I feel like I am becoming a bit paranoid with every app and service slapping ai in our faces. I come across books and I have to look at the cover for 5 solid minutes trying to pick up any slight indication that it's one of the AI generated images going around. Then there are the books themselves... It just feels like everyday there is a new comment on a book circling that the author might have used the tool. But obviously you one can't prove that easily.

I would really like to avoid supporting authors and books that use any kind of art/writing from AI and I would like to know if anyone has any tips on how to maybe make sure or find legitimate sources that may help me check for such examples

this is a lot more somber than i anticipated (not in a bad way!) - there’s a really poignant contrast between feeling helpless (in this case with the mmc’s mom’s critical condition) and power/control (through throwing himself into the AI bot). death and creation, uncertainty and algorithms.

I think I'm not going to engage in forums about fantasy and sci-fi anymore, cause I've noticed a lot of people shame authors for adding details and circumstances that break our social norms. Mind you, I'm not talking about the exaltation or justification for atrocities, or about when the representation of evil is unnecessary and dehumanizing. I'm talking about opening a book set after an apocalypse, or in a fantasy medieval world, and still expecting the characters to act like us with our same perfect moral compass. It's an implicit agreement between the author and the reader when the genre of the book is set: you're going to read about some behaviours you might disagree with in your world, to make you think about them. You'll see how desperate times make people desperate, how different settings make people different. Of course we should still dislike what does not align with our moral compass and even point it out in a reflection, but to shame the authors (when it's clear they are representing and not endorsing) is a sign of poor media literacy in my opinion.

I've been seeing more folks designing personal curriculum: essentially inventing a class for themselves using resources they've researched and then compiled. The topics themselves have been fascinating, and often niche, so I was curious about what other Boundlings might do themselves.

So! If you could design a literature class on any topic, as general or niche as you wanted, what would it be?

So, I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and a lot of times the narrator can either make or break a book. Usually, when I come across a narrator who lessens my enjoyment of a novel, I try not to hold it against the author (lower my rating on the book). I just assumed they had no choice in choosing the narrator.

However, I've done some research, and it seems authors get the final say on who narrates. Is this true? And if so, would it be fair to lower the rating on a book if I did not like the narrator?

Trashy books (Non-derogatory) absolutely deserve scholarly analysis. How do they manage to be objectively terrible yet hold me hostage like it’s the best thing since sliced bread? I’m reading garbage (also Non-derogatory) with the devotion of a monk and frankly I’m offended and amazed.