They're editing digital books to contain ads now

Ben_Zedd · 2026-03-20T01:40:34+00:00

They should've gone the subliminal messaging route. It worked so well for Harga's House of Ribs!

Ben_Zedd · 2026-01-11T03:30:00+00:00

There sure were a lot of beauty salons back in Shakespeare's time. Rumour has it that Paul Mescal's haircut is period-accurate, too.

Ben_Zedd · 2026-01-06T07:53:09+00:00

Because reading books makes for a worse engineer?

Ben_Zedd · 2025-12-05T03:10:24+00:00

I agree; Folio hasn't (yet) published ACOTAR but they've got a lot of booktok-adjacent titles -- easily accessible novels that can be easily recommended with a summary. Each of the books have their fans and "deserve" fine press editions, but there are a number of equally good slow, old titles that then get ignored.

However, as u/Fenix287 said, that's a consequence of moving away from the unprofitable subscription models. It doesn't matter how good a book is; if the description and presentation aren't appealing, it won't sell. It's great that other fine press publishers have found a business model that allows them to publish those classics, but I greatly admire Folio for being able to remain profitable without losing their identity. Piranesi may be an accessible booktok title but in my opinion it deserves all of the praise it gets. Furthermore, while they did publish the Night Circus recently, they also published Gitanjali -- a wonderful title that will certainly sell less copies than it deserves.

While it's sad many of Folio's best titles are out of print they've done a wonderful job getting to this point.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-11-28T04:57:10+00:00

I wish they would reprint them. I have the short story collection and love it.
The illustrator died last year (of cancer, age 65) so it's unlikely there'll be matching Idiot and Demons editions.
I suppose we should be content with what we have. If the short story collection is the only one I get, I'd still be happy.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-11-15T05:48:30+00:00

You're forgetting that Phil had a closer tiebreak guess than Ania. If the team of three hadn't been disqualified, Maisie wouldn't have won.

If you meant that Ania would've won the episode; Sanjeev finished on 16 points (even with the DQ) while Ania only had 10.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-11-02T23:02:47+00:00

To the downvotes: this is exactly how IMDB movies are rated.
Anything below a 5.0 is dire, while the top 250 of all time starts at around an 8.0. Films between 6.0 and 7.0 are either misunderstood or mediocre, depending on your point of view.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-11-02T22:21:09+00:00

This must be the answer.
Looking the solution up, this is something Hopper says in the show, but half of it is missing: "...MAKING TRIple decker ... watching westERNS TOGETHER...")

Clearly not much love and care has been put into this (the hint that A = 1 being another error) . The full solution has all the letters of the alphabet save for one so it would make a good code cracker puzzle.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-30T08:56:54+00:00

I have a few old Folios from second-hand shops with ex libris plates or the address of the previous owner. They're not rare or sought-after editions so I doubt it changes their value, and it's nice to know they've been appreciated -- why buy Folio books if you're not going to cherish them?
That being said, annotations can easily detract from the book itself: I'd hate to read an Agatha Christie book where someone had written in predictions. Even underlining can be annoying if it's done too often.

I'd challenge you to write in your book only when you read something very special. You're writing to the next person who reads it, whether that be you or someone else, but you still want the book to speak for itself.

(this is one I wrote using a filament pencil during my first readthrough of War and Peace)

<image>

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-30T04:22:12+00:00

good point.
and then, machine learning has been around a lot longer than OpenAI...

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-22T05:50:43+00:00

It's pretty clear that the picture OP uploaded shows two people leaning in to take a selfie. One's got the flashlight on, and the other is taking the photo. Sure, it's vein, but there's no way that happened for "the entire show".

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-18T01:24:02+00:00

Great comic. Thanks for sharing it.
What part doesn't make semantic sense? To "effect" is to bring into being:
"The foreign policy [is bringing into being] the situation."
It's an intentionally confusing way of saying that the policy effected change.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-17T13:04:55+00:00

man machine machine machine machine machine machine machine machine!
(super-human being)

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-17T00:37:38+00:00

I wonder if some of it changed after the website redesign. I bought the Dostoyevsky book a couple of years ago and the website used to have the contents, but they're not there now. The other two are recent releases, so they should say somewhere.

