Recent comments in /f/books

minimalist_coach t1_ja2n9nk wrote

Reply to Advice for finding books at the library by Remarkable_Home9243

Trying to decide what to read next used to be a big problem for me. Now I join or create challenges for myself. I like to have a "theme" each year for reading. I get almost all of my books from the library, and I read an average of 10 books per month. I read/listen in all formats print, ebook, and audiobook. I tend to keep my hold queue pretty full since many of the books I'd like to read have long waitlists.

Last year I wanted to explore genres outside of my normal go-to books. I chose 6 fiction and 6 nonfiction genres with the goal of reading 2 books from each genre. I also joined an online community that had a Genre of the Month Challenge that gave me a new genre each month and 4 prompts to complete by reading books.

This year I want to explore authors from other countries. I created my own long-term challenge to read fiction and nonfiction books by authors from 195 countries. I expect this will take me several years to complete. I also started using StoryGraph and joined a few other challenges. One challenge has prompts to help me read books on my TBR list.

I keep a list of books that I notice on Reddit or other places on my phone and when I don't have a lot of books reserved I just open my list and add a few more books. I try to keep a mix of books in my queue, but if I feel I'm reading too many of a mood or genre I'll make more effort to add variety.

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Seeker1904 t1_ja2mdon wrote

Reply to Blood meridian reads like a funhouse by HARJAS200007

One of my favourite books of all time. It is very weird though and I'm pretty sure some of the words are phonetic interpretations of other words. If you can stick with it I do recommend it but no shame if it isn't for you.

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Ineffable7980x t1_ja2loef wrote

Reply to Asimov's Foundation Is Bad Literature by Kryptin

You can challenge it all you want, but this book will always be considered a classic.

However, I have the same issues with Asimov's writing that you do. He's that type of old school writer who is more enamored with ideas than he is with character or story. His writing can feel very stodgy and dull, and that's why I think he will always fall behind Arthur C Clark and Ray Bradbury on my list of great classic science fiction authors.

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mankindmatt5 OP t1_ja2l5yq wrote

Reply to comment by the_scarlett_ning in I just finished all the David Mitchell books by mankindmatt5

>By having the common narrator in Cloud Atlas, I felt it gave that “Aha!” moment away

By the way, sorry, what do you mean by this? The main character in each story is a reincarnation?

I think I read that theory somewhere once before, but it doesn't add up somehow.

Timothy Cavendish and Luisa Rey are alive at the same time, are they not? So they can't be the same soul.

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caracallie t1_ja2klwl wrote

Reply to comment by NotAUsefullDoctor in Asimov's Foundation Is Bad Literature by Kryptin

Re: the "I'm a writer bit" reminds me of when I was a kid and I didn't like Disney stars because I was jealous of their success and thought I could do better than them. Thing is, I grew out of that childish & petty mindset by the time I was 12, while OP most certainly did not

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