bookstodon

164d

Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl.

I was really excited for this one, but it sadly didn't quite live up to the excitement I had in my head.

It was a bit tonally all over the place in the first half, and seemed to care more about being a videogame in book form than telling an emotionally impactful book.

It's a shame, because it definitely has some beats and moments where it really shines well.

#book #books #bookstodon #booksky #reading #readingCommunity

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73d

Transcription. Ben Lerner.

You are interviewing your famous and very aged philosopher-mentor, who’s showing signs of dementia, for what might be his last interview, but the recording gets messed up, and suddenly what might be an okay approach, philosophically, to solve this is not as okay in the real world.

3 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #books #reading #philosophy #writing #truth #memory

Book cover dominated by a phone shaped object covered in a brown wrapping.

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73d

Five stars:

Eight Enchanting Elixers by Lynn Cahoon with Angie Hickman (Narrator) is the eighth book in the Kitchen Witch mystery series. Mia is once again being tested on her skills as a witch, her last results being called into question. After her test, the proctor is found dead up in the woods and someone is trying to frame Mia!

https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_09/eight_enchanting_elixers.html

#bookstodon #audiobook #mystery
@bookstodon

Cover art

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72d

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Library E-Lending on the Book Economy: As Public Libraries Prioritize eBook Formats, Harm to Commercial Markets Across All Formats is Quantifiable and Significant.

“[C]onsumer print sales decline by approximately 0.85 to 1.0 percent for every one-percentage-point increase in the share of e-books in public libraries, with adult fiction being at the upper end of this range.”

#books #writing #libraries #writersofmastodon #WritingCommunity #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://publishers.org/news/new-study-analyzes-the-impact-of-library-e-lending-on-commercial-book-markets/

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77d

The Narratess Indie Sale is live! Over 200 books, 4 bundles:

https://indiebook.sale

My book, The Threads That Weave is included in the fantasy/thriller bundle (or individually for half off).

#bookstodon #fantasy #books #BookPromo

A dragon, small planet, gems, and skulls. Indie Book sale, fantasy, scifi, and horror.

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72d

Hmmm, no book reviews in August. Do you still have a pulse?

Yes, dear readers, I might have mentioned that once I get my teeth stuck in Darwin's Descent of Man, they would remain firmly lodged there. Here is a progress shot as I am grinding my way through over 700 pages of Victorian English and effectively a separate book of dense annotations. No shortcuts here, just reading books cover to cover before writing a review, so I beg your patience.

And those books on the left? I am settling in for a deep dive into this topic.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #Evolution #SexualSelection #CharlesDarwin #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

On the right, The Descent of Man, showing a white oblong hardback with a colour photo of a fan of brown bird feathers with noticeable eyespots (these belong to the argus pheasant). The book is heavily annotated with yellow Post-it notes

On the left, two books: Darwin and the Making of a Sexual Selection, a white hardback with a period black-and-white cartoon illustration of a woman in Victorian garb seen from the back, holding a small umbrella. Her head, back, and the umbrella are covered with coloured peacock feathers. Next to it is A Most Interesting Problem, showing a white hardback with two monotone colour illustrations of a chimpanzee skeleton in yellow and a human skull in green.

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71d

Five stars:

Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 5 Kamome Shirahama with Stephen Kohler (Translator) (2019) ends the arc of the second test. It also examines the consequences of transformative magic through two different scenarios.

Years of being trapped as sentient golden statues (see also Ozma of Oz (1907) and The Yellow Knight of Oz (1930) have created an entire population bent on revenge. Lessons learned by escaping the dragon in the maze are creatively applied here as a means of escape.

https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_09/witch_hat_atelier_5.html

#bookstodon #manga #fantasy
@bookstodon

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23d

#books #bookstodon @bookstodon

Authors cannot help the fact that they share the same name, but to head off confusion these are three separate people:

KATE QUINN:

Historical Fiction

The Alice Network
The Rose Code
The Huntress
The Diamond Eye, etc.

CATE QUINN:

Historical Fiction
(Travel and Lifestyle journalist, as well)

Black Widows
Blood Sisters
The Clinic

KATHERINE QUINN:

Fantasy/Romance

Stolen Midnights series
Mistlands series
The Azantian trilogy

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223d

I fear I'm not nice enough to swear to h*ck, but I kind of wish I was that has to count for something 😇😂

@bookstodon @books
@worldbuilding @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Memes #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Low #Urban #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #Soft #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic
#Novel #Books #Bookstodon #BookMastodon

Post by RED

| swear to h*ck, if I have to explain the difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy again, I will literally be so glad to help because learning is awesome and those two genres are my favorite.

