Books (General)

[wraith lynx]

Oh god this website is setting people up for failure 😭

[ivory cypress]

oh my library uses that catalogue system? but uh i don't think ours has these errors

[velvet umbra]

limited experience with the former but from what i've seen it's crazy how much worse the user experience of checking physical books out online from your library isversus using Libby/Overdrive for digital

[low hill]

@ripe tide I finished book 2, and am going to take a brief break to read something else (short) before picking up Labyrinth's Heart - but if I choose right, I'll be onto it in a only a few days.

[ripe tide]

What did you think?

[low hill]

I had forgotten all of the ending, entirely, so really glad I re-read it before starting 3. :P

Second Lady Trent book maybe, or the third Dresden Files. They both look fairly short...

I'm mostly just staring at the shelves going "What looks like a thin book?".

No, I think it will be Godkiller.
-# Unless I change my mind between now and bedtime. :P

[ripe tide]

I vote for Lady Trent

[low hill]

I thought you might. :)

[long sorrel]

Hmmm, this marid is looking a bit odd?

[long sorrel]

@tight kindle Atrus! Atrus!

I'm sad I have to wait a whole day rather than it being out at midnight

[tight kindle]

I need to call the bookstore today

[ivory cypress]

my alert to remind you two about the book just popped on my phone

turns out it's never been necessary, neither of you have forgotten for a moment

[true falcon]

I’ve never been to a local bookstore at all

Or a library since one time as a child

[long sorrel]

haha

I already bought my copy so it should download once it's out

I guess it'll be there for me by the time I wake up

though won't get on it til night

[minor sleet]

I won’t be linking it, but Neil Gaiman published a “breaking my silence” post on Instagram and there’s a variety article now

Anyone who wants to avoid a rehashing on that from last year, please consider this a heads up

Also he’s writing a new book apparently 🙄

[proper silo]

could he please fix his silence

[tight kindle]

Neaurrrr

They're not getting my copy of Sir Cameron in until Thursday or Friday 💔

[idle trellis]

So that explains the random bursts of singing in the story lmao

[proper silo]

what's that Sir Cameron book y'all keep mentioning?

[minor sleet]

Book by a popular tumblr blogger

Out tomorrow

[ivory cypress]

Apparently Sir Cameron Needs To Die

[proper silo]

I was wondering if Sir Cameron was the full title cause I couln't find it

[ivory cypress]

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/800527/apparently-sir-cameron-needs-to-die-by-greer-stothers/

cover blurb

[proper silo]

okay, i love the description immeiately

sometimes, supporting the sorcerer you care about means taking an interest in their hobbies. Even if that hobby is trying to kill God.

well, i'm not reading it until i finish Dark Heir, but that's definitely going on my immediate TBR

so thanks for bringing it to my attention 😁

[long sorrel]

I'm sure you'll finish Dark Heir ASAP anyway 😌

I read til 30 in the end

[proper silo]

I am juggling so many things recently, so time is at a premium 😫

[long sorrel]

I'm reading it at your speed, which is kinda fun, and I can only do so because I've already read it haha

I've read like 4 other books since I started?

something like that

storygraph calendar lines are not very clear some times

[proper silo]

Well, I've been reading Remnant of Filth while I'm also reading this, since I have all volumes in physical and therefore can bring them into the office 😅

(midway through volume 4, I will say, it's much slower than Erha, but it does eventually get compelling)

(although I do have a problem wherein I found myself significantly invested in a side character that is probably gonna turn out to be a villain 😔 )

[minor sleet]

Which one 👀

[proper silo]

...Murong Lian

he's such an entertaining asshole

Remnant of Filth up to ~chapter 100 ||Whatever shady nonsense the Emperor is up to, Murong Lian is definitely also involved in it, so I am expecting him to end up getting killed whenever we get around to unravelling the Emperor's plotline 🙃||

[analog geode]

Wait that looks great

[proper silo]

doesn't it just?

[proper silo]

Remnant of Filth general ||My guy may not be surviving this book, but at least he got to star on one of the covers 😌 ||

[long sorrel]

and it comes out tomorrow! (3rd)

[true falcon]

The great gatsby 2 ||toms affair with mechanics wife, drunk in an apartment, nick wants to leave, and luncheon||

[old flint]

One day I'll see the book title "Remnant of Filth" and not misread it as the death metal band "Cradle of Filth", but it is not this day.

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 28 ||There's something fascinating, in a very sad and kinda haunting way, about the fact that it's basically impossible to tell how many of James's actions are done by his own free will, how many he does because of the past he doesn't remember, and how many are influenced by the collar||

[proper silo]

Very, very different vibes

Dark Heir 28 ||"Someone I believe could save me." Aww, James ||

29 ||Ooh, I love how like immediately after we have Will lying about having a happy childhood, we hear the truth of what it was like ||

||we were like... a sentence away from outing Will as the dark king here. thanks for the interruption, shadowhound||

30 ||Hm... So the vibe I'm getting is that the Sun King framed Sarcean for the whole "attempting to ensorcel" thing. I wonder if this is happening before or after Sarcean got the other three kings to drink from the Cup of Makes You Nazgul||

[long sorrel]

||My bet is before||

||was Sarcean a king from the start? I thought he was like, his assassin or whatever right? A general?||

[proper silo]

||Not a king, some sort of subordinate responsible for the less savory actions||

[long sorrel]

||Got betrayed by the Sun King, this pissed off Sarcean (understatement maybe) and then the stuff with the kings happened?||

[proper silo]

Maybe?

[merry galleon]

Reached 559 pages on Seeker’s Bane!

[proper silo]

dark heir 30 ||It seems like getting arrested was part of his plans, since he talks about the "cold machinery" of his schemes starting to turn when Anharion arrests him. He doesn't seem too surprised at being tossed into the oubliette, either. So I think he knew something like this would happen. But... I wonder if being cast down into the oubliette broke something in Sarcean. Like maybe he planned on this happening, but the experience was much worse than he expected||

[long sorrel]

||He expected it, yeah, because he knows the king, I assume 🤔 I wonder if the Queen was part of his plans? he seems legitimately in love with both of them||

[proper silo]

||He does say that he knew she was calling him to meeting to have him arrested, so I think she was part of his plan, but at the same time, I think he genuinely fell in love with her||

||In an earlier flashback, he does arrange the "accidental" first meeting with her, but at the same time he's surprised by how much he likes her||

Dark Heir 30 ||Sandy would be Visander, no? Is there any blonde in the old world that Sarcean was not in a relationship at one point or another?||

||I wonder if Idane was the one who made the Collar||

||Actually, I wonder if Sarcean was alreay planning to collar Anharion at this point, or if this came about as a result of Anharion being the one to arrest him, and then not being the one to come for him||

||ooh, it's like the teracotta warriors, but dead and also potentially zombies||

alright, caught up to you, Usha 😌

31 ||Ooh, so Elizabeth did figure it out Well this is gonna end badly for everyone||

[snow vessel]

WMTD 8 ||wait whattt||

||Maddie's dead??||

[proper silo]

Dark Rise 31 ||"This time I know you, Sarcean. This time you are the youth, and I am the man." Technically speaking, Visander, you are a 16-year-old girl, which makes you younger than Will||

||Also, I love the shift from the dramatic "we must stop the dark king!" to Visander's reluctant shopping spree||

||The Visander-Phillip-Elizabeth plotline is peak actually ||

[true falcon]

I didn’t use to read in silent

I used to Read loudly. Now I can be quiet reading which I’m thankful for

[long sorrel]

OH MY GOD?

||Is he though? That'd be wild||

||So sandy abandoned Sarcean some time after freeing him?||

[long sorrel]

||I have thoughts about this 🤔 but as much as I don't remember the details I don't think I can talk about it spoiler free||

[long sorrel]

||Didnt Sarcean call him Sandy just because of the hair colour? But the names can't be a coincidence|| (yes still thinking about it)

[long sorrel]

||okay, I think this sentence does point at him being Sandy actually||

||Watch Sandy get seduced all over again ||

Dark Heir 31 ||The apple knife, still in his possession, dug its point into Phillip’s rib cage. He felt Phillip go very still. ‘Remarkable weather we’re having,’ said Visander. he learnt the lesson||

Dark Heir 32 ||So Will has stopped thinking about the Dark King as "Him" and started thinking of Him as him(self) 👀 ||

[hollow hedge]

I started listening to the AIT version of Dungeon Crawler Carl, I'm really enjoying the sports panel show segments

[true falcon]

I’m still waiting for my paperback of Dungeon crawler Carl to come to me from the shipping heck!

[potent linden]

Where are you seeing this? I can't find an announcement

[proper silo]

Dar Heir 31 ||He did, the narration does say it's from his hair color, but iirc Visander was also originally blonde, the name similarity is there, and Sandy being a Sun Guard would fit with Visander becoming the champion once Anharion gets collared||

[warm leaf]

Guys, I think I remembered a book I read when I was 11 years old and I couldn't stop reading it

I think it was called the Neverending Story? I remember it was by an author named Michael Ende

Were the first words of each chapter in alphabetical order? It's what I remember the most

[oblique zodiac]

Breaking Dawn ||https://www.instyle.com/stephanie-meyer-twilight-sequels-7106644
https://stepheniemeyer.com/frequently-asked-questions-midnight-sun/?hl=en-US||

Sorry if it's too vague

[potent linden]

oh okay, so it's very theoretical, I thought there was more recent news

[long sorrel]

I guess my book should be ready

Ill check in a few 👀

AHA

Oh, it's drm free

It doesn't wanna copy into my tablet 😭

[snow vessel]

Is there a blurb for this Sir Cameron book?

