Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
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@Ahdamwe sort of agreed to read the gray house in november. It's a russian wacked out fantasy novel. You want in? Check the BR invite thread for the book link.
Ok I’ve read the blurb and it looks like it’s gonna be a surrealist adventure of the sort so I’ll see if I can find it and I’ll join in
So a while ago I think someone was talking about a story about a guy finding love in a bookshop kept on to that idea until I knew where to go with it. Then my boss was working on a documentary and I listened to some interviews which intrigued me and gave me an idea where I can take the story leading me to ask you guys about your partners interests in books. And recently answered a question where I had to find a dirty blurb for the Kama sutra which was weird and a few days later I made this.
An Awkward Encounter (Working Title)
Michael is lonely and hopes to find love in his local library and once Catherine walks in he thinks he’s found the one, but has he?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CwDI...
Here is a word document just in case
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d5g8...
I would love to know what you think since it's about us readers finding love and I decided to do something different in the end it's only 12 pages so not too long. (Couldn't really help myself with the jokes so sorry about that)
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Has it been a year already? Time flies when you're reading. :-)Great pictures, Ahdam!
Yep it seems like yesterday when I made my speech to the group back in March.Cheers Veronica :) :)
Anyone interested in classics? We have a Read All Classics thread in hodge podge folder.
Mod
We have a Read All Classics thread in hodge podge folder."
I try to follow the thread to see what's going on. If there is a book I already own when you guys read it, I might join in. :)
I check in with the thread occasionally. I like some classics and wouldn't mind joining for something that sounds interesting to me.
I spent the last few days scanning the "best YA" by year lists, reading literally hundreds of blurbs in the process. And now I get bored beyond belief only halfway through da effing blurb. Please tell me I'm not the only one...Destiny, love triangle with hot demon, war between vampires and ogres, saving the world... Sorry, I just ran out of fucks to give.
Good books where are you hiding?!
@ idiffer What sort of books are you looking for? I'm sure we could all give you some suggestions!
@ShaitarnI tried to describe what I'm looking for in that thing we did here in FBR, the one where you write your preferences like you would on a dating site, and ppl would try to find you matching "dates" or smth.
Well, that didn't work out so well that time for me, mb partly because I don't know how to put into words what I'm looking for.
Mod
I tried to describe what I'm looking for in that thing we did here in FBR, the one where you write your preferences like you would on a dating site, and ppl would try to find you matching..."
The One ;)
Is this where the FBR Support Group meets? I signed up for six books in September and I think it's going to kill me. I average 6ish books a month so it's not the number. It's more that I am so not that disciplined in keeping to a reading schedule LOL
Narilka wrote: "Is this where the FBR Support Group meets? I signed up for six books in September and I think it's going to kill me. I average 6ish books a month so it's not the number. It's more that I am so not ..."*Chants*One of us! One of us!
It's okay that I'm not Canadian, right? Also, I'd love to learn more about Canada if someone would want to talk to me about it! I have a few questions. ;)
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This is why half the time I bail on BRs and read the book but don't comment on some.
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Haha yeah, it's fine. There are tons of people who are not Canadian in the group. I just had to choose a country when I created the group so I chose Canada.
What do you want to know about Canada? I know there are quite a few of us in this group. :)
Okay, cool! I totally understand! Haha. Wellll, in America, there is a severe love for Canadians. There are some extreme stereotypes about how you guys are unnaturally nice and stuff. I was just wondering if most of it is true I guess. XD Also, what is your guys' view on America?
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Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker
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Haha. Wellll, in America, there is a severe love for Canadians. There are some extreme stereotypes about how you guys are unnaturally nice and stuff. I was just ..."
Arwen~Undomiel wrote: "Okay, cool! I totally understand!
Haha. Wellll, in America, there is a severe love for Canadians. There are some extreme stereotypes about how you guys are unnaturally nice and stuff. I was just ..."
Between family and friends (or people you hate), I am guessing the friendliness would be the same as anywhere, but for strangers in public, I would generally agree that Canadians are nicer than most places I've been. Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone. (Side note, other places I've been where I found people extremely friendly were Japan and Germany - not sure about others' experiences).
Whenever I visit back home from Korea (where I live now), it always takes time to realize that not every random person who talks to me has a secret agenda. In shops, workers often ask how I'm doing when I enter, I chat with bus drivers and random people in lines.
