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Marc Laidlaw of Half Life fame wrote a couple of Fantasy books and they need to be more widely read, he made them temporarily free because he's apparently sold very few copies (like less than a hundred). I read Underneath The Oversea and it's a very good, fun fantasy adventure, and I'm about to start the second book (which was written first? and happens before Oversea) Cmon, you can't go wrong with this price, he's a great writer, and I loved that book, it's criminal that it hasn't become a bestseller. (I think it's the cover, too abstract maybe, but I promise this is fun). If you're into fantasy, give it a shot and leave it a review. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0914ZMHH9?searchxofy=true&binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_aps_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1627176428&sr=8-1 (This link was taken straight from his twitter, I don't make anything off of it) 
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Jul 25, 2021 03:05
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https://mobile.twitter.com/marc_laidlaw/status/1424176878991011843
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Aug 8, 2021 16:11
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Currently working on my short story about Myron, a young man who is obsessed with the indie films produced by a company called B25. After a disastrous week, Myron buys some glasses from a man who runs a mysterious new shop that has seemed to appear overnight. These glasses transport Myron into the world of several of B25's prominent films. However, Myron comes to learn that the wearing of the glasses carries with it a terrible price. Is the terrible price that you become a huge cinema nerd? Because you can head to Cinema Discusso for character inspiration  Good luck with your story, PM me if you want someone to read it 
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Aug 30, 2021 01:58
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I think I own enough books to start a small library... Does anyone know of an iOS App that keeps track of books you own, and maybe if you lend them to someone? I thought about giving some away, but maybe it would be better to lend them, so people feel some pressure to actually read them, not just take them and hoard them. Like me Also just curious, does anyone own Encyclopedias? Like the Britannica. What do you do with those once you've read them ? (if you've ever opened them). Keep them for background in photos where you need to look fancy ?
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Aug 5, 2023 05:11
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Anyone know good/entertaining book podcasts or YouTubes? Like the DLC podcast but for books I got into the Brandon Sanderson podcast and he’s interesting, surprisingly wide amount of subjects (including depression), but not exactly book focused
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Aug 29, 2023 17:48
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Tree Goat posted:i set my goodreads to one (1) book a year so i get the confetti and the congratulations messages and other gameified rewards but also feel like i'm getting away with a minor computer crime, which feels good as well Goodreads agent reading this: Captain, we found him! Dispatch GoodSWAT team now now now I also failed the 100 books challenge lol, I can do it but I’d have to give up movies and video games, or internet browsing, so that’s a no
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Sep 2, 2023 19:50
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StrixNebulosa posted:https://thegreatestbooks.org/ Great Gatsby is pretty good, just read it a couple years ago. Holds up well? 100 years of solitude fuckin sucks imo The rest I haven’t read, but definitely heard about. probably essential books for “serious readers” whatever that means
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Sep 6, 2023 21:15
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Gaius Marius posted:
Oh I would usually agree 100% but I just got the Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson and I’m in love with the book, from the design to the binding to the font and of course the contents. It’s a triumph imo She’s apparently been working on the Iliad for years and is now close to release, and I’m unreasonably hyped to read a thousands-years-old book The odyssey audiobook on audible is really great too, read by Claire Danes and her voice is like a relaxing waterfall, great stuff
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Sep 6, 2023 22:19
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Did anyone read the whole Wheel of Time? 14 books?  Was it worth it? I stopped at book 5-6 or so, when they were new and coming out. It just became too boring. But I heard it gets good again later, with Sanderson. Maybe I'll finish the story now, 20 years later. Speaking of Sanderson, I finished Starsight, and what a letdown. I loved Skyward, one of my favorite books of that year, a great, fun adventure. Not perfect, but I thought it worked if you let some things slide. And I tried, but I just didn't believe the logistics of Starsight. So many nitpicks that took me out of the fantasy. It went from decent, fun, young adult sci-fi to... like... Netflix anime-level with logic meant to move the plot along. JUST GO ALONG WITH IT OK, IT DOESN'T NEED TO MAKE SENSE. I'll ignore a lot for a story, I'm not a smart "find the plot holes" reader, yet I kept finding myself thinking "Nobody would react like that. No organization would let that happen. Perfect portable hologram disguise tech that nobody else in the universe owns, that's convenient." He's not a bad writer, of course... I've only read those two books by Sanderson, so far seems like he's great at cliffhangers, ending chapters in a way that you want to read the next one RIGHT NOW, epic "I should've seen that coming, but it's awesome" moments, and action scenes in general. But the whole consistency of this universe just didn't convince me. I'd post more specific spoilers, but maybe it goes in the book review thread. Plus, I sort of enjoyed it anyway, some moments that I would've loved even more if they weren't surrounded by a bit of roll-eyes worldbuilding. I think it just needed a bit more polish, I don't expect like Iain Banks complexity here but just... a bit more realism in some parts.
