Alysa’s Comments (group member since Jun 27, 2015)

Alysa’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Welcome Emily!
Have you read all six of Legends of the First Empire yet? I’m only thru #4 so far, and wish I had your cool reading nook in which to read 5 & 6 🙂

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Ooh, is that a glimpse of the new Wheel in the Newsletter... or just a decoy. Enquiring minds want to know, LOL. If it's the real thing some of those words are going to .... challenging."

I saw that too and was thinking the same thing, lol.

Welcome Bernadette!
Library Board of Directors = love. ❣️

Welcome, Vaidehi!
And don’t worry, we all get carried away by our love of books here :D

I am the same with my print collection, and some of my private "What should I read next?" documents. I have several of those, with various criteria! I just don't tend to use Goodreads for shelves/tags very much, past the boilerplate Read/Currently Reading/Want to Read.

I'm also a librarian who spends up to 50% of every day (normally) on retrospective cataloging, so, there is that. :D

I have like 3k on my GR want-to-read, but I guess I just don’t mind scrolling, or switching my options from Infinite Scroll to 100 per page of whatever.
Or, I just don’t like having a lot of shelves. Whenever there are Challenge tasks that involve tags, I am like “Thank goodness for everybody else” because I hardly ever use shelves/tags unless I have to, lol.

The other Sandy wrote: "I don't limit myself at all, except for the challenge requirement of being on my TBR for more than one year. I did create shelves for the years I added them, so if I want to read a book I shelved i..."

You can also just sort your whole TBR by date-added. I do that a lot!

Sammy wrote: "Bookcases my husband built into our livingroom wall when we bought the house: (the little packets are a loose-leaf tea advent calendar, lol)"

*drools*

Melanie wrote: "Oh Sammy I really like your shelves. That's great that your husband is handy enough to build those.

I also have built-ins in my spare room that a friend built after I was having issues finding she..."

Great built-ins! But when I see that last shot of the standing bookcase, I am like “But there is still empty space in the corner for books to be shoved in!”
Sometimes I think that if one can see the wall, one is doing something wrong. 🤣

Haha, all of my print books are in a database too. I keep the database sorted by LC call number, but on the actual shelves there is a lot of leeway given for oversized items, etc.
But the scheme mainly ends up being fiction in the bedroom and hallway, and nonfiction in the living room and dining area. My partner is a food blogger and has a rather extensive collection of cookbooks, so they have their own large area, and many of the bigger volumes have spread over into the art/music books.

My daughter (9) has amassed a great many books as well, which remain uncataloged. However, a few of my books have migrated into her room, or to grandma's house. Those get a special note in the database in case I ever need to find them!

So excited!

Cathy M. wrote: "Totally bummed it was cancelled! Has the new time for Saturday been published yet?"

NBC News was saying 3:22 EST

Ugh, my daughter was really excited about it. Just have to wait until Saturday!

And could I pretty please lower mine slightly, to 15?

I put 17 (I think), but I just got some significant Day Job news that means less reading time over the summer.

I've read all the previous ones, it's the new one, Network Effect, that just came in and I'm trying to force myself to wait on reading.
But: we'll see how this waiting goes. ;D

Lexi wrote: "Yay, more Murderbot readers.

I picked up The House in the Cerulean Sea the day before the libraries closed here and have had it as a 14 day book since March 12. This kind of bother..."

My hold on the e-copy of the new Murderbot book *just* came in, a bit earlier than I expected! I have to check it out by tomorrow night or else I lose my place in line. But I think it's a 3 week loan, which means I can hang onto it until Wheel since it's good to have some N titles :)

That's funny about your 14 day book extended indefinitely. A lot of libraries are accepting returns in book bins, but just not able to check them back out to new users again. Though I know a lot are starting curbside pick-up sorts of arrangements. (I work in an academic library, not a public library, so my situation is different!)

Sammy wrote: "I'll come and do mine tomorrow! Had a nutty weekend and am still playing catch-up, lol."