[minor sleet]

No the marketing seems to be solely I am panthersandgrim.tumblr.com and I have written a book look at the funny excerpt I posted and the book is gay I promise

[snow vessel]

I see

[long sorrel]

this, end

[snow vessel]

Oh that actually sounds quite fun

[long sorrel]

There's this bit, on "praise for the book" at the very beginning, that made me quite laugh, spoilers? maybe?

it says "more" implying there is some!?

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/gaya-the-k/807458769692934144/i-cant-stop-thinking-about-this

A TIME FOR WOOF

I can't stop thinking about this

-# #asoiaf #eddard stark #cersei lannister #cersei having flashbacks to Ned's FOUR Tullys #Joffrey baratheon #Robb Stark

Tumblr · Feb 2, 2026, 5:18 PM

[snow vessel]

God i'm reading so slowly lately

Well, in physical books

[oblique zodiac]

I'm not reading at all lately 😔

Sometimes I get in this depressive slough, and it's so hard to get out of

[snow vessel]

I've been making progress on WMTD in audio, but I just have had so little time to read the last few days and when I do, I dont feel like it 😓

[long sorrel]

I get that

Im actively reading 3 books rn

[snow vessel]

67% through WMTD right now

[long sorrel]

I'm reading Dark Heir, the Spanish book I got physical and then I'm going through other stuff one at a time

[snow vessel]

Ahh

I'm reading new spring, what moves the dead, and I'm meant to be reading paradise lost but I haven't touched that in almost a month...

Hopefully some of the work and stuff that's taking up my time will ease up a little soon and then I can finish new spring. Maybe once I do that I'll try to grind through some of paradise lost, rather than reading it in the background

And then idk. Maybe ill go for a palette cleanser, because I've been stuck on one book for ages. Or maybe ill jump into something big

[long sorrel]

I'm only reading the physical print on like the metro and wait times like at the doctor or whatever

But it's been pouring down so I've been taking my tablet which is safer than paper

In case it gets wet

[snow vessel]

I've recently lost a lot of the morning and throughout the day times where I'd settle down to read physically for a while, but gained a lot more time for audio

I might be able to work out a routine of reading physically around the stuff I have on, we'll see

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 32 ||This whole white death thing... It seems to be connected to the dead meant to return, no? Like Katherine touched Ekthalion, holding Visander's soul. And now this rando worker touched a soldier meant to come back as part of Sarcean's army||

||They've been burning bodies at the dig site, if they didn't, would the corpses stand back up after a few days like Visander did?||

33 ||I wonder if James picked "St Clair" as his surname because it sounds kinda like "Sinclair"||

[long sorrel]

Did you notice this? am I imagining things?

Now that you took over again

[proper silo]

Ooh, no, I didn't I need to pay more attention to this stuff

[long sorrel]

It was only a few sentences but I do believe ||he has been refering to the Dark King in third person so far and then in 32 with like the dead army and the throne and such the narration is like "his own plans" on Will's PoV?||

[proper silo]

Riight, I do recall that line

Dark Heir 34 ||Indiviel with Tom is giving the same energy as that Avatar meme of "world's most racist man/his alien gf"||

||Man, poor Visander. I hope he ends up joining our team, he's really going through it||

[long sorrel]

||I don't like him much but he's funny, in like a pathetic/lame way||

[proper silo]

||honestly he's one of my favorites rn 😅 ||

[long sorrel]

I like the plotline more than the character 🤔

||i tihnk for this bit Violet's plotline is kinda meh, I mean it's fine but not very interesting||

||I guess it'll get more interesting soon||

[proper silo]

Dark Heir up until 34 ||She definitely has the most nothing to do right now||

Dark Heir 36 ||Cyprian and James have a truly uncanny talent for saying the worst possible thing to each other||

37 ||huh, sounds like i was right about the white death 🤔 ||

[proper silo]

39 ||I think Phillip is winning me over. He's such a pathetic dumbass, but with how serious everyone in this story is, he feels like a breath of fresh air||

[long sorrel]

||I remember liking him quite a bit, though not the specifics||

[proper silo]

||He's allegedly part of the whole "let's bring the Dark King" plot back but he doesn't care, he just spends his time on fashion and bumming about. He's got this "it is what it is" attitued towards the end of the world that's so blase it wraps all the way around to being funny||

[long sorrel]

||he absolutely isn't part of the story, he just "happens" to be there, which is kinda funny||

||I guess he is technically a descendant too but clearly he'd be much happier doing anything else||

[proper silo]

||Exactly. It's like being the dark king's descendant is less of a fate for him an more of an inconvenient obstacle to his life as a young gentleman||

dark heir 39 ||I'm kinda curious who his ancestor is. Like obviously we all know that Sarcean will sleep with any blonde in the Old World, but like, is it someone we know?||

||I don't think it'd be biologically possible for him to be descended from either Anharion or Visander So, like, the Lady? Or someone we don't know||

[long sorrel]

||they're all Sarcean x Lady and are in fact just inbred, except it's been millenia so I guess the inbreeding doesn't matter (this is a joke)||

[proper silo]

||I mean, inbreeding aside, it'd be a fun twist if it turned out that all of Sarcean's descendants are also Blood of the Lady||

||(puttings aside the fact that it'd mean that the Lady cheated on her husband, but that's neither here nor there)||

[long sorrel]

||but Will isn't... right!? I think the bigger twist here is that ... wait a minute||

wait I'm having too many thoughts

[long sorrel]

||pretty sure Sarcean does speak about "the night they shared" when he gets arrested, so 100% she cheated on the Sun King||

[proper silo]

||My understanding of that one chapter where Elizabeth and Visander visit that town is that Will is actually Eleanor's biological son. So he is blood of the lady, it just seems kinda overridden by his Sarceanness||

Actually, I need to check something in the first book 🤔

[long sorrel]

Second... 🤔 ||Will isn't (as far as we know) descendat of the Dark King||

||so he is the dark king and descendant of the Lady||

||BUT, why did the Dark King come back on him? Like surely there has been Lady blood spilled before him...||

||SO what if the Dark King made it so it had to be a descendant of the Lady? Basically Dark King was resurrected into an unborn baby right? Since Eleanor did know he was the Dark King when giving birth||

OR worse

[proper silo]

Dark Heir up to 39 ||okay, so i went back to check and Devon confirms that Will is not Simon's son.||

[long sorrel]

||What if the MFing Lady planned that? what if both planned that?||

[proper silo]

||Yeah like the baby Will broke the midwife's brain cause the midwife was trying to un-Sarcean it||

[long sorrel]

yeah so that's confirmed

[proper silo]

||You think the lady wanted Sarcean to be reborn in her bloodline? 🤔 ||

[long sorrel]

||So we are missing something on to why Will, did it have to be an unborn baby? or did it have to be Lady's blood unborn baby?||

[long sorrel]

I have no clue, my brain started firing in all directions

||I find it hard to believe that the conditions by which the Dark King was brought back were not met before in... millenia?||

||Or if it's a specific ritual, that no descendant tried it before Sinclair/Simon?||

||like there's one more conditional here I feel||

[long sorrel]

||I think this isn't a coincidence, nothing has been so far, but who planned that, Idk... ||

[proper silo]

Dark Heir general ||It seems like Sinclair was the one that got really into archaeology and digging up old world stuff, so even if other descendants have tried before, I imagine it was a long time ago and they were much less successful 🤔 ||

[proper silo]

||I can imagine the Lady going like "if Sarcean is reborn in my bloodline, my descendants can make sure he dies when he's still a baby instead of having to hunt him across the whole world".||

[long sorrel]

||but is the archaeology/artifacts related to how the Dark King returned? Or has the knowledge been passed down generationally? I was expecting the second because otherwise how do they know they're descendants?||

[proper silo]

||Which does raise the question of, why didn't Eleanor kill Will? She had no problems abusing him, clearly||

[long sorrel]

||I expect some sort "actually love my son" twist here but maybe it's something more interesting and she needed to keep him alive for some purpose?||

[proper silo]

||That is true, like how do they know 🤔 ||

[proper silo]

maybe 🤔

[long sorrel]

hmm ~

how fun

I had not thought about any of this before

It kinda opens a few doors

[long sorrel]

||this has to be just generetional knowledge, just like the Collar guy knew all about his ancestors and such||

[proper silo]

probably, yeah

dark heir general ||lmao, maybe the plot twist will be that Sinclair is also reborn and that's how he figured it out ||

||though i feel like we're kind of running out of characters to be reborn, i feel like if Sarcean had another important general, we'd have heard about him already||

[tight kindle]

Ahhhhhh the jealousy 😭

I don't think I'll regret having a physical copy but the fact that they won't have it for another 2-3 days is brutal

[ivory cypress]

very soon atrus!!

