Café Quito: 'pub' thread for general discussions Showing 1,201-1,250 of 1,427

[Paul]

But your reviews may encourage readers to buy the books by clicking through the Amazon links. There is a reason why Amazon bought it (although I am surprised they have not integrated Goodreads reviews into Amazon ones somehow).

[WndyJW]

Not anymore Marc, everyone that knows me knows how I feel by now and most of friends and family agree. I don’t buy books from Amazon and I don’t think it’s terrible to use Amazon if one can’t get out, but for those of us who can get out to stores, even if it’s a bother, should go out and shop or we won’t have stores much longer. I use Amazon to send gifts to friends out of state.

I hope you’re right, Hugh, because I don’t use Amazon or abes either. I now use eBay for older books by dead authors.

[Marc]

WndyJW wrote: "Not anymore Marc, everyone that knows me knows how I feel by now and most of friends and family agree. I don’t buy books from Amazon and I don’t think it’s terrible to use Amazon if one can’t get o..."

Well, it sounds like you got the message out, Wendy. If I'm not buying from a local book store or directly from the publisher, I tend to go for Bookshop.org or Better World Books, before resorting to Amazon.
--------------------

Paul, I'm thinking GR must generate a lot of data for Amazon, but as to what they actually do with it... Really, I have no clue. They certainly don't seem to be actively or obviously leveraging the site in any way beyond the purchase links and probably ad revenue.

[Paul]

In a way I think Goodreads is a blocking purchase for Amazon - stopped someone else using it to build a rival bookstorefront.

There is quite strong Kindle integration (eg quotes you highlight there appear on Goodreads) which feels like the one area they might develop. Indeed I do sometimes find I've rated books I've not read - and it's always my daughters (we share an Amazon account) being encouraged to rate a book on Kindle which then feeds through automatically to my Goodreads accoumt.

[David]

That explains your 3 stars for Great Circle!

[Paul]

:-)

[Marc]

Paul wrote: "In a way I think Goodreads is a blocking purchase for Amazon - stopped someone else using it to build a rival bookstorefront."

This explanation makes sense to me and also fits in with why there seems to be little effort to improve things like the app or the search function.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

David wrote: "The world cup would be perfect Don DeLillo fodder!"

I do not think any novelist could come close to the World Cup - just the last two hours have been far more dramatic, exciting and entertaining than any novel I have ever read.

Novels are fun but they don’t come close to football sorry

[David]

The inner workings of fifa, I should have said.

Group E has been a wild ride.

[Cindy]

I am absolutely stunned by the outcome in Group E. Japan beat both Germany and Spain. And Group F is quite startling too.

[Marc]

Absolute chaos!

[Lee]

If anyone’s on Mastodon let me know how to find you… I’m trying it out.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

I have a Mastodon account but I haven't been using it for book related stuff yet.

[WndyJW]

Someone started an #indieadvent which is the kind of stuff I like on Twitter, but from what I can see I’m posting literary fiction and everyone else is posting fantasy. There is not a thing wrong with fantasy, but I don’t think I was part of the target audience for that #.

I’m of two minds about leaving Twitter. How does bookish people using it for book related posts benefit Musk and the MAGAts? Don’t we need Progressives on Twitter even if we aren’t primarily posting political comments? On the other hand Musk started his take-over by posting a lie so maybe I should avoid it.

I looked at Mastodon and it looked complicated. We have to choose the topic we’re interested in, don’t we?

[Paul]

I must admit to not supporting the Twitter exodus.

As you say surely best to keep the good content there and we are also happily discussing this on a social media platform owned by a firm who want to suck up all the profits of the book business as publishers and bookshop’s expense.

And Mastodon seems like a non user friendly Twitter ripoff (toots not tweets - seriously?) with a minute fraction of the reach.

Some of this seems to be driven by an assumption Twitter will fall over any day now but I don’t really see that.

[Lee]

I have no opinion really on a Twitter exodus, rather I never much used Twitter myself and am curiously seeing if I like Mastodon or not. It has a sort of small village feel rather than a megalopolis, for sure. Kinda nice to me at the moment at least.

