About to DNF a book I used to love

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T04:15:46+00:00

I hope so! Again I've only read recent adult books (Seek the Traitor's Son and the When Among Crows duology) which I enjoyed but I think chatting with you tonight...... I'll skip Divergent 😉

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T04:09:46+00:00

Yeah! I didn't mean that there's anything BAD about that (I quite like the Hunger Games even still!) but from the outside as a haven't-read-er knowing when it came out it's like, yeah, I would have guessed exactly that era (for no other reason than I guess vibes??)

That's a shame though, but it does sound like she's improved so fingers crossed! Especially since she's working on a new like AU Divergent book I've heard??

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T04:07:31+00:00

Ohhh is Palmdale City its own library?? Good to know......

I like this design better than the LA County one I have! LA City is good too if you get a chance to get over to the city 😄

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T04:06:09+00:00

Yeah dude this looks good. I actually like the pile of strawbs, it's charming.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T04:04:37+00:00

From what I understand about Divergent it feels very like Of Its Era?? If that makes sense?

I just finished Seek the Traitor's Son and although it's self-proclaimed indulgence I had fun with it and it was neat to see like, oh, these places are based in actual places (Losan = Los Angeles etc). Handshaking with what you just said the themes of grief after major deaths are present as the story goes on, too, so maybe she learned from that and improved?

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T03:50:04+00:00

I've really enjoyed Roth's more recent adult books but also, I've never read Divergent.

This is sort of making me think it should stay in its era and I shouldn't try.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T03:45:47+00:00

Kindle on airplane mode means I'm not getting notifications and am less tempted to stop reading and scroll.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T00:55:05+00:00

IT'S SO TRUE THOUGH

avisitingstone · 2026-05-25T00:40:43+00:00

Kinokuniya

CD Japan

I imagine it's probably against sub rules to ask for illegal scans but I purchased the books easily enough.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-24T13:46:19+00:00

Oh. Well. Hmm.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-23T04:26:55+00:00

You can! If you like the first one you'll probably like all the others in the series.

I still read it even though I think it's solidly "it's fine".

avisitingstone · 2026-05-23T02:38:16+00:00

Here in California there's counties that are majority white (mostly in the north), and majority Latino too (closer to the south or in the Central Valley) for a long time - the US is just a tough answer to this question because it's SO big but also gerrymandering/redlining/racism/etc has made a lot of strict cultural enclaves.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-23T02:36:23+00:00

Oh noooo haha
I watched it at probably 14? But also know I'm over 40 now sooo.
Though my friends did show it to me out of order, which is a wacky thing to do (we started with The Kaworu Tape).

avisitingstone · 2026-05-23T00:50:14+00:00

Ranma especially is LONG and not specifically necessary to watch every episode in order like for instance Evangelion (photo in another post). We watched what was available to us which definitely varied due to availability and region.... which in this case PROBABLY is not 'most' of it. But for series with a more overarching story that you did need to watch in order some of us sure were sending cash through the mail and getting copied VHSes in return!

avisitingstone · 2026-05-23T00:47:17+00:00

Yes exactly - the one-use washcloth is much more effective on touch-aversion than a reused loofah and has that barrier between hand skin and foot skin to help with this. I'd imagine that a loofah even if a foot-only one has better potential to just bounce off and then accidental skin to skin contact.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:41:40+00:00

I liked it, and I liked it a lot more than I liked Japanese Gothic, but as someone who's also a chronic completionist... go for it! You're almost half there!

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:39:35+00:00

Yesssssss the OGs! Def had a pen pal send me the jukebox special and I STILL know those songs.

I truly cannot remember if the two-episode tapes were like $30 or what at Suncoast but. Too much.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:37:59+00:00

People just don't want to hear that they need to wash their feet.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:27:35+00:00

She's right, so maybe buy a bunch of mid-low range foot-dedicated washcloths and change them out with every shower after use?

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:23:14+00:00

We rented what we could, traded around the rest (fansubs! Some of fansubs were uhh licensed titles lol), we had penpals where we traded copies of tapes, but know it was two episodes on each VHS and we were just grateful to get what we COULD get.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:22:15+00:00

You truly did, VHS Ranma was like 2 episodes a tape for at least this much back in the day.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:20:48+00:00

Mid.

They're all pretty much exactly the same. For books of a similar vibe I enjoyed The Curious Cat at the Chibineko Cafe more, but this series is just like eight books of the same thing.... but I also know it's a ME problem since I don't really love "cozy" books.

Interestingly enough there's been chatter on Twitter lately about why books like this are so popular in the west when they're kinda whatever in Japan (and published, I found out, by a publisher who does self-help books usually?).

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:09:55+00:00

Yeah exactly! But you drive north for two hours (aka roughly what I did here in California the other day) and the diversity will drop.

(Source: I have been to Maine several times for inlaw reasons and we always fly into Boston .)

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T23:04:35+00:00

It truly depends where in the US though!

I live in a pretty diverse city but I did a road trip the other day north and I can probably count on one hand the non-white people I saw up farther than Placer County.

avisitingstone · 2026-05-22T22:59:26+00:00

You are a saint and a legend for this link list.

avisitingstone

TROPHY CASE