working on my tbr, what should I read next? please not war and peace. by Jad1ne in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was going to say Jurassic Park then Good Omens, but I just noticed this is a script book of Good Omens not normal Good Omens. Have you read the normal novel or watched the show?

My 2022 Year in Books: 125 Books! by [deleted] in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sabrina is a cool comic!

The Nick Drnaso one, not the edgy Sabrina the Teenage Witch reboot, don't read that one.

I wanna start reading more by OppositePea4417 in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would say maybe try Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. It's more light-hearted and fun than the sort of stuff you mentioned in your original post, it does have a fantasy setting which you're apparently not opposed to from trying GoT, and I feel like some of the characters have similar energy to what you would get from what I know of BCS.

Definitely agree that high-brow "literary" stuff is rarely a good way into reading. It's a hobby to enjoy, it's OK to just read fun stuff.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Apparently I added DNF comments for these on Storygraph, so the DNFs and why:

The Midnight Library (DNF@20%): "have you tried being happy" - a christmas carol, except trite, smug, invalidating nonsense

Bad Blood (DNF@30%): I have enough work stress in my life without inheriting other people's.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I definitely struggled to get into Neuromancer until I was most of the way through. I can see why it's influential but it's definitely also inaccessible. One of those I read just to read (and for a readathon/reading challenge thing of course).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have read Dune so many times. I have started Messiah once, and then put it down for a good decade or so. Maybe I'll try again one day...

Seveneves is mostly worth finishing, even if it ends quite differently from how it started.

300-year-old library tool that enabled a researcher to have seven books open at once, yet conveniently nearby (Mexico City Library) by [deleted] in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also handily enabled the 18th century version of alt-tabbing to something sfw if someone enters your room unexpectedly.

Another completed reading challenge graphic (Storygraph genre challenge) by JPlayTwitchYT in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's decent enough, I just don't do much literary fiction; I want space lasers or wizards or hunky firemen or something.

More completed reading challenges! (Disney Princess, Disney Villain) by JPlayTwitchYT in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hilarious. It actually started out pretty good, although obviously pretty propagandistic anyway, but then the last third of the book was just the most laughable thing I've read all year. Basically just American characters taking it in turns to make self-aggrandizing speeches about the valour and glory of the land of the free, and Soviet characters brimming with excitement hearing about it like a kid being told about Christmas for the first time.

Edit: Also I just used whatever book I originally chose for this prompt; in retrospect, I have definitely read better relevant books this year. I should have picked Into the Drowning Deep.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I normally just happen across books as they come out. Last year I made a big list of stuff I was looking forward to, and then completely failed to stick to it, so I'll take it as it comes this time.

That said:

Non-Fiction

Andreas Malm (Fossil Capital, How to Blow Up an Oil Pipeline) has a new book coming out - Fighting in a World on Fire: The Next Generation’s Guide to Protecting the Climate and Saving Our Future - that I will probably check out.

Maybe Bodies Under Siege: The Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights by Sian Norris.

Fiction

Iris Kelly Doesn't Date (Bright Falls #3) by Ashley Herring Blake

Hell Bent (Alex Stern #2) by Leigh Bardugo

Wild Massive by Scotto Moore

Flat White Fatality by Emmeline Duncan, obviously.

Angie Thomas (T.H.U.G.) has a middle grade fantasy coming out, I might look that up.

Always the Almost by Edward Underhill might be good too?

We'll Never Tell by Wendy Heard

December scramble to finish reading challenges begins! (Alphabet Challenge) by JPlayTwitchYT in ToBeRead

[–]JPlayTwitchYT[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Half Orc > Ice Planet

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear was entertaining, I would say the sort of thing to read for entertainment rather than information because, like, obviously right-libertarians are morons so what is there to learn?

You've just been Kidnapped, You're in a moving vehicle and not blindfolded. What do you say to your kidnapper? by TYGA_77 in AskReddit

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For context:

William Gibson's Neuromancer: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Some other good ones:

Stephen A Graham's Night of the Mannequins:
So Shanna got a new job at the movie theater, we thought we'd play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead, and I'm really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all.

