Book Review: A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
Meat is murder says @DrEddieClark in his review at the NOAF blog:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/07/book-review-trade-of-blood-by-robert.html
books
How Shakespeare and his contemporaries used music to rouse emotions
by Shirley Bell
Shakespeare used music in a multitude of ways to delight, amuse, relax, confuse and frighten his audiences.
Books by Shakespeare at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/65
"I really enjoyed reading this, so utopian and dystopian at the same time"
Here is a selection of what readers are saying about The Blossoming of the Big Tree. We will keep adding more to this page as they come along, and we hope it can convince you to read this story, about an old woman who has to coordinate the defense of her decentralized nation when a colonizer invades, though she is the reclusive type of person.
https://www.ododopress.com/blog/praise-for-the-blossoming-of-the-big-tree/
The first Science of Discworld book gets 4/5 stars... I think, wait let me check my math.The Science parts got 3 and the Wizard parts got 5 so if you add 'em up carry the 1, always carry the one, divide by two you get 4... I think.Unless we take into account that the Science chapters were longer than the Wizard chapters, wigheted data-points and all that, but a little lying to children is to be expected, it is #Discworld after all, the narrativum has to go somewhere.
#TerryPratchett #Pratchett #Humor #Satire #Fantasy #Comedy#Reading #Readers #ReadingCommunity#Novel #Books #Fiction #Recommendation #Bookrecommendation #Review #Bookreview#Bookwyrm #Bookstodon #FantasyBooks
(comment on Science of Discworld)
Company Offering Printed Books to Train AI Stops After 404 Media Coverage
cross-posted from: piefed.social/…/company-offering-printed-books-to…
Citing backlash, ISBNdb removed its webpages about training AI, denied ever buying, scanning, or selling a book for AI training, and said the site was a “test of market interest.”
Page
· lemmy.dbzer0.com
cross-posted from: piefed.social/…/company-offering-printed-books-to…
Citing backlash, ISBNdb removed its webpages about training AI, denied ever buying, scanning, or selling a book for AI training, and said the site was a “test of market interest.”
Company Offering Printed Books to Train AI Stops After 404 Media Coverage
Honoré de Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine is a Hindu mandala
The 19th-century novelist Honoré de Balzac was Catholic, French to the core and obsessed with the material details of French society. Yet there is something profoundly Hindu in the way he sought to understand the world.
by Harsh Trivedi (from the archives)
https://theconversation.com/honore-de-balzacs-la-comedie-humaine-is-a-hindu-mandala-262151
Books by Balzac at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/251
As a big fan of both Trek and Discworld, I support the flawless logic of this crossover 😜😂
@reading @bookstodon @books @fantasy
@humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop
#GeekMemes #Geek #Meme
#Discworld #StarTrek #Spock #GreatAtuin
#Humor #Humour #Funny
#Fantasy #SciFi
#Reading #Readers #TV #Books #ReadingCommunity #Bookstodon #FantasyBooks
What happens when the grammar police inevitably gets corrupted? 🤔 Is that where slang comes from? 😁
@linguistics @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop @writingcommunity @writingbooks
#LinguisticMemes #Meme #Linguistics
#Language #Words #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Reading #Readers #ReadingCommunity
#Novel #Books #Fiction #Bookstodon
Edited 74d ago
“Worthless Idiot, Donkey Head”
Parodies of Pedantry on the Renaissance Stage
By Arnoud S. Q. Visser via @publicdomainrev
Pompous know-it-alls were once a mainstay of mockery on the Italian stage.
