Books (General)

[proven token]

The thing is it's always on accident

It's just the pattern I follow

[earnest grail]

Currently my books to read next year are known safe options

Gideon the Ninth (on my desk), a bunch of sequels to works I enjoyed, Scarlet Morning probably…

[grim veldt]

TLT mentioned 🎉🎉

[earnest grail]

I've been in a reading funk for years so I've saved up a lot of good works

[grim veldt]

I plan to likewise enjoy sequels
And a cheeky Stormlight reread

[snow vessel]

Peak!!

[low hill]

Finished adding my books from this week to my collection, and my library has now passed 2,000 books.

[long sorrel]

So about that whole marrying for books...

[low hill]

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good library, must be in want of a husband.

[orchid obsidian]

I would like to get back into reading more in 2026. It’s a low number, but if I’m able to average a book a month I would be happy with that.

[long sorrel]

year wrap up isn't up yet but

December is

since I'm not going to read a book between now and midnight

[low hill]

I will refresh my 2025 summary in the morning, unless I finish Geist before then...

[junior dew]

I’ll have to read that one still but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t have that same list-y style that just doesn’t work well for me. His action to me so far always feels kinda like…

(Spoilering because I guess maybe violence and gore? But it’s not actually from any of his books, just made up on the spot something that tries to convey that list-y feel his action has to me) || “He swung his sword, metal gleaming, breath panting, bones crunching. One enemy felled, he turned to the next, barely dodging an incoming blow. He turned, slid past him, arm thrusting, catching him unaware, black blood splattering on his face, hot and sticky. The battle raged, squelching, moaning, bleeding, breathing, metal ringing, bodies piling up one by one.” and so on and so on. ||

Like obviously it’s way better than that

And I know the intent is to convey this sense of urgency and all that

But it just feels like it’s following a constant pattern that once you clock it it just really becomes obvious how much he uses it

[alpine drum]

you forgot to throw in a few "he squawked"

I think Abercrombie has a good variety of fight scene descriptions depending on who is fighting (trained soldier vs berserker vs untrained rando) and what the context is (i.e. pitched battle vs dual vs someone getting ambushed) but he does love to describe people as squawking in fear

[junior dew]

Yeah the only Abercrombie I read this year was the devils earlier in the year lol. So my memory on details is rougher

So I will caveat that I listen to the audiobooks at 2x speed so that probably compounds it all. Just pulled up an excerpt to see a real example and each sentence is more typically “first half of sentence, second half of sentence”. But so many sentences are like that

Here’s a page of a fight scene from a sample chapter (chapter 18) of the heroes by Abercrombie. Like obviously my made up on the spot blurb is way off relative to what it’s actually like but yeah the way he writes action just really doesn’t work well for me.

He has a very unique style for writing action that feels so… templated? Repetitive?

[alpine drum]

he definitely uses a lot of metaphor and simile

I personally like the "describe an action, describe something about the action" structure but I can see how it doesn't work for people

[junior dew]

I think it may just how repetitive it all gets particularly when listening to it. It’s hard to put my finger on what it is exactly

[alpine drum]

there's a rhythm to it

I could see the rhythm being grating rather than fun to follow

[junior dew]

Hard to say. I don’t think that’s it exactly. More so maybe recognizing how formulaic it all feels it takes me out of it a bit?

[mild lance]

Brigands and Breadknives 15 ||what the frick is happening in this book? Never in a million years would I have predicted the next event would be "Zyll reveals she has an Elder Blade that got reforged into a breadknife"||

||I am so interested in what Zyll's deal is. She is such an enigma right now||

[oblique marten]

Well I've just counted, I read 39 books this year. That seems pretty good

Not counting a reread of Mistborn era 2

Oh wait no it's an even 40, I forgot one.

Since I'd bought it like two years ago and only just got to it this year.

[spring turtle]

I have no idea what made February so dark

[ivory cypress]

ooh a mood map?? is that a premium feature?

[spring turtle]

Don't think so

[long sorrel]

Oh

The wrap up is up?

Oh it is!

Generating

I'm not showing my book list

But everything else in a but

[spring turtle]

Ah I bet Dreams of the Dying tanked the mood

[long sorrel]

Bit

[ivory cypress]

yeah I guess I have to wait for it to generate?

[long sorrel]

Yep

[ivory cypress]

I might go over and do it on my desktop once I'm free of this work call

[long sorrel]

Last year it took a while

[ripe tide]

Yes same. I immediately went to go generate it.

[ivory cypress]

rip

[quaint burrow]

were you sick during April?

[low hill]

No?

[quaint burrow]

how did you read so much in April, is there a holiday in April?

[low hill]

I was on holiday from the 29th March to 4th April though.

[quaint burrow]

uh huuuuh

[long sorrel]

"Is there a holiday" yes, his own

[low hill]

:P

[long sorrel]

This makes me feel old

[low hill]

Standouts for me:

• The Founders and Divine Cities trilogies (I read 1 from each last year, and 2&3 this year) - I did enjoy The Tainted Cup, but I prefer the other two series so far.
• Schwab (Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil) as always was good - toxic lesbian vampires.
• Project Hanuman (Stewart Hotston) was interesting in that it gave me ideas.
• The Malazan Books of the Fallen continue to scratch an epic fantasy itch.

[velvet umbra]

I'm sure there are more banal and less good examples in the books but the ones that stick in my mind are so good that I don't even remember the less interesting fights

like the First Law ||Bloody Nine fights, especially the first one are some of my favorite action descriptions ever||

[alpine drum]

||yeah thats a fun one||

[ripe tide]

I’m sad StoryGraph picked 5 star reads for this graphic that aren’t new.

[low hill]

You know, I had somewhere at the back of my head a niggling question to ask if you'd read The Historian. Guess I know the answer now.

[ripe tide]

Hahaha yes I did.

I had 8 new 5 star reads this year.

[low hill]

I need to remember I've got the third Carrick book as well next year, and finish it off.

[potent linden]

I'm counting some of the longer novel-sized fanfics I read in here, and I think I'm forgetting a few books, but I think it's somewhere around here - Warriors counted for a lot of that lmao

[royal carbon]

Okay, TES was the last book for 2025.

[minor sleet]

Warriors you say?

https://tenor.com/view/sickos-sicko-haha-yes-creeper-gif-25057805

anyway I’m ending my year with the book Eichmann In Jerusalem, which was not what I expected

I expected more of a philosophy book or a strict recounting of the trial itself

[analog geode]

Did he get to Jerusalem yet

[minor sleet]

Yeah, the Israeli army kidnapped him from Argentina to put him on trial in Jerusalem for his work as a Nazi officer in charge of deporting Jews to concentration camps

It’s a nonfiction book

[orchid obsidian]

This is always my problem - I have no clue how to count the fanfiction I've read but I know it's normally A Lot™ 😅

[ivory cypress]

okay this is hysterical. i'm a consistent king

funnnnn

i'll do more of a breakdown with author and demographics with my excel tracking

[snow vessel]

xD

my 5 stars, apparently
-# though I ranked some differently when i did my tier list

[lusty meteor]

HUNT THOSE BONES

[vital ibex]

Hmm

There seems to be a bit of a theme going in my 5* reads

[snow vessel]

Good theme

[alpine drum]

I do think it would be nice to be able have a record of my ratings for books I've read but I'm in too deep now to start

And I'd probably decide on a different rating scheme halfway through the year

[long sorrel]

You explored the works of 94 new authors

okay, imma put together the books I'm actually willing to share that I read 2025

[ivory cypress]

I'm interested to see how you do your list before I do mine

[tight kindle]

This is a bit of a list

[long sorrel]

I'm just copypasting my stuff onto an image file

I'm also seeing my mood spiralling in the reading

[long sorrel]

WHICH matches this!

I thought I read nothing good but honestly putting it all together it seems I just read so much

[ivory cypress]

that mood graph was really funny

[long sorrel]

Mine is that I started reading more smut and then I started reading more "dark" smut, that's what the graph is showing

like going through my book list is uuuhhhh, being an experience

Okay

There are multiple reasons why I don't want to share the rest, just tbc

[long sorrel]

what did you read in jan-feb? if you don't mind sharing

[velvet umbra]

thats like Jan - April ish

[long sorrel]

ah, checks out

[somber timber]

You’ll have settle for sharing 93

[long sorrel]

That is what I did

[royal carbon]

I was debating reading another book before midnight but I will just hang out with Lopen for a bit before going to bed.

[velvet umbra]

rest of the year

[long sorrel]

It is 5am so imma read my first book of the year I guess!

[royal carbon]

Might as well

[ivory cypress]

yeah my end of the year was i think my favourite

when i'm more rested i'll probably do a mini write-up of my fave books of the year

it probably won't be THAT surprising to those who've noticed my reading 😅

[long sorrel]

We have reached a point in which like

i know what y'all read well enough that seeing Vecna's, Atrus and Grey's 2025's reading lists has produced one singular book added to my tbr!?

What is this!?
-# I love it

[ivory cypress]

:D

that's fun

altho being on my 2025 list is not necessarily an endorsement, that's everything, not just my 5 stars, ya feel 😅

[long sorrel]

Yeah, I get you, it's more about discovery

[ivory cypress]

coolio

[long sorrel]

Or the lack of it! Because I've read, discarded, or tbr'ed almost all of the books already

[royal carbon]

I don't love Goodreads so maybe I try storygraph this year.