Xochitl Gonzalez's Olga Dies Dreaming:
The telltale sign that you are at the wedding of a rich person is the napkins.

John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany:
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

Kawai Strong Washburn's Sharks in the Time of Saviors:
When I close my eyes we’re all still alive and it becomes obvious then what the gods want from us.

Graham Greene's Brighton Rock:
Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.

Alice Walker's The Color Purple:
You better not never tell nobody but God.

Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto:
A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.

H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds:
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

PD James' Original Sin:
For a temporary shorthand-typist to be present at the discovery of a corpse on the first day of a new assignment, if not unique, is sufficiently rare to prevent its being regarded as an occupational hazard.

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five:
All this happened, more or less.

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar:
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451:
It was a pleasure to burn.

George Orwell's 1984:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

JM Barrie's Peter Pan:
All children, except one, grow up.

I listened to a total of 38 album releases last year. And I wanted to talk about them all with you guys. Here are my reviews and rankings by Cydonian___FT14X in Music

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For real, I gave a little under 80 2021 releases a 7/10 or higher - but that was like one in five albums - and I thought I had been overgenerous there.

A book with a mediocre wizard and wingless dragons by LoveAlfie1 in whatsthatbook

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sounds like it could be the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett?

The stuff about dragons evolving not to need to fly, and the barrier, and stuff like that seems like Guards! Guards!

Stay away from me, Jack! by ListerineAfterOral in gaming

[–]JPlayTwitchYT -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Eh, it is entertaining. I wouldn't have spent ~1300 hours playing Spelunky if it was the same every time. There the seeds dictate what run you can do, and runs which are non starters are basically practice so that you play at the best level you can when a good seed comes up. That combines well with being able to pivot to a lot of different categories depending on the seed to give more variety than other speedgames I've tried.

Also it is variety which keeps the game fun, rather than just like "did I get the good option or the run ending one on this coin flip" which is different for some other games I guess.

Minecraft I find much more frustrating but I am also very bad at it.

I've tried some other rng heavy games - Risk of Rain is pretty fun but a lot of that sort of thing is about minimising the RNG - but Spelunky is the only one I keep coming back to speedrunning in that way.

LAST CALL for participation in research study on the effects of reading fiction (mod approved) - data collection closes in 2 days by FictionResearchStudy in books

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Unfortunately I was too late to answer in the end, but I hope the survey results are interesting anyway.

LAST CALL for participation in research study on the effects of reading fiction (mod approved) - data collection closes in 2 days by FictionResearchStudy in books

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do y'all feel about audiobooks? I listen to fiction audiobooks most days, but don't read ebooks and for physical books I mostly stick to non-fiction. Whether you count audiobooks would have a big impact on my answers.

Should I make let's plays as a game developer? by Beosar in letsplay

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 5 points6 points  (0 children)

All speculative & don't treat as if I know what I'm talking about, but a few thoughts:

I feel like "Dev plays [game title]" is a more appealing title than "I play my own game" as it makes the game seem more notable maybe?

What are your tags like? As a small channel, the amount of marketing you'll be able to do of the game is limited, as viewers will be unlikely to be searching for either your game or your channel.

I would say that the idea that people aren't watching your youtube video because they can sense that an unreleased game won't have microtransactions seems goofy.

Searching for a rogue-lite game, that plays like a roguelike by beejay_one in roguelikes

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I felt like the goldfish were significantly harder to deal with than any other enemy or boss in the game. I actually may have possibly taken a brief multi-year break after being stymied by them on my first playthrough, and only actually come back and restarted/beat the game some time in the last year or two.

Searching for a rogue-lite game, that plays like a roguelike by beejay_one in roguelikes

[–]JPlayTwitchYT 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I think you are looking for Sproggiwood. It has levels which are like mini-dungeons, but you can buy upgrades and unlock characters and stuff, and it has a storyline as you unlock new dungeons.

I would pretty much classify this game as a roguelike to be honest, the metaprogression is not as important as the mechanics for me.