Books

Proud moment for me:

I made it through the second of 8 absolutely delightful, engaging, and extremely PLEASURABLE novels in a series about a topic I love.

But the first book ended POORLY... because they knew that fans like me would be the second. It’s like it LITERALLY had zero ending. Meaning there was this absurd violation of novelistic structure.

And the second cemented my creeping suspicion that this all... all all all... was trifling crap. It’s like porn for people who like fast talking smart alecks, snide, sarcastic, and battle after battle after battle.

One amazingly engaging battle after another. So enjoyable. Exactly what I love.

Except that there's zero heart, soul, message... oh... it takes a head nod in the direction of what is noble and how should people behave...

But at the end of the day...

Lovely useless battles of stupid.

So... I did not buy the third.

I'm done.

Victory.

I’m not going to mention the name of the series because I don’t want to get into it with fans who are fine reading the same book 8 times: Hero and partner in exotic setting fight stuff until they live or die.

That’s the book.

Sirens of Titan made me weep for three hours. This is what I expect a novel to do. Moby Dick changed the way I examine culture and society. Emma taught me to be expect the unexpected. Valuable books do valuable work. Entertaining books entertain. I get it. I consider the elevation of my human experience more valuable than being entertained for five hours. Thoughts?

Starting today and going for 34 days, @tomes@phantasmal.work will be posting Love Among the Chickens by P. G. Wodehouse.

I made this bot to get novels into my Mastodon feed. The last one was Summer by Edith Wharton. I needed something lighter this time.

Not sure if this is allowed here, but I really enjoy this series and I’m thrilled to see it’s getting a TV adaptation. I’ve always thought it seems like the perfect book to adapt, given, well you know, the whole intergalactic TV setup.

The live-action “Dungeon Crawler Carl” TV series is now officially in development at Peacock, Variety has learned.

As previously reported, Chris Yost will write and executive produce the series, with Seth MacFarlane set to executive produce under his Fuzzy Door banner. Dinniman is also an EP, as is Fuzzy Door’s Erica Huggins. Rachel Hargreaves-Heald will serve as executive in charge of production for Fuzzy Door.

Dinnman also addressed fans who were concerned about the prospect of a live-action series versus an animated one, given the fantasy nature of the books. But Dinnman expressed his confidence in MacFarlane’s ability to bring the books to life.

“[We’re] not going to do it if it’s gonna look like absolute shit,” he said. “And they will do CGI testing on Princess Donut and stuff like that. And that’s all I can say, I think. It’s all gonna hinge on what it looks like. But Fuzzy Door, specifically, if you watch ‘Ted’ or ‘The Orville,’ you’ll see that they know what they’re doing when it comes to this.”

...a book about how its actually a really really terrible idea. The authors (notably, the same authors of the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) started out with the intention of writing about how cool and necessary space colonization is... but over the course of their research, came to realize that it's really not.

Nothing at my end. Life has been kinda busy lately.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

For details on the c/Books Bingo, check the Midpoint check-in post.

Just finished it and love every minute. Any recs for similar books.

No spoilers for others please

Hello everyone! The weekly threads are back after a small hiatus.

I was reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire (first book in her October Daye urban fantasy series), picked it up again but bookmark had dropped somewhere and I couldn't find where I was, so may start from some earlier place.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

For details on the c/Books Bingo, check the Midpoint check-in post.

cross-posted from: https://hilariouschaos.com/post/9693955

cross-posted from: https://hilariouschaos.com/post/9693586

Quick author note before reading: i made this book free for everyone using ai. I planned out the entire book, came up with the concept and plot. However to give you this book in its entirety for free without killing too much of my personal time, i let my writing engine draft it. That being said, i hope you enjoy.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 System Foundations

Chapter 2 Structural Rules

Chapter 3 Ordered Hierarchy

Chapter 4 Classification Systems

Chapter 5 Domain Separation

Chapter 6 Functional Assignment

Chapter 7 Angelic Structure

Chapter 8 Celestial Hierarchy

Chapter 9 Enforcement Systems

Chapter 10 Infernal Classification

Chapter 11 Entity Types

Chapter 12 Environmental Conditions

Chapter 13 Domain Interaction

Chapter 14 Summoning Systems

Chapter 15 Sacred Authority

Chapter 16 Ritual Geometry

Chapter 17 Binding and Banishing

Chapter 18 Rise of Grimoires

Chapter 19 The Lesser Key of Solomon

Chapter 20 Ars Goetia

Chapter 21 Infernal Functions

Chapter 22 Infernal Structure

Chapter 23 The 72 Demons

Chapter 24 Demon Knowledge

Chapter 25 Hidden Information

Chapter 26 Scrying and Perception

Chapter 27 Thin Places

Chapter 28 Boundary Zones

Chapter 29 Herbs and Plants

Chapter 30 Metals and Stones

Chapter 31 Smoke and Fire

Chapter 32 Ritual Objects

Chapter 33 The Chakra System

Chapter 34 Consciousness and Perception

Chapter 35 The System Circuit

This isn’t a traditional demonology book because it’s not mainly about demons.

A normal demonology book focuses on demons themselves. It explains who they are, what they do, their stories, and their meanings. The attention stays on the beings.

This book does something different. It focuses on how interaction works.

Instead of centering on demons, it explains the structure behind interaction—things like setup, environment, authority, perception, and internal processing. Demons are included, but only as one part inside that system, not the main focus.

You can think of it like this. A traditional demonology book describes the “characters.” This book explains the “rules of the system” those characters exist within.

Because of that, it reads more like a manual than a story or a collection of lore. It shows how different parts connect, what conditions are required, and how the whole process works from start to finish.