[tight kindle]

So soon 😩

I've waited seven months for this

[ivory cypress]

once you have it, the fact that it was a couple days later won't matter

[tight kindle]

I love how you just popped in here last July and was like
I'm so excited for this silly book

And me and Usha especially were like 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

[long sorrel]

I'm finishing my current read but I'll start tonight

Ive like 20p left

[tight kindle]

And then we repeatedly hyped each other up over a period of seven months

[small bloom]

I have acquired it as well but won’t read immediately

[long sorrel]

Yeah, id not have hyped myself on my own like this

Is gonna be really funny if it's like, really bad in a non-fun way

[ivory cypress]

so far really enjoying it!!

it's very funny

[ivory cypress]

sir cameron halfway through ||okay yeah this is one of those books where it hits everything I imagined might have happened in the book by the halfway point and there's still so much book left where I have NO idea what might be coming next. love it||

[long sorrel]

on the other hand I'm 2 pages away from finishing my current read

[ivory cypress]

for once I'm the one ahead!! muahahaha

[long sorrel]

you having fun, Grey?

[ivory cypress]

but I have raid tonight, so Usha might read it all in one swoop and overtake me

[ivory cypress]

YES

[long sorrel]

I miiiight, except I'm gaming tonight

so I don't think I'll read the full book

[ivory cypress]

the narration voice is just as delightful as it was in the preview chapter, greer manages to keep it so alive throughout all kinds of plot events and varying levels of serious and unserious events

[long sorrel]

I have read the prologue

my alert for the book just came up lol

[ivory cypress]

ha

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 1 ||the fact that Sir Cameron keeps doing on about his clothes has me like "damn yeah, he has his priorities straight"||

[oblique zodiac]

I've been stuck in this depressive whole lately, staying home all day, looking into space. I have a appointment to a hair salon today at 10, and maybe.. taking a small step forward will help.
A have the Wind in the Willows to continue

[ivory cypress]

okay I finished Sir Cameron

that was CRAZYYYYY I'm so glad there will be at least a book 2

[proper silo]

Worth a buy, then, I take it? 👀

[ivory cypress]

yes, completely worth pre-ordering, so glad I believed

that was great

[proper silo]

that's going on my to-read immediately after Dark Heir, then

[ivory cypress]

like with most great comedies, at some point I realised I was getting got emotionally too

sir cameron general ||also anyone who said in their reviews that this is the weirdest book they've ever read simply haven't read comedies and/or just don't exist on Tumblr. nothing in this would make a tumblrina blink||

||or else, everyone else on Tumblr is this same kind of weird||

[torpid lion]

I’m not going to work on them now, I want to create something brand new (I have not decided exactly which project I want to tackle).
but what if The Host sequel please 🥺 😭

[snow vessel]

...I'm realising there's a solid chance that I finish WMTD this morning

[long sorrel]

HOW ARE YOU LIKING IT

... whoops

Sorry for screaming at you

I'm not that excited about it

[snow vessel]

As i said yesterday, I've lost a lot of physical reading time but I've got a lot of audio time now

I'm having a lot of fun with it! [Wmtd vague] ||it's appropriately spooky, the characters and narration are fun, and I've found the mystery quite interesting||

I'm definitely thinking I'll pick up the sequels soon

[long sorrel]

the second one is good, the first is my fave

but I do think the 3rd one is just better written (which makes sense)

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 42 ||tf you mean he's grown taller in the weeks you've been appart? What kind of insane growth spurt did Will have?||

||Man, but it is nice to have Violet and Will talking again 😌 ||

[snow vessel]

I might pay for another audio credit for February. We'll see how I go, but if I can keep reading at this rate I might be able to aim for 3 audiobooks, especially if theyre shorter

Might try to get to the castle of otranto and merrick

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 44 ||Will sounds very... resigned. Either to dying, or to being outed as the Dark King||

||Not sure if that's because he's sure Visander will out him, or if he intends to use Dark King's staff||

[snow vessel]

54 min left on WMTD

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 44 ||Mannnn that convo between Will and James was so sad ||

||I feel like I'm about to witness a full on tragedy||

45 ||Huh. Did not expect Kettering to be a Returner||

||inasmuch as it would be lovely to see this show of support at literally any other moment, this is such a bad time for it ||

[long sorrel]

🍿

[proper silo]

That popcorn's gonna get cold, I've gotta go to sleep 😭

[long sorrel]

it's popcorn to all you've said

You've really taken me over now

I'm still on like 31

[minor sleet]

Love in the Time of Cholera final chapter

||untranslatble lover’s drama! He wants the intimacy they had before back ||

||Also the translator never mentioned before that they had been using tú and are now using usted ||

Also my own mother uses usted for me, because she claims she’s being more respectful of her beloved child that way. Even though I think it makes us sound estranged

[ripe tide]

OH MY GOD

Brilliant choice of words there

But yeah very difficult to translate

[minor sleet]

Peeking at the ending of a book you haven’t read!

[snow vessel]

Oh the last chapter of this is an authors note xD

WMTD done, then

That was a fun little read!

[wraith lynx]

QoN 21 ||I relate to Jude so hard here. I know I joked that shes 5 days younger than me but I never found myself relating to her? Its not a bad thing and shes still a really strong character! But her talking about being vulnerable and being afraid to be vulnerable in intimacy.. oof. Right in the bones 😭||

||ALSO. CARDAN BEGGING. ITS SO TASTY||

||not because I want him but because THIS is what jude has deserved the entire time and I love seeing dividens 😋||

||😳||

[quaint burrow]

Codenames, I am sold, I will read this tonight

hmmmm, do I read it in English or Arabic

[analog geode]

Both

Every other word switches

[quaint burrow]

The Arabic translation is translated from English

Thank you very much, no

wait there is a second translation

[ripe tide]

Who is the English translation by?

If it’s Gregory Rabassa then read that one

The guy is renowned for his translation of 100YoS

He knows what he’s doing

[quaint burrow]

Edith Grossman

[minor sleet]

I think she’s done the only English translation

[minor sleet]

Why would someone do this???

You should always translate from the original

[quaint burrow]

.....Dostoevesky is also like this

most of the books at least

The maddening thing... people APPLAUD the translation! I tried and it was awful, at 16!

(No I did not find the story particularly boring, I had read Les Miserables like 4 times prior to that in Arabic)

I hate the cover

(Love in the Time of Cholera)

[minor sleet]

Well that’s a choice for the cover

Arabic speakers deserve better

[quaint burrow]

the book is really famous here too

I could safely say it's the most famous Latin American book in Egypt

Much more famous than 100YS

[ripe tide]

Fascinating

[long sorrel]

My mom was reading some magic realism recently

and she was pissed off like "this isn't like Gabriel García Márquez"

and I was like you can't just expect it be like one of the best?

like what kinda bar is that?

do you want to only read better than him? good luck

[quaint burrow]

me when I had only read GRRM and then hopped on to other writers:

why aren't y'all as good!

[ripe tide]

Also there's a lot of "magical realism" that I'd argue isn't

But that's a conversation for another day

[minor sleet]

Usha’s Mom says I don’t want any more slop. Stop publishing bad books and give me books that are as good as a guy who won the Nobel Prize

[long sorrel]

sure fair, some of them aren't even the same "genre" so to speak

This sort of was? (I haven't read the book in question yet though I'm the one who bought it)

But she said it did fall within the same genre-ish but it wasn't as good

[long sorrel]

This is my mom in a nutshell

[minor sleet]

And she’s so valid for that

[long sorrel]

No she ends up being just very elitist, which makes book conversations with her really annoying

I cant talk sff with my mom

[quaint burrow]

Usha have you introduced your mom to Robin Hobb?

[minor sleet]

I can’t with my mom either. She only likes the really old stuff. If it’s not Jules Verne era she’s not interested

[long sorrel]

Oh my mom does read modern stuff

she did love Mercy of Gods for example

but she's very "if it's not deeply deep it's trash"

[minor sleet]

I found her a literary fiction Ursula K Le Guin and she didn’t like it at all ☹️

[long sorrel]

and I've told her sometimes books are just fun? they don't have to change your life or have a deeper meaning or engage you to change your views or way of thinking and she goes 😠

Then proceeds to binge the crappiest sff tv shows for fun 😭

my mom does love Le Guin

with a passion

[minor sleet]

To quote her “by the time I realized the book was about the loosely linked lives of the women in the town I was so invested in finding out more that i was disappointed that was it”

☹️

[quaint burrow]

Well, the best books do that

[analog geode]

Ok but Jules Verne is peak

[long sorrel]

Sure but that doesn't mean you gotta scoff at every book that doesnt

[quaint burrow]

true

[long sorrel]

We can argue about quality writing but I don't think everything has to be top tier to be read

[minor sleet]

I’m not saying he’s not. I’m saying that she would also like the more modern genre stuff that leans literary and she won’t try it

[long sorrel]

she's like "how can you read that it sounds stupid and childish" basically

[long sorrel]

except she'll watch any tv show that's fantasy

she's just an hypocrite, I guess she considers books to be a media that should be "more serious"

[quaint burrow]

Damn I just remembered my first book

800 pages

it's called.... In My Heart A Hebrew Girl? I'd translate it like that

[tight kindle]

Has she tried The Starless Sea? :P

[quaint burrow]

wait there is a wikipedia article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_My_Heart_A_Hebrew_Girl

Now at 20 it was very... impartial, but I don't think it was anti-semetic?

reads the synopsis

I take that back

[minor sleet]

Once again the irresistible urge for graphic designers to include a menorah in a Jewish related image so you know that Judaism is involved

You usually see it in corporate posters for holidays which are not Hannukah, the only holiday that requires a menorah

[quaint burrow]

my cover was much better

[minor sleet]

That is better

[quaint burrow]

at least not a menorah

oh it was published by Kayan, the same as Brandon's Mistborn

[long sorrel]

I've told her to read it next!

