One's Gotta Go: A Game

[Andres]

Especially if it was a book about farts. - Letterkenny

[CBRetriever]

smell here and it's no great loss as the Covid killed my sense of smell anyway

[Raucous]

I can't remember when I last read an actual paper book. I do sometimes miss the feel of a well-bound book and I've always loved cover illustrations, so I'm going to have to go with the memory of smell.

I have the same problem with some odors and migraines. A library book that has been in a cigar smoker's house? *shudder*

[Phillip]

Speaking about the television programs.

1. Wheel of Time
2. Rings of Power
3. House of the Dragon
4. Willow

[MadProfessah]

Obviously Willow.

[CBRetriever]

House of the Dragon because I'd rather have the next book in the series

[Mel]

*tosses out all four and rewatches Good Omens*

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

One's gotta go:

1. Page Numbers
2. Chapters
3. Well placed margins
4. Pause buttons on audio

[Michelle]

Since I only read by eye, you can nix the pause buttons :)

[Cheryl]

Chapters. They're seldom titled any more, so I don't know what the point of them is.

[CBRetriever]

page numbers can go as a good percentage of Kindle books don't have them anyway

[Leonie]

I think I could cope without chapters. But only if no-one does away with paragraphs!

[Michelle]

Leonie wrote: "I think I could cope without chapters. But only if no-one does away with paragraphs!"

A book without paragraphs would be awful!

[Leonie]

Michelle wrote: "Leonie wrote: "I think I could cope without chapters. But only if no-one does away with paragraphs!"

A book without paragraphs would be awful!"

I am reminded of this every time I see a social media rant that has none! 😂 (And they also usually have all caps on.)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

It's a "thing" right now not to have chapters in books (I guess not unique, Pratchett often eschewed them as well) and it's driving me batty. You can't just stop at a chapter for the night

[YouKneeK]

Heck, if I’m tired enough, sometimes I don’t even stop at the end of a sentence. :) I actually find it really difficult to stop at the end of a chapter because I always want to know what the next chapter will be about. More often than not, I really do just stop in the middle of whatever passage I’m reading when I start losing interest or realize I need to be doing something else.

I’d get rid of the pause button if I could still stop and start, but I suspect that isn’t in the spirit of the proposal. I’d probably pick either margins or chapters, but I think I’d have to see the impact of getting rid of well-placed margins before I could decide for sure. I don't think I'd have trouble with slightly wider lines, but I do like white space. I’d be annoyed at a lack of chapters, but section breaks are far more important to me to indicate scene/POV changes.

Even though I read almost exclusively e-books, the majority of the Kindle books I read have page numbers that sync up with one of the print editions, and I rely on those quite a lot. For me, they’re the most straight-forward indicator of progress versus % (which includes front and back matter) or time-to-read (which is erratic for me because it depends on how absorbed I am by what I’m reading and how many distractions I have).

And paragraphs are an absolute must! I hate walls of text without any white space to help my eyes keep their place and to help quickly absorb chunks of info. If I run across something like that online, I usually don’t bother to read it unless I’m really interested in the subject. When I get an e-mail like that at work, then I have no choice but to read it, but I often add paragraphs to their e-mail myself (I don't send it to them of course, I just do it for myself) so I can absorb what they’re trying to tell me more efficiently. :p

[Stephen]

I miss chapters with names, and tables of contents listing them.

[Mel]

The easy answer would be the pause button, since I don't do audiobooks.

Between the other three, I'd probably have to ditch margins. As long as the text size isn't microscopic, I could cope with that.

I'm with Allison though, I need my chapters! Not because that's even where I stop reading, but because going without them gives the same feeling as wall-of-text with no paragraph breaks, in book form.

While I don't use page numbers so much while reading, I absolutely rely on page count when deciding what to read next. Especially when I can't just pick up a book in a store or library to get an idea of its heft, I need to know what I'm getting into. The other benefit is being able to log your progress as you read, but less essential.

[CBRetriever]

I absolutely have problems with the left justified margins as they make it very difficult to read conversations and see where paragraphs end/begin. It's the one thing that will cause me to give a Kindle book one star less in my reviews. (Kindle book reviews are product reviews, not book reviews and margins are part of the product)

[Phillip]

Audible pause. But I don't listen to books (can't call it reading; more akin to a radio play). If I have to pick from the other three, I'd drop the page numbers. As long as I have chapters, I know where I need to get to.

[Cheryl]

YouKneeK wrote: "Heck, if I’m tired enough, sometimes I don’t even stop at the end of a sentence. :) I actually find it really difficult to stop at the end of a chapter because I always want to know what the next c..."

