Everyone has their own niche expertise and interests. What are some things you've seen in books that you were like 👀 'well that's not correct at all'.

This is inspired by the one post for healthcare workers to describe medical inaccuracies. But I'm also thinking of when actors don't know how to play an instrument and they pretend sooo poorly.

A few examples to start~ I didn't think the linguistics of Project Hail Mary checked out at all. Especially the part where he was able to get Rocky to approximate his name Grace with their limited understanding of each other's languages.

I recently read Wild Dark Shore and there was a part where a character was wearing a wet suit for arctic water temps and I was like mmm.... maybe a dry suit would be more appropriate?

What elseeee, oh my goodness. People often get international politics (especially Chinese politics!!!) so wrong. In The End of Men the author tried to say that Beijing declared independence, when Beijing is the capital??? The book as a whole is soo inaccurate and wrong in so many ways and fields lol. I have to stop myself from venting about this book.

I love seeing people talk about things they are passionate about and their expertise! Please share with the class your most egregious or funny examples ❤️🤓🧠

I want to get into horror, have wanted to try it for a while now, BUT I can't read about sexual violence, it's a major trigger for me, and I'm always afraid that's what I'll find in horror books. Knowing that, do you think this quest would be a good fit for me? The queer aspect is a big bonus and that makes trying those horror books even more appealing.

I wanted to know everyone's thoughts on fanfictions getting published since I know people have quite varied opinions on the subject. I personally haven't read much or any books that were adapted from a fanfics so if your favorite fanfic was published, how did you feel about it?

My take on this is mostly as a fanfic reader I feel like I would be sad if a fanfic that I loved or that I was reading was taken down to be published. Don't get me wrong I'm happy for the author that they are getting published but for that to happen we need to strip the fanfic of the characters and what would make it recognisable because of copyright issues. If it is an AU I think it could still work but a canon divergent fic or anything in that same universe would probably require a lot of prior knowledge, that with a fanfic the reader already have with the source material. But maybe I'm reading too much into that.

Also I thought that it was strange that the fandom space and fanfics are predominantly queer ships but so far I've only heard about straight fanfics getting published. Wouldn't it make more sense for queer fanfics to get publish since they are more popular.

One thing I keep saying that I love about PB is how longer, more thoughtful, and “high effort” posts are encouraged and appreciated by the community as a whole! I can’t recall any other place on the internet where I’ve seen such a widespread appreciation for the time, effort, and insight people put into their posts and the things they share, and it feels like not only is there the space for that kind of thing here, but that it’s integral to the foundation of the platform as a whole.

I thought I’d put together a thread for people to share their favorite “high-effort” posts and give them some additional love! I’d love for everyone to share 1-3 of their own posts they worked on, and 3 (or more!) posts from other people they appreciated for the insights someone else had to add. Note that for your own posts, please don’t feel like you can’t share if you didn’t spend 12 hours writing out a huge essay review or something; “high-effort” is relative, and honestly I think the best judge of these things is always going to be yourself. If it’s a forum post, review, comment, etc in which you worked harder on or put in more effort than normal, I want to see it!

[Note also that I use the term “high-effort” here not to disparage any other type of post (i love jokes n memes as much as anyone else!), but as a quick and convenient way to encompass posts that 1) clearly took a lot of time and effort to put together, 2) made you think and examine angles you hadn’t previously considered, 3) offered valuable insight and discussion, 4) any combination of the above. If anyone can think of an easier/catchier term to encompass posts like this, I’m all ears hahaha]

Here are my offerings to the class:

+Mad Sisters of Esi review: I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to articulate my thoughts about this book, and I’m glad that I ended up writing a review for myself to look back on and remember just how the book made me feel! (no spoilers)

+Starving Saints forum post: An analysis of some themes in the book which took me a lot of time to think through and get my thoughts all organized. It was a great exercise for me personally to work on expressing how the narrative was impactful to me (final thoughts post)

+Blood Over Bright Haven forum post: An attempt at a more technical breakdown/analysis of the opening chapter, from a writing/craft perspective. This kind of thing is my bread and butter but I don’t normally take so much time to sit down and write it up all organized-like, so it was a fun challenge for me! (no spoilers past chapter 1)

+“What are your favorite stylistic/rhetorical devices?” Club discussion post - by @mythos: Really great and insightful and interesting topic, I’m honestly sad that it didn’t get more attention because this is just the kind of thing I love to pick apart when I read! @mythos is clearly super knowledgeable and it was a delight reading about rhetorical techniques i’d never heard of in the comments

+Interview With the Vampire review - by @farron: Not only is this a stellar review of the book itself, but it’s an awesome analysis of how Anne Rice’s life, experiences, and values shaped the narrative and storytelling choices. I’m always going to appreciate such a holistic perspective when it comes to considering a book or text! (no spoilers)

+The Goblin Emperor review - by @kateesreads: In just two paragraphs, @kateesreads paints such a vivid picture of not only the book itself, but also the technique and craft behind the scaffolding of the narrative. Love the analysis in this review, no notes, it’s such a great look at a book and everything that makes it so subtly unique. (no spoilers)

Pls go forth and share your own self-shoutouts and others-shoutouts! I'm keen to see what I might have missed!

What’s everyone’s favourite feature on PB?? I’m still finding out new things, like how each book page has a ‘recs like this’ section underneath them.

Was wondering what other cool stuff I’ve been missing out 👀👀

Audiobook users (or anyone really), help me out, how do you pronounce "The Seacht" ? Is it [see-sht]? [seh-kt]? It's such a useless detail but I find myself unable to focus cause every time I read it I don't know how to sound it out 😂