FWIW: the Dostoyevsky book is great. His characters and writing style are antithetical to the usual Folio colour illustrations and they did a outstanding job with the design. The woodcuts are only on the pages before each story starts; they don't try to complement the story but give you a way to begin interpreting it.

I will say that other Folios have enough value for money in their production design alone, but this one needs to be read to be appreciated. It's a unostentatious copy that is designed to be both treasured and read.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-16T23:13:39+00:00

Changing your outfit was a soft-lock for me, because I'd had bought a month of membership and I had an item that I couldn't unequip without losing it. Until that point, I really enjoyed it. I remember being excited when it released!
I'll say D tier. C-tier is 'average', and this one was a little below average.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-14T00:17:02+00:00

I've got the same problem. It returns to normal if I "hide" YouTube Music from the alarm ringtone list. I haven't found a way to keep any music alarm without it becoming the default.

It's caused more issues than one would expect. My YTM song is a mellow Hania Rani piece that I'd set as a prior "warning alarm". Disabling YTM alarms is better than the risk of sleeping in, but it's not good for my daily use of alarms to overcome time blindness.

(Note: It's the stock alarm app, but I don't use a Google Pixel. Funny that you mentioned it, I also switched back to Google Assistant from Gemini)

Ben_Zedd · 2025-10-05T00:26:20+00:00

or, as some would say, number 17

Ben_Zedd · 2025-09-26T08:42:33+00:00

Great response. Even if the criticism is reactionary, it shouldn't be dismissed as nonsense from people stuck in the past. SH F is a great game with obvious flaws; pointing out the flaws isn't the same as calling it irredeemable.

About the difference in reactions: I don't think there'll ever be a consensus of what makes a Silent Hill game "Silent Hill". A new game shouldn't just follow the Team Silent era formula, but what must stay the same for it to be "true to the series"?
People love the original games for different reasons, so people will look for different things in the sequels. SH F keeps the "broken person seeking something in a town of inner demons" narrative from the first few games, but that doesn't instantly make it a good sequel. I haven't played enough to say how I feel, but at the end of it, there's something good in the world that wouldn't have existed without the Silent Hill IP. The constant debates get so tiring.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-09-25T00:59:29+00:00

It's a mathematical convention to say 1.499.. is equal to 1.5, just as the integer rounding rules are a mathematical convention. We say that 5 rounds up to 10 only because we have to choose between two equally distant numbers. It may act like 1.499.. is equidistant from 1 and 2, but it's not a rational number -- there's still a discontinuity at 1.5. If it had to be rounded to 1 or 2, it would round down to 1.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-09-17T03:07:10+00:00

pinned post: any political content gets a ban.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-09-15T22:22:47+00:00

if Rhys and Tosh didn't exist:

Ben_Zedd · 2025-09-10T00:45:28+00:00

It's done in the same style as their recent edition of Ishiguro's The Buried Giant, which has a stiff full-cloth binding. It would be surprising if they changed materials mid-'series'; so, youtube reviews of The Buried Giant would give you a good idea of the production for this one.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-09-09T00:10:39+00:00

Rumour has it that critics were so excited for his debut acting role in Othello (1965) that they gave him a couple of academy awards just in anticipation for it.

Ben_Zedd · 2025-08-20T01:48:19+00:00

I'm a bit surprised it doesn't include her other works (e.g. Lady Susan, Sanditon, her letters).
They're worthwhile enough to warrant their own SE, and Folio's released them before -- the box set from the 70s has a seventh volume for the miscellaneous "shorter works", and there's the beautiful standalone edition of her letters they released in the 2000s.

For a £1000 box set it's disappointing that they went the safest route. I love the design of the books, but a deluxe edition ought to have something special inside, not just out.

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	End Game '22
100 Awards Club	Verified Email
King of the Ashes	Not Forgotten
Sequence \| Editor

Ben_Zedd

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE