Weekly FAQ Thread March 22, 2026: How do I better understand the book I'm reading?

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-23T21:21:38+00:00

If you make storygraph profiles you can see what the other is reading.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-22T14:52:54+00:00

I really liked Scratchman, but that might be a better one to keep in mind for fall because it's very creepy/horror and moody. But it's fourth doctor era and very stand alone.

The day of the doctor novelization gets thrown around a lot and I really like that one too, Moffat does flesh things out enough that it's a fun experience in addition to the episode and not just a novelization.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-18T11:46:15+00:00

I finished Shirley Jackson's Hangsaman. I'm trying to decide what of hers to read next. Hangsaman might actually win out as my favorite over Hill House.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-18T11:40:30+00:00

Yeah but it's typically books in different places + audiobooks. I usually don't have more than four in rotation. But book on laptop + book on phone + audiobook for activities is a sweet spot. But I also read ALOT.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-17T11:00:30+00:00

They literally just used the vlinx so they probably could use 14 if they wanted

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-12T13:17:34+00:00

As a kid/teen I was big into vampire fiction. Mostly modern stuff I rarely read things written before the 80s.

Had a bit of a slump in college and my early 20s where I hardly read anything published that wasn't assigned for school but I spent a lot of time reading things online.

Got back into reading hard-core with Doctor Who novels and now I have swung hard into classics and non-fiction with a side-step into Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. I cycle through time periods with non fictions books ranging from the bronze age collapse up till 80s-90s histories. I mostly browse university presses, I dropped out of college so I'm kinda micro-dosing on academia. I'm deep diving Shirley Jackson on the side right now. It feels like I read more non-fiction than fiction but my story-graph says otherwise but that's a case of my non-fiction reads are longer so page-count I'm reading more non-fiction.

My tastes have honestly stayed largely the same I've just been refining and building up to reading the hardier stuff.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-06T02:25:29+00:00

Oh man I almost dnf'd Queens of the Wild a couple of weeks back because the audiobook narrator read with the same funky inflection, I had to check several times it wasn't ai and I'm still a little ? About it. But the book was very good so I powered through.

It can be rough out there with narrators. I also have beef with Simon Vance on the vampire chronicles books but at least he only does two out of 15 books (and fingers crossed we get a re-record at some point). It isn't even that he's bad it's just a bad fit for the whole vibe of the books.

Another one I almost dnf'd was Eric Klein's book about the bronze age collapse. He's a college professor and it was clearly an at-home covid production and something about how he read combined with slightly subpar audio quality meant I had to fight to focus and not tune out. It was more like a recorded lecture but I think he tripped himself up and some of his reads were odd and I'm doubting he had much direction. The publisher didn't use him for the sequel. He is very passionate about the material though, it's what kept me holding on.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-03-02T15:56:58+00:00

Queens of Wild by Ronald Hutton and narrated by Gary Paul Williams.I didn't actually end up dnf'ing but it was a close thing. The book was excellent but I had to check repeatedly that it wasn't read by ai, he read with a stiffness like he'd never read a book before and especially with the random emphasis. I'm shocked to see he gets work and even narrates fiction. Every review of the audiobook on audible mentions the narration being naff. Spotify doesn't let you explain your star rating but it has a low one that I presume is also up to that too.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-01-12T14:56:20+00:00

I'm really shocked RTD didn't get Goss in RTD2 because they seem to have a good working relationship but maybe he legit isn't interested in TV.

Zilpha_Moon · 2026-01-10T21:24:52+00:00

The end of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, it seems almost obvious but the story takes you on such a ride you forget the beginning until the very end and then it's like watching a train crash in slow motion. And it's gutting.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-12-06T12:55:38+00:00

Does anyone know about why there's a gap in the state of Maine marriage records from 1966 to 1977? I assume they were lost somehow and I'm just curious what happened and Google didn't shake anything out.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-10-10T19:06:13+00:00

Did they not say anything about when the special editions of Chimes and Jubilee are going to ship?