I read her a passage and she loved the prose

Time to dig into Sir Cameron (the book! Not the character)

@tight kindle there are indeed dangerous and homosexual things happening

[ivory cypress]

GOOD

yay

👀

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 3 ||It should be someone you love I thought she was going to be an ally||

[long sorrel]

||Glenda wtf||

4 ||she deserved the smack 😌 ||

||i can't wait for the interactions with the sorcerer. This conversations so far hover in between absurd and realistic in some really stupid (fun) way ||

[long sorrel]

Uhhhh

5 ||we have started with Sir Cameron defecating himself. Okay, that is an interaction||

||I assume if Merulo found out the specifics of his death he'd kill him some other way instead||

[true falcon]

Gatsby 3&4: ||nick attends the parties then goes to lunch with gatsby, Jordan baker tells the story of gatsby before she asked nick to invite Daisy to his house for gatsby to also visit his house||

[minor sleet]

Love in the Time of Cholera || https://www.tumblr.com/wronghands1/779618879438831616 ||

Wrong Hands

-# #love in the time of cholera #gabriel garcia marquez #abridged #book summary #literature #reading #books #john atkinson #wronghands #webcomic #humor #love #abridged classics

Tumblr · Apr 1, 2025, 10:15 AM

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 6 ||“It’s not their fault. It’s just how things are. And that doesn’t make me a bigot, for God’s sake.” 🤮 ||

[ivory cypress]

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeah!

[long sorrel]

Im relating too much to Sir Cameron

[ivory cypress]

interesting

[long sorrel]

8 ||“Come of your own free will, or I will make you come.”
Me: HEH that's lewd
Sir Cameron: It should be held endlessly in my favour that I did not comment on the innuendo. ||

||No but like his lame vain personality traits are defs some of my surface ones, and I'm pretty sure he likes attention whoring 😩 ||

[ivory cypress]

that's so funny

[long sorrel]

10 ||I’ll Dance to the Beat of My Own Drum (a Drum that at This Time Is Telling Me to [redacted] an Old Man).||

I'm dying over here

[ivory cypress]

SO good

[long sorrel]

11 ||“Please stop trying to seduce me.” I feel bad for the sorcerer lol||

[long sorrel]

11 ||"Ah this is what id done to Glenda" funny enough I was having a conversation with a guy recently on which he had been heavily sexualized once and was horrified by it and I was like, "welcome to some of our normal 😬 " which I didn't say because one thing doesn't invalidate the other but damn, it was something so completely normal to me (which is also bad). ||

11 ||I thought that might have helped him learn something but he's immediatelt back to harassing the sorcerer lol||

Hmmmm

Sir Cameron 13 ||The old world before the Descent sounds just like it's likely our real world-ish||

14 ||Oh I was right, elves were influencers, what ||

[ivory cypress]

man i want to reread already

[long sorrel]

19 ||I'm reading a book about a man who has never heard about periods having a period okay... okay ||

[tight kindle]

C'monnnnnnn
Deliver faster 😭

[long sorrel]

I'm stopping for today

[quaint burrow]

The Six Deaths of the Saint ||The Prince is evil is he not?||

||And the Saint is the Devil?||

yup

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 45 ||Man, Visander must've really booked it from where he killed Prescott to arrive at Undahar at the worst possible moment ||

I feel like I need to pause and finish the rest of the book at home cause I can't imagine stopping after this point

[quaint burrow]

very good short story

[potent linden]

wait what lol

[ivory cypress]

Apparently Sir Cameron Needs to Die! and... it makes sense in context

[potent linden]

I did see the book name, but I'm curious about the context

[ivory cypress]

spoilers for sir cameron chapter 19 ||he gets transformed into having a woman's body with a functioning uterus, and eventually having a functioning uterus surprises him!||

[proper silo]

Alright, I lied, I feel compelled to get keep reading

Dark Heir 45 ||Will, bruh, I get you're in a lot of a situation right now but running off just when Elizabeth outed you as Sarcean is a bad move||

46 ||Elizabeth screaming random nonsense to activate her power is hilarious though||

||Cyprian NO ||

47 ||omg a James POV finally||

Reading these final Dark Heir chapters be like

[long sorrel]

I could continue reacting...

[wise haven]

Do yall set reading goals for the year?

[low hill]

Nope.

[snow vessel]

I do

Do I stick to them? Sometimes

[low hill]

I have a nominal "At least as many as last year", but I'm also fairly consistent in my consumption, so that's generally just how many I read a year.

[snow vessel]

I have a book count goal and some series I want to read

[analog geode]

Nah

[wise haven]

do y'all use StoryGraph at all?

[analog geode]

I do

[wise haven]

I set a reading goal every year, but I dont actually care if I reach it or not

just a fun challenge

[low hill]

Nope, LibraryThing.

[analog geode]

This is my first year using it

[wise haven]

I love storygraph and I appreciate that they keep working to make it better too

[analog geode]

There’s definitely things I don’t like about it

[wise haven]

I like spying in on my friends and what they're reading

yes, it's a bit clunky still

[analog geode]

Like if you don’t track pages, it counts the entire book as read on one day

Makes my pages read chart look insane

[wise haven]

I think that only impacts the "daily pages" chart, but not the average time to finish a book

mine looks similar lmfao

I do like it for the monthly wrap-ups, to see what my friends are reading, buddy reads, and for keeping track of what I've read over the years

I like that theres different options and formats for the wrap ups too

[wise haven]

did you have a favorite?

[analog geode]

Hmmmm

Probably Memory by Lois Bujold

But Emily Wilde and The Tainted Cup are up there

[wise haven]

sighs

always adding to my tbr

[snow vessel]

I think I might pick up the Castle of Otranto as my second February audiobook

[wise haven]

ooh, let me know how it is

I love a good gothic

[analog geode]

Memory is military scifi, Emily Wilde is fae fantasy, and The Tainted Cup is a biopunk detective story

[wise haven]

ooh

I knew about Emily Wilde and the Tainted Cup already (and own them)

lol

Excited to read them

[analog geode]

They are amazing

[wise haven]

I have the toxic trait of buying 10 books, reading 5, and then buying 10 more books

Me, my best friends, and my gf all worked at Barnes and got a 50% off discount. Hard to not buy too many 💀

[analog geode]

So jealous

[wise haven]

they pay horribly, dont be too jealous

[low hill]

No such thing as too many books.

[wise haven]

I have over 1300 💀

and since I get rid of books I dont like, most are unread

💀

[low hill]

I stand by what I said.

[wise haven]

I agree lol

I know there's those people that hate overconsumption and all that ✋ I still go to the library, get ebooks, and thrift stores too. and I donate the books I can

If anyone reads graphic novels here, what's your favorite?

[snow vessel]

Will do 🫡

[snow vessel]

I've been reading some comics lately, if they count. Mainly DC stuff

[wise haven]

top 3 characters?

[snow vessel]

Oh man I know people are gonna have opinions no matter what my take is xD

[wise haven]

😂

the only comics I read rn are Miles Morales

not a huge DC fan yet because I have the worst vision ever and genuinely can't see what's happening in the movies most of the time 💀

[snow vessel]

I think the three I've read the most from are Superman, supergirl, and green lantern (Hal jordan)
-# I'm sure everyone's favourites are great and I'm sure I'd love them if I read more of their books, put the knives away folks

[snow vessel]

I can't lie I've only watched like three of the pre-Gunn dc movies

[velvet umbra]

Finished TCP earlier this week, Im sorry for doubting y’all it was in fact that good

[long sorrel]

||that coronation scene ||

[minor sleet]

DC KO: Wonder Woman v Red Sonja

Never has anything been more targeted for me

[oblique zodiac]

Dang it's already the 5th. I better get a move on!

[lusty meteor]

Do you have a drip feed of every wonder woman panel published right into your veins

Also i really need to catch up on absolute wonder woman

I caught up on absolute martian manhunter

[minor sleet]

Yeah it’s called r/WonderWoman

[lusty meteor]

What an incredible book

[minor sleet]

Also Red Sonja is one of my beloved semi obscure characters

My (bright red) car is named Red Sonja

[lusty meteor]

Also what the bikini armor

[minor sleet]

Red Sonja has always looked like that

[lusty meteor]

Comics are so goofy

[minor sleet]

She’s a Conan character

[lusty meteor]

Are you caught up on absolute wonder woman

[minor sleet]

Only via out of context panels

I’m waiting for Volume 2 to come out next week

[long sorrel]

@proper silo look what i found

[proper silo]

oh no

[long sorrel]

Lol

[proper silo]

except for Heaven Official's Blessing, that one's good

(Guardian was such a weird reading experience cause it's like two volumes of good and then the third book falls off the stairs and hits its head on the way own )

[minor sleet]

Thats why i didn’t finish it

[ivory cypress]

I should go to the bookstore and get a physical copy of Sir Cameron

it's a smaller store so they might not have gotten copies...

oh my god not only do they have it, the author is flagged as Canadian

I forgot we were doing that

that rules

I knew they were Canadian, but the store marking them. clearly I should be reading more Canadians

I just had to go check another author I knew ☺️

[wraith lynx]

QoN 24 ||I feel bad that I dont really care for the Vivi sideplot. Heather deserves so much better, and this is coming from someone who still likes Viv. Idk, the whole "glamouring your gf" thing really soured me tbh||

||my solution wouldn't be to "work it out" it would be to get both of them new gfs 😭||

[warm leaf]

Guys, I have a question. My brothers don't usually read; one hates it, but another loves reading manga. He's read and watched more than I have.
I feel that if he started reading Sanderson's books he might like them and get into fantasy, but I'm not sure how to introduce him to it.