So in simple terms:

A demonology book tells you about demons. This book explains how the system of interaction works, where demons are just one piece of it.

https://files.catbox.moe/gzoox3.pdf

cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/29973798

I'm bored out of my mind. Suggest me a book and I'll read it cover to cover.

Two conditions

1. I can aquire a digital copy.
2. Some ovious filters like no dictionary or phone book kind.
3. Most people agreening on the book will be selected.
4. Any book works.

Thanks.

Update: 21st march

Thank you all for your time and input.

Looks like it's a tie between.

1. Project hail mary
2. The count of monte cristo

As kind of promised I'll read these two cover by cover.

And bonus rules(5,6) that i kept for later

5. I'll make a list of every book(other than selected) and will give it fair shot by reading at least 25%.
6. I'll post here after finishing each book.

I think I am set for a year. I am not a reader although I have 3 e-readers + a m5paper for which ill write a e reader firmware/app. I love the e-reader tech and books. (Still not a reader but id like to be one and this is my second attempt to become one.)

I'll update the list of books here mentioned tomorrow.

Thanks again for putting out your suggetions and favs. Happy Reading.

These two have such a great buddy dynamic we just get to see the beginnings of. I think a sequel about them getting established in the US would be a lot of fun. They're fish-out-of-water characters both figuring out a fresh start (and maybe some redemption from their involvement in the criminal enterprises their life circumstances led them to).

Csongor reconnecting with his brother, Marlon probably starting some kind of business (trying to make it a legitimate one this time while having to navigate the challenges of his checkered past and awkward legal status), some kind of threat from unresolved Russian mob / Chinese intelligence complications, and Csongor navigating trying to start a relationship with Zula who needs safety and stability to recover from everything in Reamde, while helping the friend who saved his life start a new one without getting entangled in more shady dealings).

I doubt Neal would ever write it, but I just thought I'd share and see if it resonated with anyone else who enjoyed Reamde, or likes the idea of a Neal Stephenson "buddy story" in general?

We don't enjoy being overly critical of books but this is one of the worst books I've ever read - I actually couldn't finish it, it was that bad and this review included our first (and hopefully last) 0 scores.

I haven't the heart to go through why its so bad again - just listen to the podcast episode if you want to.

So I have 'just started reading'. After a lifetime of being dyslexic and thinking I disliked books, I've realised that if I find something in my wheel house and with a little perseverance of getting over the inital hump, I'm really enjoying it. However a few months after reading a book, I've kind of forgotten the finer points and details I enjoyed. Does anyone write up books they've read and what tips have you got/do you have any templates?

At the end of Drabinski’s essay, she provides an account of a trip she took across the country to visit and document American librarians doing the work of keeping books on their shelves. “Everywhere I went,” she writes, “I met people fighting together for a world where all of us can be free.” The “us” here is particular: she’s referring to the marginalized voices most often attacked by book banners. But it’s also universal. If we want to keep American minds free from harmful moral prejudices, narrow and bland aesthetic standards, the invasion of tech oligarchs and profit-driven curricula in our classrooms—from everything, in other words, that book banners of all forms promote—then we must commit, together, to defending books and their readers.

The Golden Notebook is a blueprint, a dazzling experiment, and its flaws are life’s flaws – there to be interrogated and worked though. That is the take-it-or-leave-it dichotomy that Lessing explores. Looking back on the book’s initial reception, in her preface to the 2007 edition, Lessing acknowledged: ‘Apparently what many women were thinking, feeling, experiencing came as a great surprise.’ However, she repeatedly distanced herself from any claim on the novel as a foundational feminist text; as she told The Guardian in 2007: ‘I’m not interested in being a feminist icon. If you are a woman and you think at all, you are going to have to write about it, otherwise you aren’t writing about the time you are living in.’

If you know what NAMI is you can imagine the hard time my wife and I are having with our youngest, who turns out has BPD. They are med non compliant as is their partner the best we can tell.

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, and I Hate You - Don't Leave Me would all have made the top list if I didn't have an arbitrary limit of only two top books a month.

That said most of the books I read in February I loved. For the complete list:

Top:

• Rules of Estrangement by Joshua Coleman PhD
• Stop Walking on Eggshells for Parents by Randi Kreger and Christine Adamec

Great:

• Stop Walking on Eggshells by Paul T. Mason MS, Randi Kreger
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• The Skeptics Guide to the Universe by Steve Novella, Bob Novella
• A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
• The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide by David J. Miklowitz
• I Am Not Sick I Don’t Need Help! by Xavier Amador
• How To Become CTO by Aleks Kudic (Recommended by: Aleks Kudic (Asked to read for review purposes by the author)
• Babylon’s Ashes by James S. A. Corey
• I Hate You - Don't Leave Me by Jerold J. Kreisman, Hal Straus
• Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey

Good:

• Notes on a Small Island by Bill Bryson
• Spook by Mary Roach

Okay:

• Traction by Gino Wickman

At least, that’s what I assumed happened. It’s a first edition copy from 1999 as well.

I just finished book 6 of the expanse. I live this series so much! I love great hard magic systems which this is, and the author is a bit Frederick Backman esk with how well his writing gets me to feel the emotions and moments of the characters.

I've tried to watch the TV show and quit after the first season. I was just so confused. Once I finish the books later this year I'm gonna watch the series to the end of it.

Bluntly, I can spend my days sorting “book club” spam, or I can write books. One pays me money. The otherff does not. So until further notice, I’m not entertaining book club invitations from anyone, and I likely won’t respond to your invitation at all. I’m sorry but this is the reality of the moment.