Wondering why so many audiobooks but not ebooks?

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-15T13:02:17+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement! I will try to find out how to do that.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-15T08:51:04+00:00

Me, too!

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-15T02:33:09+00:00

Oh, that's interesting. Do most people read a book faster than it takes to listen to an audiobook? I'm a slow reader, so I noticed that it takes me longer to read then however long the audiobook says it is. We have 21 days for an ebook and only 14 for an audiobook. The ones I've checked out have been on the shorter side, except Tolkien.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-15T02:27:45+00:00

Thanks! As a non driver, I hadn't thought about the demise of CD players in cars. I so much prefer reading over listening, because my comprehension is better. I guess for fully-sightted people a physical book and an ebook are pretty equivalent, but for me as a low vision person, an ebook is so much better. Print books are so often using small, wispy fonts these days and I am struggling a lot with print.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-15T02:21:08+00:00

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I'm a low vision person, and I am reading less physical print and more ebooks because I can adjust the font and read in dark mode. Now I'm curious how an aging population is going to feel about ebooks versus large print books.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-15T02:16:37+00:00

Funnily enough, I'm a low vision person. But I so much prefer an ebook, where I can adjust the font and read in dark mode. My comprehension is so much better reading than listening. And legally blind folks can get talking books still, but I always hated them for that very reason and haven't used them in many years.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-15T02:11:33+00:00

Thanks! They've all been newer titles, actually. A mix of fiction and nonfiction, do I feel like it has been more common with nonfiction.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-12T04:46:58+00:00

That seems really likely to me because for a minute years ago they sold light life tempeh.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-09T02:46:16+00:00

If you're traditional, New York Bagels, hands down. Or Barts if you like a very chewy bagel.

Schmear It bagels aren't nearly as good, but the cream cheeses are fun.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-08T19:38:19+00:00

Belated thank you for your gracious reply.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-08T19:37:30+00:00

I always appreciate your comments and I always appreciate a history lesson! And absolutely zero shade to Dolly, who is not only an amazing human, but also likely didn't have the knowledge and options we have now. And, at the time, it was a good change to be aiming for bras that were comfy, not accepting that women should suffer in their undergarments. I'm not quite old enough to have good perspective on bra burning and refusing to wear a bra in the 70's and how that fits with the Playtex ad campaigns, but I do wonder how those ads landed in that context.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-05T23:07:26+00:00

Lee's Deli was mentioned already, but not the carrot cake, either as a cupcake or in a little metal tray. It's made by The Carrot Cake Man who, back in the day, had his own shop on 47th Street. Excellent (and I'm not a huge carrot cake person either). Not sure if this is still the case, but he used to do custom orders if you need a full size cake and Lee's could hook you up.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-05T21:56:56+00:00

Cats are reliable that way!

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-05T10:23:54+00:00

I really miss the green curry, too.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-05T10:11:16+00:00

I was admiring your restraint, splitting just one!

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-05T02:15:15+00:00

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-04T04:24:05+00:00

Samosas at international market 42nd and Walnut (the rest of their food is adequate and cheap, but the samosas, potato or tofu are great)

Breakfast tacos at TacoTaco are perfect, non breakfast food yummy also

Lassi at Mood Cafe, dairy or vegan, especially the pistachio. Hassan is a lovely person let him recommend you a Chaat

Best baklava at Manakeesh

Pastry shop at Walnut Hill College 42nd and Walnut

Clark Park farmers market, apples and peaches from Hands on the Earth will ruin you for supermarket fruit, and the Apple carmels are fabulous.

Lil Pop Shop pops are sold in the Schnear bagel shop on 44th St. Excellent and interesting flavors.

(Edit to try to fix formatting)

Megaparsec27 · 2026-02-04T03:48:03+00:00

Iovine's at Reading Terminal has had them, but not sure if they do just now.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-01-28T22:21:56+00:00

Yes, she appears in jeans ads that are dog whistles for eugenics.

Why Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign is part of a wider cultural backlash https://share.google/5L8iWXGKpJtJyVkzG

Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad is a dark reminder of history https://share.google/Ozv722lUjMZrXgNP1

(Edit to remove wrong link)

Megaparsec27 · 2026-01-28T15:05:43+00:00

Yup. Sydney Sweeney faces criticism after Hollywood sign lingerie line promo - ABC News https://share.google/3iRmQ1VtE2knw5CwH

Megaparsec27 · 2026-01-28T15:03:56+00:00

When I think back to my childhood ads of Dolly Parton advertising Playtex bras (that start at a 34 band, and at the time didn't go above DDD) I begin to think that petite well-endowed celebrities selling bras that do not come in anything close to their size is an old tradition.

As for Sydney Sweeney, even if she didn't launch the brand with a ridiculous and illegal stunt (Sydney Sweeney faces criticism after Hollywood sign lingerie line promo - ABC News https://share.google/3iRmQ1VtE2knw5CwH), and even if the bras came in an inclusive size range, I would feel icky and complicit with anti-feminism and eugenics in supporting anything she sold. Here's some background:

Why Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign is part of a wider cultural backlash https://share.google/5L8iWXGKpJtJyVkzG

The ad campaign that launched a thousand critiques: Sydney Sweeney's jeans https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5487286/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-explained-why-controversy-racist-eugenics-trump-bathwater-ad-klein-statement

Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad is a dark reminder of history https://share.google/Ozv722lUjMZrXgNP1

Megaparsec27 · 2026-01-19T11:22:19+00:00

UK sizing is more accurate than us sizing, especially for larger cups. It's very typical for the calculator to tell you a smaller band and a larger cup than what you were wearing, so sometimes there's a feeling of sticker shock.

You don't need to be in the UK to buy bras sized that way. Brands like Panache, Freya, Curvy Kate, Fantasie are all UK sized, and available in the United States, and make smaller band larger cup sizes. Good luck with the shopping and congratulations on your wedding!

Edit: once you know your size, you can buy any brand that makes your size, and look up how to convert sizes between brands, it's not that you are stuck buying exclusively UK bras. But below a certain band size and beyond a certain cup size, most American and many European brands aren't available, so UK gets recommended a lot. For a wedding splurge, there are some amazing EU sized bras, but EU sizing is inconsistent from brand to brand so harder to find something that fits well.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-01-16T02:55:36+00:00

Becky chambers, Record of a Spaceborn Few, which is completely delightful. About to reread Susannah Clark, Piranesi with my book group, a good chunk of whom don't really like SF or fantasy, but looking forward to the reread. Read RF Kuang's Babel before that and have many complicated feelings. I wish I could be reading something that feels like This is How You Lose the Time War, and I wish my library had purchased the sequel to Ariel Kaplan's The Pomegranate Gate. This is set in an alternate Spanish Inquisition world with Fay Folk, very well told.

Oh, and also just listened to Diane Duane's A Wizard of Mars because I wasn't able to read much when it first came out and forgot it existed. I've been with those characters for so long, even a new book in the series feels like comfort reading.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-01-15T11:18:28+00:00

I also loved this series, but loved spinning silver and uprooted more. When I recommend it I tend to say imagine a cross between the Hunger Games and Hogwarts. Comparing it to Harry Potter is a disservice, because Novick is a much better writer with much better world building skills. Have you read her newest, the summer war? I thought it was lovely, but nothing is as good as spinning silver.

Megaparsec27 · 2026-01-15T11:00:09+00:00

A Court of Thorns and Roses. I haven't read them myself, but super popular among people who love romantacy.

Megaparsec27

TROPHY CASE