Astonishing how so many e-book retailers and e-bookstores are just unnecessarily bloated. I know a lot of developers are on my timeline, so let me give you a little bit of a secret. If you make a literal DRM free only bookstore retailer that only sells DRM free e-books, you would hit a gold mine without even trying to do so, and you must accept all genres. I know Smashwords exists, but there’s a reason why independent authors continue to publish work via Kindle. It’s easy. In fact, it’s so easy that even the upload process doesn’t need a lot of formatting involved. This is the key. Make it very easy to host e-books, and let authors set their prices and let publishers set their prices, and you would have a money making machine. Also, make it global. Even if publishers want to Geo restrict it. The design doesn’t have to be a torture either. Have an HTML page from the 90s that displays the book cover, the title, some buttons that do various things like choose a book format, E pub, PDF, about the book, about the author, reviews, and that’s it. It doesn’t need anything more than that. Anything more and it’s just a bloated waste of code #WebDev #Bookstodon
bookstodon
Five stars:
Dandadan, Volume 2 by Yukinobu Tatsu (2021) covers the initial fallout from Okarun and Momo's misadventure with the aliens and Turbo Granny, including their first day back to school.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_09/dandadan_2.html
You know you have a bit of a completist problem when you take a screenshot of your #Calibre library's cover listing for the 20 #nonfiction books you're planning to read in 2026 (1-17 done, last 3 underway) and think "I gotta make it 21 to fill that ugly gap"
#linguistics #History #bookstodon @bookstodon
finished reading Children of Ruin 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Another case of interstellar evolutionary uplift, but this time with octopuses. Given their unusual neurology (where each tentacle is somewhat independent of the central nervous system), this makes for a lot of fun chaotic genius. And there's actual alien life which is a bit too hungry for assimilation. The spiders and humans get a look in as well as they attempt to come to peaceable terms. Excellent nerdy scifi.
I'm working on a review of Skeleton and Cat which the marketing campaign has been comparing to Frog and Toad. I wanted to link to a review I'd written of the series. I AM SHOCKED to my core that I have NEVER written a review of any of those four books.
I will rectify this.
For the record, I disagree strongly with the comparison. Skeleton and Cat are more like DEATH and Albert from the Discworld books.
#FrogAndToad #reading #SkeletonAndCat #bookstodon
@bookstodon
We need more Library defenders 😊
@libraries @Libraries@fedigroups.social @library @books @bookstodon
#Library #LibraryMemes #Meme #Memes #Libraries #Librarians
#Bookstodon
Ebooks Are Coming to Libro! https://blog.libro.fm/ebooks-coming-librofm/ #Books #Bookstodon #EBooks
Five stars:
The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, Volume 1 by Iwatobineko (2021) is the start of a manga series about a romance between a man who can't be seen and a woman who can't see. Tounome, an invisible man, works as a private detective with three others. Yakou Shizuka, a blind woman, is hired to be the agency's secretary.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_07/invisible_man_and_his_soon_to_be_wife_1.html
Do you also sometimes read a wholesome story, and when you're done with the chapter, you realize you're smiling like a maniac?
Or is it just me?
#Reading #AmReading #Books #Fanfiction #Stories #BookTok #Bookstagram #Bookstodon
Ever notice a weird theme in your reading? Mine is a weird idea taken to its full potential. Crowdsourcing a rocket (Badasstronauts) The Dutch language literally disappearing (Een woord voor) A care home with a murder pact (Joséphine) #bookstodon @bookstodon
People from across the 20th century are pulled into a bizarre city with an artificial sun as part of an experiment that can only be discussed in thought terminating cliches (the Experiment is the Experiment). If it were a novella I might have called it a masterpiece, but it goes on and on in its depiction of a grim mysogynistic irrational dystopia, and I lost my enthusiasm for reading about it. Still pretty interesting as a piece of secret subversive Soviet literature, but not something I would recommend. @bookstodon #bookstodon #Strugatsky
Grief is the Thing with Feathers. Max Porter.
The recent death of your wife has made you a single father, so you turn to a crow for help, but the crow’s advice is hard to follow.
4 of 5 library cats 🐦⬛ 🐦⬛ 🐦⬛ 🐦⬛.
