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Franchescanado posted:There's also Book Club For Masochists. The hosts are all librarians, and each episode they pick a (sub)genre or subject of books, and discuss the terrible books they picked for it. They also sometimes discuss good books, library culture/community, etc.
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# ? Mar 18, 2021 18:21 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 18:42 |
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Yeah, IDEOTV is probably my favorite book podcast.
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# ? Mar 19, 2021 01:17 |
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Anywhere in this forum where people talk about how much Jack Reacher books own? I've read like 10 in the last couple of months and they are way better than they have any right to be.
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# ? Mar 19, 2021 16:48 |
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Franchescanado posted:There's also Book Club For Masochists. The hosts are all librarians, and each episode they pick a (sub)genre or subject of books, and discuss the terrible books they picked for it. They also sometimes discuss good books, library culture/community, etc. Listened to an episode of this today and really enjoyed it
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# ? Mar 19, 2021 22:04 |
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buffalo all day posted:Anywhere in this forum where people talk about how much Jack Reacher books own? I've read like 10 in the last couple of months and they are way better than they have any right to be. the best one i've read so far is Without Fail which involves the secret service and badass snipers and is so loving good its absolutely wild.
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# ? Mar 19, 2021 22:25 |
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Anyone ever have problems with the actual physical dimensions of a book? I have a huge Lovecraft softcover book that is just very uncomfortable to hold while laying down. I also have a giant Asimov tome "Asimov's Chronology of the World," and it's a struggle to comfortably hold. I'm wondering if these type of large books were meant to be read at a table, and I should find a smaller book.
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# ? Mar 21, 2021 23:46 |
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Cheese Thief posted:Anyone ever have problems with the actual physical dimensions of a book? I have a huge Lovecraft softcover book that is just very uncomfortable to hold while laying down. I also have a giant Asimov tome "Asimov's Chronology of the World," and it's a struggle to comfortably hold. I'm wondering if these type of large books were meant to be read at a table, and I should find a smaller book. The Books of Earthsea: Complete Illustrated Cycle will break your wrists if you try to lift it. It's specifically for reading at a table.
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# ? Mar 22, 2021 00:58 |
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Cheese Thief posted:Anyone ever have problems with the actual physical dimensions of a book? I have a huge Lovecraft softcover book that is just very uncomfortable to hold while laying down. I also have a giant Asimov tome "Asimov's Chronology of the World," and it's a struggle to comfortably hold. I'm wondering if these type of large books were meant to be read at a table, and I should find a smaller book. You should find an ereader, I think.
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# ? Mar 22, 2021 01:40 |
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These things exist, they're cheap, and they work. This picture was stolen from the listing of the first random one I found on Amazon. $23.99
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# ? Mar 22, 2021 03:01 |
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I had some problems with Hilary Mantel's book The Mirror and the Light last year, so I had to resort to this:
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# ? Mar 22, 2021 10:50 |
https://twitter.com/File_770/status/1374419234256654338?s=20
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# ? Mar 23, 2021 19:16 |
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# ? Mar 23, 2021 19:18 |
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I'm reading Helen Keller's autobiography and I think it's really loving stupid that she keeps describing how things look.
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# ? Mar 24, 2021 01:23 |
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3D Megadoodoo posted:I'm reading Helen Keller's autobiography and I think it's really loving stupid that she keeps describing how things look. I feel this way about authors describing character's internal thoughts. How would they know?
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# ? Mar 24, 2021 14:29 |
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I just finished Nevil Shute's An Old Captivity and it's a 20-page novella written to be a 300-page novel. Now I get why the book was free, and also why he's practically forgotten nowadays, except for On the Beach. (I haven't actually read that one, but I've seen both movies, which were OK.) The man loves his ultra-boring aeroplane sequences like C.S. Forester loved his ultra-boring ship poo poo. (But at least something actually happened in the Hornblower novels.)