[true falcon]

I haven’t read Sanderson but heard mistborn or way of kings works

[minor sleet]

Are they opposed to kid’s books?

If not, try Alcatraz

It’s not cosmere but it’s very funny and as juvenile fiction it’s easy to read

[warm leaf]

Hmm, well, they're not that young anymore, one is 18 and the other will turn 18 this year

[minor sleet]

Yeah ok maybe not. Thats the age where getting a kid’s book would be insulting

[warm leaf]

Even though someone who "hates" books quite likes Percy Jackson... the movies

[minor sleet]

No not the movies

[warm leaf]

he really likes alexandra dadario

[minor sleet]

This is actually a rare case where Frugal Wizard might be a good pick. Pitch it to the brother as an isekai light novel but the main character also has memory issues

[true falcon]

Make him read something outside of Sanderson first then try to reel him in

[warm leaf]

Believe it or not, he's very demanding in that regard; he really hates dark romance, and he has quite discerning tastes

Mmm, I've watched One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, Jojos, Dragon Ball, and the first seasons of My Hero Academia with him

Oh, and he liked Attack on Titan.

[true falcon]

Maybe get him that yumi and the nightmare painter for him or smth

I wanna get that book as well

[warm leaf]

If he seen has these anime, and read them too, how do you think I could recommend them to him?

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 47 ||mannn... James thinking about how Will made him feel like a person again is ||

||Oh gods, the scene of Sloane/Sinclair stalking after James to put the collar on him is genuinely horrific ||

||Huh. So it was what I predicted (James would get Collared before the story was over), but also not what I predicted? (the Collar only puts him under Sarcean's control, not anyone's) Which, there has to be catch here. Like otherwise, well, he's under Will's control, boo hoo, he was already doing whatever Will wanted. So there has to be some caveat to it, or else his whole fear of the Collar was completely pointless from narrative standpoint 🤔 ||

48 ||nice, confirmation that "Sandy" is Visander ||

49 ||Cyprian NO ||

[hollow hedge]

just saw that GRRM just sold his 100 millionth ASOIAF book, not long after Sanderson sold his 50 millionth, I get that Brandon has written move books by volume but it really kinda illustrates how the gap has shrunk, and without adaptations yet, that's pretty impressive

[proper silo]

Dark Heir 50 ||Visander has a truly magical talent for making any situation he's in significantly worse just by opening his mouth||

||Truly a gift||

||"Later, she’d remember that Will had been the only one talking about stopping the army," I hope this is the indicator that she'll be the first to befriend him back in book 3||

51 ||On one hand, James strolling in and rescuing Will is real cool and sexy... On the other hand, Will being comforted by James being at his side while unaware that James is collared and has no choice but to be on his side is depressing af ||

THAT'S HOW THE BOOK ENDS???

@long sorrel I finished Dark Heir and THAT'S HOW IT ENDS?

This is what the people have been left with for more than two years???!

okay, book thoughts: ||Once more, I'm left with the feeling that it's a little too dark and gloomy of an ending. Like at this point the chihuahua has started a zombie apocalypse (he's lost the first name priviledges for this stunt), and without the brand, neither Will nor Sinclair have the ability to control or stop it. So like, what are we doing here. Is book 3 gonna start with the gang (two gangs, now that the party's split in two) going on a merry corpse-burning adventure across Italy?||

||The aftermath of James getting Collared is appropriately horrific now; in James's chapter it felt like he still had free will, but going by that final chapter, it seems he has none at all. At least he should have answers now that he remembers all of his past as Anharion. Still, I assume my prediction about the third book having a plotline about looking for a way to free James from the Collar was entirely correct||

||The biggest question I'm left with is, who's Sinclair? Like, I find it a little hard to believe that he's just some rando descendant of Sarcean. To throw out a theory - what if he's the Sun King, either Reborn or Returned? I don't believe we ever learned his fate (in fact, the Stewards openly say that he disappeared), and Visander shows that the old Light forces have absolutely no qualms about using the same methods Sarcean did. And I feel like it'd be poetic, the Dark King reborn in the Lady's lineage versus the Sun King reborn in Sarcean's lineage.||

...i have so many book thoughts, but i should probably stop for now

[warm leaf]

I bet it would be better sellers if he had finished writing the saga

I bought the first book in 2020, the second I bought in 2025, to see if it made any progress

[hollow hedge]

7 books would be more than 5 🗒️

[warm leaf]

I also take into account that many people have not wanted to read that saga because it is not over yet, that distances a good part of the people unfortunately

I wonder how much Sanderson's sale will increase with adaptations

[hollow hedge]

I don't think people really took it as a certainty that George was never gonna finish until the past 3-5 years, so I don't know if it really made that much of a difference? The show is there for people who just need an ending

but like, the first three books were iconic, and they're a complete story arc even if there are clearly some loose ends

[warm leaf]

I didn't know that, maybe I only buy up to the third book

[hollow hedge]

best comparison I could offer is that it'd be kinda like reading only the first five Stormlight books

it's certainly not perfectly satisfying, you'd want more, but also it's the end of an arc

[warm leaf]

Hmm, well, although it's not that people care much if a story is finished or not

One Piece is there, in the top 20 of the most profitable franchises in the world

And Dragon Ball is also one place higher, despite the fact that its author passed away

[hollow hedge]

it did, but Dragon Ball was basically finished as its creator intended until they decided to bring it back, it already has a few endings

they basically just go back into time jumps and fill in some gaps now

One Piece is actively ongoing but is theoretically intended to end within the next few years, last I heard?

[warm leaf]

In theory? I guess
A better example is that the most profitable franchises are the ones that can go on and on forever is that number 1 is pokemon

In books, I think the highest in 9th place is Harry Potter

Lotr doesn't even show up

😔

[hollow hedge]

oh yeah, I don't mean to say that franchises need endings, necessarily, and every franchise is different besides

[wraith lynx]

QoN 26 ||What a culmination for Jude here. Book 1 she would have went with the bridle (which. I didnt know what that was and I am so saddened that those Teeth people put that on a child) every day of the week. But she let herself love, and realized that there isnt any love in complete control. ||

||because in the beginning I was like "Jude deserves better" without realizing that she could have been better too||

[snow vessel]

...ok does anyone know why libro doesn't let me use credits for certain audiobooks

It says its "publisher restrictions" but that doesn't tell me much

[unique turret]

Can you buy the audiobook from them at all? I know you can’t get Star Wars books from them because Disney does not allow DRM free files

[snow vessel]

Yeah, it seems like I can get it if I pay money

I just can't purchase it with the monthly membership credit

[unique turret]

Hmm… weird. Mind sharing what book it is?

[long sorrel]

I told you

[wraith lynx]

An QoN done!

What a good time, man

[snow vessel]

Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

I think I had a similar issue when I was looking at Picture of Dorian Grey?

Yeah, that one's the same. So I suppose it could be something about classics?

[unique turret]

Which Narrator?

[long sorrel]

You see why i rememberv the end so vividly lol

[proper silo]

Yes, I very much do see that

[snow vessel]

Tony Jay

[snow vessel]

And the whole trilogy!

[long sorrel]

I said you'd suffer

[proper silo]

Dark Heir all ||Poor Will. Poor James ||

||Poor nation of Italy!||

[unique turret]

To be fair, the cost of the book is less than the cost of a credit, so you’re better off buying the book lol

[snow vessel]

They said they've tried to make it as cheap as possible to compensate, lol

[long sorrel]

Dark Heir all ||you predicted the collar just not how horrific it is lol. And I relished on it every time||

[unique turret]

Yeah, not sure what restrictive licensing could mean, but I assume it means some sort of DRM

[proper silo]

Yeah i definitely underestimated how bad that would be

[wraith lynx]

Yep! I really really loved it! QoN is my favorite by far 🥰

[long sorrel]

I am horrible person and was internally going like "hehehehe" every time

https://tenor.com/view/hehe-raccoon-ornery-gif-10625001

That was me

I bet this makes sense now

[snow vessel]

I think TWK is my favourite, but its also the only one I've reread so maybe that'll change eventually

[long sorrel]

QoN was handsdown my least fav

Like, I enjoyed it

But it doesn't come close

[snow vessel]

was it not toxic enough for you

[long sorrel]

QoN ||a lot of the plot of the serpent was like "... well, k"||

[long sorrel]

This would have made it better yes

[snow vessel]

QoN ||its funny, the whole book was such a different plot to what I expected xD||

[wraith lynx]

||Fr! Like the blurb tells you nothing and I like that honestly 😂||

[long sorrel]

|| also i think TCP and TWK managed to surprise me in a few places, I found a lot of QoN terribly predictable 😔 ||

[wraith lynx]

QoN ||But the biggest reason its my favorite is the PAYOFF. No one is petty anymore because all the petty people are either dead or punished and its so satisfying 😭💕||

[long sorrel]

Hmmm

[long sorrel]

||No, Cardan and Jude are alive lol||

Now you can read the sequel which has nothing to do with it

[snow vessel]

||I remember really going in expecting like war between Maddock (god im forgetting how to spell his name), Cardan and Jude. And then expecting something else when that changed. And then something else. And then boom, serpent||

