Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere novels. That shit is like crack to me.

I am a big fan of Bofuri the anime, its a wonderful show to watch while eating breakfast

I don’t think I have one. I have read and liked a number of books that I would describe as dumb fun / shallow entertainment, including Japanese light novels (like Bofuri : I don’t want to get hurt, so I will max my Defense, Reign of the Seven Spellblades, or Death Daughter and the Ebony Blade, to mention some light novel series I read recently), but I think it takes actual talent to write that kind of books in a way that is actually fun and entertaining instead of just dumb and shallow.

Also, none of these series were particularly trashy (no harem of scantily clad bunny girls, sorry), just fun and entertaining, so I do not really have anything to feel guilty about reading them. While I may have read a lot of classics and history books when I was younger, I now mostly read for fun, and there is nothing wrong with that either.

Weird/obscure eighteenth century French stuff, at least if I felt guilty. Did you know Marat wrote a romance novel? Yep, that Marat. It's basically a kind of eighteenth century Polish War and Peace, about the then topical conflict involving the Confederates, with a bit of Romeo and Juliet in there too. It's very very period, sentimental, a bit Gothic, he is not the greatest literary talent but I unironically love it, found the central romance super cute because I have admittedly awful aesthetic taste in romance (still want more like it, Paul et Virginie was a disappointment, Lettres d'une Péruvienne is genuinely good but ultimately not actually romantic) and (not even in spite of his insistence on bringing the plot to a grinding halt to go off on one of his classic political rants at one point) it cemented my attachment to the writer. His anti-military views came across very strongly. It was prefaced with some comments from the creeps who underhandedly obtained it from his widow and lost the last page -fortunately the story remains fairly complete- and they didn't seem to know how to fit it into their preconceptions about him. Believe there's another one as well but afaik it only exists in manuscript form (and even if I had access I can't read his handwriting). There's still an awful lot of his political work I could have read instead (The Chains of Slavery is interesting and the original is the English version fwiw), I know I could be much more systematic about studying this period (guilt), but I'm not that sorry. Or for reading his essay on the treatment of gonorrhea. I'm in this in part for those little details.

Also, although it was a popular bestseller at the time and far from obscure, I want to know if anyone still reads Rousseau's terrible parenting advice? 10/10, absolutely hilarious and (I think deliberately, he seems like that) infuriating.

I don't really read to say that I've read something or just to "know" its content, so I can't really think of anything that would actually be more enjoyable as Cliff's Notes. I read for the pleasure and experience of reading whatever it is I'm reading. Reading Cliff's Notes is reading a completely different work in that sense. If I'm not enjoying something, I'll just put it down.

I read this book ages ago and then immediately dived into Michio Kaku's Hyperspace. So I associate the two together. Those were a fun few weeks of reading for me.

I've read it about five times. Love this book.

lol what did you expect

Good lord!

You mean like “Why did Reporter-Lady’s dad bother to write the conveniently expository letter explaining to Harry that he couldn’t run away with him when he would have just told him in person, because indeed that’s why they were in a car together that night?”?

I personally think the short stories make a really good introduction. Mostly because they tend to focus much more on evoking feelings than actually following a plot.

The first story I ever read was "The Nameless City". There is nothing particularly special about it, it's definitely not the best one, but to this day I really love it as an introduction, because at its core, it's a short summary of what "all the hype" is about: The awe and hopelessness in the face of something that's adjacent to humans, but much older and frightening.

Or, if someone wants to go straight to the meat, "Colour Out of Space" works wonderfully for a first time reader.... with the problem being that it's really fucking good and you can't get much better than that, so anything you read after will end up being judged against it.

But... if I had heard people hyping up Cthulhu my whole life as this unimaginable elder god, and read it as my first story just to have him >!being run over by a fucking boat and going back to sleep!<, I'd probably be like... really? that's it?

If you think libraries are only about books, you know nothing of libraries.

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I’m glad to hear that 😊

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> Please help.

I actually recommend starting with 40k. What kind of books do you like?

Helsreach is a generally good place to start.

Dean Koontz, I think I've read every book he ever wrote 😂

Same here! I don't care if it makes me insufferable, sometimes I just want to read about hot faeries.

It was good, I got lucky and worked with a good group of people. I may have been blind to things.

> Then I learned the 60+book series of multiple Authors that was ending very soon. I was disappointed by GRRM abandoning his abandoning GOT for prequels and Robert Jordan dying, so I've been loathe to start series that aren't finished.

Ironically, the 60+ book series is the prequels. 40k is the "main timeline", 30k is more of a flashback.

> Ferrus Manus has iron hands

You forgot that he leads the legion named the Iron Hands.

I’m looking forward to that book. I’ll look past the tennis stuff like I did when I read Apples never fall by Liane Moriarty

NO GUILT! ONLY PLEASURE!

I'm too old to feel any kind of guilt or embarrassment about any of the shit I like, even if it's widely hated or considered "cringe" or whatever.

Also hated this one.

I thought the near complete lack of regard for the AIDS crisis for a group of actors, athletes, and directors splitting time between Hollywood and New York City in the 70s through 90s was ridiculous.

I thought it was very minimizing how only Harry was mentioned to have friends dying, as if gay men were the only ones socially affected and Evelyn and Cecelia would not have also been losing dear friends in the industry, not to mention the role lesbians played in AIDS relief efforts.

Harry getting into unattached sex with a man who had a wife after having had multiple former partners and having that not come up at all felt very rose-colored glasses.

That’s not a one sentence worry that somehow never affects any of their relationships.

Also fully agree that Monique was annoying and unnecessary. I struggle to trust the characterization of her as a critical thinking, intelligent woman when Evelyn is portraying herself in such an obviously negative light

Oh yes, I am quite familiar with the genre 🧐

I see your Isekai light novels and raise you any number of the various ecchi manga I've read.

And yes partially I do read them for the obvious reasons, but honestly the best ecchi is always just so funny that you have to stop what you're doing because you're laughing too hard.

I don't want to say any names because this comment will already make me look degenerate enough, but if you've read Arifureta I'm sure you at least have some idea what I'm talking about.