Me too! I read until I'm sleepy or need to be elsewhere, then put the book down, wherever it may be.

[DivaDiane]

I don’t care much about page numbers or chapters as long as there are paragraphs and a pause button is essential!! But if I have to pick one, page numbers it is.

[DivaDiane]

Phillip wrote: "Audible pause. But I don't listen to books (can't call it reading; more akin to a radio play). If I have to pick from the other three, I'd drop the page numbers. As long as I have chapters, I know ..."

This is probably destined for another discussion thread, but I have to disagree. A radio play is something much different. There are audio books that incorporate a cast and sound effects and music, but don't miss a word of the text, but most don't bother and are just like your mom reading you the book before bed as a kid. I love it and I would be reduced to one book a month at best at the moment if not for audio books.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

One's gotta go:

Animal companions
Found family
Enemies to friends/lovers
Ensemble casts

[Anna]

Are you expecting someone in this group to not pick enemies?!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

it's an extremely popular trope! you'd lose gollum and all beauty and the beast retellings, for example

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Bye Gollum. Bye Beauty!

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Anyone picking Animal Companions is getting reported to your nations equivalent of the NSPCA. :p

[Anna]

Says the murderer of tapirs <_<

[Sarah]

I'd say Animal Companions but Enemies->Friends as a close second (it's a love/hate kind of trope for me, can be overdone). Or maybe it's just that I love Found Fam so much and want to find more well-done Ensemble Cast stories.

[Kirsi]

While I grieve for Gollum and Beauty and the Beast, picking enemies to friends/lovers is the way to go.

[Michelle]

Ensemble casts!

[Colin]

Ensemble casts.

[Cheryl]

Interesting diversity of votes! I say Bye to enemies>friends myself, though.

[DivaDiane]

Enemies to lovers. Hate that, but enemies to friends isn’t half so bad!!

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

What's a good example of an Ensemble Cast in SFF?

[Leonie]

Enemies to friends/lovers for me. Animal companions must stay!

[Mel]

Wow, I was not expecting enemies to friends/lovers to get dismissed by so many! Begrudging alliances turning to camaraderie? I'm here for it!

Ensemble casts for me. I guess it's harder for me to think of memorable examples of that character dynamic.

[Sarah]

Ryan wrote: "What's a good example of an Ensemble Cast in SFF?"

I always think of GOT - does that sound right?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

GOT, Cloud Atlas, Light from Uncommon Stars, China Mountain Zhang...

[Michelle]

Ryan wrote: "What's a good example of an Ensemble Cast in SFF?"

Any book with 52,000 characters.

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

So what Allison is proposing is that whatever happens Lord of the Rings loses?

[Cheryl]

Ryan wrote: "What's a good example of an Ensemble Cast in SFF?"

I could be wrong, but I assumed Becky Chambers, esp. Long Way and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within.

[Sarah]

I’m not sure - but LOTR feels more like Quest trope and found fam than F->E. After all, Frodo doesn’t befriend the ultimate enemy.

[Sha]

Allison wrote: "One's gotta go:

Animal companions
Found family
Enemies to friends/lovers
Ensemble casts"

Animal Companions, mostly because I really like the others.

[Silvana]

Allison wrote: "One's gotta go:

Animal companions
Found family
Enemies to friends/lovers
Ensemble casts"

specific on enemies to lovers, so boring and one of my most hated tropes in tv/web drama. enemies to friends I don't mind.

I'll fight for the other three!

[Sha]

One of my favourite examples of an ensemble cast is Animorphs. Another I can think of is the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce.

I do think "enemies to lovers" is badly constructed a lot of the time, but I love the trope when it's done in a believable way. And ngl, I love the idea of it. I like it when it starts out as "people who really dislike each other to reluctant colleagues to friends". Something about people growing and learning more about each other and forgiving each other appeals to me.

Found family is The Best Trope, as far as I'm concerned. Most of the things I love involve that, and sometimes they involve actual family members learning to like each other, which is a sort of enemies to friends ig.

Animal companions are fine and all, but most of the time they can be effectively replaced with a human version with no real repercussions. A lot of the time they are just cutesy sidekicks. An exception I can think of are the Dragons from Temeraire, where the dragon-ness is a huge part of the story and their characters.

[Cheryl]

Yay Animorphs; I own the entire set and look forward to rereading it myself, now that my kids are all adults.

[Iman the Bookwitch]

Allison wrote: "This is a game where you list 4 related things and people discuss which they would remove from existence and why.

First round:

Harry Potter
Game of Thrones
Mistborn Trilogy
Farseer Trilogy"

Might be blasphemous but Game of thrones.

[Michelle]

*looks around nervously* Mistborn