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Sep 19, 2023 06:53
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Speaking of fast reading, I just sped through Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Erendira" book, it was super well written, such flowery language, and it only took me a few hours (short book, 160 pages including a few short stories). I thought it would take me much longer. Now, the talent is undeniable, these are some wonderfully written sentences, perfect for magical realism. But uhhhh how is this a respected classic, Erendira is 14. If you haven't read it, maybe look up the plot first lol
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Sep 21, 2023 21:20
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https://www.redcometpress.com/adult/101 Maybe you can still submit this one
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Sep 28, 2023 04:04
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Not gonna click anything with "adult" in it Probably a good way to go through life
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Sep 28, 2023 21:36
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anilEhilated posted:So who is y'all's tip for this year's Nobel prize? I've seen some betting odds that seemed to claim the surefire bet is Murakami, which is a choice I'm honestly not a fan of. Sheesh I read Norwegian Wood this year, what a depressing week He’s a good writer for sure, just ahh make sure you’re in a good place, emotionally, when you start that one. Oh I remember it also has an underage girl “seducing” an older person so.. bit of weirdness too, but probably normal for anime fans  Edit: I forgot I came to mention that the Iliad translation by Emily Wilson is out, the audiobook preview sounds really great, reminds me a bit of the narration in Lord of the Rings 
Comfy Fleece Sweater fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Oct 6, 2023 |
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Oct 6, 2023 22:21
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I randomly remember to seek updates on Gurrm and his unfinished book. Pretty funny at this point https://www.nationalworld.com/cultu...es-book-4246753 Lol? Along with Doors of Stone or whatever the Rothfuss book is
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Oct 10, 2023 22:25
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FPyat posted:Google has become aggressively unwilling to pull up the Goodreads pages for books as results. Google in general has become trash for searching. News seems to give me the worst articles first. I’ve switched to DuckDuckGo as my default, no regrets
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Oct 11, 2023 05:50
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 https://terrypratchett.com/news/a-stroke-of-the-pen-published/
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Oct 15, 2023 22:50
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Bought a copy of Les Miserables, lol it’s so thick it looks like a loving cube, 1300 pages I think I’m gonna give it away, this translation for some reason does not use full town names? Or is that faithful to the original. I skimmed a bit and it goes “and then so and so went to D….., and they stayed there” what the gently caress is that. I’d ran across this with Crime and Punishment before, “he walked the streets of K…..”
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Oct 25, 2023 21:37
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regulargonzalez posted:I think that was just a writing convention of the era that was supposed to lend it more authenticity, like "oh dang, I bet author is referring to my town of Kenwich but can't say it outright due to legal reasons!" I checked the Gutenberg project Les Mis and it does the same thing, so I'm guessing this is the intended, original experience  Not crazy about this decision, but it's a classic for a reason, I'll live. I'm currently working on Yi Yun Li's "The Vagrants", it's really good, but a hard read. Themes of extreme poverty in totalitarian China in 1979. Some of these details, they seem taken from real life, describes really specific stuff. Not in a Stephen King "I'll think of hosed up poo poo and be entertaining about it" way, more like "This person either heard this first hand, or lived it".