[snow vessel]

...glances at them sitting untouched on my shelf since like mid-late last year

Maybe if Cosmic reads them I'll finally start them

[ivory cypress]

i looked up reviews/synopses of the sequel series and decided i wasn't gonna be interested

[proper silo]

Yeah Yeah it does

[long sorrel]

I don't think it's your thing tbh, not that id ever know for sure

But it's a lot more standard YA and doesn't excel in a lot of the specific things that TCP does

Though it is fun

[ivory cypress]

it didn't sound interesting

[long sorrel]

Mhm, fair

[ivory cypress]

particularly not fresh off the trilogy and looking for more of the same

[long sorrel]

Oh yeah

I left like half a year in between cause I didn't want to read them consecutively

[wraith lynx]

What are the sequels about?? 👀

[snow vessel]

Starting The Castle of Otranto now

[long sorrel]

Folk of the Air all/Stolen Heir premise ||adult Oak and the girl they had the bridle on go on an adventure||

A lot more things happen but spoilers

[wraith lynx]

Ohhhh I see

I figured

[long sorrel]

Its 8 y after

[snow vessel]

TCoO ch1 ||ok I'm like, 6 minutes in, and an enormous, massive helmet fell out of the sky and killed someone||

[long sorrel]

Well, no path 3 for me tonight but I'm going back to Sir Cameron in 5 min

Given I've 2 entire h of metro tomorrow I'll probably finish then

Grey, I had a date today and I ranted to my date about Sir Cameron ill have you know

He was quite rather interested

So i kept ranting

[ivory cypress]

omg

nice

[true falcon]

Just finished gatsby

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 24 ||he's "dead"!||

||actually I don't think he's dead but I do think this will fulfill the prophecy enough||

||Merulo is a dragon or at least part dragon??? ||

30 ||The mad sorcerer used all his magic and turned the entire world back in time to save Sir Cameron! This is real romantic, someone should learn a tip or two.||

||you may fascinate a silly knight by turning time back for the entire world 😌 ||

||If you resort to hacking, I will . . . vomit on you.” “If that’s the best threat you can manage, then I fear for our intimate life.” lol||

[snow vessel]

Such a pretty cover, wow

[frozen glacier]

Both covers are fire

[long sorrel]

Huuuh

pitched for fans of THE STARLESS SEA and NINTH HOUSE.

Colour me curious

[low hill]

I think this the YouTuber that Cheyenne has sent me videos about the querying process from before. She documented her journey to publicatin as it was going on.

[long sorrel]

Ah, I see

[snow vessel]

That sounds likely

[low hill]

Ninth House has moved up my list, given I'm likely going to be playing in an RPG loosely based off it soon.

[long sorrel]

Ah, I see. It's on my list but it's not very high on it

[snow vessel]

I've heard of it but not anything more than the title

[long sorrel]

Mothsblood sounded interesting enough on its own without this bit

So it's been added to the tbr

[ripe tide]

I love Lynn’s videos and I am so excited for this.

[ripe tide]

Correct.

[snow vessel]

Its soo cool to see it finally get a cover reveal

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 34 ||hmm, he's so good at reading Merulo, it makes me wonder if Sir Cameron's way of not reading everyone else very well is just his personality/coping rather than inability?||

||tbh Merulo is quite obvious and obviously he cares more about him but still||

[random dome]

Oh I'm LATE but you finished!!! Yesssss

Books good 😤

[wraith lynx]

Yes all of it was so tasty, im glad I finally finished!

[soft inlet]

Arc of a Scythe book 3 || that ending was... kinda unsatisfying. Yeah, the scythedom was fixed, and Goddard is death, but... the best part of the ending for me was the "great fork". I love the tonists (non-crazy ones). A flat or G sharp🤣 ||

[long sorrel]

Idk which ch of Sir Cameron ||someone's blaming Sir Cameron for deceiving him as a woman and the half dragon is like "why is that deceipt?" I love this book||

It is so casually weaving absurdity with very real things

[ivory cypress]

sir cameron whenever ||real trans ally hours 😤 ||

[long sorrel]

Yeaaaah

||I like the witch 🥰 ||

I got distracted and didn't read as much but I'm like 2/3 in 👀

Pretty sure I'll be done today

[ivory cypress]

just finished Because Internet - what a great read! would recommend to anyone even remotely interested in Internet culture and language

[brazen pilot]

i've been meaning to

[ivory cypress]

it was very thoughtful, and there was a complete disinterest in being in any way denigrating to any generation or population within the Internet

[brazen pilot]

i'm hoping to get through more nonfiction books this year and that one is definitely on my shortlist

speaking of, i just finished reading The Score by Thi Nguyen and it was like, worldview-defining for me

[ivory cypress]

ooh...! put a hold on that one

should be arriving in uh half a year

[brazen pilot]

it's building off of the author's previous work doing philosophical analysis of games as a medium, and extending that to study society in general, how the use of quantified metrics creates an impression of objectivity while subconsciously causing us to fixate on the kind of thing that can be measured through numbers

[true falcon]

Now I’m reading a bit of Winnie the Pooh

[ripe tide]

I remember liking it when I read it years ago

[true falcon]

Finished chapter 1

[true falcon]

Now I finished chapter 2

[long sorrel]

time to organize my tablet before going on holidays

[true falcon]

What’s the vacation you going to

[long sorrel]

Not sure what you're asking there

[oblique zodiac]

what are you planning for the holidays?

[long sorrel]

Touristing

[true falcon]

Yeah in America it’s a vacation so I was asking that

[long sorrel]

I don't have a full plan yet, so I'm going to walk around, be a tourist and then wing it

[true falcon]

That’s nice

[long sorrel]

Yup! It also means I'll be reading a lot

though likely less than usual

But I don't wanna have to get books while away

[true falcon]

That’s the fun thing about a trip. It’ll get to you

[ivory cypress]

just finished DCC! ............ just bought the second one!

and my physical purchases

[long sorrel]

MONSTRESS

I still haven't read 8!

[ivory cypress]

monstressssssssssssss

[tight kindle]

If the bookstore doesn't have my copy of Sir Cameron by tomorrow imma be sad

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 43 ||Glenda's getting hot for Domitia? 👀 ||

||Domitia is the definition of "I can fix her" but Glenda has so much that needs fixing lol||

||“I could easily be your mother.” A full-body shiver ran through the elf, like a static shock. Now, why had that done something to her? hahaha... Okay Glenda you got a few points||

[ivory cypress]

sir cameron 43 ||a milf could fix her....||

[long sorrel]

45 ||We really were a matched set of freaks. yes you ARE||

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 47 ||I was hanging by my ankles, buck naked, when the voice came. It seemed to emanate from a bubble holding a woman’s projected face, which bobbed before us.
Merulo leaned back. “No, this is as good a time as any.” ||

48 ||Glenda, I don't think you get to call people "inverts" 😩 (Minus the bit where Cameron was hanging from his ankles so I guess he was actually literally inverted)||

49 ||Oh my god they're doing the spell, okay, I don't know where this is going but I'm mildly worried||

[merry galleon]

659 pages on Seeker’s Bane!

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 51 ||Cameron... Why tf are you taking time to appreciate the hairlessness of your lover's severed leg???||

[long sorrel]

53 ||"For a while, she’d excused away every stinging remark that left Glenda’s lips. She’s been educated differently, Domitia told herself. She doesn’t know. She just needs gentle argument, and a slow introduction to new ideas." Aw, sweetie, we've all been there 😔 ||

||oooooh, I feel I should have seen this coming||

[snow vessel]

Its kind of funny encountering someone who uses a different rating system to you

I was looking at something online where someone was talking about how they loved a book, read it in one day, so good, and then gave it... 3.75 stars, I think?

[low hill]

Out of 5?

[snow vessel]

Yea

[long sorrel]

What do you use? Or is it the amount of decimals?

[snow vessel]

Oh, just that I expected it to be higher from how they talked about it

[long sorrel]

Oh, gotcha

[low hill]

Ahh.

[snow vessel]

I tend to be maybe a bit generous/positive with my ratings, so its kind of rare for me to put something below 4 stars. So seeing someone rate a book they really enjoyed in the 3 zone was like, huh, forgot people do that

[long sorrel]

OH MY GOD Sir Cameron 56 ||Someone just wanted to live in their videogame didn't they? That's it? Freaking hell ||

[long sorrel]

Right you said system so I expected you meant the actual rating system and not the way they use it

[snow vessel]

[long sorrel]

3 is my "averagely enjoyed this book, I had fun/got something out of reading it"

[snow vessel]

I think thats sort of my 4

Its hard to put into words but 4 is sort of my... that was a solid book i enjoyed and would read again, 3 is where i sorta put books that were fine but i didnt feel strongly either way for

[long sorrel]

I think I gave Evocation a 4 because I don't have half/quarter stars. But it's not a 4, it's more of a 3.5 or 3.6 for me.

