Book club (for real this time)

rohze · January 1, 2025, 11:58pm

I don't want to bother the owner of the original thread too much since they seem relatively inactive, and I'd rather have this organised in my style. A fresh start for the new year

^{Admins are free to merge, delete or recommend another idea if they disagree with the creation of a new thread.}

In a similar fashion to my Water thread—I'd like to encourage everyone to read more and make it a habit that they incorporate into their lives. You're not bound to reading x chapters or x books a month, it's just at your own pace with this thread providing some guidance, motivation and accountability^[1].

Each month I'll provide a broad theme which you can use to base your reading choices on.
Following the theme is optional, you can just obsess over one series and read that for weeks on end— but for those who want to try something new or need some direction, this may help you narrow down your options ^[2] whilst still maintaining freedom of choice.

Ways to make reading easier for you

Audiobooks
E-books: They are often cheaper with various accessibility options such as allowing you to edit text size, style and colours. Many e-readers also include a word "Look up" feature for words you're unfamiliar with. If you find it easier to pick up your phone and read ^[3] I would heavily consider this
Library books; they're completely free. Many libraries have online services and utilising them is good for the community.
Finding a genre you enjoy. It's all good people recommending classic books that "Everyone should read" but if it doesn't resonate with you then what's the point? My favourite genre is Chinese BL— I find it lovely and I could read it for hours on end. Who cares if it's strange or uncommon? It's for your enjoyment only.
Watching an adaptation of the book prior to reading it (thus making it easier to follow along)
Setting a small goal such as only reading one chapter. It's easier to keep going once you get started, and it appears less daunting
Reading manga^[4], comics or light novels which are less taxing on your brain.
Slightly controversial, but annotating the book
Using a tracker such as goodreads
Schedule a time or create a space that your brain associates with reading.^[5]

ezgif-3-3adaa6deb9

With all that out of the way, here's the first month's theme...

"Read a book with a TV or game adaptation"

^{TV includes anime, films, and live-action series}

Wow! You really enjoyed Land of the Lustrous and need an excuse to read the manga? Now's your chance.

You can announce your book choice(s) in advance, however you're free to change them at any time if your choice isn't what you expected.

I'll ask for a progress update in 2 weeks— though you're free to let me know if you finish early and want to share your thoughts.

Take care and have fun!

^[6]

If that's something that'd benefit you. ↩︎
"I've got so many books I want to read, where do I start!?" ↩︎
In my opinion, it removes a "step" from the process, making it more approachable. ↩︎
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Like having an assigned water cup ↩︎
I'm so anxious posting this ↩︎

catankitty · January 2, 2025, 12:51am

ooh, I might read nana since it's been on my shelf for months

^[1]

shoutout to chinese BL for always having the most stunning artwork on its book covers ↩︎

Aria · January 2, 2025, 1:00am

heck yeah. I'm gonna be reading I have no mouth and i must scream. Been meaning to get around to it. (also im already in the middle of another book so i wanted something short)

also unrelated but how do yall make those little ellipsis with text?

Dato · January 2, 2025, 1:03am

Hnk manga. Thank you Rohze I now have motivation to read it

@Aria ^[1] it's ^{Text here} but use square brackets, not curly like I showed

If you mean this ↩︎

slow_math · January 2, 2025, 1:07am

Awa a group read will probs finally push me into finishing me to finishing Land of the Lustrous.

I've been sitting at like only one book to go for so long, I dropped off cus of the wait between chapters releasing, and then struggled to pick it back up again since that section of the story is so emotionally intense, and its so difficult to just step back into that.
I think I'll jump back to like halfway through and read from there.

The thought of getting to discuss the story with a bunch of people is very motivating! I love reading but its always been a pretty lonely experience for me since I'd have so many feelings on what I read, but no one to talk to about them. Maybe this would be a good place to post thoughts and writeups on books too!
Discussing art you like can be surprisingly difficult, lots of big feelings you have to somehow cram into words, but also very rewarding. I'd like to try and get into it more!

