Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
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That's great Margret! Yes, I agree with Iain, this calls for 40 books.
Margret wrote: "I’m feeling really happy today, I weighed myself and have lost 40 lbs, halfway to my goal weight!! That is heavier than my daughter and to think I’m just not carrying that burden on my bones anymor..."WTG, Marge! Phenomenal work...really happy for you!
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Margret wrote: "I’m feeling really happy today, I weighed myself and have lost 40 lbs, halfway to my goal weight!! That is heavier than my daughter and to think I’m just not carrying that burden on my bones anymor..."Woot! That's great! =D
Grumble/Rant: Book Titles: There are books with titles that don't make a lot of sense. That happens. Within the past year, I've started to get annoyed by authors that do not bother to make a title for their books other than to name them Book 1, 2, 3, etc. I think a part of that thought process comes from the story having been written on forums and then wrapped up to publish. There's nothing wrong with that but I'd like authors to put a little effort into naming their books. If you know it's going to be a series, please have a series name and then individual names per book. That would be nice. I would call that a basic part of editing and packaging for public consumption.
One Name Authors:
Cool. You made a name for yourself on a writing forum. Me too. I've done that multiple times. One day, when I publish, I will make a pseudonym. When I see only one name for the author and it's obviously a screen handle of some sort, I don't want to read your book.
I did make an exception for the Wandering Inn but that may be the only one.
It's all about expectations. If I go on a writing forum, I don't expect to get the best writing. A lot of times, you get a work in progress. That's fine. But once you make the effort to put your work into a book (print/ebook/audiobook), I would think a part of that effort would include having an author's name. You can always put a byline on the book to state: Also known as blah blah blah to click with current readers who may want to support you by getting your work.
Rhetorical Question:
I made a status update message. I was fairly clear. It amused me to note people responded without actually reading the whole message. Then people proceeded to respond as though my message was a real question. I can take that I may not have been clear on that point. So, I update with a note in response to a friend and that my update was a rhetorical question. Which only seemed to ask for more person-splaining on a topic I do not need any explanations or arguments.
Which just confirms my thought: People are weird.
I am definitely weird but this particular form of weird is not one of them. I do not try to engage in arguments to be negative & derogatory with others. I do enjoy debates and love a good show of pro/con/sides. I enjoy playing Devil's Advocate and trying to see the other side whether I agree or not.
I think it's odd when strangers post negative & derogatory comments outside of group/BR threads. It's not a matter of understanding why they do it. I can think of many reasons. That kind of posting is not something I am interested in doing. I'd rather spend time looking up new books, dancing, hiking, cooking--anything else that I enjoy doing.
So I just picked up a copy of the hardcover, illustrated version of Assassin's Apprentice for £7.99 rather than £30, so I'm feeling pretty smug right now!
Waw, that was a great buy!
I just bought 8 books from Audible's sale. Oops. First 3 books of two series that are on my list and books 2-3 of another I read end of last year/beginning of this year.
Elizabeth wrote: "I just bought 8 books from Audible's sale. Oops. First 3 books of two series that are on my list and books 2-3 of another I read end of last year/beginning of this year."I've bought so many audiobooks this month I don't even want to add them up. Audible sales are deadly
I'm also going to be buying a lot of books this weekend. me and two of my best friends are going out of town just to hit a bunch of bookstores.
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I've bo..."
This one is the most insidious... offering books 2-3 is more likely to generate sales, considering how often they offer the same 1st books...
I bought a bunch too. There were a lot of trilogies offered. It's cheaper than using a credit. Lots of good options for SF/Fantasy/LitRPG/Mystery/Thrillers. US membership cost went up and I'm debating if I'm going to get the regular one or the more expensive Platinum annual membership.
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US membership cost went up and I'm deb..."
When did this change happen?... I'm pretty sure you're grandfathered in, as long as you already have a subscription... because for the longest time, people were grandfathered into cheaper monthly prices, then people started saying the platinum yearly was gone, but I'm still a platinum yearly subscriber with the $230/yr pricing on my account page, and the amazon helpdesk says the same numbers I remember...
I'm on the 12 credit one per year one and cost was around $120 for 9.97/credit. Now the price is at $149.50 now and Platinum is $229.50. I think I'll probably stick with Gold Annual & buy the 3 batch discounted credits as I need them. Platinum doesn't really save me money. They basically upped the Gold Annual to end up at $12.46 per credit instead of the $9.97.
I should really cancel the Audible Escape though because I know I'm not using that one enough to pay a monthly fee.
Membership is great because I return most of the books I read. The books I like, I buy in print for keeps.
The sale was nice because there are series I like enough to get the whole thing at $6 per audiobook (which is cheap) and keep. My audiobook library is growing steadily and that's great.
Shaitarn wrote: "So I just picked up a copy of the hardcover, illustrated version of Assassin's Apprentice for £7.99 rather than £30, so I'm feeling pretty smug right now!"Amazing!! It's so beautiful isn't it.
