Dev’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2017)

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

i had a related question - the rules say we can use something with mpg childrens if it also has mpg young adult right? so i should be good to read The Silver Chair?

im reading Nobody's Prize right now which would work for the princess spot in jackanory if we still need it

i think you have to answer the questions within a month from the start date, and i think there's also quite a few people who are just starting it now so you'll still have people to discuss with!

DQS - Day 4

13. Simon was kept very much a mystery character throughout the book. What is your opinion of him? How will he be able to support Esk in the future (or will he)?
I'm sure he'll be important in some way since he seems to be able to make new spells and that's not something many people can do. I think I would have preferred it if it turned out how actually was 'better' at being a witch or something like that because overall I don't feel like Pratchett did enough to disrupt the strict gender roles here but I do plan on continuing with the series so I assume I'll see more of him in some capacity.

14. The meeting between Granny and the Archchancellor and their actions afterwards are a pivotal part of the book. What were your impressions?
I liked their interactions and I think that they really ended up learning a lot from each other.

15. With duality of witchcraft vs. wizardry being one of the main themes, what do you think about the ending? Was it satisfyingly concluded?
It was okay, I'm glad they decided to [maybe] let more women into the university in the future, although I'm not sure if he ever actually follows through on that in later books.

16. How did you rate the book? If you are familiar with his books/a fan - any changes in your earlier impressions/opinion?
This is the earliest book I've read except for the very first one and I did like it more than that, but overall I think he probably gets better over time. I've said many times that I don't think he really did enough to challenge the strict gender roles of the world but I'm trying to be generous and realize this is a book from like 40 years ago and was probably pretty groundbreaking for the time. I rated it 3 stars because I thought it was good overall but there were several things like that that annoyed me as well. I do plan on continuing with the series though so I guess I'll see if my opinion changes moving forward.

DQs - Day 3

9. What do you think on the creatures from the dungeon dimensions? Do you find them creepy?
I guess they're creepy but even the creepy stuff in Discworld I don't actually find scary because the books are so whimsical.

10. I enjoyed the Esk’s thoughts about being both witch and wizard and wanting to defend the one to the other. Do you sympathize with this view (more in general than in specific regards to magic fields)?
Yeah, like I said before I think that really it's like the same thing because we do sometimes see witches do 'flashier' things that look like wizard magic and vice versa so I think that really they're just putting themselves in their own boxes.

11. Why do you think Esk’s magic did not work?
Maybe she was just too nervous.

12. Esk is supposed to be precocious but also nine years old. Do you think she acts in a way you could see a nine year old acting?
No, I think she really acts like a mini-adult most of the time, which is something you can say about a lot of kids in books because otherwise nothing would ever get done I guess.

As a member of Team Ook, the bonus question is: Is not the librarian wonderful and would you want to be turned back in his place?
I would definitely want to be turned back but that's just me lol Glad he's happy though.

DQs Day 2

“They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.” (Granny said) First off, who are “they”? I have always wanted to know. Secondly, do you agree with “them”?
I figured 'they' is just people in general, or people who gossip I guess. Or maybe people who want to sound smart if you're not feeling very generous lol. I do think there's at least some truth to both statements although I'm not really sure which is 'worse', I tend to think that these kinds of things just vary by situation [and whether the person is willing to learn more]

5. Esk went ahead and did not follow Granny’s advice, and thought since she had a feeling she could get into the bird’s brain, then why not do it.
When you were a kid, did you jump off the swing, or touch the hot burner? If so, give us examples. Do you think she learned something from it, or are we looking at shades of her future University life?
Mmmm I definitely have but they are more personal/emotional examples vs just doing something physically unadvisable and hurting myself so I won't be giving details, but yeah there are a lot of things that you have to just let people make their own mistakes with because they aren't going to listen to you even if you've been through the exact same thing. I'm not sure if Esk has learned something from it yet, I think it's more likely that she'll mess up more and more things and this is just like the first thing she will look back on and think oh yeah maybe I didn't know what I was doing.

6. What do you think of Hilda and her version of Headology? What do you think of Headology in general?
I think it's definitely something that works but also something that annoys me because I don't really like it when people aren't straightforward about things, although you can't really blame her since she's just doing what she knows works. It's definitely something that annoys me personally in real life though. Although I get the feeling that if someone is smart enough to see what she's doing she's not going to use mindgames on them in the first place.

7. Esk finds herself on a moving barge. Loved loved loved the resume of talents beyond washing and sweeping that Esk rattles off in an attempt to stay on the boat. What skills could you bring to the barge?
I was just sitting here going 'she can do all that? she's only 9!' I guess I could clean or cook or sew or something.

8. Speaking of the barge, what do you think of Esk’s decision to just leave Granny? Did she mean to leave on her own adventure, or was it an accident? Do you think her matter of fact attitude is a product of her magic, or just her personality or upbringing?
I think it makes sense because she's just a kid and she's clearly very impulsive and thinks that she knows best and doesn't really understand how difficult some things are [or should be at any rate, the world seems to be bending around her to help her out quite a bit]. I don't know if she necessarily meant to sleep in a place that would end up moving in the morning but I don't think she minds that it happened either.