Well 2026

Sill a bit less than 4 hours over here in the past

[velvet umbra]

tbh I use both I just exported my goodreads over to storygraph today because I like the latter's wrap up more

[tight kindle]

I never really got that into Goodreads but I loooooove StoryGraph

[long sorrel]

I'm antiamazon so while I wanted something like goodreads

I refused to touch it

[tight kindle]

My mood graph should be fairly unsurprising

The lowest point was when I read SotF in November

[rugged tartan]

Part of why I started Lathe of Heaven was because I wanted to try out Storygraph, and starting both at the same time felt like the right choice, especially with New Year's right around the corner so I can get a good year end review

[velvet umbra]

damn this like could not be more opposite of mine lol

[long sorrel]

It sure is high!

But that fits Atrus

[rugged tartan]

Anyways, Lathe of Heaven is pretty good so far! Only about a chapter and a half in but hot damn, Le Guin can write. This is the first I've read of her that's, like, remotely contemporary, even if it was definitely scifi when it was written

[tight kindle]

Yeah reading is very much a comfort activity for me and my favorite stories have always been upbeat. Darker stuff is just insanely emotionally draining to read

[rugged tartan]

Its also much shorter than it even looked on the table, paperbacks always surprise me how think they look once I pick them up and start reading. I'v got a feeling could do this all in one sitting if I don't get tired

[velvet umbra]

I didn't intend for mine to be so dark it just kinda worked out that way lol

[tight kindle]

I've tried to read dark books more than once this year 😭
I just always lost momentum and gave up. I DNF'd ten books this year

[royal carbon]

Oh, I need to read SotF soon

[mild lance]

My pre-April reads aren't logged properly, but I read at least 15 books this year, plus a crap-ton of comics

Full list of everything I remember or have logged:

• The Killing Moon
• The Shadowed Sun
• Nettle and Bone
• The River Has Roots
• A Drop of Corruption
• Isles of the Emberdark
• The Pilot
• Ninth House
• Frankenstein
• The Sign of the Dragon
• The Strength of the Few
• Children of Time
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold
• The Aeronaut's Windlass
• Dawn

[uncut shoal]

I think I read around 170 books

[tight kindle]

Also being called Atrus feels like cool water on my soul 😭
Every time someone called me by my old name today (a lot at work) it felt like sandpaper in my head.

[mild lance]

out of those, my favorites were SIgn of the Dragon, Shadowed Sun and Drop of Corruption (best new SFF of 2025 imo)

[tight kindle]

ADoC was good

[potent linden]

Are you going by Atrus irl now?

[tight kindle]

Among all my college friends yeah! It feels... So much better.
But I've been working at this job long enough that it'd be a massive pain to get everyone to adjust, and I haven't even mentioned it to my parents yet. I'm also only here for two weeks

I'm also really non-binary today which always makes it worse

But if I like it enough I'll register it as my preferred name with my uni and maybe in a few years do a legal change

It just fits me better

[uncut shoal]

Darn, I'm just under the wire at 181 unique books this year

I think that's missing the ones I updated today, but whatever

[lusty meteor]

what does no stars mean

[uncut shoal]

Means I forgot to rate them

[royal carbon]

I didn't read the new Scalzi yet

Trying to decide if I go to the local independent bookstore's NYD sale

[uncut shoal]

Yeah that should be all my unique reads this year

Or pretty close anyway

I need a 300+ related book series or something to read for 2026 lol

[royal carbon]

/me stares at The Ring of Fire

[somber timber]

I listened through like a third of it over the holidays. Liked what I heard! (I just got distracted by other things lol)

[royal carbon]

I am assembling a list of a bunch of stuff to get to in January if possible

Probably about the time a bunch of Libby stuff becomes available

[somber timber]

Scalzi is such a good airplane listen

[uncut shoal]

I really liked Kaiju Protection Society and enjoyed Old Man's War but it seem slike he's still continuing that series, so I'm holding off

[somber timber]

Yeah I was surprised he went back to it!

[royal carbon]

Probably the most asked for thing from readers

[somber timber]

I liked Kaiju too but I think starter villain was my fav of his present day trilogy

[uncut shoal]

Has he completed it or is it still left open?

[somber timber]

Uhhhhhh for old mans war he completed like his initial arcs and then the last couple have been fun anthologies. The new book is like a full novel. Don’t know where he leaves it at the end of the new one yet though!

I do really like his novellas he does for audible

As for the new one he’s said it was written so people could drop in without reading the others

[potent linden]

Have you done Animorphs yet?

Or Warriors

[ripe tide]

I hadn’t realized you read Air Awakens this year?

[long sorrel]

Mhm, in Jan I think

[uncut shoal]

How middle grade is middle grade? Are we talking Skyward level, or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers level?

[ripe tide]

Remind me what you thought?

I don’t remember if I talked with you about it at the time?

[potent linden]

For what series?

[uncut shoal]

Either

[potent linden]

Neither is YA, so neither is at the level of Skyward content-wise. I've only read some of Animorphs but from what I've heard some of the middle books are a bit wild, but I've heard a lot of praise about theme and its handling of serious topics. The writing itself is younger and the books are quite short. Warriors is a little closer to Skyward writing-wise but the content does vary in maturity.

I mostly suggest them out of series length, I don't think either is bad but I haven't actually finished them either

[merry galleon]

My new reading challenge goal is to beat my record of 50 books this year.

And I’m making good progress on Titan’s Nest. 71 pages now!

[wide hearth]

Happy New Year all you people who read loads and therefore are filled with much wisdom

How long should I give Green Bone saga before deciding it isn't for me? Does it get better as it goes?

[low hill]

I thought it got worse as it went on, so I'd say give up now if you aren't enjoying it.

-# Notes: I am a hypocrite and carried on to the end.

[wide hearth]

I seem to have a different problem to those that have a problem with it. It just feels quite formulaic so far. I'm waiting for it to pop. I'll give it a bit longer, I'm still only on book 1

[low hill]

I enjoyed 1 a lot, but it went downhill for me by about halfway through 2.

[wide hearth]

Ok, I'll finish 1, then bump 2 way down the list

Also 2026 is the year i finally try storygraph. Graphs are pretty.

[minor sleet]

My wrap up graphic. Spoilered for language in one of the titles

I think this is my favorite from the full summary. Shockingly most people don’t know about this 1928 short story from a guy more famous for plays which he wrote as a teen

[versed agate]

PGTE mentioned 👀

[minor sleet]

I thought it was solidly ok. I just don’t like indecisive characters and boy is she indecisive

[wide hearth]

How does storygraph standardise book length in pages for things like web serials?

Pale coming in at just under 15k seems a bit low

[minor sleet]

I used the edited and professionally published volume 1 for this

Haven’t finished the story

[wide hearth]

I saw PGTE was there in edited volume form, but I wasn't aware those existed for e.g. Wildbow's works. Doesn't really matter, just wondered.

[sleek jungle]

The webtoon is based on this new version, if you want to check out the new plotlines and such

[long sorrel]

I wish storygraph did the whole "your 5* stars" but just grab my faves? 😩

even tho they're not the same but am too lazy to rate

twice that is

[oblique marten]

Oh no I missed the poll D:

[long sorrel]

Let's see if I can make a summary of the year
I think my top... from the year are (no particular order)
Dollmakers by Lynn Buchanan: Hard magic system reminiscent of Warbreaker meets Emperor Soul, standalone. Minor ||The mc is really frustrating and obnoxious|| so I recommend this one only if people are fine with that.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: A story about maturing and coming into yourself as a person.
Daevabad Trilogy by SA Chakraborty: I think we've talked about this one enough
Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay (it feels it's been 3 years since I read this? But it was February lol): A fantasy historical book on Spain's ~ 10th century with very compelling characters (they're also all very hot)
Inda Series (4 books) by Sherwood Smith: I have no way to describe this
Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: like being carried to a dream of magic.
Swordcrossed by Freya Marske: I like how it does the kinks 😌
Dark Rise series by CS Pacat: I have no idea why I liked this so much but I did.
The Devils by Abercrombie: I don't think I need to say anything.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soul by VE Schwab: Lesbian vampires in a story of violence, freedom, rage through the times, very psychological.
Lays of the Hearth-Fire Duology by Victoria Goddard: I have a hard time explaining why this is so good, but quite a few things of it touched me in specific ways that taught me things about myself.
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (I'm trying to put only one of her books, but honourable mention to horror book The Hollow Places that made me crap my pants): A mixture of Snow white and Alice in Wonderland themes in a very Kingfisher way of storytelling 😌
The With Roads duology by Kate Elliot: A world eaten by spores, with a very mature down to earth fmc, the ideal of fmc for me even, that works as courier and needs to lead a party through their own adventure.

I managed to summarize that quite a bit with 4 characters left

[light drum]

Dollmakers ||Almost DNF'd with how frustrating she is lol||

[long sorrel]

I was all in for it, but it is not for everyone

[light drum]

fair

[analog geode]

I have officially finished my first book of 2026

[long sorrel]

oooh

I did almost finish one in one sitting last night

[analog geode]

I started at about 1am, finished just now at 8am

[long sorrel]

I started at about 4 or so yeah

but by 7 I went 💤

I read 69% of it

[analog geode]

Too bad it was a pretty meh book

[royal carbon]

Bunch of crashes and flooding on the path to the bookstore so I am debating whether to go today.