Where did you find such a fantastic bargain? :D
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I thought it had been $150 for awhile... single credits monthly are $15/mo... 2 credits monthly are $23 or $11.50 each... 12 credits all at once are $150 or $12.50 each... and 24 credit all at once are $230, or $9.59 each... all of which incentivizes buying more credits and larger sums... if you were getting 12 credits for $120, I think you were grandfathered into old prices and lost them when changing subscriptions, maybe?... or old pricing phased out... I saw something on google about how Australia had a grace period of 2 years before their prices went up after legislation increased the taxes... Amazon's pretty good at absorbing losses to maintain momentum, sometimes...
EDIT: Looks like you bought credits during Prime Day 2019? https://kinjadeals.theinventory.com/t...
It was a promotional discount...
I started Audible in 2017. I did the trial period, canceled, got another promo period that was cheap & did that. So I was on a nice promo for 6 months and then I canceled. They sent me a promo for annual and I took it. So whatever that was stopped this year. Maybe same grace period of 2 years? It was better than current prices. Except now, I'm 95% audiobook intake and rely on the return system & membership sales. The only big difference in benefits between Gold and Platinum is getting a lump sum of credits for a little cheaper. When I run out of credits, I always get the option to buy 3 for $30.
I think there are new rules about credits, how they roll over each month and time limit in which you have to use credits. Anyways, that makes it so I keep my credits around 2-4. I only save a few bucks by switching to Plat. I'll probably stick with Gold.
I've been watching what goes on sales & stuff. The really popular books will go on sale for all the books at one point or another. I keep my eye out and buy the audios I love on sale. If I super love it, I end up getting the Kindle, audio and print. =)
This current sale is great. I ended up getting new series or up to 3 books and a couple I love that I want to keep in my library.
Then there are books that are my favs and I just keep them because it was great. Those are almost always credit purchases or from a 2 for 1 credit sale. Those are actually the best because it's closer to $5 per book vs the $6.
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Starting April/May last year, all credits expire within 12 months of being added to your account... lump sums expire all at once the next time you renew your yearly membership basically....
Anyone with credits from before then have/had a 2 year Grace Period...
Not really an issue if you use your credits all the time... mostly an issure for credit hoarders... all of this came about because of some class action lawsuit...
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So now, there's some would-be graffiti racist, spray painting N***** House on the brick wall by the parking entrance... reported it yesterday, asked the neighbor kids about it (since they were outside playing when I came home from work and saw it), pretty sure they came out and cleaned it away before sundown yesterday... and it's up again today, when I just got home... now I'm going to be curious if it's there when I head to work at 3:30am, going forward... not sure what the landlords are/can do to stop future repeats...
Sent in a call to the emergency maintenance line, since the main office is closed on Sundays... see if they consider it an emergency on their end...
That's terrible, Iain. Do you think the kids are behind it or not?Is there any CCTV anyone could check outside the building? (if it keeps getting spray painted again).
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Is there any CCTV anyone could check outside the building? (if it keeps getting spray painted again)."
Oh no... the kids are pretty young... most around 10 or younger, I think... need to be pretty tall to do it... and I doubt the kids would do it anyway, considering they're the ones being slurred with the N-word...
I'm not sure there's CCTV setup... wonder if they might setup something if it keeps happening... or just start doing a drive-by each morning, to check if they need to re-clean, without me calling in around lunch time...
Timelord Iain wrote: "Clearly, things have been going too smoothly in my apartment building for awhile... no annoying neighbors, really... no annoying cars parking in my spot... etc...So now, there's some would-be gra..."
People suck sometimes :( Hope they can put up a camera and catch whoever is doing it.
Oh I see, sorry Iain.Agree with Narilka, people suck sometimes. Often actually!
That's awful, I hope they catch whoever is responsible.
This poor kid got cyber bullied for loving books. How can anyone not love books?? Anyway, it's ultimately a feel-good story and the kid came out on top. And those bullies can go stew all they want. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-t...
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Veronica wrote: "This poor kid got cyber bullied for loving books. How can anyone not love books?? Anyway, it's ultimately a feel-good story and the kid came out on top. And those bullies can go stew all they want...."Oh I saw that! Kid has thousands of Instagram followers now bless him! :)
Timelord Iain wrote: "On a positive note, I was just at the grocery store, and saw an older deaf guy using FaceTime to make a sign language phone call, and thought that was pretty awesome..."That is so awesome!
Timelord Iain wrote: "On a positive note, I was just at the grocery store, and saw an older deaf guy using FaceTime to make a sign language phone call, and thought that was pretty awesome..."That is so cool!
Siobhan wrote: ".Oh I saw that! Kid has thousands of Instagram followers now bless him! :)"And I love that so many bookstores and authors have reached out to him too. :-)
Veronica wrote: "This poor kid got cyber bullied for loving books. How can anyone not love books?? Anyway, it's ultimately a feel-good story and the kid came out on top. And those bullies can go stew all they want...."Like reading books is something to be bullied about...It's sweet how many reactions the boy got!
Timelord Iain wrote: "On a positive note, I was just at the grocery store, and saw an older deaf guy using FaceTime to make a sign language phone call, and thought that was pretty awesome..."That's awesome! Never seen it before, but if you come to think about it, it's an easy way to communicate.
