I’m reading Star Wars Ahsoka (trying to finish my books TBR this month) and I must say I really like her. It’s an interesting character and a nice addition to SW stellar crew. But I think it’s so upsetting all this discourse of “not being a Jedi” just because she doesn’t belong to the Jedi Temple Studio 54. So, to be a Jedi you must be a member of a country club and that’s it? #starwars#ahsoka#books#reading@bookstodon
As a reader, do you prefer when people give you random books as gifts, or do you prefer getting a gift card to a bookstore (so you can pick the book)? Just curious.
@pivic@bookstodon I hate Goodreads, I had an account in its early days and loved how I could add all the books I own to an online library, but a lot of the reviews are just mean. I deleted my account a long time ago. I've read about the recent review bomb campaigns against new authors and it's awful but not surprising. It's such a toxic culture there.
Christ, imagine being so deranged that you'd post negative reviews of books of fellow new authors you perceived as rivals. Goodreads is turning into the YouTube of the literary world (no that's not a compliment).
‘It’s totally unhinged’: is the book world turning against Goodreads? | Books | The Guardian
I used to really like Goodreads, but that was many years ago.
I honestly find the reviews mostly useless, like a lot of crowd sourced reviews.
99% are "I like books about trains. This book is about trains. This is a good book" or "I didn't like this book, not enough trains" only some are in more elaborate language.
@joannaholman@timrichards@bookstodon That's pretty much how I use it, though if I happen to write a review of something (for my blog or the Sisters in Crime newsletter) I'll post it there as well.
Same Page librairies only lend their audio books for 2 weeks, which is a bit tight for some longer ones.
I squeaked through "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett with about 2 minutes to spare before it was to expire, by listening at 1.25x speed.
I did enjoy it. Interesting storyline, I understand it's a favourite of Barack Obama. #EllieKPosts #IAmReading#libraries#audioBook#audioBooks @bookstodon
Hi all
Trying to remember the title and author of a book I had as a kid (about 40 years ago).
This is what I remember: A girl who has been in a bad accident moves to her aunt and uncle's place. They have a horse farm and all the kids ride. This girl doesn't want to ride anymore because she accidentally (?) killed her horse (?). She discovers two stolen pedigreed horses during a snow storm and saves them.
It was definitely not "literature" but I loved that book.
I have so many more unread books on our shelves than I'll ever read. Each of those books is somewhere on my TBR
list. I'm thinking that I might complement my #TBR list with a #NTBR list. There are so many (and more and more)
books, and I have so little (and less and less) time in front of me when I might read them. Obviously, winnowing
the collection would help to declutter our small space, but might it also declutter my mind? https://johnrakestraw.com/post/from-the-tbr-pile-to-the-ntbr-pile/. @bookstodon#reading#books
You said in your article "one has to be very careful when one considers getting rid of books that one urgently needs to read... I have to admit that there’s something freeing about it."
I'm currently reading Walking on Water by Anthony De Mello. He mentions detachment often in regard to freedom, including spiritual freedom. He gives this exercise: Take these books (hard to separate from) and say to them "How precious you are and loved, but you are not my life. I have a life to live and a destiny to fulfill different from you." That seems to be a way to get rid of something with care.
Last night I finished Starling House by Alix Harrow. I had no idea what it was about when I started it, but I loved it. It's hard to describe without spoilers, but it's a complex story of families and poverty and bad luck woven into a great haunted house story. It wasn't scary, just creepy. Alix Harrow is now one of my favorite authors, she's brilliant. @bookstodon#Bookstodon#Fantasy#HauntedHouse#AlixHarrow
"When I was twenty-six, my first novel, The Temple of Gold, was published by Alfred A. Knopf. (Which is now part of Random House which is now part of R.C.A. which is just part of what’s wrong with publishing in America today which is not part of this story.)'
William Goldman, Preface to The Princess Bride. @bookstodon
@SimonRoyHughes@bookstodon
Better than the Godfather for quotes.
"Some day everyone will be wearing masks"
Wm Goldman was a versatile writer. Some of his books on the TBR pile. Though I'm not convinced he ever really meant to write a sequel to "The Princess Bride"
“In story after story, epicene young men, difficult children, or wild beasts set out to shake up the stifling complacency around them.”
Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916) – Saki – was born #OTD, 18 Dec, in Akyab (now Sittwe), in Myanmar. Although born in the Raj & raised in England, his parents were Scots & he considered himself to be Scottish, too. Fatema Ahmed looks at his fierce, funny, & wicked fiction
Saki’s “Tobermory”, “The Boar-Pig”, “The Lumber Room”, & many others are hilarious (as is “Esmé”, if you don’t mind all the blood…). But his horrifying winter tale “The Interlopers” is a work of #Gothic art, worthy of the tradition of James Hogg & #RobertLouisStevenson
You ever get the feeling that you just can’t read fast enough? I’m usually happy to mosey along, but this book I’m reading right now—Weyward, by Emilia Hart—is so interesting I just want to devour it, inhale it, consume aaaaall of it at once.
@nik@bookstodon I've read it. Some content was too sketchy to my taste, at times. Three women's lives to be made "palpable" couldn't be an easy task of course. The witch trial episodes were not that convincing...
I need to buy a gift for a family-of-friend. I am informed that they really like mystery stories, especially in historical settings, but are not fond of SFF.
I assume this means they have already read the obvious candidates, the Cadfaels and the like, or if they haven't then that's a conscious choice on their part which means I shouldn't buy them one of those.
What's a non-SFF mystery story you've enjoyed recently? Recommend me a book please!
@passenger@bookstodon For a historical detective series in a less common time and place setting, you could try Madhulika Liddle's Muzaffar Jang series. Set in Mughal Delhi. The author's sister is a published historian whose focus is Delhi, so the historicity is solid, and the lead is interesting
I have a great idea for a comic story, but it needs to be writ by someone who understands trans from the inside, which I do not. Free to anyone who wants to do it justice.