My bank account tells a different story.
But seriously an interesting article! I had no idea that such a huge swath of books simply aren’t profitable, even for the big publishers. Wild!
I don’t play The Sims for months and months, then come back to it and play really intensely for few days.
Skyrim, Fallout, Stardew Valley, and the Animal Crossing Games are my perennial favorites!
Time will tell on this one, but I think Baldur’s Gate 3 will be one I come back to again and again.
Mine’s not so much a pile so much as at least half of my bookcase. And it’s a little bit of everything!
Struggling to get over a lingering cold this week, but pretty much good other than that!
Have a good week everyone!
Been playing a new farm in Stardew Valley after the 1.6 update. I hadn’t played much since back before 1.5, so there is a lot of new content! Also still grooving on Cyberpunk 2077, getting some of the main quest done.
Started a new farm this morning, ha ha! I’ve barely played since before the 1.5 update, so I’m excited for all the new content!
I relate to this a lot. I was on Reddit for over a decade, too, when I left after the third-party apps shut down. I loved a lot of the discussion over there (once I got away from some of the big subs and found smaller ones), and still kind of miss it. There really was a period of sadness when I left. I’m trying to be active over here to help these communities grow, but it’s hard to get back into it and be motivated sometimes.
It’s only Monday, but so far getting things done this week.
Have a good week, everyone!
I saw that something unlocked, but I thought it was the same maps with a chance to go back and get the species you missed or something like that. I’ll have to go look more closely!
Very excited for the Stardew Valley update!
I played Terra Nil, which was really enjoyable, but way too short! It only has four levels, and I would have played much more than that.
Also playing Against the Storm, which I stumbled across on Steam looking for something else to play after I finished Terra Nil so quickly. Really liking this one as well! The city building itself is fun, and the added aspect of the metagame/cycle outside of the city builder is a twist that I think works really well.
Also still working on Cyberpunk 2077!
I kind of miss Street Pass. I always loved it for when I was going through airports- you could get Street Passes from lots of different places!
Board games would be a good one!
The weekly “What are you playing?” thread, too!
We have a literature community, but I would love a weekly “what are you reading?” or similar thread. I love seeing what other people are reading and sometimes find new books in those types of threads. Mostly I just want to talk about books, ha ha!
Just helping sentient taxis find their way home and other miscellaneous gigs in Cyberpunk 2077. Making slower-than-usual progress on this one, even though I’m enjoying it a lot, because I’ve been busy lately (and have a really good book that’s stealing my time, ha ha!).
Also it’s more like what I’m planning to play, but I’m definitely going to start a new playthrough of Stardew Valley once the 1.6 update releases. I haven’t even done most of the 1.5 stuff, so I’m looking forward to a starting up a new farm!
Are the readers-in-residence allowed to read their books on their phone?
In simpler terms, you won’t find labels like “fiction” or “biography” on the shelves. Instead, you’ll find genre labels lifted from book titles (“Living by Fiction”), poetry lines (“Flood the Margins”) or wordplay (“Subject, Object, Predicament”).
I get what they’re going for, but good grief that sounds like it would be annoying if you’re looking for a particular book.
Something you thought you would love that turned out to be awful, or vice versa? A great plot twist that blew your mind?
What was the last book that surprised you in some way?
Anyone else have some spooky reads lined up for October? My bookclub is reading Frankenstein this month, which will be a nice change of pace from the usual fare. I’ve got Tender is the Flesh, Rouge, and Black Sheep lined up. I will probably get to The Haunting of Hill House as well, which I’m really excited to read! I just finished up Vampires of El Norte, which definitely needed more vampires!
I try to do what I can to make my local community better. I research and vote in every election, donate money to local nonprofits and also volunteer there when I can (heading to the food bank in a bit, yay!), and try to speak out and offer words of encouragement when I can.
But I live in a very socially, politically, and religiously conservative community. And I…am not. It constantly feels like any effort amounts to pissing in the wind, and yet also like I am not doing nearly enough at all. It makes me anxious a lot.
The latest iteration of this is local people trying to get “obscene” children’s and YA books in the public library moved to the adult section. And to be clear most of these books are not obscene they just acknowledge that, hey people who are LGBTQ+ (sorry if I got that initialization wrong!) exist and that racism is a real thing. I went to the public meeting and was mostly ineffective except I got to thank the library director for her work pushing back against this. I would love to write a Letter to the Editor of the local paper to speak out, but there is a risk of retaliation against my family members and their local businesses. And most of the community seems to be behind this which is absolutely bonkers to me. I don’t know what to do.
I don’t even know where I’m going with this. I think I just needed to say it. Anyone else deal with something similar- feeling like you need to do more but also feeling completely defeated about actually getting anything to change?
Some of these look really interesting! Definitely want to check out Silver Nitrate since I’ve enjoyed her work in the past. Anything catch your eye?
Do you set goals like reading a certain number of books in a year? Participate in reading challenges?
I don’t set goals around reading a certain number of books. Those have always seemed arbitrary and not helpful for my reading. I have done reading challenges in the past, though—the yearly Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, the yearly reading challenge from PopSugar, book bingo. I like those types of challenges for helping me to break out of my comfort zone and try new authors and genres! I’ve also made my own challenges. What are some of your favorite reading challenges?
Anyone else have a book (or books) that they want to read but just never seem to actually get around to reading? Any books you feel like you ought to read but never do?
Probably unpopular, but for me it’s classic Russian literature- War and Peace, Crime and Punishment and the like. I know they’re supposed to be amazing, but I just can’t work up the energy to read them. I think Anna Karenina soured me on Russian literature; the middle portion of that book with Levin on the farm was such a drag that I’m hesitant about the other books.
What about you?
Do you reread books or are you done with them once you’ve read them?
I like to reread books sometimes! Rereading is especially good if I’ve just finished something heavy or intense; I can follow that up with something that I’ve enjoyed before so it doesn’t take too much effort and I can have a bit of a break. I also don’t have the greatest retention for what I read, so even if I’ve read something before there’s no way I’ll remember everything. And there are certain books that are comforting and cozy and those are great to reread when I want that kind of mood.
Continuing with our midyear retrospective on the year’s most popular books so far, it’s time to head over to the speculative fiction aisles. In fact,...
Read any of these yet? How were they? Anything catch your eye to add to your TBR list?
I’ve read A Day of Fallen Night, which I really enjoyed! Lots of interesting characters with relationships that felt real, action, and dragons! I would definitely recommend reading Priory of the Orange Tree first though, just to get that background world building info.
I want to pick up The Ferryman, How to Sell a Haunted House, and A House with Good Bones since I’ve enjoyed previous works by those authors.
When you’re getting books do you prefer to get new ones or secondhand ones?
I really enjoy the “hunt” for used editions of books that I want, and browsing through stacks in used bookstores is fun and neat way to discover books that I might not ever run across otherwise! But I’m kind of picky about the condition of books I buy, so sometimes I just go the easy route and pick up a new copy. Or if it’s a book I don’t want to wait to read I’ll snag a new one!