I often am shocked when I encounter service workers in the States. It's not that they are openly rude, but I often find their tone of voice is annoyed or impatient. Again, you can run into this in Canada as well, but (I would say) less.
As for Canadians' views on America, it would really depend on the person and what aspect of America you're talking about. In general, though, most Canadians I know do not like to be referred to as "just like Americans," "the 51st state" and so on. On a personal level, it's pretty easy to connect to Americans because there is a lot of shared culture - we watch the same TV, read the same books, etc.
That's interesting! I'd love to visit Canada one day.It's interesting that you say you perceived germans as extremely friendly. What's interesting is that germans themselves usually believe that germans are not that friendly and can often be a bit rude (at least in the part of Germany where I live, I don't know if it's different elsewhere. Anni, if you are reading this, what do you say?). Then on the other hand people visiting Germany usually say that the germans are very nice, so there seems to be a big difference in how they treat visitors and fellow germans.
In my experience people in England and Ireland were incredibly nice in comparison to what I'm used to at home.
So people in Korea are secretive? I've been to Taiwan a few years ago and my exchange family (and also people in general), though very nice, were also definitely reserved in a very polite, quiet way. It was a bit difficult in the beginning to never really know what they were thinking or feeling or if you might have offended them.
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I have a male "resting bitch face" like Margret has mentioned, and don't want to interact with customers, so I work nights...
Narilka wrote: "Is this where the FBR Support Group meets? I signed up for six books in September and I think it's going to kill me. I average 6ish books a month so it's not the number. It's more that I am so not ..."I think many people in this group have, at one point or another, experienced that.
As for myself, my solution was to review every BRs that I had scheduled and picked which ones I really wanted to read (and have the books ready) and be happy with it haha. I'm focusing on continuing the series that I've already started or thinning down my overflowing bookshelf.
Bea wrote: "That's interesting! I'd love to visit Canada one day.
It's interesting that you say you perceived germans as extremely friendly. What's interesting is that germans themselves usually believe that g..."
I think many Asians are reserved and respectful of other people's privacy and personal space. It's a cultural thing (how a lot of us were brought up), I guess. Maybe other people might see that as being secretive.
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It's interesting that you say you perceived germans as extremely friendly. What's interesting is that germans themselves usually believe that g..."
I've actually heard the same thing from German people, but they were so friendly to me and my friends! Random shop owners taught us German phrases and recommend places to go. Mind you, I was only there for a few days, so my experience is very limited.
When I said secret agenda, I actually meant that whenever someone comes up and talks to me in Korea, they want something and always have a motive other than just being friendly. People here (at least in the city) generally just mind their own business and don't interact with strangers so generally there are three situations a Korean stranger would talk to me in public: 1) to practice English 2) to hit on me 3) to get me to join a cult.
@ Jenna : oh damn, #2 and #3 suck. Does #3 occur very often?
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I feel like this is both true and not true. In my experience, people here in Korea are very guarded with showing their emotions, especially in professional situations. And in general, no one interacts in public if they don't need to.
But at the same time, there is zero regard for privacy and personal space. One of the most common "small talk" conversations here is: are you dating/married? why not? My students always ask for extremely personal information, especially about my relationship. People will straight out tell you you look bad and you got fat, or your skin looks worse than usual. I get that it's a cultural difference so I'm used to it now, but it's definitely the opposite of privacy/being reserved. Just very interesting to me that Asians are always the caricature of shy/timid/reserved.
(Of course, I've only lived in Korea and Asia is a very big continent to generalize about so I can only speak for my experience in this country.)
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In tourist areas, yes, but I don't live or work in a tourist area so personally, it's only happened to me twice. I know people it happens to regularly though.
I think it depends on who you are and who you meet here in Bradford has a huge Asian minority (south Asian) and I find that my interaction with these guys are rude o think that may be due to me being Asian and all that but there are a few kids here that aren’t raised properly by there parents and you can tell a lot of them have he mentality of being the big man in the sense It’s weird cause I tend to get on better with white people rather than Asians due to having better manners and acting less like dicks but I guess that comes with a segregated community
Jenna wrote: "Barry wrote: "I think many Asians are reserved and respectful of other people's privacy and personal space. It's a cultural thing (how a lot of us were brought up), I guess."I feel like this is b..."
Hmm ... I'm surprised actually to find out that in Korea it is common to ask those private questions. I'd imagine that kind of questions only when you're with friends or at least people you've met before. A lot of Asians are "busybody" or "kepo" as Singaporeans or Indonesians say it. They really wanna know some information about other people, so they can gossip about it to some other people.