[long sorrel]

Mine was ... entertaining? fun? @tight kindle might like it, it's called The Wolf at the Door (idk if Atrus likes big werewolves or not ) I haven't finished so idk if the book is worth recommending, yet.

[low hill]

(I am going to go with yes.)

[analog geode]

Mine was Emperor of Thorns. Dark fantasy/scifi. All the characters are too young for how the author has them act and what he has them do

It’s annoying

[long sorrel]

(I have a hunch too)

(I'm waiting to finish before I recc it to you, Vecna)

[tight kindle]

Keep me updated
I am, in fact, a fan of big werewolves

[long sorrel]

I think you'd at least be a fan of this one

[alpine drum]

4 chapters into What Feasts the Night

Suitably spooky so far

[long sorrel]

This is my least fave of the 3, though that's just personal theme preferences and not that the book is worse

[ripe tide]

Yeah same. Though I started in 2025

[tight kindle]

goes and looks it up on SG
Yeah ok I'll just add this to the list

[long sorrel]

I'm almost done, it's not super good but it's fun and entertaining and hot as an added bonus

[proven token]

Before I fully commit to my planned dive back into Discworld, does anyone have any non-romantasy recs?

[ripe tide]

Do you have any other ideas of what youre looking for?

[ivory cypress]

anything more specific?

haha

[proven token]

Last year I went on a sci-fi bender so I really want fantasy and I'd prefer something by an author who I can read obsessively

Complex hard magic systems are always

(I do read Sanderson after all)

[low hill]

You could try some V.E. Schwab. Start with A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic 1).

[proven token]

Oh and I've already read everything by RJB except for The Company Man which I can't find at my library

[low hill]

I'm not sure how complex the magic is, but there's the Alex Verus novels by Benedict Jacka. How the divination works becomes quite important to understand.

Trudi Canavan is worth a look, serveral series you could start with there.

[proven token]

Already read the first two, and while I enjoyed the magic and the plot, they came off as a tad bit misogynistic

[low hill]

Fair enough.

There's always the Malazan Books of the Fallen of course, but that comes with its laundry list of content warnings.

[long sorrel]

Okay, I think you'll like it. Am done now

[proven token]

I keep on hearing about Malazan in this channel - what's it about?

[ripe tide]

Because I recently finished book 2, I’m going to go with the Rook and Rose trilogy by MA Carrick.

Marie Brennan, who is one half of that duo also wrote A Natural History of Dragons.

I need to read her other stuff but that’s less common

[tight kindle]

@snow vessel

[proven token]

My library doesn't have Rook and Rose, but it does have A Natural History of Dragons - is that good as well?

[ripe tide]

I love it.

[low hill]

The first Rock and Rose is ... Mask of Mirrors?

[ripe tide]

Rook and Rose starts with The Mask of Mirrors, yes

[vital ibex]

The main series is 10 books spread across several continents, with the Malazan Empire being at the centre of a lot of the hijinks that happen, um, I think its hard to say what its about

Due to the settings changes between each book, its about a lot of things

[somber timber]

Foundryside Robert Jackson Bennet

[long sorrel]

I forgot to reply to you, Cheyenne, I liked Air Awakens overall, I felt it was a bit too long for my taste and a bunch of the themes it kept digging into weren't really quite my cup of tea, that said I did think it was entertaining (otherwise id not have read all 5 books), but I don't think I'm interested in picking more of this variety or this author

[long sorrel]

They've already read that

Listed above

[somber timber]

Ah I was scanning for book names

-# had to go back and figured out where I missed because like I looked

[vital ibex]

but Malazan is high fantasy with Gods and creatures and big explosive magic and street names and fantastic theme work where the author doesnt give you much help, if any, in working out whats going on, you end up having to put a lot of it together yourself @proven token

its very dark at points too but also very funny at others

most importantly its filled with silly little guys who talk weirdly

[low hill]

-# The worst.

[long sorrel]

Not the street names.
-# screams silently.

[vital ibex]

In the one Im reading right now Usha theres only been like 2 street names!!!

[long sorrel]

I bet!

It was mentioned that was particularly bad in gotm and I've not read past the initial 20% of dhg

[proven token]

Holds requested onA Natural History of Dragons, Gardens of the Moon, and A Darker Shade of Magic

Those were the only ones my library has in its collection

[vital ibex]

Oh and the first book isnt necessarily indicative of what the rest of the series is like, though I still enjoyed it

[proven token]

Thanks for all the recs!

[proven token]

Uh oh

[vital ibex]

Its not bad, just different

[low hill]

I can't say I noticed the street names...

[ripe tide]

They’re definitely her older books, even if I find it harder to evaluate because they hit so much nostalgia for me. I do think her most recent (Arcana Academy) is objectively the best Shes ever written.

[long sorrel]

But is it the same style of story?

I could give her another try if she writes something different. Though not that, academy settings will not be appealing to me

[ripe tide]

I don’t think so. There’s some Elise-isms, but especially Vhalla and Clara are very different people, and that changes the style of story. AA is also Adult, not Upper YA.

[long sorrel]

I see a lot of Elise Kova translated into spanish recently whenever I go to libraries

[ripe tide]

Yeah her Spanish publisher has been super supportive lately.

Shes originally indie so the international publishers have a lot of power there to push her, where it would be harder in English language countries.

[long sorrel]

Yeah

[ripe tide]

Shes only gone trad with AA last year and Dragon Cursed this year.

[long sorrel]

I also think Spain's publishers are currently at an all time high

[ripe tide]

Yeah for sure

[long sorrel]

Like, I never thought I'd see Kingfisher in catalan!

I think probably AA hit hard enough that they are retroactively translating all her works

[ripe tide]

Theyve been translated for a long time to Spanish at least. But that is probably giving them a big push.

[quaint burrow]

did I actually give Plato's Apology 5 stars?

[tight kindle]

Ooh you read Don't Let the Forest In
What did you think? It's on my TBR

[quaint burrow]

Atrus

Top 5 books of all time

I think about that book daily

The yearning, the characters, the story, the magical element, plot twist after plot twist

[quaint burrow]

Wait.... Twok, Les miserables, the forty laws of love, memories of Ice and don’t let the forest in,.... No wait also grenada's trilogy, maybe top 10 books

[tight kindle]

Ok I just went and placed a hold

[quaint burrow]

Trust me... You'll love it

[tight kindle]

I've never really read horror before so I decided horror + gay was a good way to get into it

[quaint burrow]

It's not..... Really horrific more.. Unsettling

[long sorrel]

Read The Hollow Places! It is not gay but it has a prominent gay support character

I will recc The Hollow Places as the one Kingfisher horror book that managed to skirt the line enough into proper horror to make me go "aight, I'm reading this in the morning"

[low hill]

Did you try The Hollow and the Haunted in the end?

[quaint burrow]

quietly adds it to tbr

[knotty dirge]

Need some reccs for a book: horror, scifi, fantasy

[long sorrel]

Who is this question to?

[long sorrel]

anything specific? type of beat? subgenre?

[low hill]

Nominally Atrus.

Because I am sure I recommended it at some point.

[knotty dirge]

Not really

[long sorrel]

Mercy of Gods for scifi

Tainted Cup for fantasy

[knotty dirge]

like i have my preferences but they're like, vague and abstract

[long sorrel]

and for horror, I'd say The Hollow Places but I'm not a horror reader in general so this is probably best someone else reccs stuff

[tight kindle]

Nope
I wouldn't be surprised if you recced it and then I just forgot

[low hill]

Well, I had also forgotten until Usha mentioned The Hollow Places just now, so... :P

[quaint burrow]

Is that completely seperate from the Expanse?

[long sorrel]

yes

[tight kindle]

Oh yeahhhh that one
Still sitting on my ever growing TBR

[tight kindle]

That's one of the ones my friend is bringing me after the holiday!

[quaint burrow]

How many books👁️‍🗨️👁️‍🗨️

[long sorrel]

Aha!

[quaint burrow]

I finally got mine down to 1220 (I had once reached 2300....)

[potent linden]

Staring at my bookshelves thinking I'm not sure if I like how I reorganized them and wondering if I should reorganize them again...

[low hill]

How did you organise them?

[tight kindle]

Nothing compared to yours
It's at around 100

[long sorrel]

I wish my tbr kept growing because i add books faster than i read them and not because I've barely read anything from it in 2025... 🫠

[low hill]

-# No comment on To Read Pile sizes, other than to quietly point out that mine is made up of books I physically own and therefore is ... something else.

[knotty dirge]

do you know the author?

[long sorrel]

James S.A. Corey

the authors of the Expanse

[tight kindle]

My home shelf is still by color

Which I know several people here think I'm insane for

[long sorrel]

I don't think you're insane for that

But I'd deeply dislike it myself

[tight kindle]

Yeah I say this while rereading two books I've read before

[low hill]

It's me. I think you're insane.

[long sorrel]

So do I

[low hill]

-# Partially because, as discussed yesterday, I have too many books to be able to ever find anything if they weren't alphabetical by author's surname.

[long sorrel]

Oh oh @tight kindle @ivory cypress we're finally basically a month away from Sir Cameron!

https://tenor.com/view/hoecat-bunny-fast-zoom-gif-17159621360561728072

[tight kindle]

OMG YOU'RE RIGHT

[long sorrel]

I KNOW

[tight kindle]

Why do you think that?