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268d

It's almost like publishers don't know the Spice of Life when they see it 😜😂

@bookstodon @books
@worldbuilding @humor @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#Dune
#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Memes #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Low #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic #Whatever #GiveMeAllYouveGot
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #BookLove

Two panel meme of a person being uplifted by an angel.
Panel one: Frank Herbert getting rejected by every credible publisher.
Panel two: A company that specializes in car repair manuals thinking his story about giant worms and space drugs is kinda neat.

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70d

Family haul from #Canberra 's wonderful #LifelineBookfair second hand book (and DVD, puzzle, etc) sale. Did we win? @bookstodon #Bookstodon

21 books, 9 DVDs, and a puzzle laid out on the floor, with multiple appearances by Stephen Hawking, Georgette Heyer, Katharine Kerr, Phillip Pullman, Sherlock Holmes in book and film form, and David Suchet as Poirot.

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70d

RE: https://mastodon.art/@NickEast_IndieWriter/117172203765192969

With 40 votes the result of the poll is in:

97% think I should add images to The Last Philosopher ebook.

78% think I should add them as scene/chapter headers.

So, expect Part two to have images, mostly maps...

@fantasy @bookstodon @books @reading
@worldbuilding @humor

#Ebook #Ebooks #Indie #IndieAuthor #Map #Maps #Drawings
#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks #Geek
#Fantasy #SciFi
#Novel #Books #Bookstodon

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75d

I think this is one reason I like writing fantasy, whatever weirdness I come up with it's always correct 🤔😁

@fantasy @bookstodon @books @reading
@worldbuilding @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks #Geek
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Low #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic #Whatever #GiveMeAllYouveGot
#Novel #Books #Bookstodon

Post by Victoria Aveyard
all writers should have doctor friends

Writer: Can you get internal bleeding, like coughing up blood, from broken ribs and blunt force trauma to the abdomem
Doctor: Yes
Writer: Excellent

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74d

That's it, that's the story 🤔
No one can tell me Dune isn't realistic 😂

@reading @bookstodon @books @fantasy @worldbuilding
@humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#Realistic #Dune
#GeekMemes #Geek #Meme #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Epic #Scifi
#Reading #Readers #ReadingCommunity #Bookstodon

Post by dunemovie
Explain Dune in one sentence.

Reply by August J. Pollak
In a move so unsurprising there is literally an eons-old galactic prophecy about it, powerful, horny men are unable to peacefully share a planet made of cocaine.

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24d

I've got one more (short) horror book to read before Halloween.

Have you read some really good horror this month/year/ever?

Best Horror
(my list)

The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

The Stand, Stephen King

The Rouse, China Miéville

Red Rabbit, Alex Grecian

The Woods, James Tynion (graphic novel omnibus)

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones

The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, Brian Evenson (stories)

and, I'll throw in a wild card:

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, Augustina Bazterrica (stories)

#books #bookstodon #horror @bookstodon

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70d

After reading one too many cosy/whimsical novels by Japanese authors I’m looking for some Japanese classic crime or thrillers for a change! Recs welcome #bookstodon #reading @bookstodon

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23d

I contributed to this anthology, which is free to read and brought by a project called Applied African Science Fiction, where some academics in the UK use sci-fi in schools. My story in the collection is The Leafy Man, which tackles corporate greed - a biotech company releases a genetically modified mosquito to eradicate malaria, but the result is an apocalyptic horror show.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16gddFf7AppNm-Q6Mxydg_B3MO1z4CYdL/view

#book #books #bookstodon

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69d

Finally getting back to Tokarczuk's House of Day, House of Night, after finishing an entertaining satirical novella, Varamo, by Argentinian César Aira.

Speaking of Tokarczuk, for whatever reason, they're doing a book giveaway for her 1996 novel: Primeval and Other Times. Probably a new translation.

As Chris Cantrell has encouraged, I also need to return to Urasawa. And speaking of Japanese writers, I just got a volume treasury of Classical Japanese Verse: One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each. The plan is to read one poem every night before bed.

The current reads are precariously stacked. Here's hoping that your reading surprises you in ways other than toppling over.

#books #bookstodon @bookstodon

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69d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: three second-hand books, all revolving around the theme of ice.
- #Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World's Most Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker, published by Bloomsbury Publishing.
- The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the #IceAge by Edmund Blair Bolles, published by Counterpoint.
- Glaciovolcanism on Earth and Mars: Products, Processes and Palaeoenvironmental Significance by Benjamin R Edwards and John L Smellie, published by Cambridge University Press.

