I...have no words. This was a crazy read. Review soon I need to process.

sooooo what are some of your controversial book opinions? don’t be shy, tell meeee !!! this is a safe space 🧐

for me: i hate when the cover of a book is a man/ person, when the playlist of a book has taylor swift, & when a book is extremely long for no good reason. ( I will dnf or skip a book if I see these )

I’m not talking problematic, I’m talking PETTY. Like, “I know it’s stupid, but I’m dying on this hill anyway,” level of petty. I’ll go first…

Typically I’m all for an author getting their bag for their intellectual property. But in this case, I won’t read 'The Witcher' series, and it’s because the author pretty much dissed gaming as an art form, then got the Polish government involved to force CD Projekt Red (game devs of The Witcher series) to renegotiate his contract because he chose to sell his IP in the gaming sector for an immediate payout over taking a royalties check. He didn’t believe the game series would come to anything, didn’t believe that gaming was a serious art form, then cried when he noticed how much money the devs made (as well as the exposure it created for his book series) and threatened litigation for $16 million.

So I refuse to read his books or watch the show. In fact, I think it’s kinda hilarious that the Netflix writers don’t respect his material in the same way he didn’t respect gaming. I consider it karmic payback.

You can find out the full scope if you look up YongYea on YouTube. The videos span from 5-6 years ago. And yeah… that’s my Petty Betty book moment. What's yours?

good morning <3

If y’all could create your ideal book like a 5* read

what would it be about? (characters, plot, setting, tropes, etc)

I always really liked supernatural type books so probably something involving that 🤔

Heyo! I’m looking for some recommendations in the thriller and horror genre. I feel like a lot of books I’ve read have just been lackluster. I just finished reading The Lamb by Lucy Rose and was so disappointed the entire way through :( I’ve been trying to stay away from authors like Stephan King. Figured I’d try here and see what you peeps might have to say! Thanks so much 💛

Some authors prefer to stay completely out of the spotlight, others do the occasional tour or book signing when promoting a new release, and some maintain a strong social media presence with frequent interviews and public appearances. For instance, M.L. Wang comes to mind as someone with a very low online profile. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Brandon Sanderson and perhaps R.F. Kuang, who are both much more publicly known and active. Donna Tartt, I’d say, sits somewhere in between, though she doesn’t publish nearly as often as the others.

My question is: do you have any thoughts or preferences when it comes to this?

Personally, I’ve watched quite a few of Brandon Sanderson’s videos and R.F. Kuang’s interviews. I’ve read their well-written wikipedia pages and seen the "about me" sections on their websites. Lately, though, I’ve started to wonder if I shouldn't have done that, because I feel like I can’t seem to separate the author from the story when read their books, like I can feel their presence right by my shoulder.

For example, while reading Katabasis, I sometimes catch myself thinking, "right, the author is in academia, she’s a historian, has a PhD, studied at Oxford." And when I read Sanderson, I can’t help but picture him or recall moments from his videos, like there would be a scene comes up involving father–son relationships, and my mind goes to "yeah, the author has a son, I know that", or there would be a scene that explore religious patterns (which happens a lot in his books), I would start to think about mormonism.

It’s not something that ruins my reading experience. After about hundred pages into the story, those intrusive thoughts mostly fade away. But still, it’s made me wonder if knowing so much about an author can get in the way of immersing yourself in their work.

What do you think? Am I the only one who feels this way?

Had high expectations from aggtm but something is not giving man. But it just started so I will hold my horses 😂

Fun question that popped up in one of my reading discords.

I am currently reading a non-fiction, and I would be farming yams in Jamaica. Honestly sounds like a good time to me lol.

what’s the most specific or absurd reason you’ve dnfed a book??

mine is that the author used “rizz” it was awful