[quaint burrow]

could you hypothetically show us your physical library

[low hill]

Hypothetically? No.
Practically? #other message

[long sorrel]

like recognizes like

[long sorrel]

I was about to post "books I'm excited for in 2026" and that's the first one in release order

[quaint burrow]

Now, could you hypothetically adopt me?

[low hill]

No. :P

[knotty dirge]

every book Usha recommended is out of stock at my store xD

[quaint burrow]

what about libby

if you read ebooks or audiobooks

[tight kindle]

When I have a similar collection to you I'll organize them by genre per shelf and then do each shelf by color individually 😌

[potent linden]

Oh, it's still roughly by how much I like them (and trying to put all of an author's books together when possible even if I haven't read them all yet), but also trying to account for size of books and book series with irregular shelf space...I moved some taller books down to a lower shelf because then I can actually pull them out easily for reading, where the higher shelf is built in a way that makes it so I can't move them without pulling other books off the shelf first so that I can get the book I want off by lowering it sideways...moving them was practical but a number of the taller books are also books I liked displaying, so I liked having them up there and now there's a bit of a blank space up there where I just turned my Hollow Knight Wanderer's Journal cover-facing-out to fill it...and ALSO I decided I want to start displaying more stuff on my bookshelves because there's a lot of stuff that's just in drawers or whatever, which would mean pushing the books to the back of the shelves which makes them harder to see and get out but that's probably fine, it won't be that much effort individually...

[tight kindle]

I constantly exist in a state where I need some organization and some chaos in my life to function normally

[long sorrel]

So I got
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die Feb 3rd
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcet, Feb 17th
Wolf Worm by Kingfisher, March 24th
A Trade of Blood by RJB, June 9th
I'm sure there's more i've forgotten to note down

[long sorrel]

like recognizes like

[tight kindle]

By genre and by color have always been my favorite organization systems

No idea why

[knotty dirge]

was this directed at me?

[long sorrel]

Dollmakers (by Lynn Buchan) for fantasy
uh... I've not read a ton of sci fi this year 😔

[quaint burrow]

Yes😅

[knotty dirge]

i dont really do ebook or audiobook

[quaint burrow]

Aha, valid

[low hill]

Sci-fi: Shroud or Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Project Hanuman by Stewart Hotston. The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon.
-# Archive Undying was my favourite book read in 2024.

Fantasy: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley.
-# Atrus, you should add this to your list actually.

Not Sure What Speculative Genre This Is: Ascension by Nicholas Binge.

[long sorrel]

I saw Ascension at the store the other day

It's like it's everywhere since the one time you mentioned it

[low hill]

Ahh yes, by size is reasonable with different sized shelve space.

[low hill]

You wouldn't believe how fitting that is, because you haven't read it. :P

[tight kindle]

Looked up The Watchmaker and it looks great. Added to list!

[low hill]

I know what I'm talking about. :P

[tight kindle]

Up to 107 books

[low hill]

checks what his number actually is

[long sorrel]

It is on the tbr!

So like one of these years when I start reading books from the tbr, I'll get to it

[tight kindle]

Ok just did a little cull and we're down to an even 100

59 of which are gay romances

[potent linden]

If I had a whole library room like yours I'd probably do it more by genre and age range and maybe alphabetical for a good chunk of it but as it is it's like "is there room for all of this series on one shelf? No? Then it goes over here where there is I guess" mostly

[knotty dirge]

only Archive Undying is in stock, hilarious

[long sorrel]

I recommended Archive Undying to my dad because of Vecna and he loved it too

I've not read it yet 😩

[knotty dirge]

might just have to put in an order for some others and eat the shipping, ugh

def need to grab Harrow the Ninth while im here though

[tight kindle]

The book I'm reading right now honestly isn't very well written but it was one of the first gay romances I've ever read, at a point where I was still coming to terms with who I was so it's got a place in my heart

[knotty dirge]

anyone got any other reccs? otherwise im heading out with The Archive Undying, Leech which I came across and Muir has praise for, and of course Harrow the Ninth
Tainted Cup sounds really cool so ill prob order it

maybe another if i still have money left

[low hill]

Do they have anything else by Robert Jackson Bennett?

[knotty dirge]

they have the sequel xD

[low hill]

Hah.

I was going to say Foundryside or City of Stairs if they had either of them. :)

[long sorrel]

Yes, I went for my fave but I support those 2 as well

[knotty dirge]

i want the Absolute DC runs but god comics are expensive

[somber timber]

https://tenor.com/view/kool-aid-man-oh-yeah-gif-10117983411222945873

Did somebody say city of stairs

[low hill]

Yes. Me.

[ivory cypress]

nthing City of Stairs

[tight kindle]

Oh it's got a sequel I've never read

And a third book in the series

Maybe those will go on my TBR

[royal carbon]

My physical TBR is somewhere between 500 and 1000 now. Unless it is over 1000 now. Too afraid to count.

[minor sleet]

Where are you keeping all those books?

[ivory cypress]

my 2025 gender-of-author breakdown

[minor sleet]

Gotta get those nb numbers up

How are you tracking books written by multiple authors who aren’t the same gender? Or are you just not encountering that problem?

[spiral jungle]

I really need to read more

only really comfort re-reading and continuing existing stuff

[ivory cypress]

it comes up very little

most books are single author

i'd probably change the counting to go by author instead of book tho

[untold leaf]

I read 36 out of my goal of 40 books last year. At least I'm beginning this year with a head start!

Now it's a matter of deciding whether to use Goodreads or Storygraph to keep track of it this time. Not sure which of the two I prefer.

I might stick with Storygraph just because it transferred over all my Goodreads data and I don't think it works vice versa.

[royal carbon]

My physical TBR has overflowed the several bookshelves allotted so now I have a lot of piles (again).

[snow vessel]

Oh hm @proven token (keep in mind I've not finished the series yet). Malazan is a sprawling 10 book epic focused on the actions and evolution of empires and cultures, with the malazan empire being the most central of them. Across the series, nations expand or clash or fall into corruption or splinter. The series follows various different groups and individuals from different nations and cultures who are tied up in these events. And also the gods are fighting.

There's definitely some aspects of the series I missed in that description but malazan has a lot going on and I think the malazan empire and a few other factions/nations/races and their experiences is the easiest throughline to find

It also does have a lot of magic and non-human races and gods and mysteries involving uncovering secrets in how the magic works and such - even though it's got a lot of focus on war and stuff, it's definitely high fantasy

[uncut shoal]

From my vague memory of it from 20 yrs ago I gave it the first 150 pages or so before giving up

[quaint burrow]

R'Shara you're being sarcastic right? Jade City was only published in 2017, 8 years ago

wait no it's nine

[tight kindle]

https://www.reddit.com/r/MM_RomanceBooks/comments/1q1j341/

@long sorrel Just figured I'd drop this here :P

[long sorrel]

Me: oh look someone reccomended Starless Sea
Me one second later after reading the user name:

[tight kindle]

Forgot to trim the link properly lol

Several of these are going on the TBR as soon as StoryGraph stops misbehaving

[long sorrel]

So many people recommending Captive's Prince

And like, yes but also like. TWs!

Some of this sound interesting I'll check em tomorrow

[tight kindle]

My three are so predictable

The Starless Sea
Under the Whispering Door
A Strange And Stubborn Endurance

[long sorrel]

I saw yeah

Idk what id put on my 3 🤔

I think ASaSE and sequel can go there

And Captive's Prince maybe too but I like her other series more and like, that one isn't finished 😩

[minor sleet]

Ok but the tws are what makes captive Prince so good

[long sorrel]

Yes

But it might make a lot of people uncomfy so like, I think it needs mentioning

[minor sleet]

Most gay romances are lacking in interesting interpersonal conflict between the leads in a way that often leads one of the pair feeling like a cardboard cut out there for the Guy With Issues to kiss

[tight kindle]

I want to read it but I also feel like I really need to take a break from the MM romance because it's like all I've read for months

[minor sleet]

Time for ff romance instead

[long sorrel]

Captive's Prince has such a setting and description that I thought I was getting into just some "plot excuse for smut" and then it was in fact not that at all and just really good? And it had me like

[tight kindle]

On my list of stuff is like Kingfisher books and Lightbringer mainly

[tight kindle]

It's like my sleeper agent phrase

[junior dew]

Alright I think I've got my tier list together for my 2025 reads: I think there's wiggle room in placement within tiers but this captures what I believe my gut says about how I'd rank my reads this past year

Went ahead and just switched over to the alphabetical ranking system for ease of creating these

I'm sure tomorrow I'd look at this and make changes, but I'm rolling with it. It's hard to rank stuff especially with so many Cradle and DCC books

[tight kindle]

Damn BotL really didn't land well huh 😭

[ivory cypress]

oh man, having to download all my book covers to do this....

ah.....

[junior dew]

I did a middle of the year list so I had to download only half of them roughly

[ivory cypress]

lmao

[junior dew]

Last year I did the "download all at once" thing. It's definitely a pain, but ranking the reads for the year has actually been pretty fun for me. It's neat to look back over everything I read and consider how my opinions shifted

Middle of the year list for reference

Oh huh wait Titan's Curse was the one I actively hated, whoops

And So I Roar was read shortly before I made the mid-year list and the book pissed me off. It's a decent book even if I feel it didn't need to exist and it still pisses me off

[junior dew]

I'll be honest, the entire percy jackson series just wasn't for me

[ivory cypress]

at this point i feel like i'd just be redoing my star ratings

[junior dew]

Ahh yeah for me my star ratings just have so many books at 5 stars that this grants me more nuance. I should honestly just adjust how I do my star ratings

[ivory cypress]

oh yeah there are lots of stars i initially put at 5 that i realize later are 4.x reads instead

some stay, though

and i've been less afraid to use my 2 and 3 stars for more books

okay seems fun, i will try

what happened in percy jackson and particularly that one on the bottom for you?