Wendy it's just a bit more complicated than Twitter, instead of everything being centralized you sign up on an individual server, often based on interest or geography, and your chosen server is its own social media feed of all its members while also connecting to a lot of other servers to form the larger "Mastodon". You can connect to users on other servers through viewing hashtag searches, for example, #literature or #photography or #bookstodon, and you can follow people on your or other servers to have a "home" feed as well.

I like the idea, in theory. I joined zirk.us which is an interest based server for "Literature, philosophy, film, music, culture, politics, history, architecture". You'd just type zirk.us in your browser's address bar and create an account to join.

I may lose interest in it in a few weeks for all I know, ha.

[Paul]

The decentralised nature of it feels rather like the wonders of cryptocurrencies that also boasted of that and have ended up as deregulated ponzi schemes. Isn't a central entity which can be properly regulated by governments far better in terms of ensuring there are proper limits on hate speech etc?

[David]

Speaking just for myself, the idea of a small social media environment, which is a safe space, is quite enticing. It is almost impossible to go on some of the larger platforms (facebook is worse than twitter in my experience) without being bombarded by homophobia, misogyny, and the like. That is content that doesn't necessarily rise to the level of hate speech, or at least a legal definition of hate speech. Twitter's new commitment to permit all legal speech does not sound like an environment where I want to spend time.

[Paul]

But on Twitter than can be tackled by governments. On Mastadon it seems to rely on the same sort of benign benevolence that led to the FTX debacle ie who decides what is hate speech (Mastodon does seem e.g. pretty left/liberal leaning).

Perhaps I am overly projecting crypto on to social media though.

[David]

That’s fair, Paul. I think you’re looking for a social media environment that can be properly regulated and I’m looking for a bubble.

[Paul]

And I think both have their place - which is why Mastadon seems to be to be serving a rather different purpose to Twitter (which for example, is now the place for breaking news - e.g. want to know who has won Georgia follow someone like Dave Wasserman on Twitter)

[WndyJW]

I used to love Twitter, I got my news there and over time didn’t get the ugly MAGAt stuff, but I’ve lost interest, not because of Musk, I just did, and many months ago I about stopped checking FB. I check FB once every week or so to see if my Nova Scotia cousins posted anything, but really the only thing I use often is Instagram. I have a private account for family photos which I don’t use much now that my youngest grandchild is almost 7, I’ll be posting like a mad woman after June 2023 though, and a public, bookish account where I post my books and follow authors, publishers, bloggers, David, Bob, and GY. My only complaint about Instagram is TicTok videos are posted on there if I see a baby or a dog I have to click and then it requires a lot of will power to stop the video rabbit hole.

[Lee]

Mastodon remember was largely set up and used pre-Muskified Twitter by people who already felt harassed and targeted off of other social media. No government or self-interested admin was solving that issue on those platforms, thus the evolution of Mastodon. Seems to work so far but scaling up could test that.

[Lee]

If anyone jumps on it, 3TimesRebel and Sublunary Editions are the active small press accounts I’ve found so far.

[WndyJW]

Can one of our British members explain what it means for a British teenager to get a First in History or some other subject?

[Hugh, Active moderator]

To me, a First normally means a first class honours degree at a university - most people don't graduate until their early 20s but a few precocious teenagers have been allowed to start degree courses several years early so it is possible to do it as a teenager.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

For a teenager it would be very unlikely indeed.

It’s the result of a University degree -normally taken from the academic year you turn 19 and either for 3 or 4 years and typically in only one subject (although that last part is changing)

Grades are typically First (Class), Second Class (divided into 2-1 or 2-2 or sometimes called Upper Second Class and Lower Second Class) and Third Class

The Class word is dropped hence “she got a First in History” means she got the top grade in an undergraduate University course in history.

Universities give their own grades so people would normally want to know which University the degree was at also.

That’s all a bit generalised but gets the gist across I think.

[Alwynne]

Agree which university can also be relevant, there have been a number of reports of grade inflation and increasingly high numbers of Firsts being awarded in recent years, used to be comparatively rare. Although universities don't technically award their own grades as all grades have to be overlooked by external examiners from other universities via sampling and awarded via a Board with senior members of the university including those outside the subject area. But as the sample doesn't have to be random not a perfect system by any means.