Is it just me or is it a bit quieter than before in the group?
Saar The Book owl wrote: "Is it just me or is it a bit quieter than before in the group?"I think so too. It definitely varies I think. I felt like at the start of the year I was commenting on loads of threads every day but it's tapered off a bit in the last few weeks.
Yes, same feeling, but last year there was much more activity also.
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For sure... I think it's a number of factors... The main one, is alot of people's lives seem to be busier (new jobs, new kids, new routines, etc)... The other is how hard I think it is for new people to enter the group and become similarly active... A lot of the still-active people around here have been interacting for 2-4 years now...
The most notable, to me, of late, have been Elizabeth & Beena & Peggy (at least in the threads I open)...
The biggest indicators of the slowdown, have been people's yearly reading/points numbers in the spreadsheet, AND the number of scheduled BRs per month... the only reason I've still managed 30+ BRs of late, is because of the series BR threads like Space Team, Odyssey One, Parasol Protectorate, and the genre threads like the Mystery Book Club, YA Book Club, LitRPG Game Room, etc...
Yes, I agree on that too. There are fewer BR's than last year, also.
I would say, it is confusing trying to find your way around the group at first. It took me a few months to get used to, but now it makes perfect sense lol. But it does require effort and if you haven't got the time, or don't want to log in consistently then you never really join the group...
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For sure... spend a day or 3 away, and you're swamped in unread discussions...
That's actually another thing I left off in my post above... there was a time, when this group was so chatty that if you were a way for a couple hours you had 30-50 notifications... part of that was probably the book name game and the like...
Yes, that's true. I have a job where I can log in very frequently. Much more than I do at home, haha. But this group (and a coulpe of others) is the most interaction I've got during the day. I've got my job and family, but that's it. I'm an introvert. So, not easy at all to make friends.
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I definitely understand that... I worked overnight shift for nearly a decade... now I work 4am to 12:30pm, but old habits are hard to break... still very much a hermit/introvert... I had also no interaction with people outside of work, before I started book chatting in GR groups... but it has definitely ebbed and flowed, over the past 3-4 years...
I had times where I was very active on GR, but with no clear reason for a long periode Iogged in on ocasion or not at all. It started to be more frequent when joining this group. I didn't know you've changed shifts? Did you change work too?
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I didn't know you..."
I've managed to keep my same job for the most part (so far)... my job got rid of overnight shift and created these hybrid shifts, last summer... for me, I come in at 4am and help stock the sales floor until the store opens at 7am, then I go inside the dairy cooler and work in there until I go home, most days... means I don't have to deal with customers much, and keeps me productive...
Sometimes I have to do projects around customers, but having to stop and answer questions and help people really gets in the way of getting things done... the whole system is a mixed bag, but it seems to be working... outside of complaints that the morning crew I'm on does more of the work than the afternoon crew... the general consensus is that we got more of the efficient teamwork people... evening crew seems to be Every Man For Himself...
As a totally unrelated and random comment, I watched Gone Girl last night, I'd forgotten how good it was, I really loved it. Those 2 and a half hours really sped past.
I noticed there's less buddy reads scheduled! I was looking to see what else I might have fancied jumping into for March and the list was pretty small.@Charlie, Gone Girl was a great movie! I keep meaning to read the book one day, but it's not the same when you know the twist is it. XD
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@Charlie, Gone Girl was a great movie! I kee..."
I remember when the reading competition first started, and there were nearly 50 BRs each month... people were gung-ho... and burned themselves out, a bit...
The thing is, a fair amount of those BRs end up being graveyards of cancelled series BRs... Sword of Truth, Psy-Changeling, etc... those could have probably been removed, but when everyone quit, everyone forget about it...
I'd rather fewer BRs that are more active with discussions than an overabundance of BRs with minimal to no discussion going on, or people popping to just say they read the book and liked/didn't like it. That's one reason why I chose to sit out the reading competition this year. I didn't want the (admittedly self-imposed) pressure of racking up BR points. I like sticking to only two, maybe three, BRs a month because that still leaves me a lot of freedom to read whatever the hell else I feel in the mood to read. :-)
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I THINK I'm heading in that direction... but I always find ways to become that offender that doesn't say much...
The best thing I can say, is BRs are slowly becoming a smaller and smaller fraction of my monthly reads... but I've mostly accomplished that by reading more, not doing less BRs...
At least I can say that I only BR things I'm interested in, now, instead of sometimes doing BRs purely for the points (like I did in 2018)... sometimes I do re-reads for the points, but they're books I really liked, anyway, or when I plan to continue a series this time around...
Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Michael Lesley (other topics)Michael Lesley (other topics)
Michael Lesley (other topics)
Michael Lesley (other topics)
Michael Lesley (other topics)
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Wow, that's a great achievement! Congrats! :)
I lost 16 kg last year, mainly because of better nutrition. I'm trying not to fall back into bad eating habits again right now when I finally managed to have a statistically normal weight again. Christmas time with all the cookies and gingerbread made me weak so my cookie addiction is beginning again...