Is it worth reading Poppy War if I didn't like Babel all that much? My specific issues with Babel was that it was far too heavy handed.

I started a book club. Our February meeting will be our 8-year anniversary. I started it by asking a few of my friends who were avid reader to join. Over time, they've invited other friends or coworkers. We've gained and lost some members in that 8 years, but we have a core group that has been there the whole time. We take turns choosing a book to read, and we meet once a month.

Me and my friends created a book club during Covid lockdown here. We meet once a month over Zoom to discuss and pick a book for the next month. It's an open invitation to any of our friends, so it's expanded to people across all of Canada! I've met a lot of great people and we even did an in-person meetup in the spring that people flew out for. Unfortunately it has gotten a lot harder to get everyone together these days since we are obviously no longer in lockdown and everyone is busy again, but it's been a very rewarding experience!

yep, it’s a problem.

There’s nothing wrong with people not liking an author. Everyone can have an opinion. What I have a problem with is making people feel bad for liking something. Same bs with people hating on Taylor Swift. And everyone’s on the TS train right now but back during the Kanye era ppl jumped off that train real quick. Sorry, I went off on a tangent there.

Which book should I read for my English assignment? Options are [One hundred years of solitude], [oryx and crake], or [The count of monte cristo]

Enjoy whatever the hell you like, scream it from rooftops, how much you love it. I agree you should enjoy whatever you want. I'll support anyone who reads these abysmal books, and that seem to enjoy enjoy them. Ī

But, it's never going to hide the fact that she is just awful at being a writer. And, while there are massive amounts of people screaming from rooftops about this fantastic author, people who pick up the book, and are unable to read it due to how awful it is, are going to, as is their right, personal opinions and all that, scream right back at the people claiming it's so great, that it was absolutely bloody terrible.

Because they are. They are some of the worst books ever written. And, I frequently read AO3. Let that sink in, I read from people who write on AO3, and couldn't read more than two pages from Colleen Hoover.

I tell everyone I can how horrible her books are, because you should always have both sides being told, and while she has so many people blinded by the worst writing I've ever read, and singing her praises, people need to know about all the others who were struggling with bleeding brains after reading the awfulness of her stories.

So then why do things like Ready Player One also get hated on by the same groups of people? There's no gender bias to it, or at least not much of it, people just tend to hate on books that get too popular. And that really goes for everything, not just books.

As someone who’s TBR (owned books) is 400+ long, I love the library! It lets me read new titles without expanding my unread books at home

It’s heart wrenching. Less suspense, more “oh my god how can humanity do this“

Imagine living in a world where only men like shitting on things that women take pleasure in. That would be a nicer world, but it's not our world.

Yes! I finished a book an hour ago where the main character uncovered the killer, who said outright that he’d let him go. It made no sense!! Plot armour sucks!

I totally agree with this, especially when it comes to thrillers. Personally I think Verity’s letter was a self-serving lie. But it still requires she faked her injury which on its face I find totally unbelievable. If Hoover had taken maybe 100 more pages, she could have made it believable by having the nurse involved in the deception, or possibly Jeremy, or incorporated a supernatural element like a horror novel. By the time the end hit, I had already forgiven several other issues cuz I was enjoying the book, such as … in NYC, seeing a pedestrian hit is actually rare; I don’t believe a child with a peanut allergy and an epi-pen at a slumber party with adults/parents present would just die as depicted; and “Asperger’s” is no longer an actual medical diagnosis, which a parent of a child who has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder would know. All those things are forgivable … but then the end was just too over the top and it totally took me out of the story.

The reason is that those who wish to have something to kill time with without having to think, and who don't require well-written plots without holes and shallow characters, do still enjoy her books and that is fine, but what others do not like is that her books are hyped to a ridiculous degree and if that is the quality of books needed to top all charts everywhere, that makes authors less likely to bother with the higher-quality literature that many in the book community is striving to find to be able to enjoy reading.

Similarly, how the fact that movies are nowadays dumbed down, with idiotic characters and comedy that is apparently enough to amuse the big audiences, means that quality movies with well-thought out plots are getting rare, and how AAA video games are buggy and poorly developed because people buy them anyways whether or not the quality is great.

So normally, other people having different preferences doesn't hurt anyone, but in this case people enjoying and hyping dumbed-down stuff in droves is actually hurting the market of "quality" entertainment, and that makes many feel rather angry.

They're bad.

The writing's bad. The message is bad. The plot twists and conventions are obvious.

They are yet another example of abuse as romance targetted at girls and young women. A LOT of people find that reprehensible.

I don't read her books but I won't disparage her readership. However, I am getting tired of every bookstore offline and online promoting her books so much.

A lot of King's non horror stuff jacks with me. I jacked with Shawshank. I'd argue that The Stand isn't horror either and I really jacked with that one.

I also found that book in my early teens! 😂 Now that I am 30, I like the idea of revisiting various works as part of my reflection on how my mental state has evolved.

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I really enjoy his short story collections. Nightmares and Dreamscapes comes to mind, as well as Everything's Eventual (which contains a favorite of mine - The Road Virus Heads North).

Suggest me a novel in the style of George Saunders. I love his wit and characters, but am looking for a novel opposed to a selection of short stories (I’ve read Lincoln in the Bardo already). If it helps I also enjoy Fredrik Backman, Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Safran Foer and Donna Tartt. Thank you!

I just read The Dark Half again, because maybe not being 13 it would have a different feel. I still loved it. Definitely one of my favorites.

I’m a bit hesitant to go there. Years ago the facebook fan page was toxic, and I couldn’t help coming to the conclusion that way too many King fans are just dicks. You couldn’t say anything without an an obnoxious opinion being thrown at you. Maybe that’s just facebook though.

The Green Mile is good and sad - it’s worth noting that it was originally written as a Serial, with King releasing short segments of it periodically, before he even knew how it was going to end. For that reason, reading it all in one go as one novel resulted in a slight pacing issue for me, but it’s still a good story.

Like others said, King doesn’t just write horror, and The Green Mile isn’t really intended to scare.

I give him credit for his selfless and creative use of cleaning supplies.