@bookstodon #bookstodon #books #fiction #poetry #grief #crows #reading #therapy #death
This dialogue strikes with intensity, carrying a raw realism that feels almost unsettling. It lays bare Earth’s complete inability to comprehend the Belters, exposing a world still shackled to a colonizer mindset—echoes of 19th‑century imperialism—coldly indifferent to the struggles and realities of the people it subjugates.
#books #reading #bookstodon #sff #scifi #sciencefiction @bookstodon
Five stars:
The Great British Bump-Off by John Allison and Max Sarin (Illustrator) (2023) is a delightful comic book parody of the ridiculous numbers of murder mysteries inspired by The Great British Bake-Off and similar cooking competition shows.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_08/great_british_bump_off.html
Five stars:
Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (Illustrator) (2024) is a YA love story centered on lion dancing with an Oakland setting and a lowkey Crazy Rich Asians vibe. Valentina Tran was named for Valentine's Day and until recently it was her favorite holiday. Now she believes she's cursed in love but a Valentine's heart given to her by a lion dancer has given her heart one last hopefully zing.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_07/lunar_new_year_love_story.html
Reading the Hugos: Best Novella 2026
A roundup of this year's novella nominees.
@chloroform_tea has our roundup at the NOAF blog
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/07/hugo-award-shortlist-2026-novellas.html
Four stars:
What Can You Make of It? by Franz Brandenberg with Aliki (Illustrator) (1977) is about a family of field mice and their collection of recyclables. Things come to a head when the family is moving and five moving vans are needed to move their stuff and their rubbish.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_09/what_can_you_make_of_it.html
#WhatWereReading : Joe found #Glasgow based Metaphrog's (John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs) new graphic novel for younger readers, Wilomina and the Land of Dreams and Nightmares, a total delight, both as a story, and visually, with some fabulous artwork.
A coming of age tale for a young girl, a heroic journey, talking cat, dragons, Easter Eggs for the adults to spot, this will charm our younger readers! Out now from Scholastic.
#books #livres #Wilomina #WilominaAndTheLandOfDreamsAndNightmare #BandeDessinee #comics #GraphicNovels #ChildrensBooks #LivresJeunesse #bookshops #librairies #bookstodon #RecommendedReading #JohnChalmers #SandraMarrs #Metaphrog
I've finished: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
While I Cheerfully Refuse hits most of the usual post apocalyptic genre tropes, it is no regular post apocalyptic adventure novel.
Rainy is a quietly competent protagonist, and viewing this dystopian world from his perspective is what setts this novel apart.
Reminiscent of Station 11, it is a more literary work.
Literally (Actually) pitting Rainy and Lark, with her used book shop, against the illiterate anti-intellectualists.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/73d19b03-b69f-476b-9e63-6e3d9f6ab14b
@bookstodon @audiofiction
#dystopia #postapocalyptic #literary #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks
Me buying a discounted book here, splurging on a bulk sale there, all in the touching hope that someday I'll have time to read them all.
RE: https://wandering.shop/@kvillyard/116846583884805904
It’s ending soon! Grab them before July 31!
#bookstodon #smashwords #sffbooks #freebooks @Books @books@newsmast.community @bookstodon
Delighted to receive an advance copy of Wilomina - the Land of Dreams & Nightmares from Scholastic.
I've adored Glasgow creators Metaphrog's work going back to the Louis books in the 90s, I'm sure I'm going to be recommending this to our younger readers in the bookshop.
#comics #BandeDessinee #books #livres #bookstodon #Wilomina #Metaphrog #GraphicNovels
The Wizards and the Warriors by Hugh Coock is out in audiobook format for the first time.
From: r/hughcook
[Announcement] The Wizards and The Warriors by Hugh Cook audio book now live! (Audible, Google Books and Kobo)
"Hey folks!
Morgan here, the fan narrator for Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.
I am super pleased to be able to announce that the audiobooks are now live and available for purchase!
Audible, Kobo, Google Books"
I also found it on LibroFM:
https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781963191424-the-wizards-and-the-warriors
@bookstodon @audiofiction
#HughCoock #fantasy #AudioBooks #libroFM #bookstodon #SFF #ChroniclesOfAnAgeOfDarkness
Read top to bottom, these covers tell an unintentional story...
Read the alt tag for the story.
