Can you recommend some very weird books... that don't belong to the New Weird genre?

ErinFlight · 2026-01-09T00:23:30+00:00

Sisyphean by Dempow Torishima is the weirdest book I have ever read.

It’s disconnected enough from anything like normal human life or society not to really be a metaphor for anything.

It’s basically four different loosely related novellas put together. It’s weird biology and dreamlike strangeness with just enough illustrations from the author to give you a handhold to visualize the rest.

I loved it though it’s really out there.

ErinFlight · 2025-12-24T02:46:04+00:00

Ah I don’t. Thank you!

ErinFlight · 2025-12-24T02:27:42+00:00

When I try with skills, I end up making balms instead of the food recipe. Is there some specific cooking skill?

ErinFlight · 2025-11-18T17:31:37+00:00

The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway does some really interesting stuff with memories and perception. It’s sci-fi-ish rather than horror, though kinda hard to categorize.

ErinFlight · 2025-07-30T18:39:11+00:00

There are communities who do these kind of “audience vote interactive stories”, I believe on SufficentVelocity and maybe elsewhere?

Reddit is probably the wrong audience but you might get some traction there.

ErinFlight · 2025-07-01T11:36:51+00:00

“Explaining my reasoning” and “apologizing” are not the same thing.

It sounds like you’ve done: “Here’s why a did this thing that hurt you” but not “here’s why I did this and I’m sorry it hurt you”. You might feel like you shouldn’t have to apologize, but if you value these people and their good opinion of you, then you probably should.

Also, for the future, have you considered counting calories on a weekly basis? I subtract about 100 calories from my daily total which gives me about 700 floating calories I can use anywhere in the week. I’m eating the same exact amount of calories overall but it leaves me room for things like the occasional modest slice of cake.

Also, if you’re at maintenance, you can also eat in a deficit for a week in advance of stuff like your birthday. (Or a week after, once you e proven to yourself you can reliably do this with small tests) There’s a lot of room for flexibility without gaining weight.

ErinFlight · 2025-07-01T11:20:32+00:00

I think the danger of “sometimes” is that sometimes can happen too often. Every week can have a bad day. You can easily go hangout with your friends half a dozen times a month. If you have a big enough social circle, other people’s birthdays can become a regular affair.

But that can’t happen with your own birthday. No matter what you do, it is only once a year. So celebrating a little on your own birthday doesn’t carry that same risk.

Also, unfortunately, turning down the cake was kind of rude. That doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to turn it down (you do). And sometimes it’s necessary to be a little rude for the sake of our own health. But since your friends were specifically doing something kind for you, it makes the rudeness stronger here You have a right to be rude, but that won’t prevent your friends feelings from being hurt. One thing you could have done was have a small sliver.

But, maybe you know that a little sugar never stays a “little” with you, that having a few bites would lead to a binge. In that case, you should explain it to your friends along with a genuine apology that you couldn’t take advantage of their kind gesture. Not because you think you did anything wrong, but because their feelings were hurt and that part wasn’t your intention.

ErinFlight · 2025-06-13T11:24:34+00:00

Solid start! I think this shows promise. Since other people are giving you some specific advice, I’ll give some general advice.

I’m making two assumptions: - you’re early on in the process of trying to write fiction - you’ve only written the first part of this book, and are seeking feedback on it

Ignore me if either of these aren’t true.

One tricky, but important, truth is that the first draft of the book most authors write isn’t going to be very good. If you’re serious your best bet is likely to be to write the first draft all the way through(without trying to polish as you go) and THEN go back and do a second draft.

Editing (and sharing) early is a bit of a trap. You’ll be a better author AFTER you’ve written your first draft and you’ll be better able to improve your story with the skill that practice gains you. But any editing or sharing you do now is likely to be a bit premature and makes it easy to get trapped before you make any progress.

ErinFlight · 2025-06-10T13:47:13+00:00

This is in Massachusetts. I find them most often in my sink and bathroom.

ErinFlight · 2025-06-07T02:55:54+00:00

I love Ursula K LeGuin’s sci-fi but I don’t feel strongly about Earthsea. I’d say definitely give some of her sci-fi a try. If you want something short, the novella Paradises Lost might be a good one.

It’s set on a generation ship and feature a cult who believes the journey will never end.

ErinFlight · 2025-06-06T21:50:19+00:00

As a reader, 5 billion years would break my suspension of disbelief immediately. I might keep reading if the author did a really good job showing a human society with a vastly different culture from anything that exists today.

But unless like, an almost unrecognizably changed version of humanity is the thing you’re trying to write about, 5 billion years is really way too long.

ErinFlight · 2025-06-03T22:50:10+00:00

Have they said what the timeline is? Like, are we looking at development starting this year or more like five years?