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# ? Mar 25, 2021 11:07 |
https://twitter.com/HarperCollins/status/1375554229729918980?s=20
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# ? Mar 26, 2021 22:55 |
https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1375824850430869504?s=20
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# ? Mar 27, 2021 16:00 |
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"this audiobook is unabridged", says the narrator, as he proceeds to read the entirety of the copyright page
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# ? Mar 29, 2021 20:11 |
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Since I dont read a lot of fantasy fiction, something I wanna fix, I decided I'm gonna work my way through the fantasy half of that NPR scifi/fantasy flow chart of their 100 top books. Starting with llthe lord of the rings trilogy. All audiobooks BTW since hour long car rides are a part of my life for the foreseeable future. In other news, im currently working through Dracula. It's ok if a bit stright forward. "Dracula comes to London, our heros hunt him down to find him in order to avenge their fallen friend. Complaints: I think I missed how they figured out Renfeild's Master is Dracula. Twice we have the actions of people who are not characters thwart our heros efforts to save Lucy to keep the plot going. And I think this all could have been avoided if Van Hellsing just explained what a vampire is MUCH sooner. BigRed0427 fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Mar 30, 2021 |
# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:03 |
BigRed0427 posted:Since I dont read a lot of fantasy fiction, something I wanna fix, I decided I'm gonna work my way through the fantasy half of that NPR scifi/fantasy flow chart of their 100 top books. Starting with llthe lord of the rings trilogy. Enjoy! We have a dedicated Tolkien thread also if you want to do a deeper dive. The main advice I give people starting Tolkien for the first time is to try to throw away as many preconceptions as possible. Tolkien was a weird dude and the Lord of the Rings was a weird project: half fever dream born out of the horrors of the Somme, half a professor of ancient languages attempting to reject most of modernity in general and modern fiction in specific. A lot of it can seem strange or even outright bad writing to people who've read a lot of modern fiction, but that's usually because Tolkien isn't trying to do the same things as modern fiction. He's not missing the mark, he's aiming at a different target. So it pays to just read it at let the book show you where it leads. Also, don't feel bad skipping over the songs. You can come back to them later if you want. If you get bogged down or don't feel like reading three pages describing trees, it's ok to skip ahead and come back for it later or on a re-read. Reading Tolkien in audiobook format might be weird since it'll be harder to skim parts. Here's a recording of Tolkien reading parts of the Fellowship of the Ring (mostly the songs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLJ9z2bzAdQ Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:16 |
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BigRed0427 posted:Since I dont read a lot of fantasy fiction, something I wanna fix, I decided I'm gonna work my way through the fantasy half of that NPR scifi/fantasy flow chart of their 100 top books. Starting with llthe lord of the rings trilogy. That list doesn't have A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, a fantasy that was published 14 years after Lord of the Rings, and is an influential novel for the genre. It's ten chapters at less than 200 pages, so it's a quick read (or a quick listen as an audiobook). I'm not really into Fantasy, but I started reading it after rewatching LotR on 4k, and really enjoyed it. edit: She cites Lord Dunsany as an influence on her prose, and King of Elfland's Daughter has been recommended in TBB as well. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Mar 30, 2021 |
# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:30 |
Franchescanado posted:That list doesn't have A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, a fantasy that was published 14 years after Lord of the Rings, and is an influential novel for the genre. It's ten chapters at less than 200 pages, so it's a quick read (or a quick listen as an audiobook). I'm not really into Fantasy, but I started reading it after rewatching LotR on 4k, and really enjoyed it. Yeah, they seem to have gone with a (rough) "one book per author" theme, and they included The Dispossessed which is a better pick overall for showcasing her SF work and her politics but excludes her work in fantasy.
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:33 |
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, they seem to have gone with a (rough) "one book per author" theme, and they included The Dispossessed which is a better pick overall for showcasing her SF work and her politics but excludes her work in fantasy. I just noticed they put Left Hand of Darkness on there too.
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:35 |
Franchescanado posted:I just noticed they put Left Hand of Darkness on there too. Yeah the problem with Le Guin is she wrote too many books that were too good. She'd overwhelm the list !
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:38 |
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NPR's list includes "the shannara series" but not earthsea... NPR's list includes the belgariad but not earthsea... NPR's list includes animal farm (???) but not earthsea...
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:42 |
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gonna start recommending animal farm more in the SF thread because the animals can talk
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 18:44 |
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah the problem with Le Guin is she wrote too many books that were too good. She'd overwhelm the list ! The trick is to just put down Hainish Novels and Stories and link to the wonderful Library of America collection.