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/parodies-of-pedantry/
Il pedante by Francesco Belo is available at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34640
Ars Notoria and the Promise of Instant Knowledge
By Anne Lawrence-Mathers via @publicdomainrev
The Tragedy of Loving Sylvia Plath
Sarai Walker on Obsession, Ownership, and Plath Worship
This month's Distributed Proofreaders' (DP) blog is about Dutch Advertising Picture Albums
https://blog.pgdp.net/2026/08/01/dutch-advertising-picture-albums/
At PG:
Edited 84d ago
My new book 'Atlas Gothica: An Alternative Guide to the World's Most Curious Destinations' (Headline/Hachette) is now on pre-order! The book takes in 50 Gothic destinations around the world, including vampire-plagued Victorian graveyards, haunted English libraries, witch-haunted caves, mummy-stuffed catacombs, Dracula's Whitby and much more. You can discover the very raven the inspired Edgar Allan Poe, a Chinese city based on a blueprint of hell, the tombs of Voodoo queens, and the lair of the legendary Mothman. Grab it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atlas-Gothica-Alternative-Curious-Destinations/dp/1035434385/ #gothic #folklore #history #mythology #weird #paranormal #literature #travel #books #graveyard #death #ghost #vampire #vampires
Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TymeStarwitch
Audiobook: https://owentyme.bandcamp.com/album/the-book-of-newts-starwitch
The undead queen of the space pirates kidnapped Amelia’s sisters and damaged her ship, leaving her with little fuel. Amelia’s a dead woman without her sisters, forced to attack the pirate’s mountain-sized star ship, despite how slim the odds are…
@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books #audiobook
“Love and Limerence” by Dorothy Tennov (Review)
I’ll try to be clear for once, to be real, to speak normally. I’m obsessed, with you, you’re always on my mind, and I’m always trying to keep up with you, to grab your attention, to have your gaze
fixed upon me.
This book was supposed to be a comfortable read to soothe my brain after months of reading theory. Objectively speaking, it is a simple and easy pop-psychology book destined to lay readers, despite its well cited and researched nature. (The study is based on the findings of a large set of questionnaires and interviews). However, I did not expect that every paragraph and every phrase I read would force me back to my past romantic experiences in order to reflect upon them in light of my newly gained knowledge.
Limerence is, to put it simply, the state of “being in love.” It is distinct from love per se, and it is not sexual desire, although all three can coexist. Poets, philosophers, theologians and all sorts of intellectuals have conceived of such a phenomenon, giving it different labels throughout history, such as “romantic love,” “erotic love,” “love spark,” etc.
Tennov posits that “limerence is, above all else, a mental activity. It is an interpretation of events, rather than the events themselves.” That limerence is a mental activity, see an interpretation of real events, implies the existence of a limerent subject on the one hand, and a limerent object (LO) on the other. An entire emotional revolution could be brewing within the limerent person that may perhaps be fully unknown by LO. For limerence is not so much about LO as much as it is about the feelings and emotions one has for LO.
Limerence creates above all a desire for reciprocation within the limerent person. It is the ultimate goal and achievement of limerence. Reciprocation could be expressed in many different ways: for example, it could be sexual intercourse, a relationship, or even a fruitful confession of love. Once reciprocation is achieved, limerence arrives at its consummation, “in which the bliss of reciprocation is gradually either blended into a lasting love or replaced by less positive feelings.” However, reciprocation is not always achieved, and sometimes it is rendered uncertain or almost impossible due to circumstances: this is what we call unrequited love. Regardless, what fuels limerence is that desire for reciprocation and mutuality, and will continue as long as there is even a slimmer of hope in the mind of the limerent.
Just as all roads once led to Rome, when your limerence for someone has crystallized, all events, associations, stimuli, experience return your thoughts to LO with unnerving consistency. (Ch. 2)
One common symptom of limerence is obsession with LO. Some people dream of their LO while others daydream of them. Everything and anything could be a source of romantic reverie. Though such a phenomenon differs from one person to another depending on the degree of limerence which incessantly fluctuates.
Limerence can have positive effects on its subject and the people around them. It is commonly a motivator for self-improvement and has been throughout history the main inspiration for lots of artistic works of different kinds. However, it is not devoid of negative effects: antisocial behavior, intrusive thoughts, extreme moodiness, severe grief and sorrow following rejection, and so on. This promoted psychoanalysts, according to Tennov, to reduce limerence to a pathological, irrational state of the mind. (This claim was moreso confirmed when I discussed the book with a psychology major). To them, limerence is not “true love.” According to Maslow, for instance, “B-lovers [true lovers] are not unreasonably jealous and they are not blind. It is the other, damaging D-love [limerence] which blinds you. In true love (B-love) you are able to perceive your lover clearly and penetratingly.” Sociologist Paul Bohannan puts it as such:
“romantic love” is a condition in which your “love fantasies become ends in themselves.” You are blinded to LO’s “real” personality because you refuse to look at the facts.
There is truth in the claim that limerence is irrational. It is not love for the other based on mutual concern and affection, but it is rather love for love itself. Limerence is selfish in the sense that it disregards the person behind LO and reduces them to an abstracted ideal in the mind of the limerent. Tennov concedes to this, yet she found her respondents and informants to be quite aware of how illogical their limerent state is. She concludes that “while it is illogical, it is also normal, and therefore normal human beings can be illogical,” thus dismissing the psychoanalytical approach of pathologizing limerence.
