Gah I'm very disappointed in myself for not listing this as an example, under any other circumstance I push this book constantly

Here is one of mine: Last of all Hurin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew Hurin cried: 'Aure entuluva! Day shall come again!' Seventy times he uttered that cry; but they took him at last alive...

It helps me through tough times.

Don't sweat it, if you get lost at who someone is or what/where you are you can check the family trees and maps at the back. So many F names, and I'm really bad with names. My favourite elf is from the Silmarillion and I can never remember if it's Fingolfin or Finrod.

Two thoughts.... Find yourself before you dive into any kind commitment. Also, never even think about trying meth.

Why do people think everything is binary? People are not good people or bad people. They are just... People. With good and bad qualities. Humans are complex. The fact that you are just like "ope they did something I don't like, I'm not cheering for them anymore" is pretty concerning to me and very bizarre.

This post is perfectly emblematic of a trend I've been seeing a lot lately. People HAVE to categorize characters into either good or bad and that's just not how life works. It's quite concerning, and probably a symptom of the increasing tribalism and polarization of society.

I read it all on twitch back when I used to stream. What a ride that was! Such a good book.

I agree. Crossing the eyes "method" is new to me, but I am all on board with it. This could be groundbreaking.

Oh boy oh boy

This is honestly one of the turn offs of reading mid-century literature. I don’t think Baldwin was a misogynist himself (or at least I don’t know about it) but it was such an enormous part of mid-century culture that it’s in virtually every book from the period not written by women. And frankly probably many of those too, if they’re writing about the culture they’re living in. It’s similar to how if you decide to read boys’ literature from the 1890s, you’re absolutely going to encounter fairly extreme racism and imperialism.

I find this sort of thing can ruin a book for me too! I don't really care if it's "realistic for the character" like some people like to say in response to these complaints, if it's unpleasant to read then I'm not having fun and I'd rather avoid it 🤷‍♀️

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

Dead Astronauts definitely does something weird with time!

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. Its a long one, but it has a lot of what you've mentioned, and is a very uniquely structured story.

I would say the other two books in the trilogy apply here even moreso. And Dead Astronauts, also by Vandermeer, is too out there for me to even give a straight answer as to whether it's non-linear or not. But it definitely gives you a jigsaw puzzle of a story.

Thanks for engaging, thought you were trolling.

You're in a Tolkien fan group. Of course people are going to disagree with you. I did find the Sil difficult, but didn't find it tedious - I found it heartbreaking, but (spoiler alert!) that's the fate of Arda marred.

Yes ! I always got David Lynch vibes from Murakami

So I’m very late to the party and this is my first time commenting here but I just finished the Rings of Power series and have been really really interested in getting into Tolkien lore lately (for shame, I know) but I’ve found it to be a bit intimidating.

I’ve only ever read The Hobbit, but have been going through and reading wikis, excerpts, watching lore videos and anything else I can find recently which has me interested to read more. The writing itself isn’t too difficult to follow but I find myself struggling with all the NAMES. Especially the fact that person place and thing has at least 3 different names for the exact same thing! This has been a bit daunting for me and kept me away from doing a full dive.

Any thoughts on this from some more experienced readers?

I found the part played by Huan the hound, in the tale of Beren and Luthien particularly moving. >!He's given the intelligence to understand speech, and the ability to speak exactly three times. He dies fighting the werewolf Carcharoth and with his last speech, wishes Beren and Luthien farewell, dying with Berens hand on his head. He was as Good a Boy as you could get.!<

I don't even start looking at what my next book will be until I'm about 100 pages from finishing my current book. My mom usually has 25-50 books in her tbr pile which seems insane to me

You can counter these negative feelings by deliberately re-reading passages, and the Table of Contents. When I really want to appreciate a work of non-fiction at least, I'll make sure to read everything; the prologue, forward and introduction, all the footnotes and end notes, the afterward, and even the Index. You can also take notes, pick some works from that book's own references if the topic is engaging, and looking for more alternatives by checking Amazon, archive.org, your library online, and other booksellers for more titles like it. The reviews can ba valuable too.

I have no idea what goodreads is for or why I would use it. Not going to change that either.

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco has a main character with Amnesia and alternate personalities remembering his past. It has a pretty creepy effect

That takes too much time that could otherwise be spent posting on Reddit about how you should be reading.

Just place the two books side by side and cross your eyes.

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvin Welsh

But your right “notoriously tedious” would have been better

He cut his ass too. A wound that never truly healed.