And more generally I was pretty consistently reading a lot until a few months ago I really fell off it, so it'll be nice to have this thread to drive me to pick it back up!

brocolie · January 2, 2025, 5:51am

Oh hecc yea!!
I want to read HnK, though I'll be travelling for a little under a week soon, so won't be able to read in that timeframe though.

rohze · January 2, 2025, 8:11am

Thanks for asking me to share my favourite covers, Catan /silly!!!

Chinese covers tend to be more abstract or scenery based, whilst the EN versions focus on the characters. Both are beautiful

SVSSS Vol 2

Yuwu Vol 5

Drowning sorrows in raging fire. Rosmei has lovely designs for all of their novels

Little Mushroom (I could talk about these books for an extended period of time)
Chinese version on the left, thai on the right.
The publisher who localised this in English got shut down^[1], so it's incredibly rare to find a physical copy I'll forever be hunting for one

It recently got translated into french though! The french cover is very cool.

And you can't go wrong with everyone's favourite, TGCF...^[2]

Even when they were active it was still difficult to import... ↩︎
I read the whole series about 5 years ago on an illegally translated google doc (it's since been officially licensed but that's how passionate the fans were !!! ) and I don't think any other media has left such an impact on me since— it's truly lovely. I think I deserve to buy these hardcovers actually ↩︎

rohze · January 2, 2025, 8:25am

Ahh I get that Many series I've dropped since there was a long hiatus or gaps between chapters— it's difficult to just "get back into it" sometimes

Nods intensely. I'm not the type of person^[1] to enjoy fandom spaces, I always feel as if I have to act a certain way or have specific opinions— therefore it's lead to me being quite isolated with my interests. It would make me very happy if others posted their thoughts and writeups/reviews on books ^^

( or ) ↩︎

Corruptor55 · January 2, 2025, 2:46pm

Okay, I had a lot more thoughts about this than I expected, soooo...summarizes

Get Quoted :3

Yes, I do need an excuse to read the Land of the Lustrous manga xD^[1] Turns out all 108 chapters (across 13 volumes) are being offered for free, so I went ahead and linked it above for anyone else who may want to read it :]^[2]

(Near-future Corruptor here: I also added the online manga link to my new tab page so it's even easier to just pick up where I left off -w-^[3])

My Experience with Reading as a Habit

Realistically, I only keep on top of reading when it's required in my professional life and/or is related to one of my interests. Probably the main reason I can still read well (aside from me using my vocal cords alot) is because I loved the activity for many years of my childhood.^[4]

So for these reasons, I'll try read at least one chapter per day, but won't arbitrarily limit myself to that goal either. I could read 2, 5, 10, 20, heck I could even read all 108 chapters in one day if I wanted to (barring physical restrictions of time, energy, and motivation)!

Additional Notes

But I'm getting ahead of myself! Essentially, the at least 1 chapter per day limit would be used to prioritize consistency, not quantity. I can read more chapters per day whenever I like^[5], but it's a suggestion rather than a strict obligation. If I started reading at least one chapter per day, for every day as of today, January 2nd, then I'd still finish by April 19 (or a little over 3.5 months later).

And I encourage the rest of you to follow a similar procedure - for whatever book(s) you might want to read - if you so choose. Heck, apply it to literally any other area of your life; I don't make the rules! Consistency is key when forming new habits, and I highlight this because...well, it's all too easy^[6] to do too much at once and burnout, or feel stuck on starting/resuming and never complete what you wanted to in the first place.

With that all being said, I especially appreciate @rohze for starting this thread, and the rest of you lot for wanting to join in; even if it's just as an idea/sentiment ^-^

aside from already having watched the anime ↩︎
you can still buy all 13 volumes instead if you prefer, but who wants to do that when the internet exists? /lh ↩︎
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plus, I would often write my own stories and want to narrate books in class as we were reading along ↩︎
e.g., near the beginning when my interest is highest, when I become more consistent later on, near the end to wrap things up ↩︎
for me and a lot of others here, I presume ↩︎

sissel · January 2, 2025, 11:08pm

I like books!! I'm a book enjoyer so I'll be taking part in this little book club you have here, but since I read a lot I'm gonna do two books per month^[1]! One will adhere to the theme, and one won't, because I said so.

