#GoodReads issues

[libertyreads]

This is completely fine and I see no possible issues coming from this change. Perfect update, GoodReads, no notes.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE ART OF EXCESS by Tom LeClair.

Another day, another "requesting niche out of print nonfiction from the library that they have to borrow from the Library of Congress, because of course they do"! I didn't actually read the whole thing because I'm not familiar with six out of the seven books he analyzes, but I did read the preface, the introduction, and the chapter about Le Guin's ALWAYS COMING HOME (which was really the epilogue lol).

His framework of "systems novels" was fascinating to me and my biology-oriented brain, and he flagged a lot of the same things I transcribed for my "le guin posting" tag, which I thought was neat! Unfortunately: he nerfed himself by spending most of his time on behemoth novels by six white men as Representative of Excess as Mastery, so I found his overall conclusions lackluster--like, dude, really, broaden your sample size if you're trying to generalize to American Literature Going Forward (it's no wonder Le Guin was the most hopeful and reconstructive of the lot, given the synopses of the other bricks he discussed). Neat intro and preface! And I found myself nodding along to a lot of his insights on Le Guin, but I also found myself rolling my eyes at how he tried to generalize from the texts he selected.

[motleyfam]

Why are goodreads reviews so SCATHING

[volfoss]

i quite honestly cannot stand this book at the moment

[thebellekeys]

Okay, so the two main reasons I couldn't give Yellowface 5 stars were:

1. It wasn't truly satirical, in my opinion. We see a lot of reenactments of booktwt and the publishing world being, well, the publishing world in Yellowface. And the in-text commentary on these things was particularly pertinent, not a single complaint there. But the book's satire lacked the humorous and hyperbolic elements necessary for there to be comedy, for you to chuckle. In Yellowface, there was more of a literal reconstruction of how bookish spaces on the Internet sound and look than an intentional and satirical depiction of the industry and community in my opinion.

2. Athena Liu, despite inevitable claims to the contrary, is a self-insert character. Whether or not that's good or bad in the context of Yellowface is debatable, but it didn't work for me. I'm sure there's gonna be people trying to "prove" Athena isn't a self-insert character at all, and then people saying yes, she's a self-insert character but it's a good thing in this novel! I disagree with both takes. I think maybe I personally know too much about Rebecca's life which is why I see it this way who knows. Or maybe Athena is actually a poorly crafted character in the context of the story after all. But I think Athena possibly being RF Kuang is something that works against the thesis of the novel if you choose to see it this way.

[kikuism]

girl i still can't get over how bad the night ends with fire was

[menstits]

Sorry to still be bitching about this days and days later but. Honestly i feel like this is beside the point when the work that's being criticized for being "unrelatable" is literally. An autobiographical diary type of manga 🧍‍♂️ it's literally not even made to be relatable in the first place it's a fucking autobiography...

[cosmicdreamgrl]

random thought after catching up with a friend on the phone: i know some people have the ability to single out a favourite/multiple favourites on a tracklist before a project is released, to that, i say good for you. could not be me though

[prophecyofgray]

guy who is so liberal with giving 5 stars to books on goodreads

[marietheran-archived]

Look, I have no in-depth knowledge of the matter, so I may be wrong but...

Obviously, people of every race should have the opportunity to show and see themselves in books. And yes, until recently literature and publishing were heavily dominated by white people. But. Even if the statistics say they are still underrepresented (are they?) how can it be said today that culture and the industry are held closed to People of Color. I mean, look at your Goodreads feed. At least 50% of the books Goodreads promotes are written by them, or queer people. Media (left-leaning at least) loves to review that kind of thing. If anything, "diverse" books are overrepresented on the internet. So. I don't understand. Correct me if you have better data. But how can it still be said it's hard for a Black/Asian/etc person to make it in publishing?

[akechis-piano]

bro im never trusting book reviewers again bc no way the book im reading had booktok and booktube in a chokehold. this is ridiculous.

[busylazy]

Like WTF, how is that possible?

[boyapologist]

it's crazy how a book can be a 5 star experience and then the sequel takes too long to come out and when you read it it's like... what even happened in the first book. who the fuck are these characters

[lexalovesbooks]

Fascinated by this book I just placed a hold on, which only has 1000 goodreads ratings but has Seven people waiting in line for it at my library right now. Granted it’s new but that’s still a pretty wild ratio

[danielleurbansblog]

Review: American Prophet

Synopsis: In American Prophet, Peter has a dream revealing the outcome of the Presidential election and feels compelled to share it with whomever will listen. As dreams of major events keep coming – and keep coming true – Peter soon gains notoriety and is heralded as a modern-day prophet. Along with the adulation come the naysayers, including his chief critic, the US President. Wild conspiracy…

[callme000]

I don't think audiobooks are bad or an inferior format - but they're not necessarily reading and they're not equivalent to oral storytelling! When people pass on stories orally, they are directly interacting with their audience, tailoring that retelling in that particular instance to that particular audience. Easiest example being campfire stories that are always about "nights like this" and "not too far from here". It's a false equivalence because audiobooks do not and cannot do that. (Ted Chiang has a very interesting story about oral storytelling called Truth of Fact, Truth of Feeling which is centered on the differences between oral and written tradition - fantastic read) The malleability of oral tradition is the most important part!

Audiobooks are wonderful for accessibility, for those who may have learning or physical disabilities that can make traditional print inaccessible - 100% in agreement. But audiobooks, especially in this day and age, are very often used as background noise when completing another task. Not saying it's impossible to be focused on an audiobook, but reading traditional print requires pretty significant active involvement and is hard to do while also dedicating some portion of your concentration elsewhere.

Imo you lose a lot with audiobooks: you can't make annotations, the reader/narrator's intonation and performance choices will color your perception of the book, it is difficult to jump between passages or sections or quickly browse through the book, you cannot really set your own pace without audio distortion - you also gain a lot: integration of music and background noise and multiple voices expand the world far beyond the page, it's great for accessibility, it can help incur a more visceral reaction (ex: Lolita's audiobook, which is excellent and I highly recommend it) in the listener.

But it is fundamentally different and I don't think it's entirely unfair to assume that people are often engaging with audiobooks in a less active way than they do with traditional print. Relinquishing your ability to "steer" the reading makes it a significantly different - and not necessarily equivalent - experience. To the point where, in my experience, it's often incomparable.