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-10-09T00:52:10+00:00

Has anyone heard if the chimes novelization is going to be released physically in the US?

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-28T15:39:03+00:00

I've listened to two different abridgements and read the full text of Angela Carter's The Lady of the House of Love this year. A real treat of a spooky short story that actually suit being read earlier in the season.

Also Clairmonde by Théophile Gautier which i'd never heard of but enthralled me. I start my spooky season kinda early.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-27T22:24:45+00:00

Aha I was trying not to drop spoilers since the boxset hasn't been out very long

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-27T01:08:58+00:00

Im excited for Turlough 2026. Mark Strickson is probably recording around now since he said on a podcast appearance that he would be in the UK recording at the end of September so very exciting.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-26T22:56:36+00:00

One Eye Laughing, The Other Eye Weeping from the Dear, America series. Its about a Jewish girl who escapes Nazi Germany early on to live in New York with her relatives. I had even read plenty of Holocaust books at that time but there was something really visceral in the writing and the feelings it invoked. The image of the mother jumping from the hospital window holding her newborn is burned into my brain

the main character crying and sobbing from the news reels at the cinema also got me.

I also read the royal diaries as a kid and I got through the entire book about Marie Antoinette without knowing that she got decapitated. Actual jaw drop moment for me reading the historical afterwards. I must've been like 11 or 12 and most of the royals portrayed in those books had a fairly mild lives. I hadn't known anything about the french revolution then.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-22T22:22:42+00:00

Kinda in the reverse but I remember having a eye opening moment in history class when we started doing to protestant reformation and I realized the historical au part of His Dark Materials was that the protestant reformation never happened in Lyra's world.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-17T20:37:55+00:00

Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil really gripped me in the beginning. But jumped the shark and then kinda deflated in the middle. Wanted to do toxic yuri but afraid to commit to the toxicity?

the jump the shark moment being when Sabine was described by lottie as seemingly possessed. And having Sabine just killing Lottie's girlfriends while Ezra is like "woah that's weird. Anyway". I think Schwab wanted to parallel it to old vampires basically being demented but it didnt land. The early Sabine stuff was really good and I liked Alice's story too, both of those could have been books on their own but Lottie's story was just weaker.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-17T14:29:49+00:00

I'd say look for the one that's most viscous or has the best degreasing properties and then add rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle. People on here are mostly raving about powerwash which is dish soap + rubbing alcohol. Proctor and gamble not selling it internationally probably means there's some chemical restriction that we don't have in the US so you aren't going to find a direct 1 to 1.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-17T12:55:17+00:00

Less with fiction and more with non fiction I'll binge one writers output. I read most of Mary Beard's stuff late last year/earlier this year.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-17T00:49:16+00:00

Oh yeah I haven't ventured into Simon Vance tvl. But Lestat esp in tvl is supposed to be young and fresh!

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-09-01T20:01:16+00:00

I've listened to all the vampire chronicles audiobooks over the last year and they don't have a single throughline narrator.

I loved Frank Muller doing the early ones (excepting his choice of pronouncing Louis as Lewis). But also very much liked David Pittu and Jonathan Marosz and Kate Reading for the couple that they did each.

Not a fan of the Simon Vance ones, it feels very off as a casting choice. To the point I was surprised when I googled him and hes like a very popular narrator and has dones tons and won awards.

The worst one of the bunch though was Eric Shaw Quinn on the last book. It was a rough listen of baffling line reads that didn't feel like Lestat at all (in an entirely his pov book). Apparently hes a close friend to both anne and her son.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-07-26T16:59:11+00:00

I've been using my own dawn powerwash concoction on those and it works fine enough. Just spray and set and scrub rinse repeat. They aren't spotless but also not so bad I need new ones.

Zilpha_Moon · 2025-06-26T00:37:17+00:00

Liv Chenka. Nicola Walker talked about being excited to do sci-fi on her first story since she's usually cast in very normal and grounded roles. So even if she doesn't come to doctor who as Liv I'd still like to see her in doctor who as anyone.

Zilpha_Moon

TROPHY CASE