[junior dew]

Yeah I should do the same and just realize they'll mean something else for me. I tend to think anything less than a 3 is bad and a 3 is mediocre, so there's less room for nuance. So some adjustment to my schema could help.

And agreed that some 5 reads are more like 4.x. But it's also difficult for me because I often want some at 5, but then just want something above 5 for the really stellar reads. But again, a whole re-alignment could allow for that by basically making the >5 star reads 5 stars

[ivory cypress]

exactly

[junior dew]

They just really weren't for me and are some of the only books I just wish I hadn't wasted my time on. They weren't even particularly bad, just... I'm a 29 year old man and they're written for middle schoolers

Titan's Curse I'll be honest I don't even feel like reading a whole plot summary to remind me of everything that happened, but I remember thinking it was particularly worse than all of the others for me + just finding everything related to Artemis really... childish?

I just really wasn't a fan of the series

Kane Chronicles was better I'll say

Granted I never got to read the third book because the audiobook wasn't available anywhere

Sea of Monsters was alright at least as far as PJO goes

[junior dew]

Honestly I'd probably bump Legacy, sea of monsters, throne of fire, and the red pyramid up to C+ and leave murderbot 1 at C

[sage crystal]

My first book of 2026 will be Gardens of the Moon…
Have heard much about it so here goes

[ivory cypress]

okay lmao i just decided to make a tier list too instead of play my games lmao

just gotta put books in series order one sec

extremely off the cuff, i probably mixed up some books in series as i was doing this

[vital ibex]

👀

[ivory cypress]

this is only my NEW reads of 2025, didn't include any rereads

which theoretically would have included some lotr, all murderbot, and a significant portion of tamora pierce's tortall saga

[sage crystal]

👀 indeed :)

[vital ibex]

Make sure to drop by #1404515195941945455 with questions or thoughts 🫡

Im reading the 5th book atm myself

[potent linden]

what's the difference between spicy c, bland c, and c but derogatory?

[royal carbon]

This is terrible, I haven't read any books yet this year.

[ivory cypress]

spicy c is a 3 star book that I still think is very good and fun and have some good feelings with it; bland c is a 3 star that makes me go, eh yeah it was alright, and derogatory c is a book I didn't enjoy very much but honestly shouldn't be rated lower imo

[potent linden]

👍 interesting

[ivory cypress]

3 stars is a big field

[rugged tartan]

Lathe of Heaven ||Oh, title drop in a Chuang Tse quote in the epigraph, that's a fun one. A quick google tells me this might be (Probably is?) an uncommon romanization of the name of the book that the man dreaming about the butterfly is from, which is... certainly on theme, and would also line up with the fact Le Guin translated another highly influential chinese book from the same time period, the Tao Te Ching (I only know this because the book has an "also by Le Guin" page that lists it under "Translations")||

[snow vessel]

Oh nooo this bookstore has so many books I want

Odd spirits, savage blooms, Emily wilde, swordcrossed, paradise lost

I don't know if I can justify getting a book let alone multiple

@long sorrel They have a hardcover copy of the Evocation prequel WITH ART???

[rugged tartan]

The Lathe of Heaven ||"Orr had a tendency to assume that people knew what they were doing, perhaps because he generally assumed that he did not" Oh, so that's what it feels like to get called out by a fifty year old book||

[snow vessel]

Oh man and a Faust 😭

[analog geode]

THIS

God that line hit me hard lmao

[long sorrel]

Aaah?

Pic?

[snow vessel]

I haven't got it right now but might be going back soon for it

I'll get that one. Maybe a paradise lost because I saw an online readalong thing for it

[mild lance]

Brigands and Breadknives 36 ||okay, I feel like they should have seen Staysha’s betrayal coming. Fern said she probably wouldn’t rob them but surely trying to steal their bounty should have occurred to them?||

[long sorrel]

So you know how often books will have excerpts to other books at the end? And usually these can be like other books from this publisher, or from this author or specifically for the next book?

Well today this book had the whole 1st chapter of the previous book?

[mild lance]

Brigands and Breadknives ALL ||cute ending! I’m glad she found her true calling as a writer, I suspected that’s where the story was going for a while. I’m glad she also fixed things with Viv and the rest. Zell is still an enigma, I’m kinda hoping she gets her own book down the line. I wish Thimble was in this book more. But great book overall!||

[uncut shoal]

Actually I think I might have it mixed up with something else. I just can't figure out what

Oh, it's Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair heh

Wow I'm so far off

[mild lance]

Tier list of my 2025 reads. I'm too generous so I put almost everything in A lol

[proper silo]

ngl, the first two titles in the S tier made me think this is a gag where you categorize the books by what letter their title starts with 😅

[mild lance]

Well now I kinda wish I had done that

Reminds me of this ClickHole article:

https://clickhole.com/embarrassing-the-u-s-is-ranked-182nd-in-the-world-alp-1825120695/

[earnest grail]

Made a Storygraph account with the hopes of reading more this year

[snow vessel]

It's a small book, hardcover, with inside cover illustrations and it looks like ~3 pieces of colour art throughout

I did end up buying it

[long sorrel]

Moira looking like the queen she is

Gorgeous cover too

[long sorrel]

So... is the top right Rhys?

And the broken mirror "David"?

Ascension ||The mirror is making me think a lot more of Rhys but since this is David's book||

[low hill]

Hmm. I guess I should decide what I'm going to start my 2026 reading list with...

OK, I think I'll start with The Black Bird Oracle. Unless I change my mind again.

[ripe tide]

You know what I’m going to ask

[low hill]

You know I am going to forget... But I'll try.

[long sorrel]

I already read 2 books!

And read some more Unsouled, too

[low hill]

I finished one book, but I haven't started anything yet this year. :)

[long sorrel]

I read the 2 very short books

well not very short, just short

the wolf thing, very fast reads

Series has 5 books, I don't think Imma read all of that before jumping to something else

[low hill]

I might do another Malazan next, and then look at some of the complete series I've got on the shelves that I've never read...

[long sorrel]

I am going to try to focus on removing the books from my "currently reading" however I can

they are good, and entertaining, it's just my brain refusing to latch onto anything

[tight kindle]

I still need to finish my Starless Sea reread
And I might DNF Fifty Shades, as funny as it's been

[winter fern]

Would John Marcone from the Dresden Files be considered 'lawful evil'?

[long sorrel]

I thought it'd be better than what you read to us ngl

like i've read some trash smut that does some similar things than Fifty Shades but what you read made me cringe

[orchid obsidian]

Grey, what were your thoughts on Mirror Visitor Quartet (A Winter’s Promise)? 👀

[ivory cypress]

i read the first two of four, they were fine?

[tight kindle]

And I didn't even pick out particularly cringe ones 😭
It's just the whole book

You really can't beat "She must have been the color of The Communist Manifeso"

[long sorrel]

Yeah, wtf

I mean you only read paragraphs from like the 1st ch?

[tight kindle]

Yeah it didn't really get better

[mossy gyro]

Kingdom of Copper 9 ||man this reunion between Ali and Nahri 😭 ||

||my boi can't catch a break||

[low hill]

The real question of course is: "Will I remember any of the plot of the previous four books that I haven't read in years?".

[ripe tide]

Feel free to ask anything.

But there’s a big time skip here.

So it shouldn’t be a massive issue.

[analog geode]

What is life?

[orchid obsidian]

Okay 🙂 I haven’t seen many people read them, it always makes me curious to see what people thought of them

[long sorrel]

I do have them on my tbr

[minor sleet]

At a bookstore and they’re advertising Cormac McCarthy’s On the Road “as seen on booktok”

[analog geode]

I love that

[minor sleet]

Also: Go to bookstore. Enter fugue state. Exist with 3 new books and $70 less in bank account

[analog geode]

This is why I need to stop going to bookstores

[long sorrel]

Sometimes you don't know how you got in even

[minor sleet]

I would prefer to hang out in the library but they close at 5 pm on fridays

Not a lot of third spaces in this town

[tight kindle]

Finished my Forging Silver into Stars reread and it was better than I remember! I'm excited to get the second book.
The worldbuilding isn't fantastic but I really liked both the romance and the rest of the plot

Also I think I'm going to start leaving more reviews/ratings for books I read.

[snow vessel]

I'm pretty sure top right is Rhys. Mirror art is further into the book and I assume is an illustration of something that happens.

[long sorrel]

Aaah gotcha

No David portrait

?

[snow vessel]

I didn't see one

I thiiink this book is a little more of a rhys/Moira one anyways

[merry galleon]

Since it’s new years I’m reorganising my bookshelf. It needs a facelift and clean up of all the dust it has been carrying.

