[earnest grail]

Stories that I enjoy but don't get too attached to will probably be good for me

[light drum]

Is it common that when authors start getting more experienced they start to shift to multiple pov?

[quaint burrow]

stares at Rick Riordan

[low hill]

Not necessarily, but by definition multiple POVs are harder to write and longer books (which debut authors aren't allowed to have).

[quaint burrow]

and Pierce Brown

[ripe tide]

Have you read Lady Trent before?

[low hill]

Yes, I read teh first one a couple of weeks ago.

[ripe tide]

I hadn’t realixed we had the title for the second book in the TBC spin-off!

[ripe tide]

The creature list is just giving Elise Kova Married to Magic series. 1 is Elf, 2 Fae, 3 is Vampire, 4 is Merman, 5 is Warewolf.

[ripe tide]

It’s amazing. A Thousand Splendid Suns is too.

[ripe tide]

I reread that series earlier this year I love them. Do share your reactions.

[low hill]

Well I enjoyed the first one enough to pick up the second when the bookshop ambushed me. :P

[ripe tide]

They only get better

My fave is 4 for sure

[ripe tide]

I need physical editions of those. But I need to control my book buying while I have access to so many because otherwise I won’t be able to bring them back home.

[quaint burrow]

Weird question, does Ender's Game work as a standalone
By work I mean a level above the Final Empire, which some people consider a standalone

I'm worried that reviews tend to get worse after every book

[low hill]

I have only read the first one, and I don't remember feeling it wasn't wrapped up enough.

[light drum]

Yes but it was intended kinda as a prequel for speaker for the dead

[quaint burrow]

Huh

[spring turtle]

Barnes & Noble preorder sale is up

[low hill]

Yes, that's fair. It's that or start looking into a shipping container...

[untold leaf]

I will say, despite the slight breaking of my immersion at the ages of all the main characters in Six of Crows, it's still pretty interesting so far.

It was due back at my local library, along with Will of the Many, just yesterday. Imagine my pleasant surprise when not only I could renew Six of Crows for three more weeks, but a copy of Strength of the Few was available for me to check out too!

I may not reach my goal of reading 40 books this year, as the year ends in two days and I'm at 36, but at least I'm set for books to start the next year with.

Six of Crows, The Strength of the Few, The Wingfeather Saga (Christmas gift), the complete novels of Sherlock Holmes (Christmas gift), the Iliad and Odyssey (Christmas gift from last year), the Fablehaven series (reading it aloud to my sister), the John Wayne Cleaver series, and anything else I'll find on Libby after all that.

[long sorrel]

Six of Crows is quite a fun book, if you ignore the age thing (and a couple of other things but I think they're minor)

[marble sinew]

Strictly speaking, the age thing is a minor issue too. Specifically, that they're all minors.

[long sorrel]

Shoo

[untold leaf]

You beat me to that joke by... uh... 38 minutes. But I would have made it too. 😛

[tight kindle]

My goal for 2026 is
Some of the impactful books on my TBR and continuing the regular stream of fluffy gay romance books

They've gotten me into new genres!
I have a horror one on my TBR I'm planning on. I've never really read horror before

The StoryGraph genre breakup of my TBR is very funny to me

[long sorrel]

what horror one? 👀

[long sorrel]

My storygraph genre breakup has been thoroughly messed up by the amount of smut I've read this year and I will not be sharing it

Top 1 is fantasy though!, 3 is LGTB

[tight kindle]

It's called Don't Let the Forest In

[long sorrel]

Oh! I know this one

I did read a horror gay one last summer but I won't recommend it

I mean, I liked it a lot but god it was messed up in ways I cannot

[royal carbon]

My physical TBR is embarrassingly large

[minor sleet]

And how many of those are also erotica?

[low hill]

Well. Without fully intending to, I finished 79, so I guess 80 is now likely to happen...

[long sorrel]

most of what I read isn't tagged erotica!

so, 74 lgtb, 8 erotica, only 2 overlap!

[minor sleet]

https://tenor.com/view/doubt-press-x-la-noire-meme-x-button-gif-19259237

[marble sinew]

Nah, it just means Usha's out there reading untagged erotica

[long sorrel]

pretty much

most of it is romance with smut, a lot of smut, that's not tagged erotica

[junior dew]

Wait… what’s LGTB? Am I out of touch? Was LGBT changed to LGTB or is this something else?

[long sorrel]

no, we put it backwards in spain

and i never remember which is which for which language

[junior dew]

Ahhhh gotcha makes sense

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/crazy-pages/800123626612490240/sun-wukong

[mild lance]

Brigands and Breadknives first page ||Fern is here? Okay this is already peak||

[frozen glacier]

Decided to reread black company since I’m stuck waiting and it was in my car and I think the first book is greatly improved by having read them all already

[ripe tide]

I actually haven’t gotten to a reread but I can imagine

[lucid isle]

I picked up a few David Gemmell Drenai saga books on eBay from the early late 90’s, early 00’s. I forgot how small paperbacks used to be

[junior dew]

House of leaves 1 || Hmm footnote 5 doesn’t appear to actually be attached to any point in the main text? I’ve been scanning this page back and forth for longer than I’d care to admit ||

House of Leaves seems like it’s going to be a slow read

House of leaves 1 || I find myself contemplating what the blue houses mean, if anything. If there is some secret message hidden within the text by taking the count of the number of occurrences of the word on each page and using some cipher that translates those numerical values to letters.

