The Bibliophiles discussion

This will be the place to talk everything books. Feel free to post your own topics about anything book related. Really enjoyed a recent read? Tell us about it! Looking for some genre specific titles to check out? Ask away! If it has to do with books add it here!! Thanks! :)

Ah, so the daily chat will shut down now?

No! It's just in a different place now haha. I'm just trying to make some new discussion topics for this new group. I really wanted to keep everything going with the Bookworms Anonymous group but since I lost moderator access I cannot get into anything or change or update and information. I can't even send out group messages. I've tried to reach out to the lady who started the group to try and see if I could get moderator access back or just figure out what the situation would be going forward but for whatever reason I cannot get a hold of her so I just decided to make a new group and start over. I hated to do it but I didn't want to try and be in charge of a group that I wasn't fully in charge of if that makes sense. I really enjoyed the moderator duties so I thought this would be a good option! Sorry for all the confusion!

Wwll. I move over no prob :) Just wondering what happends with the old group now. Does it just... keep on going but without any changes?

I guess? I mean I guess if people keep conversing it will just be an unmoderated forum (I Keep picturing a bunch of bookish types crying anarchy but not really doing anything) There won't be much activity other than though. No BOTM or group activities at all. If people eventually stop conversing and activity drops to 0 I don't know if GR has an algorithm that shuts down groups with no activity or anything. Who knows what will happen. lol

Anarchy for book lovers probably consists of turning pages down as book marks and highlighting hard back books!

haha!! That's so true and funny. I imagine a library with people talking in not quite whispers and moving books to spots they are not supposed to be in and quietly giggling when they read a overly cheesy romance novel title

Kandice wrote: "Anarchy for book lovers probably consists of turning pages down as book marks and highlighting hard back books!"

Oh god, those crimes should be punishable by death!

A friend insisted (really, aggressively, insisted) that I have to read Nijigahara Holograph. He just showed up, pushed the book in my hand and demanded I read it. I'm halfway through and I have no clue what is going on, or why, or how.

Yes Diane! This can be where we talk about our currently reading stuff! :) The Golden Age of Murder sounds awesome!! I definitely want to read this! I have never read The Goldfinch but I read her other book The Secret History. It was...Interesting. I do think it was a good book but it's just not my kind of book if that makes sense. It was strange and twisted. It was just one of those books that when you finish it you just set it down and say 'hmmm..'
Jenny, That does sound like an odd book haha. You'll have to let us know how it turns out.

Well that's understandable and rather polite lol. I know that when someone's begs me to read a book that I know I won't like or something I always feel horribly awkward and then I feel really obligated to read it and I get frustrated for feeling like I've wasted my time. Sometimes though it does work out. I guess it's kind of a hit or miss thing.

I don't like to do it much either but sometimes people ask for recommendations and then I first ask what they usually like and base it on that. Otherwise I tell people what I liked about it and what many don't like about it so if it hits a pet peeve they might not want to take me up on it. My friends book is a manga and I told everyone that I don't like comics much, or to much surrealism, or to much symbolism in contexts I don't understand. Taoism is not a religion/philosophy I know much about besides the bare basics I miss to many details in comics too and it has 3 timelines and a couple of dreams/alternative timelines and the time itself seems to loop in on itself without the characters knowing and chronological order is a non-concept in it. I can appreciate the fact that it is well done, it probably makes a fundamental point about the human condition and the nature of trauma and circles of abuse but I've no clue what that might be. "Well done" does not meam "me likey"

By the same token, some books are for a certain niche of readers. While I may miss a lot or not understand many of the references, there may be a group of people that just lap it up!

I always feel weird about recommending books and some people are insistent and then have the nerve to blame me when they don't like my rec.

I'm pretty honest with myself that a lot of what I love just wouldn't appeal to everyone.

@Kandice: Yes! I love LOVE the grimdarks. Abercrombie, G R R Martin, R. K. Morgan, stuff like that. The kind that seems so dark and the characters so cynical and the world so violent (sometimes its just violent for the sake of violence which is not good, and not many writers get that balance quite right) that it is often not a good idea to have the audio-books play out loud when people can hear it. They are not for everyone. Certainly not for people who rather have feel-good fuzzy chicklit instead. Or romances. The grimdark sometimes have romance but they are seldom ... romantic. I don't need my characters to be likable either. I rather have them being interesting. That is way more important.