Limerence is quite a universal experience that transcends human cultures. Yet it is not an experience shared by everyone. Tennov admits the existence of people, as her questionnaire and interviews have shown, who are nonlimerent. This raises more unanswerable questions about the nature of limerence and its origins.
In my personal opinion, and as someone who has experienced limerence, I do not believe it is pathological, despite how irrational or illogical I could have behaved at times. True, limerence is unsustainable if not transformed into true love, which is what must be sought after. That being said, I cannot view limerence as anything other than normal, just because of how ingrained it is in our culture: the music, the folkloric tales, the literature, the language, and so on. I do not seek after the feeling, nor do I wish to stay in its grasp, and yet I accept it as something normal.
I also do not agree with the author’s claim that limerence is not a cultural invention. It is so in the sense that the way it is expressed differs among human societies. Though this ought not diminish from its material existence as a “complex involuntary human reaction pattern.”
The book, while it doesn’t answer many of the mysteries behind limerence, doesn’t shy away from asking the tough questions. I was quite pleased that the author even discussed the question of sexual difference and sexuality and their role in shaping limerence.
Page
· lemmy.ml
I’ll try to be clear for once, to be real, to speak normally. I’m obsessed, with you, you’re always on my mind, and I’m always trying to keep up with you, to grab your attention, to have your gazefixed upon me.
This book was supposed to be a comfortable read to soothe my brain after months of reading theory. Objectively speaking, it is a simple and easy pop-psychology book destined to lay readers, despite its well cited and researched nature. (The study is based on the findings of a large set of questionnaires and interviews). However, I did not expect that every paragraph and every phrase I read would force me back to my past romantic experiences in order to reflect upon them in light of my newly gained knowledge.
Limerence is, to put it simply, the state of “being in love.” It is distinct from love per se, and it is not sexual desire, although all three can coexist. Poets, philosophers, theologians and all sorts of intellectuals have conceived of such a phenomenon, giving it different labels throughout history, such as “romantic love,” “erotic love,” “love spark,” etc.
Tennov posits that “limerence is, above all else, a mental activity. It is an interpretation of events, rather than the events themselves.” That limerence is a mental activity, see an interpretation of real events, implies the existence of a limerent subject on the one hand, and a limerent object (LO) on the other. An entire emotional revolution could be brewing within the limerent person that may perhaps be fully unknown by LO. For limerence is not so much about LO as much as it is about the feelings and emotions one has for LO.
Limerence creates above all a desire for reciprocation within the limerent person. It is the ultimate goal and achievement of limerence. Reciprocation could be expressed in many different ways: for example, it could be sexual intercourse, a relationship, or even a fruitful confession of love. Once reciprocation is achieved, limerence arrives at its consummation, “in which the bliss of reciprocation is gradually either blended into a lasting love or replaced by less positive feelings.” However, reciprocation is not always achieved, and sometimes it is rendered uncertain or almost impossible due to circumstances: this is what we call unrequited love. Regardless, what fuels limerence is that desire for reciprocation and mutuality, and will continue as long as there is even a slimmer of hope in the mind of the limerent.
Just as all roads once led to Rome, when your limerence for someone has crystallized, all events, associations, stimuli, experience return your thoughts to LO with unnerving consistency. (Ch. 2)
One common symptom of limerence is obsession with LO. Some people dream of their LO while others daydream of them. Everything and anything could be a source of romantic reverie. Though such a phenomenon differs from one person to another depending on the degree of limerence which incessantly fluctuates.
Limerence can have positive effects on its subject and the people around them. It is commonly a motivator for self-improvement and has been throughout history the main inspiration for lots of artistic works of different kinds. However, it is not devoid of negative effects: antisocial behavior, intrusive thoughts, extreme moodiness, severe grief and sorrow following rejection, and so on. This promoted psychoanalysts, according to Tennov, to reduce limerence to a pathological, irrational state of the mind. (This claim was moreso confirmed when I discussed the book with a psychology major). To them, limerence is not “true love.” According to Maslow, for instance, “B-lovers [true lovers] are not unreasonably jealous and they are not blind. It is the other, damaging D-love [limerence] which blinds you. In true love (B-love) you are able to perceive your lover clearly and penetratingly.” Sociologist Paul Bohannan puts it as such:
“romantic love” is a condition in which your “love fantasies become ends in themselves.” You are blinded to LO’s “real” personality because you refuse to look at the facts.