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 19:11 |
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buffalo all day posted:gonna start recommending animal farm more in the SF thread because the animals can talk I once asked a fella what he thought of Brave New World and he disdainfully told me, "I don't read sci-fi."
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 19:24 |
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buffalo all day posted:gonna start recommending animal farm more in the SF thread because the animals can talk not really related but I just saw this like a week ago so make sure to only recommend it for children's SF
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# ? Mar 30, 2021 19:24 |
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buffalo all day posted:NPR's list includes "the shannara series" but not earthsea... Christ. I mean, Belgariad is fine but very slight. It's LoTR for tweens and it's fine. Shannara is almost literally a straight rewrite of Tolkien, it's embarrassingly obvious. I think Terry Brooks was like 18 when he wrote the first one and it's about as good as you would expect from an 18 year old plagiarizing Lord of the Rings.
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# ? Mar 31, 2021 04:55 |
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Ugh don't read the Belgariad. Just don't.
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# ? Mar 31, 2021 12:48 |
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The Eddingses were hacks. They were also child-abusers but they were also hacks. So you may as well read some garbage that wasn't written by child-abusers, instead. I picked up a random free Dragonlance paperback from a box in the vestibule of a K-market and enjoyed it despite it being poo poo. If Don Perrin and/or Margaret Weis are monsters, I don't want to hear about it. e: I was a fool and looked them up. Apparently (according to Wikipedia) Margaret Weis lives in a barn!
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# ? Mar 31, 2021 13:14 |
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And I think I'm gonna tap out of Dracula. I'm up to the men storming Dracula's home the first time in London and the book just isn't grabbing me.
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# ? Mar 31, 2021 22:11 |
BigRed0427 posted:And I think I'm gonna tap out of Dracula. I'm up to the men storming Dracula's home the first time in London and the book just isn't grabbing me. OTOH, you have intrigued me about this book and I just might read it myself
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# ? Apr 1, 2021 00:27 |
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I'm reading both Balzac's Le Cousin Pons and Gautier's Contes humoristiques. Multi-book reading!! The latter is much better because it has the footnotes, while the former has endnotes, which is always mega fail IMHO. One day I hope to see a French classic that doesn't have or need foot- or endnotes.
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# ? Apr 1, 2021 09:46 |
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3D Megadoodoo posted:I'm reading both Balzac's Le Cousin Pons and Gautier's Contes humoristiques. Multi-book reading!! The latter is much better because it has the footnotes, while the former has endnotes, which is always mega fail IMHO. Le Petit Prince has you covered
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# ? Apr 1, 2021 18:21 |
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3D Megadoodoo posted:The Eddingses were hacks. They were also child-abusers but they were also hacks. So you may as well read some garbage that wasn't written by child-abusers, instead. I picked up a random free Dragonlance paperback from a box in the vestibule of a K-market and enjoyed it despite it being poo poo. Dragonlance is bad it's way less bad than any Eddings books. The original Dragonlance trilogy is perfectly readable and fine.
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# ? Apr 2, 2021 05:55 |
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regulargonzalez posted:Le Petit Prince has you covered My major gripe with that book is that the spine is printed the wrong way around. Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Dragonlance is bad it's way less bad than any Eddings books. The original Dragonlance trilogy is perfectly readable and fine. It was more than 20 years ago that I read either so could be Sometimes I feel like reading the only swords & sorcery -type book serieses from my childhood that I still have, just to see if I'd still like them (The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper and Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin), but then I remember I have like 1 000 unread books and decide against it.
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# ? Apr 2, 2021 14:48 |
Earthsea still holds up. Dark is Rising your mileage may vary. Dragonlance imho doesn't hold up at all but I guess there's a place for it for people who really enjoy licensed fiction.
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# ? Apr 2, 2021 14:52 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 18:42 |
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Earthsea still holds up. Dark is Rising your mileage may vary. Dragonlance imho doesn't hold up at all but I guess there's a place for it for people who really enjoy licensed fiction. Trying Dragonlance again as an adult I had the same impression as Heironymous, but I forgot all about Dark is Rising. I'll have to give those another try one of these days. Earthsea obviously owns.
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# ? Apr 2, 2021 16:27 |