LOL, yeah, I was like... Either people are really busy with the (long for USA) weekend, or nobody likes my DQs. :D

Hah, maybe nobody liked my questions so I will start :D

DQs Day 3: Chapters 11 - End

11. Uh-oh, the mutineers. Daphne has to think fast to get out of the sticky situation with Foxlip and Polegrave. After Foxlip dies from the beer, Daphne feels so guilty that she demands the Nation put her on trial for murder. What did you think of Daphne's decisions and behavior throughout this section? What did you think of the trial?

I thought it was fascinating how Daphne at this point identifies so strongly with the islanders, and is able to use the beer-making process to her own purposes. Her feelings of guilt then seemed too extreme to me. She had to do what she had to do, yet she then insists on applying her English morality to it. I really liked the trial, however, and the outcome. It was like, it applied islander logic to a European problem, with results both entertaining and thought-provoking.


12. Cox became the new leader of the cannibal raiders -- just as Daphne predicted he would, if he'd survived the wave. Was this credible to you?

Not really, but it's a Pratchett book, so... we all just go with it.


13. It turns out that the ancient islanders were scientifically advanced. A globe! Star charts! False teeth! Quite possibly, the island was the true birthplace of civilization. It remains only to convince the Europeans, once Daphne's father arrives, followed quickly by the Cutty Wren -- at which point we get much general hilarity, including some rather on-the-nose humor about imperialism. Did any of this make sense to you? How would you place it against real-life history? Any additional thoughts?

I didn't find the whole thing with the ancient islanders being super advanced to be all that credible, but see previous answer re Pratchett book/going with it. It's not that ancient islanders couldn't have been more advanced than previously believed -- stuff like this seems to be discovered by archeologists on the regular -- but that within the context of the book, I found it unlikely that they would have been SO advanced and yet these advancements would be completely forgotten by the Nation over time, but for traces that have passed into legend. The Nation is so into tradition, I feel like more would have been passed down through the ages.
Re real life history, I think Pratchett had quite a lot of fun poking at European imperialism. If only real life 19th century explorers had been willing to see Pacific islanders as sovereign to the extent they do (or at least Daphne and her father THE KING do!) in this book, colonialism may have gone a very different way.

14. These last few chapters continue to dig into the ideas that "people want lies to live by" and "lies help you understand what's true," but also that sometimes it's good to "just believe… in things generally." You might or might not be familiar with Terry Pratchett's public comments on religion, but how would you interpret the ultimate message of Nation when it comes to theology, religion, and belief?

As discussed in previous days' DQs, this book encourages Young Adult readers to question religious doctrine (that's actual doctrine and not doctorin' - LOL). I think the message is ultimately a rejection of religion, and at the same time an encouragement of theology. That is, a continued study of the nature of belief. Like, most people really need something to believe in, to help them get through life, but nobody should believe blindly and without thought, and belief does not necessarily have to be in a God or gods.

15. Concerning the non-romance between Daphne and Mau. Did they really just miss their right moment ("For some people, there is only one right moment for the right word," Chapter 12), or would a romantic relationship always have been impossible? This is discussed by the modern day characters in the "Today" epilogue, and also by Pratchett in the video posted here on NBRC, where he says that they had neither a happy nor a sad ending, but "an absolutely appropriate ending." Do you agree, or would you rather have seen something different?

I don't live in a bubble, so I get all "Awww!" when romances end sweetly, but I do agree that Daphne and Mau had an appropriate ending. There was just no way that they could be together given their respective duties to their peoples. If this book had somehow been written by a different author, I'd have half expected that Daphne, once queen, could marry and king/chief/whatever she wanted to, and that would be Mau. But then I'd have been upset by such a pat and unrealistic ending. Pratchett got it right.

Jenny wrote: "Dragon zombie shapeshifters from outer space that need freshly undead red headed human female concubines or their species will go extinct.

If it doesn't exist on KU, it should."

And if anyone can find it, it's Jenny!

Jenny wrote: "I just realized that his chat thread is called Terminus. Is there a hidden Walking Dead theme we are going to encounter? Extra points for travel books that include cannibalism? Do we have to get on train car "A"?"

How about Pelham 123?