If you want complicated, give Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe a go. There is absolutely no way you will catch even half of the background intricacies on a first read. I like to listen to analysis of stuff I like and I didn't realize most of the things they talk about, but everything they say makes perfect sense when you go back and think about the writing and narrative.

Gene Wolfe is one of the most highly regarded speculative fiction authors ever. I'm looking forward to continuing his lexicon.

I am only familiar with this rising to the level of controversy in films and video games.

Harry is not royalty anymore

Honestly, idk if 'chronically online' would describe them nearly as well as just 'super toxic and mean', but there are certainly people like this out there.

I think that it can come from many angles, too, which kind of sucks. There are toxic, elitist, gatekeepers that are super into literature in general... and there are toxic gatekeepers who swarm around a given author or franchise (not to name any examples lol). I'm sure that if you really wanna get into it, there's more than just these two levels of toxicity in literature circles, but it's a heck of a thing.

I would be curious to see what their numbers of check outs are in 2023 - because Las Vegas is closing their open access to only area residents.

No it’s a library system in Alabama.

More power to you!

I always loved libraries and librarians since I was a child! There was a big librarian character in the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I saw as a good role model!

Who has complained about this being done in a book? And which book?

Out of curiosity what is Cloud Library?

Is this a single-branch library?

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This is only my opinion 😁 if you have a different view share it I am open for discussions

How old are you? Anything mostly used by teenagers is going to be "interesting".

Huge King fan myself, and I honestly had to leave the King sub because I found the post to be way too repetitive. That sub has a huge problem with that, in my opinion. It got old. I never told people to not post that stuff though. That's their business. I just got sick of reading the exact same post every time I was on the sub, so I left.

Probably safe to say anyone with a personality shored up in politics to the point they’re complaining about diversity in fantasy writing is a lost cause.

Their favorite writers fuel agenda-driven media outlets and that’s all they’ll ever need, thank you very much.

Counterpoint:

There is no reason to bring race or racial attributes into a fantastical story in the first place, unless it serves the narrative.

• We can describe people's features without mentioning racial traits. For example, why mention skin colour at all? "A tall figure, with a strong yet agile built, and a slender face with a gentle smile".

• It's more interesting to describe people by cultural aspects that are subjected to choice, instead of racial aspects that one is born with. Don't mention the black hair or sunkissed skin of the princess, mentioned the detailed embroidery on her sand-coloured silken robe, and the different metals and jewels in her jewelry. Perhaps she has tattoos.

Of course many stories focus on overcoming racial differences. I wholeheartedly agree, a diverse cast is paramount to that. In this case, it is important to establish that there are indeed different races, what the differences are, and strong animosity between the races; such that the main cast can rise above it first, and racial differences at large can be challenged and overcome later. In this case, it serves the narrative to include all these racial aspects.

Big +1 to Rivers of London. Great storyline across 10+ books, well written fun characters, and if you like listening to your books, a really well done audio book series read by Kobna Holbrook-Smith

My sister was an incredible reader and had a fourth grade teacher who did this. My mom pestered him asking if her reading level could be tested so that she could check out books that were more challenging. He finally agreed and she tested at 12th grade level.

His argument then became, "Just because she can understand the text, doesn't mean she can understand the theme. So, she needs to stick to the fourth grade reading level."

No compromise. No flexibility. No interest.

You can guess how many books she borrowed from the library that year.

Echo chambers: exist.

The Reddit format also favors hype and content with quick turnaround. (I'm comparing it to classic forums where you can have long discussions that last more than a few hours/days but weeks/months.)

In my experience (years in places such as /r/mechanicalkeyboards), it's very easy to get downvoted for posting only factual information (yes, not being snarky either), not to mention skepticism wrt latest hypetrain.

Word of advice - don't use Tik Tok.

I am totally baffled when someone tells me that they do use it, for anything.

No, you don’t get it on reddit. That could happen from cross-subreddit posting if someone points a community in your direction, but the admins crack down on that. A bunch of individual people stumbling on your comment and disagreeing with you isn’t the same as a person sending their followers to stalk you online, trash talk you in your comments, and post their own stuff targeted at you. Reddit is generally a pretty civil place by comparison to tiktok and tumblr.

Not sure, honestly.

I love eBooks! I use them all the time! The audio versions are incredible for doing chores, exercising, taking the train, etc.

What happens to books that are barely checked out?

That's kind of sad that the academic library does not have physical books. Why doesn't it have physical books? Is it just a matter of budget?

This is a fascinating insight into what you do with those numbers.

So, if we check out more books, the libraries have the data to show that there is a need and desire for such books, then you can take those numbers and request even more money?

Edit: What happens to books that are barely checked out but could be useful for research - such as academic books? In other words, perhaps Harry Potter is checked out constantly. But if there are niche subjects of academic topics. They could be useful to maybe one person a semester. Will those books survive?