My two picks for this month are:

Anxious People

I've been meaning to pick up and read this book for awhile, and since it's an easy read it should be a good pair for my other book, which will probably be a harder read. This is the book that has a TV adaptation, by the by. On Netflix, apparently. Seems like it'll be a pretty humorous and enjoyable read, which I am always in the market for. I don't own this one yet, so my first step is to acquire the novel 100% legally through the proper channels.

Magpie Murders

Another novel with the genre of mystery, which I adore so much. This one is probably going to be a harder read than Anxious People because:

I like to try to solve the murders before the detective does, which slows down my reading speed overall.
The story takes place on two levels, one being a fictional murder-mystery novel written by an in-universe author, and the second being the story in the "real world", with the in-universe novel likely affecting what happens in the "real world" part of the novel.

The novel is supposed to be reminiscent of Agatha Christie's works in terms of prose and story structure, so hopefully it lives up to her legacy. Overall, I'm looking forward to reading it!

Well, that's all from me. I hope everyone enjoys reading their books! Go for it! And thanks for setting this up, rohze!!!

Not to show off or anything, I just like reading. ↩︎

cmpotato · January 2, 2025, 11:14pm

maybe I should take this as a chance to try and read Hunt for Red October again.

rinion · January 2, 2025, 11:37pm

humu humu humu humu.

as part of some funny coincidence, i'm going through a gundam series with a different book club, but i'm honestly really stumped on books! in part, because i rarely watch movies, but i also rarely read full books. college really knocked me out of being able to set aside a ton of time for novels, so i jumped to serialized stuff like manga and webcomics, and i've never really been able to get back (aside from a few purchases like House of Leaves).

i should really just get an ebook app for my phone, but i also kinda hate using my phone? and everything feels like it has a bunch of barriers to entry for me to just download a book to read these days. any app recommendations? is there just a Kindle one? anything real good for desktop that works with them? _{i'm gonna have to look again once i finish putting this PC together, too...}

i'll probably re-read HnK with the others going through it for the first time, so things are fresh in my head.

Mia · January 2, 2025, 11:48pm

I have never really taken part in a book club, also i imagine that discussing books online is also quite different then doing things irl.

Do we post the discussions in a separate forum thread per book?
Is it a good idea to have everyone write like a few sentences per chapter of a book and then post it in the thread so we can read each others thoughts and take that as a starting point?

Anyway if anyone has a idea on how we can get this of the ground i would love to hear it.

a_lilian · January 3, 2025, 1:58am

I'm reading The Tombs of Atuan at the moment. It turns out I can back-solve onto the theme because there is actually an Earthsea movie adaptation! By Studio Ghibli, no less!

The history of the movie Tales of Earthsea looks ... really stressful. According to Wikipedia, Le Guin had been vetoing movie adaptations and even vetoed Ghibli initially but had a change of heart after seeing Totoro. But by then Miyazaki was too busy directing Howl's Moving Castle so the director role was given to his son.

Just imagine your first director role putting you between:

Hayao Miyazaki, who I think is known to be rather demanding & exacting and is developing quite the reputation at this point (and is also your father!)
Ursula Le Guin, who is a highly accomplished author and has shot down every pass at a movie adaptation up until she decided your extremely critical, perfectionistic father is the right man for the job!

During a private screening prior to the film's release, Gorō's father, Hayao, was asked what he thought of the film. He said, "I was looking at my kid. He's not an adult yet. That is all."

She stated that the plot departed so greatly from her story that she was "watching an entirely different story, confusingly enacted by people with the same names as in my story". She did praise certain depictions of nature in the film, but felt that its production values were not as high as previous works directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and that the film's excitement was focused too much around scenes of violence.

oof ;-;

rohze · January 3, 2025, 12:14pm

We're reading Howl's Moving Castle! I'm enjoying it very much.

I wanted to respond to everyone but words are difficult and it's stressing me out ;; It'll happen over the next few days, I hope

brocolie · January 3, 2025, 1:59pm

I have literally just finished reading it during the first leg of my trip.