To give you something to go by

Ascension I did put firmly on a 4 though

I don't have "would read again" books, in general though

[snow vessel]

See, I think for me Evocation was more of a 4-4.5, and ascension a 5

[long sorrel]

Or like, I've reread Elantris cause I wanted to reabsorb the details but I don't even think the book is good, for example, so my rereading is very... Conditional or whimsy

[snow vessel]

Huh maybe this is why I have 6 star ratings sometimes

[long sorrel]

Haha, sounds like

Sounds like your 3 is a 50%

[low hill]

I don't rate things, but if I did I can't imagine rating very many things at 5, so 4 has to be my "I quite enjoyed this" rank and therefore 3 is my "This was alright", and 2 "Well, I read it", and 1 "Everything else?".

[snow vessel]

yeah, thats how I treat it

[long sorrel]

I don't give many books a 5, in the same I assume you don't give many books a 6

[snow vessel]

3 is a 50%, perfectly fine with nothing either way. 4 has enough good in it to push it more positive for me, 5 is solidly very positive (maybe like your 75+%?). And then 6 stars are my handful of super special books I really really love

[long sorrel]

So you're rating over 6

And saying you rate over 5

[low hill]

makes a note to just mentally subtract one from all of endnight's star ratings

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron 56 ||Yep, yep "“What you’ve just said,” the captain said slowly, “is so stupid that it makes me want to throw up in my own mouth." My god, imagine some kid getting their wish granted to live in LoL or something dumb like that If it wasn't because they say it's been millennia and that supposedly Merulo was AI, I'd think it was him.||

[snow vessel]

I specifically rate out of 5 and have 6 stars outside the scale, it just helps my brain work

I suppose I treat it as like... D-A tiers with S as an extra special slot

I added 6 stars to my system because I found I had quite a lot of 5 stars, and within that space I had a lot of variety in how I felt about the books (some were just really really solid, while some were like... obsession/fixation top 3 reads ever sort of books) and I wanted a better way to distinguish the really really top tier special books

I think in my head its like... a six star isn't just "perfect", it has something special beyond that
-# obviously with perfect being subjective and hyperbolic and etc.

[long sorrel]

I'll check how many 5* I got 🤔

First I must finish this book though

[snow vessel]

5 is "this did everything right", 6 is "this changed me", I suppose

[long sorrel]

I feel my 5* are either really special, or they're special and well written.

But like, I'll give 4* to something I love but was not really well written

[snow vessel]

Unironically it does sound like subtracting one from my ranking would be a pretty solid way to line them up with yours

[merry galleon]

I try to focus on the positives, and I too rarely give 3 stars unless there is a reason (like it was difficult for me to follow or comprehend). But if someone says, “I enjoyed this book!” But give it 3 stars - provide the context of why it is in the 3 star zone

[low hill]

My 5s would be something like Erin Morgenstern.
-# No, that's it. Not like her, just her...

[long sorrel]

Right, she does have my 5*

She's just not the only one

I think Schwab has at least one

Sir Cameron End || "A . . . video game?” The sorcerer sounded faint." Pft hahahaha||

[snow vessel]

I dont know if I have any consistent 5*(six star, I suppose) authors

Though TBF I have some authors who I've given six stars to who have other books that I just haven't read yet

[low hill]

To be fair, Erin has published two books, so it's not hard for her to consistently be good. :P

[snow vessel]

I imagine Schwab and Donna Tartt could both become consistent favourites for me

Sanderson... sort of is. I have complicated feelings about Brandon

[long sorrel]

Well Schwab has too many books to be a consistent 5*

so yeah, Morgernstern is easier in that regard, well "easier" she didn't have to make 2 masterpieces but she did

[snow vessel]

I suppose, yeah

[long sorrel]

@ivory cypress I finisheeeed. Sir Cameron all ||Not Merulo turning Sir Cameron on by telling him how he almost killed him ||

[snow vessel]

Fewer books makes it easier for thme to be consistent

[long sorrel]

Okay, I really enjoyed the book however I don't generally love comedy and that shows for me. That said it is exactly what I was expecting, (I was expecting the comedy to tire me out a bit in places and it did). But the writing and narrative devices and just about everything was great. And I love every character.

Sir Cameron all ||okay, maybe I don't love Glenda 😒 too much of a textbook biggot||

from my current rated books on calibre, end

[snow vessel]

Iiiinteresting

[long sorrel]

Oh, I have a bunch of Kingfisher on the 5*

to no one's surprise I have both Mercy of Gods and Livesuit

and some of the Expanse, but not all

[snow vessel]

I dont really have a reliable way to check how many books Ive rated what

My storygraph has that information but it also has ratings from quite a while ago that I dont stand by anymore

[long sorrel]

Oh, I did give Ascension 5*

[snow vessel]

ok this is quite funny

[long sorrel]

so the summary is, Kingfisher, Schwab, Morgenstern, Katherine Addison, a few of Brandon (yes literally just like 4), some Kate Elliot, some RJB, Sherwood Smith (Inda), some of SA Corey, Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde), P. Djèlí Clark (For Dead Djinn) and then there's a few very random things.

from those the only one with all books at 5* would be Morgenstern

in my 1*

I have Sanderson on every potential rating

[snow vessel]

Ok so a lot of my 5* books are just like. My favourite series lol

[long sorrel]

hmm, sometimes I just pick like a couple of books frmo a favourite series

like for Expanse I have 4, 7, 8 and of course Strange Dogs

I might have The Churn in there too

[snow vessel]

Not all of the entries in my favourite series got 5*s, but listing the common authors/series in my 5 star reads kind of produces a list of my favourite series, yknow?

[long sorrel]

yeah

[snow vessel]

Because I've read more of them and liked more of them

Even if not all

[long sorrel]

I mean that makes sense

just like all my kingfisher books

I've all of these on 5*

[snow vessel]

I have a lot of Brandon books on 5*, I'd be interested to see if that changes on reread

[long sorrel]

I have Tress, and IotE, TFE, WoR, SoS

[snow vessel]

(keep in mind I then have a much smaller selection of 6* above)

[long sorrel]

and SH

Oh I ought to finally read Tailored Realities.

It's on my tablet so i guess that can be the plane read

[snow vessel]

I think my 6* Sandersons are WOK, TFE, Yumi, Tress... and probably one I'm forgetting

[long sorrel]

mhm, TFE I put there with a lot of reluctance, but it's there

[snow vessel]

TFE probably gets a lot of bias from me for being my first Brandon and the book that relaunched my reading phase

[long sorrel]

same, well I did read Elantris first but...

y'know

TFE is like one of the best plotted books ever with one of the most mediocre writings ever 😬

And I really dislike WoA which, I'm not allowing to retroactively affect my opinion of TFE but it was a disappointment for sure

[snow vessel]

I'm overall fond of MBe1 (though I did find I had more gripes with HOA than I expected when I reread it)

[long sorrel]

That said cosmere all ||Never has Sanderson made me feel the despair I felt in TFE when they feel Rashek coming from streets away by his soothing power 😭 and I wish he did, now everything is super high stakes but I'm feeling something like "kay then"||

So this gives TFE like extra points

[snow vessel]

Cosmere all ||that scene is like, top 10 scenes in general for me, so I get it, totally. Its burned into my brain||

[long sorrel]

I have many gripes with it. On my first read I almost put it down a few times, it was better on a reread because I sure as hell skimmed over a lot of very repetitive stuff.

But I'm still very fond of TFE and over the general setting/plotting of Era 1

Just a lot of the execution makes me feel it doesn't deserve the 5* but I let myself give 5* to stuff that just brought me next level enjoyment anyhow

Like, I do have both Villains books there

and I don't think they're that good. Compared to just about everything else Schwab has written

buuuuut

[snow vessel]

I gotta get to them

I have such a list of books I want to get to this year already

[long sorrel]

yeaaah

[snow vessel]

If I'm good this will be a fun year for you, I'm sure. Got Villains & Mercy of Gods & Kingfisher on my list

I sort of went into 2026 with a handful of books that had been on my TBR for a while that I want to get to, but I'm quickly finding that like... just having a plan doesnt increase my reading speed/decrease the growth of my tbr

[long sorrel]

Indeed

I started 2025 with a 200 book tbr

my tbr is now 295

and I read 220 books

And the worst part is that I don't think i read more than 20 books from the tbr

[snow vessel]

Ive also just been really slow at reading lately I think

[long sorrel]

you did say you had less time iirc

[snow vessel]

My TBR for '26 is like... maybe 50 or so right now? But I usually hit around 30 books in a year, so we'll see

Yeahhh some of my routines got thrown off a bit and I'm just now adjusting

I lost a lot of usual reading time at the same time I picked up a book that (I found) had a slow start, so that brought me down to like... 10 pages a day max for a while

But we're back on track now

[long sorrel]

nice, I'm still working through lowering the amount of books I've started but not finished...

[snow vessel]

Aaaagh you just reminded me that I've been procrastinating PL hard

[long sorrel]

PL?

[snow vessel]

Paradise lost

[long sorrel]

aah

[snow vessel]

I found a year-long readalong online but I've fallen really behind

The idea was to read one "book" of it per month, but I was late to start book 1 and then kept procrastinating picking it up again aaaand now we're into february

[long sorrel]

aaah

well you still got time to catch up

[snow vessel]

Yeah, I think Ill change how I'm approaching it

I was trying to do some like ~200 lines per week but I'm really bad at weekly stuff, so I think I'll read the full "book" at the start of each month in one go

[long sorrel]

Sir Cameron all (this is kinda early in the book if people are curious)

[snow vessel]

Mmmmm maybe I'll pick up Sir Cameron sometime

Probably like... may, knowing me

...lol, for all my talk of wanting to read more I do plan to read a malazan book next so, that'll probably take up my feb

[long sorrel]

I'd like to finish the book I'm reading physically before I go but I think it's very unlikely

[snow vessel]

What's your physical?