1. If you are new or relatively new to Discworld, what do you think of Pratchett’s world and writing style so far? For more experienced Pratchett readers, what are your favorite things about his writing style or Discworld in general?
So far I've read the very first book [hated it] and the Death and Tiffany Aching series [both of which I liked]. I don't think he really hit his stride yet with the first one and there wasn't really enough to set it apart from standard high fantasy stuff for me personally but with the other ones I've really enjoyed how he takes certain tropes and plays with them and he usually has some pretty good social commentary as well. Sometimes the bit get a little bit too relentlessly clever for me but I've found I enjoy listening to them much better than reading them and it helps with that.

2. So we have our plucky heroine Esk and her witchy mentor Granny Weatherwax. What do you think of our two main characters and their relationship with each other?
I know Granny a bit from the Tiffany Aching series but so far I like both of them and think they have a fun dynamic.

3. A major theme is witch magic vs. wizard magic (and women vs. men), and I can’t wait to learn more about these different magical theories and world views. What do you think of this dynamic, and which type of magic are you more drawn to?
In general I'm not a huge fan of the whole 'women do things intuitively whereas men are good at thinking' thing but 1. this is a rather old book and 2. I don't feel like he's necessarily going to enforce it that strictly or even really endorse it since this is a book about a woman being a wizard so basically I'm just glad there's some wiggle room. I would probably be more drawn to wizard magic personally although I think there's a lot more overlap than witches and wizards like to think.

4. Oh dear. Esk went a bit too far with the borrowing. What do you think is going to happen next? And what will Granny say or do?
Guess we'll see ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ lol. Sorry, one thing I've discovered about myself from discussing books with other people is that I don't really like speculating on future plot points as much as other people seem to, I'd rather just wait and see.

Bonus: I am really enjoying Pratchett’s wit so far. What is your favorite quote from this first bit? Mine is:
I don't remember the exact quote but I did like the part where it was talking about witches doing magic naked and said Granny wouldn't want to admit that she had that much skin under her clothes

yeah they used to allow exceptions even for things that actually *are* poetry and plays and middle grade if you could prove it was 25k or if the audio was long enough, but i assume they got sick of having to go through and approve or deny a bunch of things so just got rid of the exceptions part

are tags different from shelves? i dont think i ever 'tag' anything i just put it on my shelves, but since i have weird shelf names whenever i go and look at the tags pages for books that havent been shelved a lot i do see my shelf name with the little (1) after it to show that i'm the only person to use it so i thought that they were just interchangeable

i usually end up listening to audiobooks at 1.5 - 2x speed because i feel like most of them sound a bit comical when you speed them up more than that, but yeah i do not know how anyone listens to them a 1x speed bc i just feel like im listening to someone talk in slow motion

as an ebook/audiobook person i always forget that things come out in hardcover first lol but yeah i don't blame you for waiting for the paperback! i listened to the audio bc i generally prefer to listen to scifi books rather than read them and it was really good.

suzanne, i see you're reading project hail mary too! how are you liking it? i just finished it earlier today and loved it.

thanks!

maybe i'm missing something but there don't seem to be any new rows on the books tab in the planning spreadsheet so there's no place for me to add the book i just finished

yeah same here, i generally read everything in publishing order bc i figure thats how the author wrote them so thats how they should be read. but with discworld i had to break out of that habit both bc i didn't like the first one and also just bc there are like 40+ books so i find it more approachable to do it in smaller sections with the sub-series

yeah i didn't feel like the colour of magic did enough to break out of the like 'standard high fantasy' mold of the time which is why i didn't really enjoy it, but i've loved all the other ones i've tried

do we just put our books on the planning spreadsheet and then the captains will move them over once they figure out where they want to put it? i finished my first one and put it on the planning sheet only under the books tab but let me know if i need to do anything else!

yeah its 8pm for me so i'll probably start something tonight. i've just been reading fanfic for the past few days to avoid starting anything new lol

Kaley wrote: "I've been watching Shadow and Bone too! I've only read the first book in the trilogy (just last week to prep for the show haha) but I haven't read Six of Crows which from my understanding is where ..."

yeah they introduced most of the characters from six of crows [except one, poor wylan lol] but the stuff they're doing in the tv show takes place before the six of crows book so its basically all new. i think it was a good choice actually for a tv show to expand the cast because it helps mix things up and have more going on.

i think it probably depends on how many planners vs not planners we have, like i said before i'm not a planner at all but also if several people here are then it might be easier to get some highlights in place in advance. as for genre i think fantasy makes sense since it's such a broad genre and it also seemed like a lot of people were mentioning romance before so maybe fantasy and romance for the genres? i also feel like a romance plot/subplot would be one of the more straightforward things to do with regard to structure but i'm sure we can find books to fit anything we want to do.

also, what i originally came here to say - pretty sure i'm gonna be starting with rereading the shadow and bone trilogy since it's been ages since i read them and i just fell facefirst into the netflix show [damn you ben barnes for being so attractive, gotta do a rewatch before this challenge starts to get it out of my system lol] so if anyone has a more recent memory of the books and can thinks of tasks i could claim for them i know i'll definitely be reading those towards the beginning of the challenge.