I dunno about other Asian countries, but I imagine this is quite common too. In terms of room privacy, there's very little. Parents are allowed to just barge in whenever without knocking, unlike in the US or other western countries. Certainly that's my experience growing up. I dunno how it is nowadays.
So, I get it why you said in a way there's no privacy in some Asian cultures. Frankly, I'm really surprised that they're really that direct with their questions. Maybe I don't hang out a lot nowadays lol. I need to update my social interaction protocols hahaha.
Jenna wrote: "Barry wrote: "@ Jenna : oh damn, #2 and #3 suck. Does #3 occur very often?"In tourist areas, yes, but I don't live or work in a tourist area so personally, it's only happened to me twice. I know ..."
I think that's a recent development. Growing up, I didn't experience stuff like #3. But, in recent years after I came back from the US, I did notice more and more attempts by certain religious groups to openly recruit new members in public areas (like in parking lots, malls, etc.)
As an American i want to point out that not all Americans are created equal. I'm from Chicago but work in New York City now. Chicago is WAY friendlier than New York.
Diana Stormblessed wrote: "As an American i want to point out that not all Americans are created equal. I'm from Chicago but work in New York City now. Chicago is WAY friendlier than New York."Very true. I'm a midwesterner (live in the Omaha, NE metro...and yes, it is over 1 million so it qualifies as a metro) and I REALLY hate when people that aren't in my close inner circle ask personal questions. And in the midwest portion of the US, people cross way over the friendliness line and into nunya-business territory all the frickin' time. I hate it.
That stands in stark contrast with when I travel for work to the east coast. As an example, when riding the metroline in D.C., I have literally never had a stranger say more than two sentences to me. But I can't even imagine how uncomfortably talkative Omaha would be if mass transit ever became popular. It's a terrifying thought.
In Texas you can just start talking to anyone if you feel like talking, it's not even slightly weird.
Bea wrote: "It's interesting that you say you perceived germans as extremely friendly. What's interesting is that germans themselves usually believe that germans are not that friendly and can often be a bit rude (at least in the part of Germany where I live, I don't know if it's different elsewhere. Anni, if you are reading this, what do you say?)"Hmmm... I'm always a little troubled with generalizations and saying that a whole country is this or that. Especially when it comes to something subjective like being friendly.
I think one of the reasons germans are considered to be rude is that small-talk isn't that much a thing here and people are more direct? I for once wouldn't ask someone questions, while I'm not interested to hear the answer, just because it's considered to be polite or friendly.
A few semesters ago I was part of a buddy program my university has for foreign students, to help them out if they had (language-)problems with documents, mails or whatever. And also to show them the city and just spent some time and have fun. It was a very interesting experience.
One thing I noticed for exanple, is that I often had to reassure them that when I'm offering something, I really meant to do it and it's not a polite phrase meant to be denied.
I think it also depends on the situation, if you meet someone who's obviously foreign to your country or town and might even appear a little lost, you tend to be more helpful and friendly as to someone you consider capable of helping himself. Does that make sense?
Me and my boyfriend moved to a smaller village last year and actually we were very impressed and amazed how extremly friendly and helpful everyone is. We lived in the city for 3 years and barely knew our neighbors. Here it's completly different, when I meet them outside we stop to talk, while in the city everything is more rushed and you have that no-time feeling.
On one of our first days here we were working in the garden and tried to dig out the roots of a cut tree. One of our neighbors came over, introduced himself, said 'Wait a minute' and was gone. He came back with a tractor and pulled it out in no time (maybe again, it was because we looked a little helpless :D). In general I really like the community here, you feel always welcome but aren't forced to join on anything.
Diana Stormblessed wrote: "As an American i want to point out that not all Americans are created equal. I'm from Chicago but work in New York City now. Chicago is WAY friendlier than New York."It's the same in the UK; we moved from the suburbs of South London to Yorkshire in 2015 and were a little startled by the friendliness (and nosiness!) of the locals. In London there are two rules:
1/Don't talk to anyone you don't already know
2/ Never make eye contact with anyone
Here, strangers are chatting to you, asking you where you live now and our neighbours always know when we're going back down south to see our families. It really screwed up my instinctive southern suspiciousness when we first moved here!
Wow, I'm really surprised. I have never heard anyone here in America refer to Canada as the fifty-first state, or that you're apart of America at all. I can understand why you guys don't want to be associated with America at all though. It's a messed up country. I love Germany so much and hope to go there someday!!