[long sorrel]

This one

It's... really weird

[snow vessel]

Huhhh interesting

[long sorrel]

The character is just pure fluid on every sense

And while that's very interesting following the writing when her/his/their name changes once every two lines was making me dizzy

like each identity that pops up and unpops up changes from physically to part of their personality traits, gender, sexuality, etc

[snow vessel]

Oh wow

[long sorrel]

Sometimes they can force themself to be a specific personality to deal with a specific situation

[snow vessel]

Oooh

[long sorrel]

like "okay charlie won't be afraid of this so now I'll be charlie" kinda thing

(The MC is a spy, and they're alone in being able to change in this way, no one else can)

But they're not multiple personalities

it's one, that's very fluid

Again, really cool, just really hard to follow at first

[snow vessel]

Huhhhh interesting

[long sorrel]

the book is sci fi and has people that can rename themselves or others to be/think different

[snow vessel]

Do you know if theres an english version out?

[long sorrel]

there isn't, Ene already asked 😔

Anyway, since renaming consists on changing an aspect of your identity... the MC cannot be renamed because they have no fixed identity

And then they go on a spy mission, that's about the premise/plot

I'm past halfway now

[snow vessel]

How is it? Good?

[long sorrel]

Yeah so far the plot is very interesting

And it touches a lot on acceptance too

Cause like, they have partners that are like "ok but could you have this type of identity more" which is the extreme case of not accepting someone being, let's say, male and female either at once or fluidly

[potent linden]

man this book sounds so interesting 😭

[long sorrel]

I had never considered fluidity from this angle, it has made me do a little retroinspect about my indentity, or lack of it

lol

[ivory cypress]

sir cameronnnnnm woo 🎉

also I've been trying quite hard to recalibrate my sense of ratings

so 3 stars can easily be a "good!" "I liked this!" kind of book

[junior dew]

Yeah I’ve been trying to do the same

[long sorrel]

My issue was that otherwise everything I enjoyed was a 4

And then that really limits the upper limit

[low hill]

I think "I enjoyed it" is the minimum required to give it a rating, really. Otherwise I wouldn't finish it and it's therefore 0.

[junior dew]

Yeah my current thinking on my shift was that I move to something like:
3: Decent/Average. It was fine
3.5: Slightly above average
4: Really liked it. Would recommend it
4.5: Loved it
5: All-timer. One of my new favorites

Since most reads prior to this shift ended up in the 4-5 range, with an overloaded 5 that really required a 6 for those that are a cut above the rest

[low hill]

That's a 1-5 scale right there. :P

[junior dew]

Yeah but there’s room for stuff that’s bad

I am not good about DNF’ing books

That whole “maybe it comes together in the end” mindset

And also like 1 and 2 give the vibe of “this is trash” I think for myself and many others

So if for example Licanius was shifted from a 3 down to a 1, that feels disingenuous

[long sorrel]

I think there are books wheree you're like "that was a book" that you'd finish

(I've seen you say this before about books)

that's a 2* for me

this is why I barely have 1*

[junior dew]

Yeah I think Percy Jackson had some books I’d put in the 1 and 2 star ranges

[low hill]

Yeah, I think I said above those are probably 2s.

[long sorrel]

and some of them are very short

I'm also relatively easy to please

so 3* is quite a huge bag of

"was entertaining or enjoyable in some way"

[long sorrel]

I stopped at 3

I think I could put some of those at 2* but not 1*

Like I don't think the books are bad, they're just sort of between nothing and ocassionally annoying

[ivory cypress]

oh I dnf books and there's a label for that, but not even all my dnfs are for lack of enjoyment

1 and 2 star books for me have some more serious issues where I'll finish it but I also likely won't have enjoyed it

in the same way I dnf for more than one reason, finishing a book also doesn't mean there's necessarily enjoyment just because I made it to the last page

[true falcon]

Book delivery!

[tight kindle]

@long sorrel
Found these in the bookstore
I'm picking up Sir Cameron

Why my phone turns everything upside down I have no idea

[long sorrel]

Twilight you mean?

[tight kindle]

giggles maniacally
I have my copy of Sir Cameron

[ivory cypress]

woohooooo

[tight kindle]

It's gorgeous

[true falcon]

That’s a nicely painted side

[tight kindle]

Sir Cameron 5 ||I'm cackling right now. This is amazing.||

[ivory cypress]

good!

[merry galleon]

YEAAAH! My copy of Sigra’s Roost is available to be picked up.

[true falcon]

I wanna do pickup on both sequels of my books I shared in the photo so I don’t miss the sequels when I finish reading the first

[tight kindle]

Sir Cameron 8 ||...Is that a corded telephone?||

10 ||"I decided to take seducing the mad sorcerer more seriously"
When he's still a vulture is a hell of a sentence ||

[ivory cypress]

rafo!

[tight kindle]

11 ||ENORMOUS MELONS, SOME KNOCKERS IF YOU WILL, YOU KNOW, HOOTERS, BAGS OF SAND, OR WHATEVER THEM YOU KNOW THEM BY

I heard all of that in Nick's voice btw||

[tight kindle]

I mean [Sir Cameron up to 11] ||I know the planet used to be Earth. If the telephone is relevant later I will be somewhat surprised||

[ivory cypress]

||not that it's relevant necessarily, but what it is||

[long sorrel]

#you-people message

[tight kindle]

11 ||Man Is Treated Like Woman and Does Not Enjoy It
A tale as old as time||

[quaint burrow]

Dark Age 27 ||Dancer is a traitor????||

[wraith lynx]

DA reactions in the big 26??? Oh we are so back 🥴

[tight kindle]

Sir Cameron 30 ||This feels like an overreaction to being given a concussion.||

||I'm curious about how I still have half the book left.||

[merry galleon]

10 days until ‘Of blood and Fire’ is released and I get my copy!

[oblique zodiac]

must be very exciting

!

[tight kindle]

Sir Cameron 37 ||Trans positive evil(?) witch. We love to see it||

||"She took it" ||

||And of course the elf is transphobic too 💔||

[ivory cypress]

sir cameron 37 ||ahaha i had the same reaction. like "oh trans ally queen alright"||

[tight kindle]

40 ||Ok so I know that like the elves have blue skin and silver hair. I know this. But literally whenever I imagine Glenda all I see is the elf from u/merrivius's Elf comics because their energy is just so similar 😭||

45 ||If this ends badly I'm gonna cry ;-;||

Sir Cameron 47 ||SERVES GLENDA RIGHT.
Merulo's nonchalant reaction was gold.||

49 ||oh man I'm wheezing looking at this chapter title||

[royal carbon]

I went to a bookstore

[tight kindle]

Sir Cameron 60 ||Oh no, not men bedding men, you homophobic little twat.||

That was peak

The entire way through

I loved it

[ivory cypress]

!!!!

yessssss

[tight kindle]

I'm so glad I bought one

And I was showing it to a friend and she was like "...Ok I might need to read this"

And I was like
Yes

Thank you so much for introducing me to this book Grey!
It's immediately one of my favorites

Sir Cameron All ||The whole "this used to be Earth" thing was ABSOLUTELY NOT where I expected this to go but it was really interesting.
My only complaint was that I think the romance could have gotten a little more page time. I wanted a bit more of that. But the plot was great and kept me engaged all the way through!||

[ivory cypress]

I'm so glad!!

I also loved it, so glad it lined up with my hopes

[long sorrel]

It lined up quite well with mine too. And I sure didn't expect some of what happened

Sir Cameron all ||Glenda redemption arc when||

[oblique zodiac]

Had the weirdest dream of being Bella in the Twilight universe.
Twilight All ||First I was cleaning a room with Edward, and then.. Edward turned into Jacob when we went in my room. I was changing in front of Jacob with my bra on and then Charlie walked in with 2 icecream. He immediately closed the door and Jacob had to go out to explain. It's so weird because I never wore a bra in my life.||

[spring turtle]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2EKCKxPVND0

"Book Goblin does not wish to be perceived" is a mood

[oblique zodiac]

This just made me open Midnight Sun 😅

I wish I lived forever and ever like a vampire

Midnight Sun 1 ||Ugh. I do not like Jessica.

She(Bella)'s not even that pretty.
Hate is always easier than love, I guess.||

||Maybe I shouldn't have played the romantic music when Edward makes first contact with Bella in Biology class. 😬||

[peak grove]

*20th century

[oblique zodiac]

Ooo. I didn't know the chapter names of Twilight and Midnight Sun were connected

Midnight Sun 6 & Breaking Dawn ||

People can't smell blood.
I wonder if there are some people that are just.. born to be a vampire. Aro mentioned in Breaking Dawn that Bella was meant to be one?
People like that may have special abilities while still human and have a strong scent, like Alice for example.||

||I see a bit of Rosalie in me. The narcissist side.||

[tight kindle]

I bought this book used and it's an ex-library book, but I gotta wonder what possessed them to put a stamp there 😭

(this is not personal information, I have never been to Ithaca, NY lol)

[oblique zodiac]

Midnight Sun 10 ||Edward watching her sleep is creepy, I guess.||

I have to say, reading this book is far easier than my previous try. I guess my vocabulary has increased much over the years of reading

[tight kindle]

That entire book took me four hours to read.
100k words