Hi, I do not actually understand this. Unfortunately, the moment of my post is now dead (Thanks for that), but at least I was able to get four really good answers. Next time allow a couple of hours to go by before taking a post down.

This was an insightful question with many points to make. If you took one look at the responses this got, you could have rationally made a better decision and left it up.

No. If the author took the trouble to write a million words, and if one sets out to read the author’s book, one should read all million words.Don’t skip - you may miss something important.

Unless, that is, one is skimming a book as a way of deciding whether to read it in full. I skimmed LOTR twice, before falling in love with it.

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

She investigates the disappearance of her friends brother and finds that he was talking to a strange catfish. It’s really intriguing bc it makes it look like he was involved in something really horrible.

But the most bizarre reveal comes about. Apparently there was some serial killer who murdered teenagers in the 90s with his 10yo son as his accomplice. People were mad that the son didn’t get punished so he was given a new identity. WE HAVE NOT HEARD OF THIS AT ALL! Like we literally only learn the SK existed at all during the reveal in the form of a shitty news article the MC reads. There isn’t even one offhand mention.

The catfish was the sibling of one of the teens who died and is trying to message guys who could possibly be the son as an adult and kill him. The missing guy found out about that and worked out who the son was and attacked him. (not going to get into how unrealistic and theatrical the whole situation is written lol)

The son actually is the asshole racist journalist from the first book, who is now made out to be a tragic hero. Honestly he had a complete personality transplant from the guy who was spewing racism and calling the MC “babes” in book 1 to suddenly being so gracious and polite. There’s not really any point on them being the same character. He locked the missing guy in a cellar so he wouldn’t reveal his identity but is actually really nice you guys and we should feel very sorry that he died.

Where did this bullshit ending come from, Jackson?? The first book in this series was astounding, and the ending was just perfect. The joy of the first book is that you could predict the ending with the clues you had, but no one could have predicted this ending bc it literally came out of left field. So disappointing.

I live around the corner from the Barr library (Jefferson and 44) and love that place. I was there today.

We must help these legislators battle their disease…Critical Thinking Deficiency Syndrome is devastating and debilitating. They are now drooling from diminishing brain matter, and left with the minds of (white) two year-olds.

Before Twitter got weird I’d always shout out authors there! I’d also tag my local library system if I got it from there. Boosted the book, the author and the library!

Listen, I’m a think-y person and I just need a break from my own brain a few hours a day lest I turn into a woodland hag muttering to herself grumpily. Check yo’self before you wreck yo’self.

Didn’t Smilla’s Sense Of Snow just abruptly end?

It’s especially frustrating when you can guess the twist by page 30

The silent patient. Hated it.

Also the guest list by Lucy Foley.

I think he's referencing a show. It sounds vaguely familiar but I can't remember what the reference is from.

I read these in middle school and I'm now 28. This is still the go-to series I recommend to young people looking to love reading again after high school. It was formative to my world view as a kid, and holds up in its philosophical storytelling.

Within regular literature, Emile Zola and Honore de Balzac set out to write epic cycles exploring through every section of French society. Such can also describe the project James Joyce set out on with Ulysses. In fantasy too I've read enough books that really set out to put their alternate realities on the page.

I tried reading Gone Girl a while ago and I gave up before anything interesting happened, because I just did not care about these people's marital troubles. Maybe things do get interesting later on, but the characters were not compelling enough for me to continue reading

I agree. Never said Tolkien achieved that, just explained why he didn't. I don't think it's even possible to be honest. Just put two people in a room and you could keep writing forever about what defines their lives.

I recently read Daisy Darker and I'd have to say that one because I felt like the twist was done so poorly. The fact that well...if you read it you know...., was very heavily hinted at since the start of the book makes it pretty predictable, but there were a few other very tiny things I noticed that would have directly contradicted this twist if I read it correctly.

(Also I read The Couple Next Door a few months ago and honestly barely remember the ending. Or anything else about the book.)

Andy Weir did a thing where he shared a PO box address. You could send him a copy of a book with a return shipping label and note on what you want him to write and he'd sign it, repackage it and send it back. I have a copy of The Martian that says "Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)" it was one of the funniest lines in the book to me

> Or try writing about our world and capture all of its intricacies. Wouldn't be easy, right?

When I think about fantasy books that capture all the intricacies of their world, I don't think about The Lord of the Rings. I would say the saga really skimmed across the surface of the world. I never came away with a particularly meaningful image of what Gondor and Rohan are like as societies, what cultural quirks they have.

I do the opposite. I reread sections if I don’t get the point. I reread books that I love, my favorite books 4 times (maybe 5 soon). Read however you want, but as Nabokov said, “one cannot read a book: one can only reread it”.

Local Woman Missing. I just finished it and I was so disappointed. Either that was a botched ending or the character was poorly developed.

When I was reading it I felt the language was too modern for the story it was telling. The narration, not the dialogue. "Yep, this is a book of the twentieth century." They say that his writing gets more and more antiquated as the story goes on, but I can't say I perceived any of that.

I do not!

I read Truman by David McCullough around the same time. It was an odd contrast, seeing the other path in life a Missouri farm boy could take.

I have sent fan letters in care of the publisher to two authors. I have been pleasantly surprised to receive thank you letters from these authors.

My main objective was to let the authors know that I appreciated their work and what it meant to me. I was so grateful to have their responses. The letters are tucked in the pages of the books, and they've meant so much to me, as the books continue to do.

Well they are dumb enough to make statements like "what is the point of reading" so they clearly are no genius, and insecurity is a reasonable deduction. Degree is neither here nor there