[snow vessel]

Wait there is a David portrait later in the book 👀

Just because it's quite far through the book I'm going to tag it [Odd Spirits]

[long sorrel]

Oooh

All their portraits are exactly how I imagined them lol

[long sorrel]

finally organized all the Martha Wells books from that one bundle

[ivory cypress]

👀

[long sorrel]

I'm not going to read them yet but they're all now sorted and in my tablet

[unique turret]

I wish I had purchased it when I saw it

I came back a couple days later expecting it to still be around but it had ended

[long sorrel]

I am most interested in Witch King but I'll continue Rashura first, I think

dunno when

[tight kindle]

I think I'm going to start the first Saint of Steel book tonight

[ivory cypress]

oh i'm LIVING

[tight kindle]

The loan ran out but I keep my Kindle on airplane mode

[ivory cypress]

martha wells AND kingfisher reads!!

[long sorrel]

I just found this book: The Keeper of Magical Things
It seems to be ff, and highly rated on storygraph

eh, it's going to the pile 😌

[tight kindle]

First straight romance I've read in... A very long time.
The book I just finished had one but it wasn't the focus

[long sorrel]

If it's any consolation I think about every single one of the male paladins are your type, and a few other characters probably too

[tight kindle]

Excellent

My first Kingfisher book I've been told is not super representative of her work so I'm excited to see it

[long sorrel]

It is and isn't

I think the worldbuilding and general writing is representative enough

however the characters are a bit more generic than just basically every single book I've read by her

[tight kindle]

I love that I don't have to tell you which one it was

[long sorrel]

you have mentioned lol

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 33 ||Smeds is interesting to follow and all but he might need to die by the end of the book tbh. I can't be okay with the person he is.||

||Now, Old Man Fish, he's a real one as far as I know.||

||They say men will do anything but go see a doctor, but Raven would rather chase his doctor down a continent than face Darling.||

The Silver Spike 36 ||Case: All of your ideals are pointless, Darling. The rebellion means nothing to the average person in the empire, may very well make their lives worse, and has probably accomplished nothing despite killing its leader.
Darling: Yeah idk sure. Anyway it's time to make Raven's bum ass confront his kids.||

The Silver Spike 38 ||Raven remains a coward, but even Darling wasn't really ready for how that conversation with his kids would go.||

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 49 ||I must say, I think Toadkiller Dog is not very nice.||

||Smeds' story feels like Shed's but worse. But that's still very good. The setup of Oar all locked in is great. Book took some time to get going but now that we're here it slaps.||

||Why is Toadkiller Dog on a video game quest 💀 yeah follow the spears||

The Silver Spike 50 ||A cholera outbreak is exactly the kind of darkly real development that Cook is so good at||

||Raven is WASHED||

||The feeling has been growing for a while, but I feel like I should be asking questions about just who Fish is||

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 54 ||Raven trying to show off by jumping off a building and spraining his ankle 💀||

||Case is lowkey my favorite character in the book. Subtle but compelling perspective. A good lad.||

[snow vessel]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-15384611/dracula-theme-park-open-europe-worth-billion.html .huh

[rugged tartan]

Oh I saw a tumblr post about that

[earnest grail]

"Dracula Land" is deeply unserious

[rugged tartan]

Yeah its comical much is being overpromised and how soon its claimed to be opening. Also notable: All of the concept art is ai generated, and its supposed to ("supposed to") have a metaverse digital theme park you can visit in VR as well

Like, maybe I'm falling for something that's clearly a joke, but its definitely not actually happening

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 61 ||Case immediately making himself some kind of leader among the conscripts and aura farming against the Nightstalker sergeant goes HARD.||

[snow vessel]

Whether or not its a joke I definitely have some doubts about it xD

[earnest grail]

It sounds like something that would have been made for Dracula entering public domain but it's been in public domain for a while now

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 62 ||LMAOOOOOOOOOO||

The Silver Spike 63, profanity ||This moment encapsulates why this book is so good. I love this kind of fantasy, in a city where every faction and player is trying to do their own plans. But here, instead of having a bunch of genius planners conspire everything, it's a bunch of people stumbling around, being as smart as they can working off of limited information, until eventually enough dominoes have fallen.||

[light drum]

Used bookstores are even worse they get you its like hunting g fir treasure

[potent linden]

I resisted buying anything in a used bookstore today!

[somber timber]

Those poor abandoned books

[analog geode]

Last time I stepped in a used bookstore I bought like 5 books

I did find a signed ARC though

[junior dew]

Yeah today I ended up at a bookstore with my gf and we collectively walked out with 5 books.

I bought a copy of City of Brass because it was pretty. A book I have yet to read and already have on Audible

It’s very pretty

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike 72 ||Raven is so washed lmao||

[potent linden]

cool, what of?

[light drum]

Nice! I think my best find was a first edition God Empeur of Dune

[analog geode]

I forget which book, I’ll send a pic when I go upstairs

[brazen pilot]

The Silver Spike all ||Excellent book. The beginning felt kind of awkwardly plotted, I wasn't super invested in the initial war between Darling and the Limper. But once everything was in Oar, it was excellent. Love the way the plot played out, how it felt to follow. Case is definitely my favorite character. I really liked his ending with Darling, felt very natural and human. Shame what happened to Raven, but maybe Raven should have made better choices along this whole book. I think Smeds should have died too alongside Fish because he did not deserve his happy ending due to the stuff he was doing before the book even started. Overall, not as good as books 1 or 2 but still a great time.||

[potent linden]

oh neat, a Cherryh

I haven't read any of her stuff but there was a lot of it at the bookstore where I used to work lol

[analog geode]

Yah, she got recommended to me, so I grabbed this one

Still trying to find the first one though

[merry galleon]

Just finished reorganising my bookshelf. Being sick is no joke, it stopped me from finishing earlier, but I managed to get there.

[oblique zodiac]

nice!

[lusty meteor]

did glen cook?

[brazen pilot]

he did

[tight kindle]

Bookshelf pic? 👀
Only if you're comfortable with it I just love seeing people's shelves

[oblique zodiac]

Ooo

I downloaded Storygraph and it's very good to know that it supports Korean books aswell

[tight kindle]

And if there's a book you have that isn't on there anywhere you can add it!

[oblique zodiac]

nice!

[old bone]

Didn't know you were a Black Company fan

[brazen pilot]

i liked the first trilogy a lot

[junior dew]

I may try out Margins this year to see if I like it more than Bookmory

[royal carbon]

Should I continue reading in Black Company, I already have a lot of books to juggle...

[merry galleon]

My new reorganised bookshelf. Sorry, my lighting is horrible and I tried my best to get good photos of it.

[merry galleon]

Just posted!

[old bone]

Nice

It's my third fav fantasy series of all time

:prayge:

[old bone]

yes

[ripe tide]

He’s iconic.

[tight kindle]

Paladin's Grace 2 ||Yeah Stephen is like, immediately my type ||

Also I got my mom to put this on her TBR

And my mom told me to read A Sorceress Comes to Call

[tight kindle]

I'm enjoying myself quite a bit with this

The writing is just... Fun

[long sorrel]

Debating what to put for reading goal

[royal carbon]

I put 100 after initially thinking about 50

[long sorrel]

Well I put 100 last year

and I read 220

I don't want to put 200, that's too crazy, I might not have this reading mood go through the year

I threw a d100

Added that on top of the 100

so now it's 150

[snow vessel]

Mine is at 35. I wouldn't be surprised if I get more, but that's a nice spot where I can raise it if I meet it

I think I hit 45 in 2025? So gives me a little space to surpass it

[long sorrel]

Yeah, I don't want to put a tight number

and honestly if I end up reading way less I'll just lower it to whatever is the comfortable pacee

[old bone]

I can finish books at pace that I can manage numbers like 100, but I don't really enjoy them much if I do

My goal is 30 books, 5 audio books

[long sorrel]

bookstore messaged saying they have the book I ordered 👀

That means I got new book

[old bone]

which which

👀

[long sorrel]

that also means I have to go into a bookstore

[long sorrel]

a special edition of Romancero Gitano by Lorca

[old bone]

Ohh

[old bone]

that looks nice

[long sorrel]

yes, they're doing a bunch of classics

https://www.editorialalma.com/colecciones/clasicos-ilustrados

I'd buy almost all of them ngl

but I won't ofc

[old bone]

all in spanish?

[long sorrel]

I only bought 2 + this one

Well yeah

[old bone]

those editions look so good

[long sorrel]

oh, no, I bought 3 + this one 😌

[minor sleet]

Those are a very pleasing set of pastel colors

[analog geode]

I love fairytales

[analog geode]

Awww

[long sorrel]

they're all very cared for in design and such

I love them

[old bone]

damn

this seems like folio level stuff without the special paper or w/e

[long sorrel]

i paid like 15€

[old bone]

do they have White Nights

wanna see what cover they did for it

[long sorrel]

I think so?

That rings a bell, lemme check

Seems not

[old bone]

😔

[long sorrel]

I swear I saw an edition of it, I'm about to pop over so I'll check

[old bone]

send an image if you do

both dostoevsky entries there have meh cover.. 😭

all Tolstoy ones there have super good ones

[long sorrel]

This is the one i was remembering

[old bone]

nicee

not as good as I had hoped it would be tho

[long sorrel]

Its not the same publisher at all

So not in the same "style"

[old bone]

ahh

also just to let you know you posting those covers got me to go through the entire catalog of books of that publisher and then of folio society

had fun

[minor sleet]

What a pretty way to transliterate his name

[long sorrel]

It is probably the way to spell it that'd make spanish speakers pronounce it as accurately as possible to his name

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/cykelops/802794159512616960/i-dont-want-to-hear-any-writing-advice-from

lucifer was an angel too

I don’t want to hear any writing advice from Stephen king not because I think there would be no value in it but because whatever works for Stephen king is between him and god and that demon he made a pact with that lets him write 3000 words in one sitting daily.