There is truth in the claim that limerence is irrational. It is not love for the other based on mutual concern and affection, but it is rather love for love itself. Limerence is selfish in the sense that it disregards the person behind LO and reduces them to an abstracted ideal in the mind of the limerent. Tennov concedes to this, yet she found her respondents and informants to be quite aware of how illogical their limerent state is. She concludes that “while it is illogical, it is also normal, and therefore normal human beings can be illogical,” thus dismissing the psychoanalytical approach of pathologizing limerence.
Limerence is quite a universal experience that transcends human cultures. Yet it is not an experience shared by everyone. Tennov admits the existence of people, as her questionnaire and interviews have shown, who are nonlimerent. This raises more unanswerable questions about the nature of limerence and its origins.
In my personal opinion, and as someone who has experienced limerence, I do not believe it is pathological, despite how irrational or illogical I could have behaved at times. True, limerence is unsustainable if not transformed into true love, which is what must be sought after. That being said, I cannot view limerence as anything other than normal, just because of how ingrained it is in our culture: the music, the folkloric tales, the literature, the language, and so on. I do not seek after the feeling, nor do I wish to stay in its grasp, and yet I accept it as something normal.
I also do not agree with the author’s claim that limerence is not a cultural invention. It is so in the sense that the way it is expressed differs among human societies. Though this ought not diminish from its material existence as a “complex involuntary human reaction pattern.”
The book, while it doesn’t answer many of the mysteries behind limerence, doesn’t shy away from asking the tough questions. I was quite pleased that the author even discussed the question of sexual difference and sexuality and their role in shaping limerence.
“Love and Limerence” by Dorothy Tennov (Review)
Edited 55d ago
Ebook in stores August 21, 2026: https://books2read.com/RowleysRide
The space pirate, Captain Edwina “Roaring” Rowley wakes in the vacuum of space, in orbit of the old harvest moon, Cakana, despite the fact her body is literally frozen stiff. She’s utterly confused by the fact Nuva, the goddess of death, didn’t come for her soul.
@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books
#QuestionOfTheDay what's a fictional character trope/archetype in a genre/medium you like that you can't stand?
#fiction #writing #books #anime #manga #videogames #comics #comicbooks #superheroes #TV #television #film #movies #fantasy #scifi #romance #ttrpg #CCGs #boardgames #musicals
Despite being 1-5% of feudal society, the Fancy People tell 98% of 'A Song of Ice and Fire'
I was curious to do a class analysis of awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/POV_character
The books keep passing the narrative baton from one landlord to another landlord.
322 of 354 chapters (91%) are narrated by a Lord or Lady or their immediate family:
Tyrion Lannister 49
Jon Snow 42
Arya Stark 34
Daenerys 31
Catelyn Stark 25
Sansa Stark 25
Bran Stark 21
Jaime Lannister 17
Eddard Stark 15
Theon Greyjoy 14
Cersei Lannister 12
Samwell Tarly 10 (son of a Lord as a comment below said)
Brienne of Tarth 8
Victarion Greyjoy 5
Arianne Martell 4
Asha Greyjoy 4
Aeron Greyjoy 3
Jon Connington 2
25 more chapters are narrated by Knights (who under the feudal system were landlords):
Davos Seaworth 13 (who wasn’t born a knight, was socially mobile)
Barristan Selmy 6
Quentyn Martell 4
Arys Oakheart 1
Kevan Lannister - 1
The remaining chapters are also mostly narrated by high-ranking professionals, nominal exceptions:
Areo Hotah 2 (Captain of the Guard)
Melisandre 1 (former slave who became an influential Rasputin)
Cressen, a maester of Stannis Baratheon 1
Chett, a steward of the Night’s Watch - 1
Pate, a novice at the Citadel 1
Varamyr, a skinchanger 1
Page
· hexbear.net
I was curious to do a class analysis of awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/POV_character
The books keep passing the narrative baton from one landlord to another landlord.