I highly doubt that would be the case and if so I’ll find out after reading the book because I’m not putting that effort in. But just documenting that that thought came to mind ||

[ripe tide]

Who’s the Umberto Eco fan here? Name of the Rose specifically.

[long sorrel]

I'm not whoever you are talking about but i did like that

[ripe tide]

I mean I can’t think of many people who’ve mentioned it

[minor sleet]

Me

Me me me me me

https://tenor.com/view/love-quotes-gif-3643220039448794437

[ripe tide]

Ahhhh yiu

Well I’m watching the movie

I do wonder how in the world Eco went ‘murder mystery in an abbey in the 14th century’

[proper silo]

i feel like that must've been a Thing for a while 🤔

My mom owns a whole series of novels about a monk solving crimes in and around an abbey in the Crusades period

(it's called Brother Cadfael and it's pretty decent)

[ivory cypress]

oh i own those

brother cadfael my goat

[mossy gyro]

Kingdom of Copper 6 ||WELL Nahri just walked in on something a little awkward ||

[minor sleet]

Christian Slater’s breakthrough and restrained Sean Connery performance

The movie has a much more positive tone than the book

[minor sleet]

It all ties together in the end

[ripe tide]

It does.

I’m mostly just wondering what prompted him in that direction

[snow vessel]

I know storygraph does monthly recap/overview pages. Do they do a full year one?

[minor sleet]

I hope so

[proper silo]

curiously, Name of the Rose released three years after the first Brother Cadfael book

[untold leaf]

Six of Crows characters general ||This whole Nina/Matthias relationship is... interesting, to say the least. It's not so much an enemies-to-lovers as it is... idk, simultaneously enemies and lovers? Like, there's a lot of BST but I'm also wondering when he'll next try to kill her.||

[ripe tide]

Yep. I have my 2024 one available.

[royal carbon]

I have finished Terra Ignota. Perhaps the Stars will likely be the last book of the year, unless I read something small.

[oblique zodiac]

What are y'all's reading plans for next year?

Happy new year's eve btw!

[oblique zodiac]

I really really wanted to reread the Stormlight Archive, but.. I thought about it for a while and.. I don't think using up another month just reading a fantasy series that I've read before would be the most productive thing considering the situation that I am in right now.

[snow vessel]

I think I went over this the other day but I have a few main goals:

• Finish the Vampire Chronicles (and the related Witches books, if possible)
• Finish Malazan BOTF
• Reread/revisit WOT
• Work through some smaller series/standalones I've had on my list for a while

[oblique zodiac]

I’m telling myself I’ll stay away from english fantasy books next year. I told myself that last year too—right before I picked up a fantasy novel in korean and then read the entire Wheel of Time series(english).

[oblique zodiac]

Any nonfiction?

[snow vessel]

I'd also like to try reading from a larger variety of authors (gender, race, etc.) and time periods

[snow vessel]

I struggle with nonfiction so I dont have a solid goal but I do hope to read some more of it next year

[oblique zodiac]

I struggle with it too! I have no idea how people get through those

[snow vessel]

I can get through it but it takes me a lot more effort and time

[somber timber]

Just bought like 6 of the discworld guards books for the holidays. So gonna finish those. Then attempt will of the many to appease @wraith lynx
After that for new books there’s ana and din 3 in August
Fonda Lee has a new book
I’ll start mercy of the gods and maybe book 2 at some point because Usha sold me on it
Red god if it comes out (I’m guessing it won’t this year)
Then probably other stuff that I don’t know exists yet/exist somewhere on kindle library waiting for me to be in the mood to start

[snow vessel]

oh I also wanna get to MotG next year!

[somber timber]

But I go by whatever piques my interest so it’s less a plan and more vibes

[low hill]

To read.

It's a simple plan.

[snow vessel]

oh man i am not ready for it to be 2026

[somber timber]

You got a few more hours

And then there’s always

DENIAL

[mild lance]

Brigands and Breadknives 10 ||I've decided I like Chak, he seems cool. I hope we get to see him again. Zyll gifting him the dangerous venomous chicken-monster was absolutely not something I expected||

Brigands and Breadknives 12 ||so Zyll can definitely understand English (or whatever it's called in this universe)||

[oblique zodiac]

Why?

hmm

I am quite excited for 2026

Hopefully I do better than this year

[snow vessel]

I've just not adjusted to the idea XD

[mild lance]

Brigands and Breadknives 14 ||I wasn't entirely sure what Fern's calling would be, but being a scribe for Astryx actually really fits.||

[wide olive]

It'll either be 124 or 125, depending how bored I'll be today 😄

[minor sleet]

Cmon you can do it

[ripe tide]

i'm on 123, don't think i can finish today

[old bone]

who are the "200+" people

I guess one is Usha

[minor sleet]

If you tap show results you can see who voted for what

One is me because my job means I can listen to audiobooks at work

[old bone]

I don't see the show results option

maybe it's only shown to the creator of the poll?

