I really liked the sci-fi writer Adam Roberts's description of Philip K. Dick's writing -

"A sense of something hidden, something underground and flourishing in the interstices, like bluebells growing in the cracks of the pavement (or blooms of mors ontologica in amongst the corn) energises his fiction. It's this something that has kept his books alive when better written, better structured and better plotted novels have fallen into obscurity around them. Which is to say that critics can, and do, point to evidence of hasty writing in Dick's works, patches of ragged or inexpressive prose, or occasional addled-head-ness in most of his books (he took a whole bunch of drugs, after all). But even with all that, or conceivably because of that there is a quality that PKD's books possess that few other books, in or out of genre, can match. It is a sort of fascinating aesthetic uncleanness, resonant and enduring. More polish would have rubbed that quality away."

Taken from this review if anyone wants to check it out.

Seconding Birchbark!

>whole book sleeves

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you mean a display case?

​

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I have North and South in my collection, but have not actually read it yet. I wonder if there's anything I should know about or what the background is. You can certainly DM me if you'd like and I can, like, track my progress as I go along, haha.

I mean it's a residence. But there's a difference between what I'm talking about and just leaving a book out potentially in the sun from windows, maybe in a basement or upper level that isn't adequately cooled or heated, or in an area with abnormally high humidity etc. I have Trading Cards I've been keeping in good condition for a long time but that's a bit different than books.

Rum Diary is really good, but a bit different. If you are interested in some of the short stories, The Great Shark Hunt and Screwjack are really good.

Extremely boring book

I think your complaints fall off generally at the seventh or eighth book when the Baudelaires find themselves more or less completely on their own. I really enjoyed the series as a kid along with Dahl. Tried to watch some of the Netflix series and didn't care for it at all. Wish it had been darker and Patrick Warburton was not the right choice to play Snicket, or maybe the better choice would have been to have him as just a narrator rather than appear in person.

I‘ve loved Fear And Loathing but never dove into his other works. Can anybody tell me a good starting point?

I second Prairie Lights!

Exactly what? Also I don't get how she is calling someone dumb by "spoiling" the Illiad. Wouldn't it be the opposite of calling someone dumb, isn't she assuming you have some basic knowledge of the Illiad? Would she be calling someone dumb if she referenced Moby Dick by saying that someone's obsession will lead to their down fall like it did for Captain Ahab?

Also, I don't think the Illiad can really be "spoiled". The whole thing was written with the understanding that the audience already knows all the events and the outcome. It would be similar to say someone is spoiling a story about the Titanic by saying the boat sinks. Or someone referring to the story of Job when talking about a series of tragedies that befalls a character.

Edit: an additional thought. If you do intend on reading the Illiad then she actually did you a favor. Like I said the Illiad is written assuming everyone knows the outcome. This makes the Trojans and Hector an even more tragic series of figures as you know they are doomed. Homer uses this knowledge of the reader to make a better story.

A book dedicated to video games, and someone that campaigns on "video games are the best way to tell a story", should 100% steer away from calling Metal Gear Solid "boring."

Metal Gear Solid is one of the best representations of a real life example of the type of video game she was trying to create in these books. Its basically a movie and video game in one.

Her consistent need to promote political ideology, such as using the term "white boy" repeatedly, or, especially on guns, should be more consistent with her video game research. It's to be expected that she would hate on Football games, Halo, etc... but it would have been nice to deduce what her actual experience with the games were, aside from ... the Oregon Trail

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Exactly she assumes her audience is dumb, and won't read it. The reality though is that it has half a million ratings on Goodreads. She's basically calling people dumb by spoiling the Illiad, that's what people aren't understanding.

This book has been called pretentious many times, and I tried to steer away from that train of thought throughout reading it, but the fact she just throws that out there is what justified my thought on this.

Which incidentally is how most people in antiquity interacted with the works! Festivals would have contests for the recitation of Homer and bards would choose sections that suited their talents, and stories that take place in and around the Trojan War were ripe for adaptation by tragedians (various Iphigenias before the Trojan War, some Ajaxes during and Aeschylus’s Myrmidons took place during the Iliad, and the Orestian cycle after). On top of that people would order only certain books of the Iliad and Odyssey (Iliad II the most popular then and least popular today). Most educated people probably sat down with the entirety of Homer eventually, and many people had it memorized, but most people’s first interactions with the Trojan War myth were piecemeal.

Spoilers are so, so beside the point.

ETA: you mentioned people not reading Homer through all the way. Even if they did they wouldn’t be getting the whole story! The Iliad starts in the ninth year of the war (so no judgment of Paris, no abduction of Helen, no sacrifice of Iphigenia), and takes place over a few weeks and ends with the death and funeral of Hector. Achilles and Ajax deaths and the Trojan horse and fall of Troy all occur offpage between the Iliad and the Odyssey. These were only episodes in a much larger story (and I don’t even think the so-called epic cycle covered all of it).

Also the outline of events would have been known by Homer’s audience. At one point Homer switches to second person with Patroclus and it’s pretty much him saying “you’re about to die, yo.”

(Incidentally Hector, Sarpedon, Patroclus, and Achilles all seem to know they aren’t long for the world for various reasons.)

Not to continue beating on you about The Illiad "spoiler" part but that is just a really strange thing to be upset about. Hector's death and the Trojans losing is something that is/should be safely assumed to be known by general public and is fair game as a literally reference. It's on the line with the Don Quixote fighting windmills, Dr. Jekyll being Mr. Hyde, Beowolf killing Grendel, the ending of Moby Dick, Dracula being a vampire, etc.

Also on a side note, I don't think many people actually intend to read the Illiad or Odyssey straight through, they are massive books which rely heavily on knowledge of ancient Greece and Greek mythology for you to fully understand them. Most people read excerpts in an academic setting or are familiar with the general series of events (like Hector dying and the Greeks winning) through their ubiquitousness in other more modern works.

Actually the Strike novels were great until she used them as a platform for her bigotry :/

Hes absolutely a great writer not sure what you're smoking

While in the area, Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor. Skip Toledo as we have fuck all for used book stores here.

Exactly. Her mental health issues weren’t glamorized.

I loved it because Eleanor felt real to me. The authors depiction of mental health was very authentic.

But I understand it’s not for everyone. Eleanor isn’t likable— that’s the point.

Honestly, I don't know much about this, but to really claim it's in a climate and moisture controlled environment that would prevent damage, that would be museum level controls, not residential. So, over time, my guess is that you will have some issues.

A Man Called Ove was stupid from beginning to end and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine started well but was ultimately disappointing.

I preferred the similarly themed The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend.

Amazing I'll give it a try!