recommend me a book! i like fantasy, paranormal romance, sci-fi, queer fiction. i need 12 recommendations from other people for a 2024 reading challenge :blobcatblep:
If someone, who isn’t an avid reader says, “This is one of the best books I’ve ever read…” (assuming they aren’t talking about something they read when they were 5)
Do you think:
Wow, this must be a phenomenal book, I must find it immediately.
@TarkabarkaHolgy@bookstodon "Earth in Human Hands" by David Grinspoon. It's about how we humans may still be able act as responsible caretakers for our planet. It was a re-read for me, but it's the book I needed to re-read the most this year.
I loved SCARLET so much that I read it last night in one sitting then came to work today and grabbed another Cogman, THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY. I didn't know I needed a Scarlet Pimpernel retelling with vampires, but this novel is oodles better than it sounds! What a ripping yarn! @bookstodon#bookstodon#sff#fantasy
@jillrhudy@kimlockhartga@likewise@bookstodon Yes! Why that as the foundation, as opposed to all the other stories she wove in as… um… texture and flavour alongside. Apparently her next one will be about water-based mythologies. Can’t wait.
@DarkMatterZine@kimlockhartga@likewise@bookstodon I keep forgetting that AFTER THE FOREST just came out since I read ahead. Kell Woods and water-based mythology, huh? Mermaids maybe? Will grab an ARC the day it is available. #KellWoods
Anybody have recs for single-author science fiction and/or fantasy/paranormal short story collections? I'm especially interested in marginalized authors.
My faves so far:
'Nathan Burgoine's Of Echoes Born (paranormal)
Zen Cho's Spirits Abroad (fantasy/paranormal)
Iona Datt Sharma's Not For Use In Navigation (mix of science fiction and fantasy)
In case anyone is wondering if there is any engagement on here— this is the list of every book recommended after I asked if you’d share one book you enjoyed this year. You can scroll underneath the post to see these, but I think seeing them all together shows the true awesomeness of the people on here.
@kimlockhartga@Cheery@bookstodon It was impressive but I preferred The Manningtree Witches. Her writing is so stunningly precise but I admired The Glutton rather than loved it.
In her description of the 'arrival' of Alleyn, Ngaio (the g is NOT silent, folks) Marsh unintentionally highlights why I love Allingham's Campion. For him, tempus really did fugit, at more or less real pace. #AmReading#Aotearoa#GoldenAgeMysteries@bookstodon#ebooks
@Weltenkreuzer@ronsboy67@gunneraditya@bookstodon AFAIK that's true of pretty much all colour e-ink screens nowadays. Unless you're talking about Gallery 3 screens, which have beautiful colours, and are waaaaay slower than Kaleido.
Buttons are a must for me. I use my Sage at home 1-handed, and have a 7-inch Libra H2O (gen 1) for when I go out, as it fits in more pockets. Even in a case, it's an easy hold and read. For me, 7-inch is the optimal out-and-about size - large enough that I'm not pressing the button too often, small enough to stow and hold
As an avid reader I find research suggesting over 50% of 8-18yr olds do not 'enjoy reading' in their spare time particularly depressing!
Part of this is a Q. of them having a quiet space to read, but in part must also be related to #socialmedia sucking up their time & also (possibly) to the way that reading is framed as instrumental (not enjoyable) for #education?
As someone who has benefitted immeasurably from #reading, I so hope this can be reversed
@ChrisMayLA6@bookstodon I didn't make much of #shakespeare 's comedies, until I got to see one by chance in the re-created globe in London (walked past on a trip with a friend, they had last-minute tickets and went in - the atmosphere was fabulous, quite different from other theatres).
@ChrisMayLA6 My school english reading was some of the most depressing and dystopian sh!t they could find: 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Shane, Of Mice And Men.... No wonder I'm so cynical!! @mostalive@bookstodon
I have been trying to find something to read, but nothing is standing out to me. I guess I am in a slump of some sort. Any recommendations are welcome. I read just about anything, but very little fantasy. I enjoy nonfiction especially nature or social justice focused. I love middle grade books and some YA. So throw anything at me and maybe I will find something to get me out of this slump.
A #Linguistics question prompted by "Crime Wave at Blandings", the first story in "Lord Emsworth and Others, which I currently #AmReading. PGW has Lord Emsworth saying "dooce" a lot. In my quasi-literate ignorance, that seems like an Americanism, the sort of thing PGW might have picked from living there. Would a very English Earl of the era have said "deuce" as "dooce" , or would he have been more like to say /djuːs/ ? @bookstodon
@Grizzlysgrowls@ronsboy67@bookstodon
Strictly speaking Sanskrit is not really "in the roots of" European languages. Rather, Sanskrit and most European languages have a shared ancestry in the same root language (Proto-Indo-European). In consequence, there are a lot of similarities - sometimes very close - between Sanskrit and e.g. Slavic languages, Lithuanian, etc.
(A bit-nitpicky, but I feel a professional duty to dispel any misunderstanding that European languages evolved from Sanskrit.)
Books make the world better.
This week I'll be posting about some of my favorite books YA, their covers and their fabulous opening lines.
“The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards”
-A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
@franciscawrites@bookstodon
For what it's worth, "A Wizard of Earthsea" was the very first book sold from the spilled/loose items I recently rescued from my wrecked storage shed. I'll have to find a personal copy and give it a whirl.
@tffmh@bookstodon Same for me. The Earthsea series made me the huge fan of fantasy I am today and I like to cite it as one of the reasons I became a writer.