A prof at the uni gave a lecture on characters in fiction where I sat in on. He said that many characters are kept plain and without dept so the readers can project themselves on them. Thats why Tintin is so flat, characterwise, and the best seller The DaVinci Code was a bestseller with the protagonist having the emotional depth of wet pavement. People are capable of seeing themselves in them and that makes flat characters instantly likable. Romances seem to rely a LOT on this. So the people reading them can project themselves on the heroine and their perfect ideal of a boyfriend on the male lead. And that just... doesn't work for me. I don't like Tintin because he is so flat, or Bella Swan for the same reason, or whatsname from Dan Browns bestsellers.


@Diane: Same here, can't stand romance (or lust-mance for that matter). There are some exceptions, Pride and Prejudice being one of them, but when people recommend they are always sure that they have this one book that will become one of the exceptions. Because they have read lots of romances and their favorite is by far the best. Diana Gabbeldons Outlander was one of those and yes, it was well researched historical fiction but I still don't like it. To much romance and yawn-inspiring sex scenes, to little politics, feuds and backstabbing.

In return I don't recommend Dresden Files or The Iron Druid series to my Orthodox catholic friend. She won't get the pop-culture references at all and disprove of the massive amount of pagan religion and will throw a fit to Iron Druids depiction of Mary and Jesus. These books rely completely on those things though so its a no go.

Vampires can be romanticized in my opinion (Interview with the Vampire did a good job at that) questions about loss and the burden of immorality can be explored (but is seldom done properly so I gave up on the genre) but vampire romances are just ... eeehhhgggg. Zombies are plain overdone, I agree.

What Jenny said!

I am trying to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I bought it when it first came out and all my friends were reading it. I just couldn't get into it. Now I am enjoying it, but I do find myself kind of zoning out and realizing I have read an entire page and don't what happened because usually nothing has!

I want to watch the show, but feel I should read it first. Has anyone read it?

I have not yet but I actually bought it a few days ago and it should be arriving in the mail soon! I've really been wanting to read it because I too would like to watch the show but want to read the book first. I've heard good things about it overall.

I heard of the show but haven't seen as much as a trailer. You guys read it and tell me if its any good :)

I can do that!! :)

It's NOT an easy read!She kind of blathers on. I love the story, just wish she didn't take so long to tell it.

haha Well thanks for the heads up on that! It's always good to know what you're getting into with a book so that you can prepare yourself!

Ummm maybe good as an audio book? Then I can do other things while I'm listening. Is anyone reading Wuthering Heights btw?

I'm reading it!! I'm actually enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting too. I started it years ago when I was 18 and I just couldn't get into it. I don't know what's changed but I'm liking it! I'm not even 100% sure what it is I'm liking haha. It's just kind of funny in a weird way and kind of a fascinating gossipy story that I find fun.

I don't like Wuthering Heights. They are both so incredibly melodramatic. I've read it, so could probably contribute to discussion, but won't read again.

I think an audio of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell would be better, but I am working my way through The Dark Tower series on audio so it would be a loooong time until I could get to it.

I think maybe that's what I find amusing about it. I found myself giggling inwardly at the ridiculousness of some of the things going on and it reminds me of when my 5 yr old is throwing and insane and completely over the top fit for no reason and it's just so ridiculous that I just sit back and laugh.
I would imagine that an audio version would be better now that you mention it but since I don't have a long commute and a job that lets me listen at work anymore I really don't get as much time to do audio books as I used to. I do listen at home while cleaning and such but I am constantly interrupted by my husband or daughter or one of the animals and so there's a lot of stopping and playing and pausing and trying to remember what was going on. And now I'm the one rambling haha.

I agree! I'm loving wuthering hights, it is just too insane, over the top melodramatic and just plain weird. Those two and that entire family are one hell of a disfunktional bunch. I'm at chapter 10 now :)

Oh cool!! I'm glad you're reading it too! I think I'm about to start chapter 7? I'm on page 66 out of 315 so wherever that is in the book lol. I plan to read a lot this weekend

My ereader app says page 188 of 473. O.o I'm not even gonna pretent I know how it calculates that number.

haha I tried to look it up once and it was very confusing as to how it calculates it exactly. I'll have to find the explanation again

What did you think of The Goldfinch? I've heard a lot of buzz about it but I read her other book The Secret History and while technically it was a good book, I wasn't a big fan of her writing style.

