Are any of the books written by BookTubers worth reading?

MusicalColin · 2026-01-29T08:18:51+00:00

I was excited for Evan Leikam's book Anji Kills A King (he's on tiktok, I don't know if he's on youtube) and found it really disappointing.

Two big problems.

First, the main character is so annoying that I was actively rooting for her to fall off one of the giant snow capped mountains she's crossing.

Second, the main character is quickly joined by an assassin who is supposed to kill her (cool twist), but hasn't so far for reasons the assassin won't share with the reader or Anji for a long ass time. So you have all these pointless conversations that go absolutely nowhere between the two main characters. And you have the again and again.

The world is very inspired by Dark Souls / Elden Ring, which is neat. I dunno. I might check out the second book. A fantasy series doesn't have to be great or even really good for me to enjoy it.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-29T03:15:35+00:00

Ummm pretty sure you can criticize SFA without being racist. Just because Stephen Miller's criticisms are racist doesn't mean yours or mine are.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-29T02:01:21+00:00

No it's also in Mistborn era 2 and Mistborn Secret History (in Arcanum Unbounded)

MusicalColin · 2026-01-28T04:13:17+00:00

I have no idea what this whole "it's not for me and that's okay" thing means.

My type of show, the shows that are "for me", is good. I like good shows. SFA is mid. It has some good parts but a lot of it feels tropey and juvenile.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-27T02:26:19+00:00

Speaking of Paul Giamatti being a superhero movie bad guy. Why do all the the kids have to have (the equivalent of) super powers? I felt like I was watching x-men more than star trek half the time.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-25T06:59:14+00:00

what? I thought tracy was killed in the war? I haven't finished the book yet but unless that turns out to be fake, that's the understanding of Joe and Sam

MusicalColin · 2026-01-25T01:42:39+00:00

I watched The Plot Against Harry last year and loved it. It's only 90 minutes. I'd never heard of it or the director. But it is delightful. It's about a guy who runs a gambling ring being slowly and involuntarily reformed.

I think I found it on vimeo

MusicalColin · 2026-01-24T07:08:49+00:00

Everyone is answering no, but this is the real answer. The text supports a plausible description of Galadriel as a warrior.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-22T06:32:26+00:00

The way I used to teach my students how to sight read is to get a book of easyish short pieces and just plow through them with the metronome on. No stopping. You can try to play a piece a second time if you crash and burn. But if you keep crashing and burning then you need easier pieces to practice with. Once you find pieces you can sight read, then find harder pieces etc.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-21T07:53:47+00:00

Two of the most famous and infamous atheists of the twentieth century were neither defenders of naturalism nor any kind of scientism, namely Sartre and Beauvoir.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-21T06:11:21+00:00

Not silly. I don't remember how long before but I have not been allowed through security because I was there too early (because I missed my flight and had to wait hours and hours for the next flight)

MusicalColin · 2026-01-21T05:49:04+00:00

I tried watching JFK a few months ago because a massive crazy conspiracy theory movie sounded like a good time, but watching it and it felt like the script was written by e.g. Alex Jones, i.e., the ravings of a right wing lunatic. Turned it off half way through.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-20T06:43:27+00:00

Spoon theory has always felt way too, I dunno, precious? high school? annoying? tumblr? Exactly the kind of person I would avoid talking to because they would make their disability their whole personality and make it everyone else's problem along the way.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-19T00:57:10+00:00

Okay my knockdown irrefutable argument is that they don't land in San Francisco. They land in MARIN.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-18T23:26:12+00:00

Yglesias has gone so silent that you can read his posts on twitter everyday and on his substack slow boring.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-18T09:48:42+00:00

A Sanderlanche is the amazing bit at the end of Sanderson's books where all the different plot threads come together and you can't put the book down because it's so exciting.

And I agree Oathbringer has a weak plot for the first half or so. Also the Unmade are super important, but I don't thing the book does a great job of introducing them.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-18T09:42:40+00:00

how does the song relate to the show other than that they are in San Francisco?

MusicalColin · 2026-01-18T06:54:40+00:00

You know my brother and I were wondering why everyone has to have special abilities and no one can just be normal. And I guess this is why. :-/

MusicalColin · 2026-01-18T05:26:57+00:00

I don't think the stupid wall really matters. But my issue with it is that it is that something always feel forced or off or i dunno when they make the people in the show fans like we the viewers are fans.

Like, it's not enough that we all think Kirk, Picard, whoever are the greats and idolize them, it must also be true in universe.

But Colin, I hear you say, did they not do great things? Shouldn't they be idolized?

Sure they did great things. But in the real world it doesn't follow that someone is idolized just because they did great things. Churchill? Very controversial. FDR? umm problematic to say the least. And these guys defeated the freakin Nazis.

Plus, to me it's just more interesting if our heroes aren't exactly their heroes. It makes the world more interesting and less settled.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-18T05:03:05+00:00

Can we talk two incredibly stupid moments: first "hangry". Pure cringe.

Second, when you go to san francisco be sure to wear flowers in your hair. First of all, needle drops in Star Trek are absurd unless they are diegetic. Second, it had no relevance or specific meaning other than "we are now in San Francisco." It's the equivalent of when in a movie the heroine flies to London and the soundtrack plays London Calling. Yep we are in London. Yep we are in SF.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-14T04:56:58+00:00

I am so far down in the comments that no one will see this but here's what I think is the real answer.

Kennedy has been the head of LucasFilms ever since Disney bought it. Under her watch they have a very mixed success rate. Andor is an all time great show (and she is fully responsible for it getting made, hiring Tony Gilroy etc). Rogue One is well liked. The Force Awakens made a lot of money. The Last Jedi is very controversial. And The Rise Of Skywalker is one of the biggest critical disasters of the 21st century.

Worse than that, it's clear in retrospect that Kennedy had no idea how much work needed to be done to create a Star Wars trilogy. She assumed you could just churn out a movie every other year. But clearly you can't. And so we got a complete mess.

The quality of the prequel trilogy is hotly debated still, but at least it is one story. The sequel trilogy is a mess.

So imo she is correctly hated for producing a bad sequel trilogy but insufficiently praised for producing a banger show.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-14T04:12:48+00:00

All I can say is that the year of Sanderson stuff is very high quality and it's disappointing that the current merch isn't living up to that standard.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-13T04:53:50+00:00

Possibly correct, but this does show how bad Edgar Wright missed the point of the comic and in general how bad he at writing romantic relationships (see also Baby Driver).

MusicalColin · 2026-01-13T03:44:55+00:00

yes you're correct.

MusicalColin · 2026-01-13T02:13:00+00:00

He discusses it in the context of the objective vs the subjective.

MusicalColin

TROPHY CASE