#Books #Bookstodon #Glaciology #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Volcanology #EarthSciences #Geology #Scicomm @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

On the left, standing up, Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World's Most Mysterious Continent, showing a blue hardback with a colour photo of the sea filled with large chunks of floating ice against a cloudy blue sky and a single penguin in the bottom left corner.

In the middle, lying down, The Ice Finders, showing a small hardback with a large black band at the bottom with the subtitle, and a narrow white band across the top with the title and a colour photo of icebergs floating in water.

On the right, standing up, Glaciovolcanism on Earth and Mars, showing a white hardback with a close-up photo of a field of snow with red-hot glowing lava flowing over it. The lava is crusting over in many places.

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73d

Looking for some light, comfy reading to uplift and entertain you in these uncertain times? Try my whimsical fantasy story collection. Elves, gargoyles, mischievous young magicians, heroic aunties, very good doggos, & much more.

Kobo, Nook & more:
https://
books2read.com/relicsfromatravelingshow

buy direct: https://kmherkes.com/the-bookshop1/p/relics-from-a-traveling-show-ebook1

#fantasy #wizards #monsters #witches #sorcery #elves #FoundFamily #reading #books #bookstodon #bookpromo #indieauthor

Book cover for Relics From a Traveling Show by K. M. Herkes, showing a figure in a green and blue traveling cloak seated at a desk looking out a window at a carnival tent at sunset. A bonsai tree in a blue bowl sits on the window sill, and a glowing eldritch lamp sits on the desk beside a binder labeled, DPS Orientation Guide.
The figure has short brown hair, and they are wearing a green and blue traveler's cloak. At their left stands a tall bookshelf filled with artifacts, books, and knickknacks. A happy dog sits at figure's side. Their hand rests on the dog's head.

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28d

You can now turn off AI content on Libby under content controls! #bookstodon #reading

A screenshot from the Libby app showing how to turn off AI “authors”

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68d

Here’s my review of Albion by Anna Hope, 2025… I liked a lot about this story of family secrets and sibling infighting, the characters were excellently written but the story didn’t quite fulfil its potential #bookstodon #BookReview #reading #Storygraph #audiobook @bookstodon
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/91b14292-73c9-42e5-b896-5760e760eb99

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67d

Five stars:

Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk by Travis Baldree (2026) is a short fantasy story mystery about a monk found dead at the base of a tall abbey tower. One of the surviving monks has hired Miss Gentle to investigate.

https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_09/miss_gentle_and_the_case_of_the_very_flat_monk.html

#bookstodon
@bookstodon

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28d

This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I bought a second-hand copy of Vaclav Smil's #Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the #EnergyPolicy Debate, published by AEI Press.
- I managed to buy a signed copy of the first print run of the first volume of The EVOL Algorithm by the author trio K. M. MOKE, published by the Bristol-based Worldbuilders of Queen Street.
- I bought another second-hand copy of The Correspondence of #CharlesDarwin, this one Volume 9, covering 1861, published by Cambridge University Press.

#Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Evolution @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

On the left, Energy Myths and Realities, showing a white hardback with an illustration of a classic pear-shaped light bulb with a screw-fitting. The bulb has a picture of a translucent leaf overlaid, such that the leaf's venation is patterning the bulb.

In the middle, The EVOL Algorithm, showing a hardback with a colour illustration of a small girl standing on a rocky hillside. A huge black moon or planet hangs in the sky, with partial cloud cover in front of it. The title of the book has been printed in foil and is showing an iridescent reflection.

On the right, The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Volume 9: 1861, showing a moss-green hardback with black-and-white lettering.

A photo of a book standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

The book in question is a signed copy of The EVOL Algorithm, shown open on its signed title page where three signatures in pink and green ink are visible. The book is numbered 77 out of 100. Leaning against the blank left page is a postcard that came with the book, showing a colour illustration of a small girl in a red dress kneeling down on the top of a rocky promontory with, in a few places, a scattering of bushes jutting out from the rock face below her. The girl's attention is directed at a small blue ball or orb floating in front of her. A large white cumulus cloud covers up part of the light-blue sky.

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167d

Self-promotion in progress 😁

The Last Philosopher is a Fantasy/Attempted Comedy story that some have even compared to #DouglasAdams and #TerryPratchett

My response to that comparison, is to go hide under the covers for a week with embarrassment 😊

1€ Ebook. Help an #IndieAuthor to get to 100€ sales. This is not for the profit but to avoid the fees from D2D.

Part One: https://books2read.com/b/m0pJYA

#FantasyBooks #Fantasy #Comedy #Reading #Bookstodon #Books #IndieAuthor #AmWriting

Edited 100d ago

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