CIRCLE WITH A DOT

Book 19 of 2026This is a solid book not at all filled with surprises or new theories. The only thing I dislike about it is the term that serves as the title. Too much TED talk and not enough meat for me. I was honestly hoping for more.I listened to this on audible. Somebody should let all these authors know that professional readers are the way to go. #books #bookstodon

@hannaB I know! There was another part where she describes the FMC touching the MMC's shoulder, but uses the word "deltoid"!! Like, who says "I put my hands on his deltoids"?!? There was another part where the author said the FMC "licked his throat" and I had to do a double take. I realised she meant neck. Throat is a bit... internal...

@decorum @Buchhandlung_am_Bruehl Aksioma also published a book on the history of the "like" button and how it changed online social validation.

I finally finished reading Dracula. The writer did a pretty good job at making sure there weren't loose ends. One of the main examples were the 3 witches who lured men to their doom. It's something that would've been easily forgotten otherwise. (Especially when the verbose writing is on one's nerves.) Great care was taken to remind the reader that the actions weren't exactly in malice. The vampires are merely people who were robbed of religious freedoms. Even Dracula is given pity in this realization that his actions weren't his will. The book ends with an update on life years later.I get the sense that Bram & I shared a similar problem in ending our story. You've the problems solved, but there's no resolution. Our characters are traumatized, but they are unable to relate the events. Their sanity would be called into question. Since one of our protagonists runs an insane asylum, they are acutely aware of the danger of the label.Much gratitude for this website: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/draculaIt offers a summary of each chapter as well as an explanation to its importance. Much of the story revolves around Victorian beliefs about women & sexual weakness. It compares it to modern culture as well. Vampirism isn't portrayed as a sexual concept usually. It's noted still that victims aren't willing participants. The victims purity is both religious & sexual. (I'm obviously avoiding a 4 letter word that starts with R. This is due to fears of censorship.) #books #Dracula #endreview

Got myself some cool #retro #scifi #books at a flea market!I was looking for #swordandsorcery ones, but they didn’t have any, and I *had* to get _something_.🛸

Want to read #books

Book 18 of 2026This was a surprisingly excellent book with an interesting structure. Old fashioned literature with modern themes and a very modern format. This is what dughof would call a "frame blend."Highly recommended.#books #bookstodon

Picked this up at the local bookstore today. I'm close to done buying books online—it’s vapour the minute they decide. Fuck the oligarchs and billionaires, and may they all boil in their own sweat as they watch us die ahead of them, which unfortunately is likely. But we are their food supply and there's no reasonably habitable planet other than ours within light years of here. Try farming on Mars, assholes. #books #reading #truecrime

Pre-order nowhttps://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Beyond-Stoker-Issue-Helsing-ebook/dp/B0D7QJQQ23/

There have been books that have occasionally been on my reading list. I read Frankenstein because it's always being used in pop culture. It's the exact opposite of the Care Bears version. Now I'm reading Dracula. I'm between 2/3 and 3/4 of the way through it. If the writer was paid by the word count, he'd be obscenely wealthy. It's like reading Shakespeare, but with words that are recognizable. Hamlet's famous speech could be summed up in a couple of sentences. Most of Dracula is made up of diary entries. The language is so flowery that I have to find chapter explanations. Is it that difficult in Victorian times to just get to the point? "We were worried about Arthur's emotional and physical well-being when confronted the undead body of Lisa. He faced his task with great resolve. The piercing cries didn't phase him as we expected. When it was over he looked relieved of the emotional burdens he had carried." Two pages condensed into a short paragraph. (I sanitized it to not upset anyone.) #books #Dracula #review

In the hunt for reviewers, an ARC of my #solarpunk novella is now on NetGalley via @SFWA This is the story of a country that decentralizes power, getting rid of presidents, politicians, ministers, and authoritarians. Instead, every citizen actively participates in running the country in a direct democracy. And there's no capitalism. Help me spread my idea of the future, get it on netgalley or send me a DM.https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/837516#books #bookstodon #sff #scifi #writing #writingcommunity

#WritersCoffeeClub May 1: Workers' Day: What can we do to support and protect other writers, not only now, but in the future as well? Support libraries. Avoid Generative AI. Fight censorship. Remember, other writers are your peers not your competition.#Books #Writing #WritersOfMastodon #WritingCommunity

Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923– December 12,1999)Before writing Catch-22, Joseph Heller served as a bombardier in World War II and flew 60 combat missions over France and Italy.That experience became the seed of one of the most famous anti-war novels of the 20th century - a book where war is shown not as noble glory, but as a terrifying system of fear, paperwork, commands, and absurd rules.#books #writers #reading #catch22 #JosephHeller #Heller #book #bookstodon @bookstodon

@JonSparks Where did that graphic come from? Is it free to use? I'd like to put it on my web site.

The Fairytale Language of the Brothers GrimmBy Chi LuuHow the Brothers Grimm went hunting for fairytales, accidentally changed the course of historical linguistics, and kickstarted a new field of scholarship in folklorehttps://daily.jstor.org/the-fairytale-language-of-the-brothers-grimm/?utm_source=mcae&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jstordaily_04302026Brothers Grimm at PG:https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Brothers+Grimm#Books #Literature #Philology #Folklore

@gutenberg_orgI can't read a single word. This English is completely alien to me.

From Life Itself by Suzy Hansen review – Turkey in the age of ErdoğanThis portrait of everyday life in an Istanbul neighbourhood buffeted by change has far wider relevance Thankfully, the attack left only black eyes and bloodied faces. It was in Karagümrük, a tough neighbourhood in Istanbul’s old city, once known for mafia types and Turks on the hard r...https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/30/from-life-itself-by-suzy-hansen-review-turkey-in-the-age-of-erdogan#Books #Politicsbooks #Culture #Turkey #RecepTayyipErdoğan #TheGuardian(Thu, 30 Apr 2026 06:00:15 +0000)

@TechBean @ChrisJagged @thegaffer It’s the Americanisms which really jolt me from a medievalesq fantasy novel. But there are a surprising number of words which seem timeless but are fairly modern; hello being one of them.

RIP, Desmond Morris. I appreciate how he popularized zoology and ethology, even if his bestsellers – like Naked Ape, Human Zoo, Manwatching, Intimate Behaviour – I found too assured of their generalizations and speculations. This lesser-known, co-authored work on human gesture is fun and interesting, and was probably pioneering in its day (1979)Obituary: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51y797v200o#DesmondMorris #research #gesture #zoology #books

@diazona Thank you!!