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Read a [book].

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Posts

  • PeenPeen Registered User regular
    Examples of complete sentences from the book, that illustrate its quality:
    "The land is tribal, rough, and unforgiving, and it also makes for an arduous hike."

    "She has seventeen modes of assassination, and they're each sudden, silent, and lethal." ( in reference to a human woman soldier)

  • McFodderMcFodder Registered User regular
    Peen wrote: »
    Examples of complete sentences from the book, that illustrate its quality:
    "The land is tribal, rough, and unforgiving, and it also makes for an arduous hike."

    "She has seventeen modes of assassination, and they're each sudden, silent, and lethal." ( in reference to a human woman soldier)

    Oh thank god, those noisy, non-lethal assassinations that drag on and on are the WORST.

    Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
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  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    When someone makes a claim like that it's a crime if they don't list them all

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    knitdan wrote: »
    When someone makes a claim like that it's a crime if they don't list them all

    Missed opportunity to have a quality footnote

  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    3cl1ps3 wrote: »
    I've liked 2nd person perspective in a book exactly one time, and it was Harrow the Ninth.
    Yeah.
    Ultimately second person is a bit of a gimmick. It can't not be. It's not the way that people naturally tell stories. Harrow's only works because it has an in-story payoff for being in second person as well as a few very enjoyable sort of fourth wall breaks.

    Quire.jpg
  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    I get why Harrow needs to be in 2nd person, and I got to the point where it didn't bother me as much, but I still didn't like it.

    2nd person takes me out of the story, because the "you" being addressed isn't me. At least with 3rd person I can believe I am the one being told the story.

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I feel like good second person narrative should be playing with the idea that you are the person being addressed?

    Like, it might miss, it might fall apart eventually, but the places where it has felt successful to me are premised around some of that ambiguity and on drawing from the reader's personal life with it

  • N1tSt4lkerN1tSt4lker Registered User regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I feel like good second person narrative should be playing with the idea that you are the person being addressed?

    Like, it might miss, it might fall apart eventually, but the places where it has felt successful to me are premised around some of that ambiguity and on drawing from the reader's personal life with it

    Honestly, I did feel like that reading Harrow. It was odd at first, but it very quickly pulled me in to feeling I was embodying the protagonist to some extent. It was kind of like that camera whoosh into someone's head kind of thing for me--going from a cut scene into the character's eyes that I'm controlling. I know it wouldn't work for everyone, but it definitely clicked that way for me.

  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    Finally finished Small Gods. Got a bit teared up about 3 times at the end. I was donating blood at the time though so I'm blaming it on frailty and reduced vigour.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I feel like good second person narrative should be playing with the idea that you are the person being addressed?

    Like, it might miss, it might fall apart eventually, but the places where it has felt successful to me are premised around some of that ambiguity and on drawing from the reader's personal life with it

    Some of the most successful implementations I've read have definitely played around with reality and perception in that way - seduce you into believing you are actually being addressed, and then play in that space

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Finally finished Small Gods. Got a bit teared up about 3 times at the end. I was donating blood at the time though so I'm blaming it on frailty and reduced vigour.

    Don't read Night Watch just after you give blood again.

  • Grey GhostGrey Ghost Registered User regular
    so this is conveniently timed to the new wave of people getting into Dracula via Dracula Daily

    some years ago, some scholarship brought to light that the version of Dracula published in Iceland a few years after its original UK release, published as Makt Myrkranna or "Powers of Darkness" was not just a translation of the original novel but a significantly altered work that was speculated to have been based on an earlier draft of Stoker's, including some stuff that was cut for the UK edition, plus a lot of material added by the translator that sort of localizes it more to Iceland and makes a bunch of cultural and mythological references that would play better locally. it also, interestingly, stresses that these are true events where the names have been changed. overall it's a lot shorter, with the early stuff at Castle Dracula greatly expanded and the events after returning to England pretty rushed through. I have the nice annotated edition they put out a couple years ago with the Icelandic on one side of the spread and the English on the other, it's pretty cool

    Well, some newer research has turned up that the Icelandic version is actually based on the SWEDISH version, also called "Powers of Darkness" or Mörkrets Makter, translated by an anonymous Swede, and including enough new material to make it a totally different story, almost certainly without Stoker's involvement. this version is twice as long as Stoker's original. apparently in this one, Dracula being a vampire is less important than Dracula being really into Social Darwinism and heading up a fascist vampire cult to conquer Europe and install a master race ruling class. what a wild idea!

    anyway, there's a new English translation of this version too and my copy of it arrived this afternoon. can't wait to dig in!

  • Grey GhostGrey Ghost Registered User regular
    I don't know why "different versions of Dracula" has become the hole I keep falling down but here we are

  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    Is Jonathan Harker still an oddly composed big dummy about import export law while watching a man crawl down the side of his castle?

    It's important that they capture that to me

  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    What's the Icelandic version of paprika?

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  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    Jedoc wrote: »
    What's the Icelandic version of paprika?

    Amanita muscaria

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    I am now reading a book from MJ Newman; she is the lead designer for the Arkham horror card game. super early but it’s definitely a neat modernish take on the idea of the dreamlands via a teenager with a city we became vibe going on.

    It’s called darkdrifters: the key and the crescent

    initiatefailure on
  • David_TDavid_T A fashion yes-man is no good to me. Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered User regular
    Didn't they find out that the Icelandic version of Dracula was actually the translators own novel he just sort of substituted in, or was that just the early working theory?

    euj90n71sojo.png
  • ChicoBlueChicoBlue Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    I read a 2nd person book recently called... Sleeping Giants? It was pretty good

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Is that the one with the digitigrade alien robots?

  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    The book you're thinking of is Sleeping Giants, yes. Neat book, cool mecha stuff, hated the way that dude's knees turned out.