I...

There's so much.

thoughts, includes spoilers

It's hard to remember a book more engaging that thus one was for me. But you need to have that drive to verify stuff when you're surrounded by bullshit upon bullshit for it to be engaging. Not engaging with the BS is absolutely understandable.
I don't like you "Johnny Truant", I really don't, but holy shit. Man has been fucked up by trauma beyond hus control more than Denji.
And... yeah, I know what it means to be close to someone with untreated mental health illness that severe. Can't imagine how much more traumatising to be raised by them.
Of course the book ends and you don't even notice and then have to flip back after the words just stop and you realise "oh wait, THAT was the actual ending".
Too much toxic masculinity. Feels like the book is trying to say something between the lines that it expects male readers to relate to, and that I just can't get.
Made worse because the same exact thing happens relating to sex and attraction. I kinda hope it isn't like this irl for allos. It probably isn't, right?
Still glad I read it. Definitely not for everyone.

rohze · January 6, 2025, 3:50pm

Nothing particularly important, but I bought these hardback editions of a manga named "The girl from the other side". I'm very happy with them

^[1]

Bonus!

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Dato · January 6, 2025, 3:51pm

^[1]

I lobe this bonus ↩︎

catankitty · January 6, 2025, 4:07pm

those covers are gorgeous!^[1]

i want to eat them! ↩︎

brocolie · January 7, 2025, 3:40pm

Just finished reading Houseki no Kuni / Land of the Lustrous.

Gee.. what a bleak story, and humanity hating too, in a religious sense

Details on previous comment, and spoilers for the end. Mostly negative

Like, I get it, the story is based on beliefs from very... let's call them "hardcore" sects of Buddhism, with a little bit of Shinto and some other specific Japanese lore / traditional stories mixed in.

But what I got at the end of that is just more convincing that all big religions have the potential to harbor extremely destructive and harmful views on life and humanity, because this is kinda what it boils down to in this story.

Maybe at some point it might look like the point of the story is to show how bad this really is. While the story is shown from the point of view of Phos and they blame Sensei for involving the gems in this "war", Sensei is not the one who abducted living beings, ground them to fine dust then discarded them without even asking, you know?

And then it turns out that obviously, they were going to involve the gems anyway.

The whole thing is just an extremely bleak Buddhist view of humanity, and in some sense, of life on Earth, specifically how bad we are, how achieving Nirvana and disappearing is the only true "good" goal, and that involves literally throwing away humanity.

I really don't see it is a story about how everything eventually ends and how fighting against it is useless, even. None of the involved parties tried to do anything of the sort, the only thing there is, is extremely fucked up societies, largely because of the Lunarians specifically, who commit genocidal crime after genocidal crime and force things to go badly at every turn... because they're bored and because the story believes the human spirit is rotten to the core. Or rather "too complex to bring any long-term good", so to speak.

{like, it also kinda shows that there is little of nature that is talked about, even the ice floes are "contaminated with humanity", not to mention the sea animals. just the presence of a simulated human in the end is enough to contaminate pebbles with self-awareness, and the main character at this point explains how that's a bad thing to be exposed for them to be exposed for a long time to - it's like any conceptualization of complexity or source of complexity has to be the human condition/soul... and this idea that simplicity is "just better"}

But that's what you get when you push the views of Buddhism, and specifically of the cycle of rebirth and the effort to escape it as a good thing, to the radical extreme they were never meant to be pushed to. Living is a curse, a prison. It follows that the gems, being immortal, are the most cursed and stuck beings of all, literally "humanity's bones", bound and charmed to a human construct they can't free themselves from without ~~assistance~~ violence, and thus eventually leads to violently shattering them then turning them all into Lunarians against their will as being a "good thing".

The story completely lost me at that point. How can you portray an assimilationist genocide like that as a good thing? "War will finally end". As if! And then it does!

Idk, religious extremism is fucked up I think is all I have to say. It shows that the story needs to spend the last entire volume in what's essentially a completely alien landscape with the most alien life so far to try to justify the previous events and convince itself that everything will be alright going forward.

I'm still glad I read this though.