Tumblr · Dec 13, 2025, 5:36 AM

[low hill]

[All Souls all] ||What is "higher magic" and why is it evil? I have genuinely blanked this entire part of the setting, and it seems to be what this books is about...||

[ripe tide]

||It's the other branch of magic that isn't the Craft. Peter Knox and Satu Jarvinen, but mostly the former were particularly good at it. It's also what he used to kill Em. In the show, Em was using higher magic to call on Rebecca's spirit, though all that is off screen in the books so I forget to what extent it was discussed as part of what was going on when Em was killed.||

[low hill]

||Cool. Hopefully snarky great aunt will explain some of it in Chapter 6...||

[ripe tide]

||Oh yeah this book delves into it a lot||

[mild lance]

Wasn’t that demon just cocaine?

[minor sleet]

Yes

Also alcohol

[proper silo]

one might say that is all the more reason not to listen to Stephen King writing advice 🤔

[low hill]

I don't know. It's worked for me so far...

[minor sleet]

Once again shoutout to Samuel R Delaney for giving us the first character I know of who transition definitely did not fix in his novel Trouble on Triton

Quote is from Queer Callinga by Mark Jordan

[potent linden]

oh that book sounds interesting

Queer Callings, that is

[minor sleet]

It’s really good. It’s by a queer studies, literary criticism, and theology professor from the Harvard Divinity School. it’s about how queer people think and have thought about and name and have names who they are and why strict and unfixabke boundaries on those identities are impossible, along with how queer people’s sense of spirituality (religious awe? Feeling of the divine?) play into that topic

Trouble on Triton is also very good. It’s just mostly very wierd

[tight kindle]

Ao3 continues to boggle my mind

That's twice as long as the original book

(It's a The Starless Sea fanfic)

[unique turret]

Some people use a lot of words to say very little

Is the longest work of fiction of all time still a Super Smash Bros fan fiction?

[lusty meteor]

Wandering Inn has to be up there

[proven token]

I thought it was a fic of The Loud House

Online fanfiction is always gonna be way longer than an actual book because you don't have to worry about actual physical space and have no editor

[tight kindle]

rubs hands together
Time to see if this is worth reading

It's clear that it's something the author is incredibly passionate about

[unique turret]

First comment lol: https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/17qclnj/regarding_the_longest_work_of_fiction_ever_made/

[tight kindle]

Ok I need to finish my reread first because I'm feeling the Same Feelings

Imma export it as an EPUB so I can put it on my Kindle

[proven token]

I wonder what the longest work of fiction in any language is

[tight kindle]

WHAT

I just looked at this Ao3 author's works page

First of all 19 Starless Sea fanfics

AND THERE'S ANOTHER BOOK AFTER FATEHEART?

THAT'S JUST AS LONG

Plus some shorter smutty fics and some fluffy fics

I think my head is about to explode

I'm having trouble processing this

[potent linden]

some people are able to write a lot

[minor sleet]

Cough Sanderson cough

[wet belfry]

https://tenor.com/view/who-who-are-you-who-dis-gif-19355689

[old bone]

Just an up and coming indie Author

[tight kindle]

It's less that they write a lot and more that they exist in the first place

[potent linden]

oh, just surprised that someone wrote that much for The Starless Sea specifically?

[lusty meteor]

kon have you read sanderson lmao

[potent linden]

I think the gif is sarcasm

[rugged tartan]

Work was pretty hectic so I treated myself to fast food and a trip to the used book store right dowm the street from my job

[minor sleet]

Another Le Guin book with a cat on the cover

[rugged tartan]

tbf that's a gryphon

[minor sleet]

She sure loved kitties

[rugged tartan]

Wait no I see the cat

Anyways, I'm gonna hop back in The Lathe of Heaven

[minor sleet]

From Le Guin’s picture book “Cat Dreams”

[rugged tartan]

(That sounds like a sick as hell spiritual torture world if you don't know its a book)

[minor sleet]

Lathe of Heaven is a spiritual torture world for the psychologist

[wet belfry]

https://tenor.com/view/thats-the-joke-ranier-wolfcastle-mc-bain-the-simpsons-stand-up-comedy-gif-4372917

[mossy gyro]

Kingdom of Copper 11 ||wow Ali's mother is a lot more reasonable and helpful than I thought she'd be. She was involved in bringing him back but not the plot that got him sent away, and hates how the Shafit are being treated as much as he does. However she does not know what is up with him as the Ayanlay (that's gonna be spellchecked) only ever find corpses of those who pissed off Marid||

[tight kindle]

Yeah pretty much
I've recommended it to a lot of people and it's never hit any of them anywhere near as hard as it hit me. I think Vecna is the only person I know who can grasp how impactful it was.
It had to have hit pretty hard to get you to write 5x the content of the original book in fanfiction.

[tight kindle]

I'm half convinced the author of this fic is Morgenstern in a trench coat

They're emulating her writing style surprisingly well, given how unique it is

[long sorrel]

Does it sound like her?

Because you said Starless Sea fic and I'll admit I've 0 interest in it unless it's written in her style

[tight kindle]

It's not exactly the same, but there are frequent phrases that sound exactly like her

Morgenstern has this way of writing run on sentences and dialogue that don't feel like run ons, and it's been emulated uncannily well

[long sorrel]

Huh

Its not like I want other people to write like Morgenstern

But I do wish other authors managed to make me fly like her prose alone does

But it just hasn't happened

It doesnt have to be the same style, I just want a repeat of that feeling 😭

[old bone]

Blake Crouch is that for me, but its more due to prose being super minimalistic

Unless you mean like prose so good that you just keep on reading despite nothing really in plot gripping. Then I'll say Addie Larue's writer

[tight kindle]

I'll update you later after I know where the plot is going but if the plot is solid I'll legitimately recommend you read it.
It's uncanny how similar the style is and I'm feeling so trippy right now

[tight kindle]

Morgenstern has a unique writing style that I've never seen anywhere else. It's like having a clear dream and sometimes waking up and returning to the real world takes a while after you put the book down. It captures your thoughts

[old bone]

Hmmm

Erin Morgenstern?

[tight kindle]

Yup

She's only written two books and then just fell off the face of the planet I guess?!?
I don't know where she went but she wrote the book that's now the closest thing I have to a religious text

Her other book, The Night Circus, is also excellent but didn't hit me anywhere near as hard

Fateheart ||How strange, but how lovely, to have a favourite book that is so full of unread stories.
This just feels like something she would write.||

(Fateheart is the name of the...
I can't even really call it fanfic. This is just a full ass book)

[potent linden]

sometimes fanfics are books! sometimes they are full novels in every way, just not fully original (and even then some of them are damn close lol, whether having entirely new plot and worldbuilding but not characters, or new characters but not new worldbuilding)

[tight kindle]

https://erinmorgenstern.com/2025/12/goodbye-2025/

Omg Morgenstern is actually alive

She exists

And writes blog posts like she writes her books

Fateheart structure ||The story structure of having different stories (that currently seem unrelated) is also present and they're well written stories in and of themselves!||
This is so uncanny

Fateheart 7 ||Oh my gosh it just broke the fourth wall in the most perfect way possible.||

[long sorrel]

Neither it just makes you dreamy and floaty lol

Its not about good/bad

[random dome]

Your spellcheck arriveth, you were pretty close! ||Ayaanle||

[long sorrel]

She has no method to her madness I believe, so she will write when she feels like it, or she will not

[random dome]

Kingdom of Copper ||Also I do like Hatset's intro, you get a good sense of who she is as a mother and I love how much she schemes to get Ali back||

[tight kindle]

Chapter 10 was unbelievable
Absolute cinema

[somber timber]

the patient has begun to think that the words on the page are really a movie. Continue monitoring for further development

[mild lance]

Yo this is a fire script, can’t wait to see it on-screen

[tight kindle]

Movies are just book hallucinations with the hallucinating part done for you

[light drum]

I have ran into the end of my TBR. Any book recs would be appreciated especially if queer or with a compelling romance tho any are appreciated

[somber timber]

the patient thinks the movies are hallucinations of his own consciousness

[ivory cypress]

absolutely nothing is appealing to me, reading wise, so i feel like what that means is i want to go back to something old and comforting

but what though..............

[lusty meteor]

gardens of the moon

[tight kindle]

Slyly walks up to you and opens side of trench coat, revealing eight copies of the same book hanging on the inside
Have you maybe tried... The Starless Sea?
-# I have other reccs too probably but I have to lead with this one

Also I literally have to happy stim every couple of minutes because I can't contain my excitement. This fic is so good and I'm just so incredibly glad I found it

[analog geode]

I’m in the exact same boat

Idk what to read

[velvet umbra]

bro is Steven Erikson's strongest soldier

[lusty meteor]

I speak my mind

Idk if i am even in the top 5 shills in this server

[analog geode]

I am top hater, you gotta catch up

[ivory cypress]

back to Tuyo

i guess i read these last January so a yearly return

[low hill]

No, she just takes a long time between each book. There were years between the existing two.

[tight kindle]

Yeah I thought it was 2015 and 1019, not 2011 and 2019

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/raskolni-kin/651068528007528448/penguin-pingu-classics

villainous gay people™️

may i present you

“penguin pingu classics”...