    I suspect Solar is thinking of The Buried Giant, which I haven't read yet but hear good things about from some Swedish nerds.

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  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    Oh nice my sister just sent me a picture of seanan McGuires seasonal fears.

    I bought her middlegame (and some other stuff) as a thank you for lending her car when I house sat last summer. Turns out she really loved that one and I’m glad to see that

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    The Buried Giant is quite good, but I wouldn't call it a book written in second person really?

    The narrative does occasionally address the reader, but I feel like the narrative is in third person, if that makes sense. It feels like you're being told a story, and the book will occasionally cut to you to relate things to your life, but the story itself, the story of Axl and Beatrice, is one that is told in third person. And the majority of the book is their story, not the storyteller's interjections to the audience.

  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    I discovered that thriftbooks has a "popular on booktok section" and I have also discovered I have no idea what the kids are reading. I think I recognized like 6 books from that entire section, read one (song of achilles) and have one other (jasmine throne).

    Some of it is certainly me not paying attention to new releases in YA and romance which seem like big parts of that. but also it kind of felt like just looking at the trends that they hyperfixate on single authors and every book they've ever written and I guess that's just never been my style of bouncing between too many things.

    But still, cool idea and I'm sure that helps draw readers. I know I've seen booktalk endcaps at the library and local bookstores too. I'd probably watch it more if tiktok worked with my phone's vpn but apparently they just shut down vpn traffic to avoid the countries that have banned them

  • CoinageCoinage Heaviside LayerRegistered User regular
    Watching teenagers talk about their favorite YA series sounds dreadful tbh

  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    Coinage wrote: »
    Watching teenagers talk about their favorite YA series sounds dreadful tbh

    As a YA librarian it is fine if you are actually talking to them.

    Secretly listening in to teens talking amongst themselves about books is also good because I'm like the sicko meme.

    (Switch Friend Code) SW-4910-9735-6014(PSN) timspork (Steam) timspork (XBox) Timspork


  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    Entirely based on this thread and mostly @Librarian's ghost I've decided to give Pratchett another shot after reading The Colour of Magic.

    I'm going to do chronological printing order because nothing else on the chronological image made any sense to me.

    Book 2, A Light Fantastic, is already a lot better as each chapter seems to have a loose connection to the one before.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    3cl1ps3 wrote: »
    I've liked 2nd person perspective in a book exactly one time, and it was Harrow the Ninth.

    I've read Harrow the Ninth.

    I've liked the 2nd person perspective zero times.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    I've started Equal Rites, because it was already in my kindle library. Apparently I've read it already but I don't remember it. I do have vague memories of reading Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic so I'm leaving them and I might read them again if I ever finish the whole series. I'm just going to do publication order because I'd like to experience how Pratchett's writing changes over time.

  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    I've started Equal Rites, because it was already in my kindle library. Apparently I've read it already but I don't remember it. I do have vague memories of reading Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic so I'm leaving them and I might read them again if I ever finish the whole series. I'm just going to do publication order because I'd like to experience how Pratchett's writing changes over time.

    I feel like this book takes a bit of time to get going but the last third of it is very very good.

    Quire.jpg
  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    I'd say that what one might call the real Diskworld energy starts with Small Gods. TP was kind of feeling his way into what he wanted to do with the series before that one. However I enjoy all off the series, and Equal Rites is worth reading - and not just for introducing one of the best characters in fiction.

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    I'd say that what one might call the real Diskworld energy starts with Small Gods. TP was kind of feeling his way into what he wanted to do with the series before that one. However I enjoy all off the series, and Equal Rites is worth reading - and not just for introducing one of the best characters in fiction.

    I always feel that this is way too late in the series. It excludes Pyramids, Witches Abroad, REAPER MAN? Those are all extremely Discworld energy to me. Pratchett found his footing far earlier than Small Gods and went on to refine his craft much more than Small Gods. Small Gods is prime Discworld and relatively self contained so it is an excellent recommendation for those who want to try Discworld out but it isn't when Discworld gets good or when Discworld is at its best.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • David_TDavid_T A fashion yes-man is no good to me. Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered User regular
    I feel like Equal Rites is the first time he had an idea that I'd consider classic Pratchett (although the whole importance of seven thing went away very quickly afterwards), while Mort was the first time he pulled it off.

    I also maintain that Pyramids was the ur-Small Gods and I'd be comfortable with calling it the turning point into "real Discworld energy" if you really need to hammer it down to a single book.

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  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    I'd say that what one might call the real Diskworld energy starts with Small Gods. TP was kind of feeling his way into what he wanted to do with the series before that one. However I enjoy all off the series, and Equal Rites is worth reading - and not just for introducing one of the best characters in fiction.

    I always feel that this is way too late in the series. It excludes Pyramids, Witches Abroad, REAPER MAN? Those are all extremely Discworld energy to me. Pratchett found his footing far earlier than Small Gods and went on to refine his craft much more than Small Gods. Small Gods is prime Discworld and relatively self contained so it is an excellent recommendation for those who want to try Discworld out but it isn't when Discworld gets good or when Discworld is at its best.

    For some reason I had it in my head (and didn't check) that Small Gods preceded Reaper Man and the other two you mentioned. Clear evidence - as if more were needed - that it's time for my sunday afternoon sherry and nap.

  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    Real V1m energy

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    The Death books have the best lines in them, bar none. And the best philosophy outside of Small gods (which I honestly, earnestly, believe should be required reading for highschoolers)

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    What can the harvest hope for if not the care of the reaper man?

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    “All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

    REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

    "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

    YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

    "So we can believe the big ones?"

    YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

    "They're not the same at all!"

    YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

    "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

    MY POINT EXACTLY.

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  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    Gives me goddamn chills every time.

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This discussion has been closed.