[grim veldt]

Or if you tap the number of votes

[old bone]

Oh yeah that works

[analog geode]

I read too much

[jovial tide]

I finished 72 books this year, which is an order of magnitude more than the previous few years. Finally realising last year that using voice commands to easily turn e-book pages worked well actually, and getting more used audiobooks, both helped a lot.

[wide olive]

Ou, so if we count audiobooks, should I also count all manga volumes read?

[minor sleet]

Sure why not

[lucid isle]

Honestly no idea how people read so many books

[wide olive]

Then let me add... another 124 manga volumes, to the total of 248 books 😄

[low hill]

We'll see if I finish #80 today or not (started last night), but I count books based on when I start them so it's on my 2025 list either way.

[proven token]

I don't track my reads so I'm using my best estimate, which is a little over one book/week

I don't do audiobooks well

[low hill]

Although my "official" count and my "official" count will differ, because I don't include the annual re-read of Dracula (via Dracula Daily/Re:Dracula) or The Dark Is Rising (via the BBC dramatisation) but I do log them on LT.

[proven token]

Dracula Daily sounds like Daf Yomi for literature nerds and I'm mildly upset that I hadn't heard about it.

[earnest grail]

So… you don't Count Dracula?

[low hill]

Indeed...

[spiral jungle]

https://tenor.com/view/sesame-street-the-count-the-count-sesame-street-laughing-laugh-gif-15452219526891068818

[lucid isle]

Good idea. I opened all the books in my house today, so I’m on 200!

[low hill]

Did you read at least the first page?

[lucid isle]

First word?

[low hill]

Nope, at least a page, preferably a chapter, to count.

[long sorrel]

This is why we get along, you always have the best ideas. 🤝

[long sorrel]

I hadnt voted yet!

[junior smelt]

As someone who has read The Heroes. I would say it has some of the best actions I have read without using some magic mumbo jumbo. Sanderson takes it there, though malasan might conquer that

[low hill]

bows

[lucid isle]

Latest eBay purchase arrived

[long sorrel]

My plans for 2026 are basically the same as Vecna's, which is surprising giving the intricacies.

That said I'd like to get my started books out of the way...

Also to build shelves because I'm starting to have 3 piles of books now

I bought one more yesterday and ordered a second one so 😔

[proven token]

Probably there's a book on shelf-building

[earnest grail]

Use the books to make shelves

[ripe tide]

One day I’ll eventually read Dracula this way.

[snow vessel]

I'm hoping I can do it in 2026

I remember I got abt half way into redracula a few years back but it wasn't doing the on-date listening

[low hill]

I'll try and remember to remind people on the day it starts next year.

[royal carbon]

I guessed my approximate number

[long sorrel]

I think I might put 150 books for 2026 but like...

It varies on my mood enough that I am not sure if upping it is a good idea

[royal carbon]

My goals for 2026 are to shrink the TBR and uh... Track how many books I read.

[long sorrel]

you can set that up today!

[earnest grail]

My reading goal for 2026 is to read the damn books I have in my room

[royal carbon]

I should see about more bookshelves

[long sorrel]

I don't even try this

but reading a few of those would be nice

Actually, my goal is to get out of the weird reading slump I'm at

Which is my inability to keep my attention on anything that's remotely deep and requires something more than eyes to engage with. 😩

[royal carbon]

I need to continue working on the Dresden Files, The Ring of Fire, maybe start the Honorverse.

[earnest grail]

I am sending you strength, as someone on the same boat

Unfortunately, as demonstrated by still being in the boat, I don't have tips for getting out

[long sorrel]

I have been reading!

I've just been reading trash that requires 0 brainpower 🫠

Well, sprinkled with stuff I was looking forward to

but like 2024 I read all really good books and 2025... eh

But maybe this is what I needed

[royal carbon]

Meanwhile I have resolved to listening to the TES audiobook while doing housework. Good way to end the year I guess.

[long sorrel]

Am working

[proven token]

Whenever this happens to me I spiral until I read something bad enough to self-ragebait and then go to mu bookstore and ask for a recommendation

[long sorrel]

I don't think I can self-ragebait like that

maybe it'll work for Milk

[proven token]

Like half the time I don't get a recommendation and wind up reading Scalzi

[royal carbon]

The bookstore does have a sale on New Year's Day...

[earnest grail]

Perhaps…