322 of 354 chapters (91%) are narrated by a Lord or Lady or their immediate family:
- Tyrion Lannister 49
- Jon Snow 42
- Arya Stark 34
- Daenerys 31
- Catelyn Stark 25
- Sansa Stark 25
- Bran Stark 21
- Jaime Lannister 17
- Eddard Stark 15
- Theon Greyjoy 14
- Cersei Lannister 12
- Samwell Tarly 10 (son of a Lord as a comment below said)
- Brienne of Tarth 8
- Victarion Greyjoy 5
- Arianne Martell 4
- Asha Greyjoy 4
- Aeron Greyjoy 3
- Jon Connington 2
25 more chapters are narrated by Knights (who under the feudal system were landlords):
- Davos Seaworth 13 (who wasn’t born a knight, was socially mobile)
- Barristan Selmy 6
- Quentyn Martell 4
- Arys Oakheart 1
- Kevan Lannister - 1
The remaining chapters are also mostly narrated by high-ranking professionals, nominal exceptions:
- Areo Hotah 2 (Captain of the Guard)
- Melisandre 1 (former slave who became an influential Rasputin)
- Cressen, a maester of Stannis Baratheon 1
- Chett, a steward of the Night’s Watch - 1
- Pate, a novice at the Citadel 1
- Varamyr, a skinchanger 1
Despite being 1-5% of feudal society, the Fancy People tell 98% of 'A Song of Ice and Fire'
Edited 82d ago
I’ve reviewed indie books on my blog for quite a few years.
It’s disheartening to see how many self-published books are using LLM-generated covers these days.
A few have slipped past my screening procedure, but I really try to avoid books that do this as i get better at noticing the tells for such covers.
I’ve actually started switching to reviewing more traditionally published books because of this.
How Emperor Augustus Silenced Rome’s Most Famous Poet
At the height of his popularity in Rome, Augustus exiled the poet Ovid to the Black Sea. There, the whimsical author produced a striking series of poems.
https://www.thecollector.com/ovid-roman-poet-exile/
Ovid at PG:
Edited 71d ago
#Jadaliyya | We Are Still Here: Voices of #PalestinianStudents From #Gaza
featuring student contributors to the book #WeAreStillHere, edited by Jacob Norris and Zahid Pranjol
co-moderated by Anisa Haddadi and Zahid Praniol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDMHSufeGz0
#Palestine #GazaGenocide #colonialViolence #PalestinianYouth #oPt #books #poetry #essays #shortStories #anthologies @bookstodon
What is the shortest book — by page count — that had the biggest impact on you?
Caveats: it must be a single book, published on its own under a single title. Within, it can be a series of essays, or poems, or whatever.
I’m already anticipating many people adding the obvious ones: The Little Prince, Of Mice and Men, The Lorax, The Grinch, Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #141, etc.
Really, I’m curious about the obscure, rarely read, short books that caught you unaware — but LANDED.
e.g.
The first book of this kind, for me, was Indignez Vous! (Time for Outrage) by Stéphane Hessel. It is 32 pages. In its time, about 2011, it said a lot of things I needed to hear and hoped others wanted to say. If I remember it correctly at all, it’s grown more relevant with time.
The latest book of this kind, for me, is the Burnout Society by Byung Chul-Han. Finishing it tonight, at 51 pages, I’ve re-read it twice already.
Page
· lemmy.world
Caveats: it must be a single book, published on its own under a single title. Within, it can be a series of essays, or poems, or whatever.
I’m already anticipating many people adding the obvious ones: The Little Prince, Of Mice and Men, The Lorax, The Grinch, Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #141, etc.
Really, I’m curious about the obscure, rarely read, short books that caught you unaware — but LANDED.
e.g.
The first book of this kind, for me, was Indignez Vous! (Time for Outrage) by Stéphane Hessel. It is 32 pages. In its time, about 2011, it said a lot of things I needed to hear and hoped others wanted to say. If I remember it correctly at all, it’s grown more relevant with time.
The latest book of this kind, for me, is the Burnout Society by Byung Chul-Han. Finishing it tonight, at 51 pages, I’ve re-read it twice already.
What is the shortest book — by page count — that had the biggest impact on you?
https://lemmy.world/post/50190182
Until I wrote up this #review of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I hadn't realised how little fantasy I've read in recent years. I have mixed feelings about this book. It's ambitious and does atmosphere really well. But it's also overlong which creates pacing issues, and I have high standards for any work playing with time, which this novel didn't meet. This is only a recommend for readers with specific preferences.