[Alwynne]

Should add didn't mean which university in terms of a set hierarchy e.g. Russell Group versus non, rather that universities will have different reputations for particular subjects, although can be also be subject to fashion or academics leaving or relocating, Fine Art at Goldsmiths no longer as lauded as it once was, similarly Warwick philosophy.

[WndyJW]

So like our graduating Summa Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude or Cum Laude here? And some universities are known for engineering, law, writing, etc.

[Cindy]

Wendy I think it's different from graduating with honors. I've always thought about it as graduating with an A, a B or a C.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

I was thinking of Ruth Lawrence who definitely got a first at Oxford as a teenager in the 80s. Still very rare though.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I once interviewed a lady (now a friend) and was curious why she took a career break when her son was 11. Her answer “he was not allowed to the University lectures on his own so I had to go with him”.

I then found he was in the Guinness Book of World Records and eg passed his Maths and Further Maths A Level (something only very good mathematicians even take and then only at 18) at age 9.

It was my first ever job interview I conducted and still my most memorable answer.

I won’t say too much more other than that there is a very nice /positive link to this years Booker winner and Passage North also.

[WndyJW]

If he’s in the Guinness Book of World Records I think you could tell us without breaking a confidence.

[WndyJW]

My grandson’s hockey team won the MLK Pittsburgh Championship this weekend. They won all 5 games!

If fans of professional sports teams care as much about their chosen teams as I do about the Lake Erie Panthers I understand all the hoopla. There really is nothing quite like watching your person and their team do exactly what they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it, hearing the crowd cheer, and winning the game.

[Debra]

Congratulations! How exciting for his team -- and for you!

[WndyJW]

Thanks, Debra. My husband is a Pittsburgh Penguins fan so I’ll try to watch some games with him, but I don’t know if I can make myself care if strangers win a game. I tried to care about the Cleveland Indians, now Cleveland Guardians, when my dad was still living, but I couldn’t.

[Stuart]

Congratulations on the win! Must've been so exciting to watch and cheer him on.

[WndyJW]

This is a fun pub discussion. On the Mookse and the Gripes podcast, my favorite podcast, Trevor and Paul (our Trevor, not our Paul) did a Love Between Covers episode. I think Valentine’s Day is a U.S. thing, but we all know what love is, so here are the categories, all of which are open to interpretation, for those that want to participate:

1. A book you broke up
2. A book that you regret that it wasn’t meant to be
3. A book you had a fling with
4. ”It’s complicated”
5. “Love at first sight”
6. A book you’d love to check out They answered with books or series they weren’t sure about so would check out from library before buying.
7. A book you’d love to get your hands on (questionable wording on this one, but Trevor and Paul are very decent guys so…)
8. A book with which you have a long-term, committed relationship
Others on Twitter added:
9. A book that was a one-night stand Since we’ve all read books in one sitting, maybe a book you just could not put down, but have since lost interest in or can’t remember why it was so gripping.
10. A “friends with benefits” book Trusted, comfortable book to turn to when no other books excite or interest you.
11. ”High-school sweetheart”

[WndyJW]

WndyJW wrote: "This is a fun pub discussion. On the Mookse and the Gripes podcast, my favorite podcast, Trevor and Paul (our Trevor, not our Paul) did a Love Between Covers episode. I think Valentine’s Day is a U..."

1. Book I broke up with War and Peace, I tried and I hated it. I don’t like Anna Karenina either.
2. Book I regret it wasn’t meant to be Middlemarch. I want to love it, but I lose interest.
3. Book I had a fling with Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code, but my Dan Brown relationship was short-lived.
4. ”It’s Complicated” The Trees, you’ve heard enough from me about my complicated feelings towards this book.
5. ”Love at first sight” any nyrb classics book. I have 3 shelves, 122 titles so far, and recently renewed by subscription.
6. A book I’d love to check out Agatha Christie.
7. A book I’d love to get my hands on the limited edition, cloth bound, signed 1st edition of Wolf Hall from Fourth Estate. I have the other 2 because I preordered them for under $60, the Wolf Hall is now over $900. I’d say it’s my holy grail but I know how to find it, it’s affording it that’s problem.
8. A book with which I have a long-term committed relationship The Bridge of Beyond. I read it every few years and every woman that has received a book from me has received this one.
9. A book that was a one-night stand the Neapolitan quartet; I could not put those down and read The Lost Daughter while waiting for the 3rd title to arrive, since then I’ve lost interest in Ferrante.
10. ”Friends with benefits” books anything by Penelope Livley, Jane Gardam, the 20th Century British women authors never let me down.

