I read the first three pages. Yeah, not for me, haha. I'm all for "challenging" books, but dear lord it was like reading the ramblings of someone that has been up on PCP for a week straight... maybe that's the point.

Why were the kids kept in the bus loop, instead of having the buss take the kids home or nome other safe location ?

It's been several years since I read this book, when I first read it in my late teens it really helped me a lot by allowing me to understand that the bullying I got from my "friend" group was toxic and traumatizing and wrong. It was not until I read this book that I stopped having nightmares about my bully, who was aptly named Karen. I really identified with how the adults around the protagonist could not seem to grasp what was happening, and how it affected her life for so long. That scene where she's trapped in the gorge.....devastating. I love Margaret Atwood but her books are depressing. Try Anne Tyler, she's a lot more uplifting.

What book? You can't keep us in suspense OP!!!

When I get an event or ending I can't deal with in a book or a movie I just rewrite it myself. "Nope, that's not what happened, this is what happened." It doesn't happen often, usually with an animal death or suffering.

Also getting mad at the author sometimes helps. I'm still mad at David Wroblewski for The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. And also to my friend who said "you love dogs, you will love this book," and gave me a copy.

yeah lol i was reading the books at the time i got on reddit

I have read Joyce's other work and have been curious about Finnegan's Wake. I don't think I'm ready to read it yet but if I have a smaller TBR and more free time, then one day maybe I will. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. :)

I feel like a lot of people forget that kids know what's up, adults just find it uncomfortable so they act like they don't.

Myself and all my friends knew about the existence of sex, murder, rape, racism, suicide, all that by like 3rd grade. Obviously we didn't know the specifics, but we knew of it and made dumb kid jokes.

I read the Da Vinci Code in like 5th grade, and while it is not exactly high art, it does have mature content.

People like this need to banned from society.

That’s still a tough assignment for an undergrad. When I studied Ulysses it was part of a double course in Irish literature and history. I needed to know Irish history to understand Joyce, and I also needed my background in the Western classics like Homer and Shakespeare. And even so, I’m sure I missed a lot.

Dang - that's why "Happy Vale" popped into my head! I saw Arsenic & Old Lace just a few months ago.

Your noble sacrifice is duly noted and greatly appreciated.

Mine includes all those Tom Clancy books not actually written by Tom Clancy.

I was an English Lit major... forget which specific course it was, but it was definitely 3 or 400 level something.

Of course. I'm not gonna learn by osmosis

Nah, some guy on the internet read it and upon finishing said they didn't understand it and it's not worth reading. That's good enough for me.

I thought a thread titled Toxic book fans must be about Sanderson fans. That Wired article is on-point and they absolutely can't handle it, or any other critique of his work. It's what idolizing a person does to you. He's great, but he's not perfect and neither is his writing. I think because they idolize him they cannot fully evaluate his work, resulting in a fragile, slavish appreciation. Which is why they meet any criticism with hostility.

Sure do, friend. I Google lots of confusing terms and the like when I encounter them. Who doesn't like learning more ?🤓

You should never underestimate the power of an angry mob… Those poor women in Salem…

also...your username...SoC fan????

Only when reading the locked tomb series by Tamsyn Muir.

Damn. Never thought of it that way.

I read exclusively on a Kindle, and I use the dictionary feature a ton. Any word that I don’t know, I look up. The feature is well implemented, and I love it.

[deleted]

It happens with just about anything if you care about interacting with strangers on the internet. Some places are worse than others (Reddit is not great, but not the worst). It's just a byproduct of the anonymity of the internet and, as you said, chronically online people.

About my fourth attempt. The rhythm and prose just hit me right. I don't normally stick to a book if I don't like it, but something about Blood Meridian wouldn't let me give up. I loved "The Road" by the same author, I love westerns, I love bleak settings, but the writing style never clicked, until it did. Once I noticed the way paragraph structure was used and how sentences were supposed to flow, it brought the book to another level.

I have this discussion all the time on reddit about audiobooks vs reading. You get a different experience actually looking at the words on the paper than having them read to you, and blood meridian is the perfect example of this.

I tried Finnegan Wake, I don't think I'll ever pick it up again. It's just not for me, but I'm sure there are people out there that get it.