Well that’s a bit of an over exaggeration mate I always like to make fun of the Americans of being I leant and proud as well as loud and I do love the Brit vs yanks stuff we usually but at the end of the day nobody’s perfect 😁😁😁
Sir Anni wrote: "Bea wrote: "It's interesting that you say you perceived germans as extremely friendly. What's interesting is that germans themselves usually believe that germans are not that friendly and can often..."Yes, I definitely agree one can and should never generalize! I didn't mean to say that germans in general are rude, that's definitely not the case.
Good point with the smalltalk! Basically everybody I know hates smalltalk and I feel like people often are a bit more reserved when they don't know the person they are interacting with and need time to thaw. I strongly doubt that this is an exclusively german thing, though and of course it isn't true for everbody.
Yes, being especially nice to strangers who seem a bit lost definitely makes sense, I thought about that too.
Apparently judging people from your own country as less friendly than people elsewhere when you're on holiday could be a general thing in many countries because
@Shaitarn: I've just been to London a few weeks ago and basically everybody I talked to was so nice! So basically we have the same observation I made in Germany also in England. London definitely had this overall feeling of rush, though and I can very well imagine you perceive people differently when you live there longer.
Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Narilka wrote: "Is this where the FBR Support Group meets? I signed up for six books in September and I think it's going to kill me. I average 6ish books a month so it's not the number. It's more t..."haha thanks!
Jenna wrote: "Narilka wrote: "Is this where the FBR Support Group meets? I signed up for six books in September and I think it's going to kill me. I average 6ish books a month so it's not the number. It's more t..."
You should come back and comment anyway. The threads stay open for quite a while :)
Jenna wrote: "Bea wrote: "That's interesting! I'd love to visit Canada one day.It's interesting that you say you perceived germans as extremely friendly. What's interesting is that germans themselves usually be..."
Join a cult? Really??
So on my YouTube channel I got my first subscriber and like as I made a vlog to the Peak District I’m not sure if you guys have seen it or not but for some reason I’m excited about it And I’ve got a cool idea for 2 new videos one is an intro to the channel
And the other is a review/skit on a brilliant book
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Haha, yes, really. People will approach you on the street and ask you if you want to have a unique cultural experience or a traditional Korean experience. They are always cults.
I've lived in america when I was a kid, but I couldn't say anything about how friendly ppl were.I can tell you about Russia, Moscow though. This example should suffice: if you're bumming a smoke or ask for money, it's not unusual for ppl to outright ignore you completely (I've taken to this behaviour myself).
BUT it is a thing prob in all countries that smaller cities are friendlier.
Oh, but one thing I've noticed here is that ALL the baristas are friendly and talkative. What about in your various countries? This just intrigues me to no end. Something about that vocation...
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I think the friendliness of service employees varies by whether or not your country allows tipping... in the US, certain jobs like food delivery drivers and bartenders and restaurant servers rely on tips to even make minimum wage... tipping is assumed... I know in other countries it can be frowned upon...
Well, the coffeeshops here do have tipjars, only noone tips. I think. They're always close to empty. I'll have to ask around.
@Bea People in the centre of London are pretty friendly to tourists - hey, we like to show off our country! - particularly when it's not rush hour. I grew up in a town called Croydon that used to be 12 miles outside of central London, but the capital grew and eventually swallowed it up. Now it's a bit of a dump (it was one of the places that went up in flames during the 2011 London riots). Now I'm living in a smaller place and it's more friendly - like idiffer says, cities/bigger towns have more problems (more crime, etc.) so people are more wary.
Yeah I guess that’s the case with me I live in pretty much the centre of Bradford so I guess it’s expected
I agree with what most people say here about living in a big city. I was living in Paris before coming to the UK and I never had any interactions with anyone in the streets for the 6 months I spent there. Don't even try to make eye contact with anyone!
I then moved to the North East of the UK and this is completely different. People are so friendly here and I could start a conversation with someone on a bus, while queuing in a shop, and it would be considered as a normal thing. It just feels like a big village which I love
Ooh where in the north east are you Alice? Im near Newcastle, nice to see a fellow northerner!
Fantasy Buddy Reads
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Michael Lesley (other topics)Michael Lesley (other topics)
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Michael Lesley (other topics)
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You bringing that up reminds me that I really want to get into Russian literature you lot seem to have some of the best writers which is fair with the timelines and such