I'm interested in seeing where Peter Watts is going after Echopraxia.

I can always tell a good book because the closer I get to the end, the slower I read.

Nearly every book and video game and TV series I have ever enjoyed I have stopped before the end for a long amount of time.

I feel you. I'm the opposite half the enjoyment for me when I read a book is the rating I'll give it, how long it took me to read, how many pages I read per day etc..

Any chance at a summary of the conflict and its principals? Or is this just a clickbait headline shilling for the Guardian?

I read a book called Tampa. I thought it was going to be a fictional psychological exploration of why women abuse teen boys and how it’s portrayed so differently in the media. Sort of a “reverse Lolita”. NOPE. It was filthy, horribly written smut. The author was a woman but it would have fit right in on r/menwritingwomen. Execution definitely matters.

Too much fine shading sucks the joy out of it for me.

I've been on nearly 20 cruises and although the things you mention are true, it seems the author is biased and trying to make it seem worse than it is.

TLDR: I love cruising, it sounds like the book is over-sensationalized, but cruising isn't for everyone.

I was also enlisted in the US Navy and my ship did a 6-month WestPacific cruise. On land many military jobs are 8 hours M-F, if you do shift work it is usually 8-hour shifts as well. In port, I worked a typical work week. As soon as we set sail our work hours changed to either 12 hours on 12 hours off or a 16-hour workday 7 days a week, with reduced hours on Sundays. Boredom and unstructured time are not good for people who are confined to a small space.

If you look at the ratio of passengers and crews on most cruise lines you'll see that there is usually 1 crew member for every 2-3 passengers. Not all crew member's jobs are directly related to the customer's experience, there are entire departments dedicated to cleanliness and maintenance. Because most ships have services 24/7 it is perpetually being cleaned and repaired.

Although the vast majority of cruise lines are registered under foreign flags that doesn't mean there isn't a standard they are required to meet. For a cruise ship to take on passengers at US ports the US Coast Guard requires them to meet the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). This is a strict set of rules to ensure passenger safety and crew competence. The one cruise ship that I'm aware of that flys under the US flag is the NCL Pride of America which cruises the Hawaiian Islands. The Jones act requires any non-US ship to visit at least 1 foreign port on each sailing. This ship had a primarily American crew and although the ship was practically brand new, it was the dirtiest and worst maintained ship I'd ever been on, and that includes the 40 year old US Navy ship I spent 2 years on.

On most itineraries, you are in port for several hours most days. The ship is filled with activities and events all day, from live performances in the theater, dance lessons, cooking lessons, gyms, pools, spa, yoga classes, and a kids club, you can even attend AA meetings.

There is a Dr and a sickbay available on all large ships. I'm not sure what size the ship needs to be for this to be a requirement. Keep in mind that seniors are a large part of the passenger list on many cruise ships. They have the ability to medivac people from the ship if needed.

I've never been concerned about food-borne illness, of course, this can happen to any restaurant, but to have passengers get sick from food would not be good for business. The world is too connected these days. There are entire businesses dedicated to reporting on each sailing of each ship. There is a problem with some viruses, for example, Norovirus is common on some ships and once a ship gets infected it is a big challenge to irradicate it from the ship, because the ship is never empty, they are moving passengers on as they are moving passengers off. You can often find which ships are having this problem ahead of time and take precautions or avoid the ship. We experienced this on a cruise a few years ago.

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Understood that reference gif

Amazon considers a 3 (of 5) star a bad review and the algorithm acts accordingly. In reviewing books (or any product) whatever personal rating system you may have devised, it’s not always relevant depending upon the platform.

The only problem with a scale of 7 is that its debatable if a perfect score is a 7/7 or a 5/7.

Ahh the phylosophy of Absurdism.

Marty DiBergi : Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder? Nigel Tufnel : [pause] These go to eleven.

Interesting take. There can’t be spoilers for real-life, somewhat obscure, events? I’d hardly call the murder of this person, however tragic, something in the common knowledge domain.

It was somewhat of a difficult concept because at some points it was very much a realistic fiction book and then BAM fantasy and magic.

My ratings go to 11.

Isn't Red Notice a nonfiction book? I'm pretty sure it isn't a spoiler if it's nonfiction.

1. I still like Hugo, I always thought he had good intentions with Miranda... As for the rest of the characters they are just okay. Miranda is still manic and has concerning behavior. I was confused about basically the last couple of chapters, I don't understand the significance of any of it, but it's possible that it is very Shakespeare rooted and I don't know those allusions so I miss it.
2. I am unsure, I haven't read enough Shakespeare to know... and I am not exactly keen on reading them lol.
3. I think Miranda learned something, I oddly think Ellie learned something?? Or maybe Ellie realized her potential and decided to come out of her shell. It is hard to know if Mark learned anything, because after he got hurt we never heard from him again... he was barely mentioned.
4. I think it's a lot of a little mixed in. All is well in Miranda's eyes, or things all seem to fall into place for her, but what about everyone else? Why does she decide to get the golden remedy again? And does the other woman at the bar signify anything?
5. I have no clue... I didn't love this novel... I would give it 3/5 stars.

That makes a lot a sense as I mentioned on another comments I guess for me personally I just think we lose our on more halfs since I don't see people using 3.25 = 7.5 so instead of having 20 units of measurement we only get half.

As a true crime fan, I made the mistake of reading Jack Ketchum -The Girl Next Door. Not a subject I will ever delve into again.

I guess I haven't seen too many people use 3.25 as an example and this losing let's say 7.5. Not saying it doesn't happen just haven't seen it myself.

Thanks for pointing out these other types of letters. If the letters are a literary outlet, I wonder how often the authors specify that their publication must be delayed for decades? When letters are used as a device within a book -- such as for an epistolary novel -- that's a very different matter, of course.

Some study's have started using a 7 scale and I really like that. You have a definite median score of 4. Then 3 levels of positive or negative adjustments.

To answer why 5 and not 10, personally I think it's for similar reasons. You get a definite median in 3 with an equal number of options either way. Whereas with 10 you get a median of 5 with 5 numbers up and only 4 down (not counting 0 as an option).

Personally I like 7 but since that's not an option most places I settle for 5 with decimals i.e. 3.5, 4.5, etc.

It's just semantics. 3.5 out of 5 is the same as 7 out of 10.