[Paul]

Interesting. Valentine’s Day is quite international and with a history that pre-dates the United States (the entity not the landmass). Eg from Hamlet

"To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day
All in the morning betime
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.”

Apparently the Penny Black stamp in UK made it explode here as it became cheap to send a letter. Although the idea, inspired by Valentine’s Day, of turning a festival into a commercial opportunity was the US’s unique addition.

And then there is the idea of pretty much creating a day for every 14th of from Japan / Korea. I always love Black Day - when people who didn’t get a Valentine’s or White Day (Mar 14th) present gather to eat black-bean noodles.

That I actually had black bean noodles for lunch yesterday (very common dish here) may be apposite as I would stuggle put a person in any of the categories except no 8 so they don’t resonate. My romantic and reading histories are completely opposite. But …

1. Wolf Hall trilogy
2. The Book of Disquiet
3. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
4. Murakami’s novels
5. Any book that mentions Thomas Bernhard as an influence
6. David Markson’s books
7. My sub copy of The Birthday Party from Fitzcarraldo!
8. The Bible
9. I have one night stands with almost all books! Read em' and sell' em
10. Javier Marias novels
11. EE Doc Smith’s Skylark series

[Paul]

If I treated lovers as I treat books I'd 'date' someone:

- because they were on a prize list
- as all my friends had tried them and enjoyed them
- as I received an Advanced Dating Copy through Nettinder
- someone left them in my hotel room
- I'd dated all their siblings
- because they came as part of a subscription

[Emmeline]

Hahaha. For my lovers, I’d add, someone lent them to me and I felt rude saying no, and
They had been sitting on my shelf patiently for years.

[Paul]

Well the waiting patiently on a shelf is the one that I don’t do to books either. But generally I can’t think of anything less alike to my reading habits than my dating habits.

[Roman Clodia]

Paul wrote: "If I treated lovers as I treat books I'd 'date' someone... "

- because I'd been vaguely eyeing them for years and suddenly the time seems right
- we've dated before but now they have a natty new outfit and I have to have them again

I think Valentine's Day goes back to the Romans.

[Irene]

hahaha Emily I am totally picturing a hot guy sitting on a shelf in my living room waiting for me to give him some attention :)

[Blaine]

Paul wrote: "If I treated lovers as I treat books I'd 'date' someone:

- because they were on a prize list
- as all my friends had tried them and enjoyed them
- as I received an Advanced Dating Copy through Ne..."

Brilliant!

[Sonia]

Fortunately my dating days were over 40+ years ago. If I had to compare my ideal date to my book purchases, they would
Be secondhand
Found on a pile on the floor
Look like they have been in a shed for the past 20 years, but not smell like they have
Have a good looking cover

[Emmeline]

This whole thread needs some memes made.

[WndyJW]

I’d forgotten that Valentines’s Day started as St. Valentine’s Day and thought the cards, crap candy, and commercialization of it was American.

I forgot to answer 11. My “high-school sweetheart” was Catherine Cookson novels.

I love the treated lovers like books ideas. Most of which apply to me as well.
If I treated lovers like I treat books I’d be quite fickle:
-I’d abruptly end a lot of first dates before dinner even arrived because someone more interesting walked in.
-I’d make plans with many lovers then not show up.
-I’d definitely kiss and tell.
-during an evening spent with one lover, I’d excuse myself to go spend time with another lover, then dash back to the first lover….

Paul, I thought if you played along with this at all that we’d see Isabel Waidner somewhere in your list.