storytime-reviews

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I'm shocked and devastated by John Marsden's death :( I feel like a part of me went away with him, and that's how much he means to me. I never got to meet him (but I often dreamed I would) to tell him how his books gave me strength in my life's darkest moments, how his past hits way too close to home for me, and how his school project moved me to the point I often dream to do the same. I wanted to write it all down in a long letter, but I never got around to it 'cause I relied on handing it in person once I got to meet him in Australia :( The only thing that lifts me up is the awareness that many fans did get to tell him positive things, and that he knew he was loved and respected. Rest in peace John Marsden, you will be missed by all of us. I will keep reblogging Tomorrow Series content and I already have so many ideas for future posts. I reread the series back in September and updated the blog ever since. I fell in love with the series all over again... I'm so grateful for what John built in his life, from his inspiring books to his creative schools.

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JOMP Book Photo Challenge - October 5th: Dead Author

I think an author who lived in Ancient Greece count as a dead author, right?

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🍂September Reading Wrap-Up🍂

Hello, lovelies! This September was a tricky month for reading as I read mostly short and sweet books because I could not focus on anything more than that. I did have fun reading these books, though, all 11 of them- bringing my yearly total to 107 books!

🌸 The Flowers’ Festival by Elsa Beskow

⭐️ Bug Boys Vol. 3: Adventures and Daydreams by Laura Knetzger

🥔 The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle von Olfers

🌳 The Forests: A Celebration of Nature, in Word and Image by Michelle Lovric

💜 Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi

🍄 Faeries and Other Fantastical Folk: The Faery Paintings of Maxine Gadd by Maxine Gadd and John Grant

🍁 Flower Fairies of the Autumn by Cicely Mary Barker

⭐️ Dragons by Johan Egerkrans (trans. A.A. Prime)

🍄 The Fairies by William Allingham and Michael Hague

🌻 In Fairyland: Pictures from the Elwood by Richard Doyle, William Allingham, and Andrew Lang

⭐️ The Invasion by K.A. Applegate

How was your September reading experience?

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Yet another good reminder that even other Anglosphere authors have to basically arm-wrestle US book editors to be allowed to retain any vestige of their own dialect and culture in their writing and this is why lots of people have Opinions about American...everything.

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for extra credit pls tell me more about your reading (and rereading) habits in the tags or replies <3

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September 08 2024: International Literacy Day

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Currently reading: The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

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This collection is now four books long, do we think there will be a fifth?

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When Jane Austen wrote, "the more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense," I felt that.

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Currently reading We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida

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September 04 2024: National Wildlife Day

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I tried talking to an AI chatbot for the first time today because I was looking for book recs with quite specific criteria and I thought, maybe an algorithm can help, by combing through every library database on Earth to find exactly what I'm looking for? Can they do that now?

I explained to the AI what I was looking for and it gave me a list of 5 books, all of which I had read. I asked if it had any other titles and it gave me 5 more books, which I had also read.

I said I hadn't enjoyed such-and-such books from its list, and mentioned a book I had enjoyed more, hoping to gradually orient it towards more accurate book recs.

The AI said "This book sounds good. I'm going to ask you for more recommendations and I'll put them on my to-read list"

...

The AI is now asking me for book recs. This is the opposite of why I'm here!!

Doggedly I rephrased my initial request, brought up some more books and said I was looking for something similar, and it gave me a new list of 5 titles. All of which I had read.

There are millions of books out there, please make an effort...?

I tried to encourage it by saying books 1 and 3 of its list sounded good and did it know of any more books like these? And it gave me another 5-book list—and I didn't know any of them!!!

Victory!

I went on goodreads to look them up. And couldn't find any of them. I tried google, and it didn't know these books either.

... did the AI grow so desperate it invented some titles that sounded like what I wanted?

I went back to the chatbot and said, I can't find these books anywhere, are you sure you didn't invent them?

The AI said "..." for much longer than usual. Like, five minutes. In the meantime I texted a friend about all this and was like, is AI always this useless? Did I have too high expectations? And do they just make stuff up when they don't have an answer? My friend said, "I can't believe you've successfully crushed an AI's will to live just by asking it to find books you haven't already read."

And then the AI came back to life and said, I didn't invent them! These books are just quite obscure; better contact the author or publisher directly to find information about them.

Okay, but do you have the books' ISBN?

The AI then gave up on lying, hung its head and said, I do not have these books' ISBNs and have not been able to find them with any search engine. I tried Google, the publisher's websites, Goodreads and other online platforms, and I can find no trace of these books anywhere.

At this point I felt like I was persecuting a poor, browbeaten algorithm, but I was a bit sad to learn that these cool-sounding titles were most likely imaginary, so I said "Why would you lie about this?" and the AI crashed. The answer I got was "An error has occurred; please try again later."

...

Me: I'm going to go talk to a robot so I stop bothering my friends by constantly giving them & asking them for book recs!

The robot: Deactivates itself after talking about books with me for 5 minutes

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september means my annual Twilight reread 🥰🍁

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I can behave normally around books

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currently reading

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“No," he says quietly. "In every universe, it's you for me. Even if it's not me for you.”

Emily Henry, Happy Place