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Oct 28, 2023 03:56
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Last time I went shopping I saw a few copies of Ulysses, thumbed through a few pages and noped out Looks interesting but one version has no notes and it seemed rambling, and the other version had notes practically for every sentence and sometimes multiple times in a sentence, so it was half page text and half page notes in tiniest font Props to anyone who read that and actually enjoyed it I might get to it one day, but it seems like it will be like decoding a personal geocities page on some esoteric subject back in the day, but for hundreds of pages
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Oct 29, 2023 17:56
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Gaius Marius posted:That was Joyce, Napoleon just preferred Josephine to not bathe for three days before he met her again and Franklin was a horndog and proponent of the paper bag theory. Mozart wrote letters about poop too! https://lettersofnote.com/2012/07/05/oh-my-rear end-burns-like-fire/
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Oct 29, 2023 19:04
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Llamadeus posted:I think what you're describing is going to be the new normal for many titles. The drawbacks and benefits of POD are the same for the big publishers as for self-publishers: the unit costs are much higher but they don't have to pay to store thousands of copies in warehouses, they don't print in the thousands to make it economical, and they don't have to eat the cost of the print run when they overprint. this is awful. I was just thinking about the niceness of a well-printed book. I really hope this doesn't catch on...
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Nov 20, 2023 02:29
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Not sure if right thread, but my iOS comic book app died at some point. Anyone know of a good CBR reader that still works on iOS 17? I used ComicZeal and then that stopped working, switched to Chunky and it also died. So maybe it's me killing these apps edit: I'm wondering if the dev actually died, because their last update was on 2020 and it was pretty regular before that 
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Nov 22, 2023 07:08
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101 posted:Panels is great and actively developed/maintained. Panels looks neat, cheers fellow goon  To clarify, the Chunky app is the one that stopped updating in 2020, not sure when ComicZeal stopped working but it must've been earlier than that
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Nov 22, 2023 18:59
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https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/doom-guy-john-romero/1140973076 The John Romero biography is really good so far, I'm in the first few chapters. First chapter is 
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Nov 26, 2023 21:40
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIW5jBrrsS0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIW5jBrrsS0 Pretty neat video, but he goes into some beautiful libraries. Belgium might be worth visiting for those!
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Dec 2, 2023 18:47
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I fukn love books wonder how expensive it would be to start a bookstore ? I could be working and reading all day  I regret buying so many ebooks these past few years instead of physical copies. Not life-regret, just a little regret, because to be fair reading in the dark is great, e-readers have their advantages. I skipped BluRays and went all digital and it was the right choice, and I figured I'd do the same when the Kindles came out. But some physical copies have wonderful design lately, they really invite you to read. Bought Norse Mythology by Gaiman and it's a gorgeous design, black and gold  Also bought Mythos by Stephen Fry, based on the cover design, and the definitive Anne Frank diary edition in some wonderful shade of yellow. Ivory and Bone bought too, no idea what it is, but it was on sale, and the cover was very nice. I think I would've enjoyed Infinite Jest a lot more in a physical version. Oh, and the new Odyssey translations, just gorgeous design all around.  It doesn't really capture the shininess and niceness tbh
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Dec 9, 2023 04:00
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Gaius Marius posted:
Yeah this is correct, if you want a book to last decades, get the hardcover the dust jackets are expendable
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Dec 9, 2023 07:17
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Got my Goodreads end of year summary, I’m in the top 25% of readers 
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Dec 15, 2023 21:47
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Carthag Tuek posted:i went in hard on goodreads for some reason & set a challenge and then kept doubling it until year's end and then i burnt out completely and now i just read stuff but i still have an urge to track what i read & when i did so (it pisses me off when some cloud sync destroys my ebook "finished reading" dates, as if anyone cares incl me) I mark goodreads when I can and I’m pretty diligent about it, but I also keep a Numbers spreadsheet, because autism I guess Both are fun to me, but if it causes you any hassle definitely let it go imo