You perfectly explained how I felt about The Secret History. From a technical point of view it was very well done. But all of the characters were just empty and blah and mostly (at least to me) not relatable at all. I just couldn't be moved to care about any of them. It's interesting how these two books are so highly praised. I guess if that's what you like then ok but it definitely wasn't for me.

Sedaris cracks me up every time.

How fun! I need to tell my husband to download The Chimes on his Audible account for me haha.

Oh man, how sad. :( It's always so heartbreaking when great talent leaves the world.

There have been times when authors have died and I literally cry that there will be no more from them. Very, very sad.

Thank you Diane.

I think I would like to read 'Merlin's Dream' as well. And deaths close to Christmas are always much more heartbreaking. :(

Those books look really interesting! I'm always a sucker for true detective stories haha.

I'm reading school related stuff that I don't list on gr. Unless I read it as I'd read a novel I usually pretent I did not read them at all. Does anyone else do that?

Jenny wrote: "I'm reading school related stuff that I don't list on gr. Unless I read it as I'd read a novel I usually pretent I did not read them at all. Does anyone else do that?"

I'm not in school, but do have to read quite a bit for work. I don't count any of that stuff because it isn't pleasure. Occasionally we'll have a speaker or scholar in residence and if their book(s) was something I was interested in reading on my own I will list it here, but sadly, it's usually not!

I don't post a lot of the kids books I read to my daughter but I guess I should. It would be kind of cool to keep up with all the books she likes. She loves going to the library and getting about 7 or 8 books to read. I do read her chapter books sometimes but most of them I have already read and have posted on my Read shelf. Like Charlotte's Web for instance. I've been reading her a chapter a night and she is loving it. I enjoy it because I love being able to go back and re-read all these books I loved growing up and it's even better when she enjoys them just as much as I did.

Oh this looks like it would be a fun book for my daughter haha. She loves alien stuff and she loves making up her own dialogue too! She's just learning to read but I think she still enjoys making up her own stories which I support 100%!
One of the books I am currently reading is Tunnel in the Sky. My Mother-in-law highly recommended it and gave me her only copy so I am very gently reading through it. She said its been one of her favorites for a long long time. I am only about a 4th of the way in but I'm enjoying it so far.

I am reading Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan and am interested so far. This is my first step to reading the books I own first, before getting more e-books and library books.

Cool! What did you read of her, Diana? I actually had never heard of her before I bought the book.

Jenny wrote: "Cool! What did you read of her, Diana? I actually had never heard of her before I bought the book."

I've read everything by Amy Tan and absolutely love her! My favorites are The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife, but she is one of the few authors where I also enjoyed their non-fiction. She's a very interesting person.

I will have to look into this. I know I've heard of The Joy Luck Club before but I never even knew what it was about. This sounds like the kind of thing I would enjoy reading over the summer.

Oh my! She's a big name then! I just pulled of the shelf because I liked the cover and it just cost me 5kr so the book came home with lots of others. I bought it last year even. Awesome!

I love it when stuff works out like that!!

Oooh I love mysteries! That ones going on my 'To Read' list haha.

At the moment I am reading American Gods. Absolutely loving it! It's one of those books that's been one I've wanted to read and should have read by now but never got around to it haha. I am also reading Six of Crows. I am liking it so far! It's got really good characters and I like the feel of the book.

Also, tonight my brother in law let me borrow his copy of The Word & the Void. REALLY excited to read this one!

Lisa, I love Gaiman in general, but American Gods and Anansi Boys are two of his best!

That's what I've been told Kandice! My brother in law was the one that recommended it. He has one of those cool Barnes and Noble leather bound version of those two books. Anansi Boys is on my list of books I HAVE to read over the next few months! I am loving American Gods!

Oh Diane, there is nothing better than reading a great book that is older but not dated. These were the kinds of books that my mom would read on occasion but wouldn't let me read because she thought it might scare me haha. I was able to get my hands on one or two of her books but she didn't have many and I couldn't get away with much.