Tumblr · May 13, 2021, 12:02 PM

You guys have to follow this link to see all the book covers and what book they go to

They’re all Penguin classic editions but with an appropriate Pingu image photoshopped on

[proper silo]

[marble sinew]

Shout out to Hamlet for writing the literary classic "William Shakespeare"

[junior dew]

Licanius is proving quite interesting so far. Still on book 1, but it’s pretty neat

[untold leaf]

Finished Six of Crows!

I thought it was a standalone book, but no, it just had to be a duology with a cliffhanger ending.

Now I need to read Crooked Kingdom.

[long sorrel]

You do

[tight kindle]

Usha I was scrolling on Instagram and came across a piece of art the comments told me was about Captive Prince
It's a sign

[ivory cypress]

aw storygraph updated ☺️ now when you're rereading a book you've previously marked as 'read', instead of selecting "reading" as the option for going again, it actually does say "rereading" now. it's getting smarter!

[ripe tide]

Yes I noticed!

[lusty meteor]

Im assuming storygraph is the way to track things

I need to sit down and make my lists

[wraith lynx]

Peak book tracker 😌

[ivory cypress]

dark mode storygraph

[oblique zodiac]

is plus plan worth it, chat?

[ivory cypress]

never tried it myself

[long sorrel]

Oh yeah Grey, did you end up trying that other thing with forums?

[long sorrel]

I have considered it for support reasons only

I think storygraph is very complete as a free product and the issues it does have aren't due to free vs plus

[minor sleet]

Try it free first in case you don’t like it

[long sorrel]

I think these 2 things sound appealing but I don't care

But yeah, I'd only pay knowing i like it and will continue using it just to support it

It is probably for the best I don't have access to this

as a little few extra points to them

not an "unsubcribe later" model

[ripe tide]

That's so good. Unsubscribe is the worst

[long sorrel]

Yeah, that little detail speaks to me

[lucid isle]

I’m about 150 pages into David Gemmells The King Beyond the Gate. I really want to like it but it’s just such a flat book

[ivory cypress]

hm i am flu brained, thing with forums?

[junior dew]

I’m giving Margins a try currently. UI seems nice so far but I only just downloaded it

I wonder if Storygraph has gotten tolerable yet

[ivory cypress]

i admit i never found storygraph intolerable

[junior dew]

It does seem a bit better than it used to be

But I still don’t love the UI

Definitely seems a lot better though

Granted it also still takes far too long to load each individual page

Those latencies are wild

Granted it does look like it’s caching stuff so perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad long term

Yeah it’s definitely caching results at least

Much snappier than it used to be

Granted scrolling through TBR seems to still have high latency as it doesn’t seem to cache everything you scroll through

Props to them though, this app is lightyears better than it was a few years ago

Margins might pull me from Bookmory though. It’s quite clean so far

[long sorrel]

You've been sick for so long! Hope it's over soon.
I meant PageBound

[long sorrel]

It doesn't bother me like it bothers you but loading 2+ pages on the tbr or recently reads and such is still slow and ocasionally quite slow

Everything else works quite snappy I'd say

[tight kindle]

This app keeps having Ws

[long sorrel]

Also for anyone curious
https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com

[junior dew]

Yeah definitely noticed it. Perhaps if their pagination had more results per page it would be a bit less terrible but I’m not sure how badly their queries would scale

[junior dew]

Yeah they’ve made it a lot better. The app itself seems a lot more usable and far better designed as a whole.

It still lacks aesthetic appeal imo, but at least it’s dramatically improved over the last time I checked it out

[long sorrel]

This is in their in progress

Which I think would solve trying to load the infinite scroll

[long sorrel]

I find it very aesthetically pleasant actually

do yuo have an example of what you'd like aesthetically for this type of app?

Out of curiosity

Ithink this is interesting too

[junior dew]

I’m finding Margins quite aesthetically pleasing overall so far with what seems to be a pretty quick and snappy UX with some real thoughtfulness given to efficiency of what at least are the core user flows for my use cases at least. It does seem pretty new and has some minor UX stuff I think needs to be fixed, but it’s showing a lot of promise so far. Granted I’m just now really checking it out today so it’s very much first impressions at the moment.

I also do think they should move the profile bit of the UI away from the top of the app - perhaps moving it to the bottom left button group along with home and library.

[long sorrel]

hmmm

[junior dew]

One big gripe I have with Bookmory actually is how it handles series and searching for series + navigating from singular title to series.

Margins letting you add a whole series to your TBR is pretty neat to discover just now.

Flow for adding a book to currently reading with a prior start date is pretty efficient and well thought out

[long sorrel]

But you're talking about functionality and efficiency

the aesthetic is very... hmmm not that far off

[junior dew]

Yeah so I think for me I don’t need as many features. I like certain common flows to be efficient or at least well considered, but that’s very subjective of course. But I like things to be aesthetically pleasing, which is also subjective.

[long sorrel]

I'm ngl this looks more convoluted than Storygraph 🤔

But hey, if it works for you all the better

[junior dew]

I disagree wholeheartedly. I find Storygraph visually to be quite ugly

[long sorrel]

I am limited by the fact that I won't use somthing that doesn't have a web version

[junior dew]

Yeah that’s very fair!

[ivory cypress]

yeah i find those other examples quite a bit uglier, i much prefer storygraph

[long sorrel]

mhmm

I don't think it's ugly but worse than storygraph

I don't think storygraph is the best or anything

but I like the minimalist/simple design a lot

Oh man there's a spanish store where I buy my digital books when I can (their selection is poor)

And it has the absolute [redacted] worse UI

You'd hate it just as much spooky 😭

[junior dew]

Huh, very interesting.

This is what I see as the home page for both apps.

For me Storygraph feels very visually… amateur-ish in aesthetic? It looks to me like visual aesthetic isn’t really considered at all. It’s all so… flat?

Separate from layout

[long sorrel]

the home page has like sections by genre with the most popular sale, which, okay fair

but then you go into search, hit like, fantasy

and it just scrolls you to the fantay section of the homepage

which has 15 books

it doesn't take you to the search page with all books with filters

it's so atrocious

[ivory cypress]

on the contrary, it feels very considered to me, it feels intentionally clear and simple

[junior dew]

I think I also don’t love how Storygraph’s home page uses empty space specifically?

[ivory cypress]

the other app looks really busy and stresses me out

[long sorrel]

Mhmmm

[ivory cypress]

i really don't like it

i LOVE empty space, it feels cleaner and more relaxed

[long sorrel]

Margin does have more stuff on the empty space

but Storygraph is giving you more information while being less busy

There are some things I'd like if storygraph added/fixed though

The loading times on my tbr being the #1 lol

[ivory cypress]

i will say i never notice loading times and that is not part of my calculations for preference at all lol

[long sorrel]

I do sometimes have to wait, so I can't not notice, but this is usually when I'm trying to look for something through my entire tbr or the like

[junior dew]

Hmm very interesting. I think for me there’s a few things with the storygraph Home Screen. Book titles are very small on Storygraph and then the view all button is so small with so much empty space surrounding it.

I think I prefer how in Margins you can just scroll through your currently reading list

[long sorrel]

you can scroll horizontally through the to read pile

I just realized

[ivory cypress]

i don't want to scroll my currently reading list, i want them visible at all times

[long sorrel]

I don't use the app a lot besides to mark something as read at night

[long sorrel]

well 😭

if you have too many of them it doesn't show them

[ivory cypress]

ha

[long sorrel]

I can scroll through the tbr horizontally but not the current reads

which is odd

on PC it shows 5 of the current reads

[junior dew]

Yeah I think both of your views are completely valid, just to be clear! I think it’s all a matter of personal preference.

I think my views may be skewed as well by Storygraph kind of feeling like a web app that has been converted to an app, whereas Margins feels more like a native app. Which as Usha mentioned, Storygraph being a web app is essential

[long sorrel]

But also since I don't log pages or anything I think this is less relevant for me

[junior dew]

Aesthetics of course are also all super subjective. And that’s why having a bunch of options is great

[ivory cypress]

yeah for me, too, i use these on my desktop first and app as an afterthought/if i happen to be away from home

but i don't... like... using things as app first

they're clumsier, i feel much less in control

[long sorrel]

I mark books as done from bed

[long sorrel]

~~it's the millenial in us but ~~

[ivory cypress]

and like i said, they seem busier and like they're there to grab my attention instead of just being a nice looking book list

[long sorrel]

I use my phone to chat, ocasionally google, that's about it

and mark books as finished once I've turned off PC

[junior dew]

Ahh yeah I do most of my reading on Audible on my phone so it’s most natural for me to mark things as started or done from my phone, and adding books to my TBR happens either at bookstores where I don’t have a laptop on me, or during discussions happening on discord typically on my phone.

Reading is so detached from being near my laptop generally in my case

[long sorrel]

reading is, for me too

but only reading

I do have storygraph both on my tablet (where I read) and my phone

[ivory cypress]

like i will occasionally sign in to storygraph on my phone to update something but more often than not, i will just save updating storygraph for the next morning/day when i'm at my computer

[long sorrel]

I do sometimes add stuff to my tbr on my phoen but also I mostly am at PC when I'm on discord too

[lusty meteor]

is it easy just to mark what you read? i dont want to do page count stuff

[long sorrel]

Yeah