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Dec 16, 2023 00:32
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Mordiceius posted:Today's drama: if you consume audiobooks, are you still considered to be "reading" the book? I mean, reading is interpreting written symbols or whatever the dictionary says, as opposed to listening. You don't read a podcast either  I don't think one is inherently more "respectable", for me it's easier to read than to listen to an audiobook. I get lost/distracted too easily in audio, have to go back if I miss something, etc. I would love to listen to more audiobooks but I just miss too much. It probably engages different parts of your brain too, definitely a different activity. I do enjoy listening to the audiobook version if I've read the book. that said, I have a really hard time caring about whether you read or listened to it tho, you do you
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Jan 4, 2024 21:35
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Forcing u all to absorb and experience my bad posts 
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Jan 5, 2024 00:45
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Reading Stephen King's THE OUTSIDER, and he gives a big shout-out to Harlan Coben (??). A character is a big fan, and says he's great etc etc. I don't know if that's the highest honour one could receive in modern literature but it's close Anyone read that guy? Apparently he's very famous and had a bunch of his stories adapted for Netflix. Is he any good, which one of his books should I read?
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Jan 8, 2024 02:25
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rollick posted:The Outsider is funny because it really tries to sell you at the start that it's this big locked room mystery story...but it's a Stephen King novel, so you already know the solution is some supernatural gremlin dude and won't be remotely satisfying. I’m about 30% in but that was my first guess just from the synopsis. I don’t mind tbh, he’s drat good at keeping you entertained. Easy to read and fun dialogue, nothing too deep or life changing
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Jan 8, 2024 03:07
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Randomly found some Infinite Jest fan art (!) https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YBoLwY Pretty cool tbh
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Jan 12, 2024 00:36
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Casey Finnigan posted:The audiobook for Antkind was very good and honestly probably the best way to experience that book. If it wasn't an audiobook I probably would have tapped out during the pages and pages and pages about the war between Donald Trunk and Slammy's in a cave Ah I just bought Antkind! I guess I’m a Charlie Kaufman fan, checked his IMDb and every movie he’s written has been special for me, decided to buy it. How’s the book anyway?
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Jan 12, 2024 21:57
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eightysixed posted:Dang, I guess I'll be stuck with Calibre 6.29.0 until I feel like shelling out thousands on a MacBook Air that will update past Monterey hah, yeah I had the same problem, don't buy it now though, it's due for a refresh with their new processors (the 13" version)
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Jan 13, 2024 03:36
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Spectral Werewolf posted:I didn’t see one in any pinned OP, but is there a website for no-frills browsing through titles and summaries by genre? Amazon and Apple Books and B&N are all fine, but I feel like I have to do a lot of fruitless digging to get past best sellers, new releases and promoted books before it starts showing me something that’s not also on the front page. Goodreads?
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Jan 13, 2024 17:48
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cumpantry posted:i sure wish Goodreads was as hard on scores as a community like Rateyourmusic is. seriously there's something hosed up and evil in a world where Ready Player One holds a 4.2 This is the will of the people and you will respect it But it's pretty easy to find someone who likes the same books you do and follow them, and check out their recommendations. I quite like Goodreads, it's just so freakin slow sometimes
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Jan 13, 2024 19:14
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lifg posted:* - Better known for other work. Painting?
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Jan 15, 2024 08:36
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Started reading Chain Gang All Stars because, not knowing anything about it, I thought it was some serious, poignant novel about black life in the gang world or something It’s not that, but uhhh I’m pleasantly surprised because it owns, lots of action One or those books where I seemed to notice it everywhere and once I saw it in person I had to get a copy, marketing works
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Jan 18, 2024 21:35
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