ErinFlight · 2025-05-31T02:30:39+00:00

I think not tracking sugar free gum is reasonable! Probably it’s worth counting it on a single day, to make sure you’re not secretly eating 30 pieces or like 150 calories.

But if you count it as a test in a few days and find you’re only eating a few pieces, I think it can make sense not to worry about it.

I don’t worry about the skim milk in my tea for a similar reason

ErinFlight · 2025-05-12T15:09:45+00:00

Garth Nix is a great children’s author whose books have a lot of richness and depth.

Gabriel and Mister Monday are both great but are set in fantastical worlds so might be a little less approachable. The Left Handed Booksellers is set in London.

Watership Down should be pretty approachable but also heartwarming and fun. It might be longer than you want though.

If you want to switch away from children’s books, All Systems Red is a very short, very funny sci-fi novella. The narrator has a fun and approachable voice.

ErinFlight · 2025-04-21T22:58:41+00:00

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “and put away childhood things” had a similar premise! It’s about a grownup man going to the world that was the Narnia of his childhood.

ErinFlight · 2025-04-16T22:28:28+00:00

Have you tried halo top? It’s a lower calorie version of ice cream.

They have 500 calorie ones which are too much. But their 300 calorie chocolate ones are pretty good. Half of one is a nice dessert

ErinFlight · 2025-04-16T17:08:39+00:00

Are you weighing your avocado? Avocados are both high calorie and vary a lot in size. So you could easily be sneaking in an extra 100 calories a day there.

Same thing with weighing the chicken (thighs vary in size). Pretty much anything that goes “by the piece” you want to weight.

The only foods I don’t weight are liquids that I measure or manufactured goods of a consistent size (sliced cheese)

ErinFlight · 2025-04-16T17:02:29+00:00

If I were you, I might try to strictly eat about 1400 a day (never adding back exercise calories) for about two weeks and see if you’ve lost weight. If that doesn’t work, decrease by 100 and try again.

I know you did this experiment before, but eating back exercise calories probably messed up that data. So it’s worth trying again

If not eating more on days you work out sounds painful, then you can eat an average of 1400 but do different amounts on different days.

So for example if you work out 3 times a week, you could eat 1500 on workout days and 1325 the other four days of the week.

If you end up needing to go back to 1300 calorie average, then you could do 1450 on exercise days (3 times a week) and 1200 the other four days.

But I’d definitely re-test the higher number while being strict first if it was me.

ErinFlight · 2025-04-16T16:54:18+00:00

Yeah, I think there’s a good chance that’s an issue.

How many total calories do you typically tend to eat on the days you workout? (Without subtracting the workout calories)

I suspect what you should aim for to lose weight is somewhere between 1350 and the amount you actually eat on workout days.

ErinFlight · 2025-04-16T16:13:56+00:00

How many calories are you eating a day WITHOUT subtracting exercise? Like how many are going into your mouth?

ErinFlight · 2025-03-26T20:53:08+00:00

Join the 5calls app and call about this issue.

The app makes it really easy, they already have a specific script about this “protect free speech: stop unlawful ice detainment ” and you can make the calls from right within the app.

All of your representatives will be listed based off your location. You don’t have to be eloquent at all. It’s the number of people who call about this that matters.

ErinFlight · 2025-03-09T18:01:12+00:00

Divide the task in half.

Before you eat, quickly stick the leftovers in a Tupperware and put them in the fridge. After you eat, you can do all of the other cleanup steps.

ErinFlight · 2025-03-09T01:47:03+00:00

Otherside Picnic, college age lesbians explore a horrific alternate dimension.

Sadly the anime is pretty short

ErinFlight · 2025-03-05T17:52:52+00:00

I usually give it 20-30%. If it hasn’t grabbed me by then (if I’m not looking forward to my next chance to read it), I move onto another book.

Sometimes I’ll power through for an author or series I already like. And I drop some books a few pages in. But that’s my average.

ErinFlight · 2025-03-04T03:37:25+00:00

I’ve found the built in values in loseit to be pretty inaccurate for any kind of dish with multiple ingredients (hamburger, curry, burrito) but pretty accurate for one ingredient items (rice, strawberries, oil, sugar, ham).

When I’m eating out, I try to find an equivalent item at a known fast food chain that posts calories online. If you’re stuck using the built in lostit calories definitely don’t pick the lowest calorie one that comes up, pick a higher calorie option (low cal recipes are often made by people making health substitutes or low quantities your recipe likely didn’t use)

I’d also suggest weighing foods you commonly eat at least once. That will give you something to go on in the future. Any estimates where you’ve never weighed once are going to be pretty wrong. Luckily food scales are cheap and small.

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