I found a Man Called Ove truly moving and appreciated the ending after the struggle. Midnight library didn't speak to me. I haven't read the other one.

I mean, the books I am talking about are also published by relatively large publishers who do hire real translators. I've read other things that were translated unofficially by hobbyists, and with those you run into a much wider variety of shit. There's some stuff that's just as good as any translation I've read, and a lot of stuff that's marginally better than using Google Translate, and everything in between.

But even with the big publishers, there's still some books they don't spend as much money on, or expect to sell very well, and these are the books that will have errors and somewhat awkward language.

Still, just from reading a description of those two books and looking at them on goodreads I wouldn't see any giveaways that they are clearly a lower quality book, so I'd think you'd be fair to treat those with the same expectations as any other book.

Really enjoyed this book as well - the stakes felt really high throughout.

I can't watch the film, the murder scene would be too much.

You might like A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. It follows a similar cadence where you read a story and then it's broken down for you by someone used to teaching that particular story to students. I personally loved it

Looks like maybe one on Amazon with Dana Goia and R.S. Geynn

Haha I know! I feel like these books are every teen’s/pre-teen’s guilty pleasure at some point or another.

This was my first Ishiguro novel - one of my roommates pushed it on me (OMG - you have to read this!). I then proceeded to read pretty much everything else he wrote. If you liked this one I recommend the Remains of the Day and Klara and the Sun.

I'd honestly have more confidence looking for beta-read fanfiction than expecting niche genre fiction to have been edited with a significant commitment to improving it. Maybe I'd see the perspective looking at your examples more deeply, but usually, the concept is flawed (the genre itself essentially is) and it can't be fixed, the writer may be inexperienced, the audience may just prefer the trashier narrative choice, the editor isn't there to rewrite the entire thing. (I actually dropped The Fifth Season very quickly and would put it firmly in the unfixable category, equating racial discrimination with lethal superpowers just never makes for nuance and sane motivations, I was done after the first unjustified massacre) I'm not sure I'd distinguish between the idea of it being bad, and being like an earlier draft, unless there were relatively simple ways to adjust it - otherwise the amount of work to do is rewriting, not editing, the writer didn't write something that just needs polishing if it's that much of a mess and they lack the ability to fix it, they're just a bad writer.

I was surprised by repetition that may have been accidental and unconventional grammar (though, that can be valid, from a Sri Lankan writer in English) in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, but that was presented as a literary novel that won the Booker Prize (imo it is not literary, it is a supernatural thriller).

Hi! Sorry this is a bit off topic, but what is a bookghan? I'm a bit unfamiliar with this term.

I agree with the sentiment, though! Bookly is quite nice if you're looking for timed reading habit trackers :)

Interesting question. I have always been an avid reader but I am more likely now to pick up a history or science book than I was when I was younger. Although I would argue that my reading has just really grown more diverse. I pretty much used to just stick to classic literature fiction, kinda cycling through "phases" of favorites (Russian, French, women, 20th Century African American, South American...). I skipped over a lot of popular current stuff that I thought I was too old for at the time it came out, but I had a job a few years ago where I had the luxury of reading during down time and picked up things like Harry Potter and Hunger Games as well as some Roman, Medieval, American Civil War, Australian histories and more science type stuff. If you had asked me 15 years ago if I'd read any of that type of fiction, I would have scoffed. As for the nonfiction I'd probably have bought the book and put it down after a few days in favour of just rereading some Camus or Bronte.

I've gotten a lot less snobby and a lot more diverse in my reading choices and it's been very rewarding.

(Side note: Reading can be dangerous! I "literally" injured my radial nerves and ended up with floppy hands for a few months bc I was so into reading GoT one night, I forgot to take a break and leaned on my elbows holding the book too long! Take a break people...for reals.🤣)

It's probably easy to read. Suits the current generation a lot. People barely read at all these days. This author is probably popular among the crowd that would read something rather than nothing.

If you want some grim multi-generational blood feuds, there's always Njal's Saga. Stupid and petty spats drive reasonable friends into into murders and pitched battles, and for poignancy, there's evidence that at least some of this stuff really did happen, around the year 1000.

One immortal woman, the others are entirely normal women, and not an unreasonable number, just typical college student lifestyle. I absolutely think the depiction of the mercenary culture was a mistake, but it's not really these aspects in and of themselves that make it border on either wish-fulfillment or a possibly misguided attempt to play with the conventions of the genre.

Reminds me of myself back in the 90’s when I was a teenager a friend of mine recommended this book and I ended up reading the entire series and soooo many more! Now I’m like woah that was bat shit crazy lol

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No. I don't like the aspects complained of, either, don't get me wrong, but that doesn't mean they needed editing out or even that there isn't a reason for them - it's absolutely crystal clear from the start that what you're getting is the main character telling the real (though still possibly exaggerated) version of how they became a figure people are telling these conventional epic fantasy stories about. So it's one case where complaining about genre conventions, even those bordering on wish fulfillment, doesn't automatically fit because that's the point, and we were all warned going in. (also the 'sex goddess', more a Circe figure, and the main character is really just acting like a normal enough college student: I think it stands out genre fans jump to complain about this aspect, over points where the main character is far more clearly exaggerating his abilities) Does remain to be seen whether Rothfuss ever can or will do anything with that playing with and commentary on genre, not holding my breath he'll even ever write another book.

But maybe give the first one a go, rather than reading up and having aspects spoiled? What I really like of Rothfuss' is the novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, think it stands out as better written than most fantasy (though that would be a low bar) and more magical realism-esque, but it does concern a character from his main series so not fully stand-alone exactly.

> I'm genuinely unsure why you'd expect any guarantee of them being any good?

My understanding of the traditional publishing process is that books are assigned a number of editors, including developmental editors who would work on plot, pacing, characterization, etc, as well as copy and line editors. I've definitely read books I've disliked in the past; I don't expect every traditionally published book to be good, I do expect every traditionally book to read like it is a final draft by the time it is published. Previously, I've only encountered rough drafts & other drafts between rough and final (let's call them middle drafts) in writing groups and fanfiction. And that is while considering both fantasy and romance, though admittedly I'm not well- or widely-read in the romance genre so perhaps most of that genre does read as though it's in the middle drafts stage

I loved both so much!

Sounds like they were finished, albeit poorly. They got published which is typically the end of the line for creating books. Maybe you can reform your thinking to reflect that. Their finished product didn't live up to your standards and that's what the review should be.

I've noticed that I'm a lot pickier about which fiction books I like reading as I've gotten older, but I still really enjoy them when I find the right book! I think it comes down to the writing style almost more than it does the story line for me personally.

No. I like both. And I'm in my 60s. But yes, there's a whole world of fiction that isn't for young adults.

Try Tolstoy's War and Peace, for example. Or Steven Erikson's fantasy series The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Maybe that's diving into the deep end too soon. But you could work up to it.

I'm late 40s and still mostly fiction. I've always liked biographies too, but they comprise about 10% of my literary intake.

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I like genres and try to grab books from those sections of the bookstore. Covers usually get me tho. I found myself running to the science fiction section after seeing the cover for book three of Janitors of the Post Apocalypse but knowing nothing else about it.

No, not really. Read a dozen fantasy books a two scifi books in the last 9 months. Just like old times.