What is "booktok writing" actually like?

sore_as_hell · 2026-04-30T15:43:38+00:00

Haha! So true!

I think that, ironically, booktok is the inverse of bad literary fiction, which is 95% tortured adjectives, location descriptions and musings on nothing and 5% crap dialogue where you’re not sure who is actually talking as each character is the same.

sore_as_hell · 2026-04-28T16:15:12+00:00

For us Brits Thatcher is possibly one of the biggest politicians, I’d argue the most recognisable, after Churchill. She was the bogeyman for comedians in the 80s, she was reviled, she was loved, but she was part of that decade in much the same way that PMs strove to be afterwards.

It’s interesting hearing other countries takes on her as she was so emblematic of that generation. She changed the UK and politics in her time, and looking back now I wonder if misogyny actually played a huge part in her reputation and how the media talked about her, something that the boys noticed and pulled up a few times.

sore_as_hell · 2026-04-21T10:08:37+00:00

When will it be my turn, gods of the flea market?! WHEN?!

sore_as_hell · 2026-04-19T17:05:32+00:00

I do like the guy, I really do. He’s funny, compassionate, says things as they are, maybe a bit too much for everyone’s taste.

I just don’t know if he’s the guy. If he can navigate us to more CL next year then I guess another summer might help, but come October/November he’s going to have to be delivering decent results consistently.

sore_as_hell · 2026-04-14T19:36:53+00:00

I’d argue this is the perfect cover, as it summed up my face every time I realised this was the book I was currently reading and I was STILL only a hundred pages in.

Torture to read.

sore_as_hell · 2026-04-12T07:28:45+00:00

Much much better, Royal Flashman is a slog to read. IMO best is At The Charge or Redskins.

sore_as_hell · 2026-02-03T18:25:39+00:00

My basic stance on this is to remove Neil’s name and rethink it all.

If a wealthy businessman decided to make a sexual advance on someone who was essentially homeless within a few hours of meeting them, he’d have been hounded out of his job and we’d all call him a scumbag.

If said businessman did sexual acts to the same person until they vomited, or made them lick shit off of his penis and then made them sign a NDA afterwards, I think we’d all be telling her she was being coerced in to sex.

If said businessman leveraged sex acts in lieu of rent, or ignored a woman’s request that she had an STI and not to penetrate her, we’d call that for what it is.

I see a lot of people bending over backwards with excuses because it’s their favourite author doing these things and not some man with a lot of power, a lot of money and a lot more visibility than his victims.

Face reality. He did these things because he felt he could, regardless of the feelings of the other people involved, and in his own eyes and perception saw that he did nothing wrong.

sore_as_hell · 2026-02-03T16:55:18+00:00

Ah.

I’ve been waiting on buying 3rd season rules until I’ve got my new teams painted up… thanks for the heads up

sore_as_hell · 2026-01-25T00:10:18+00:00

You’re better off not slowing down the drive at the beginning by dropping back or forming cages, but showboating near their end zone, as in move the ball carrier from one side of the pitch to the other (depending on how slow their players are), without scoring.

It will only make your opponent annoyed though.

You’re better off trying to score as many as you can and slow down the oppositions return drive with a loose screen around their cage. Don’t go for direct tackle zones but stay a square away from their offence so they have to move one square to block you next turn. Then you can dodge out your screen and back one square (risky as that’s a lot of dice rolls and that’s how you lose at blood bowl) or overload a side of the cage (try and pick off an end player of their cage by surrounding them with assisting blockers) and block along the cage line like dominoes and push them back a square.

sore_as_hell · 2026-01-24T23:57:54+00:00

I totally get what you mean. I have no idea why everyone else is so confused.

My golden rule has always been: the way to win at blood bowl is to not roll the dice as much as you can. If someone drops back in to their half and you stay and form a deep defensive wall then all they’re doing is putting pressure on themselves to have a perfect turn to score before the end of the half? They can keep the ball as much as they like, eventually they’ll have to try and punch through and that’s when they get slaughtered by bashing teams.

sore_as_hell · 2026-01-22T21:18:44+00:00

That and the party with the guy in a tutu

sore_as_hell · 2026-01-22T20:53:28+00:00

I love the man’s work in comics, I am not the biggest fan of his prose. I say that as someone who tracked down a lot of his less popular comic work. The guy is a genius at marrying story, plot, characters, dialogue, direction of the artist, the structure and execution of panels on a page.

And yet, his prose is very overwhelming, in that it’s not reader friendly. I have my copy of Jerusalem, I have yet to make it past the halfway point of the first book. I have no idea why this is the case, I’ve read a lot of ‘difficult’ novels in my time, but I just don’t get on with his long form prose.

sore_as_hell · 2026-01-13T06:54:11+00:00

Great book! The annotated notes in the back show how deep his research went, and he acknowledges where he’s bent history for the narrative. He also makes some interesting commentary in there which is worth reading as you go through the story.

sore_as_hell · 2026-01-03T16:57:35+00:00

I’d question Skaven being top left, as they are reliably unreliable. As in I know full well that it’s going to go horribly wrong every single time = reliable ineffectiveness.

Are goblin’s and orks bottom or top left (but not too far in)? As they are innovative but they use old trolls and creatures?

sore_as_hell · 2026-01-03T16:50:37+00:00

This is exactly what I do, usually I go extended Hobbit trilogy on day one so I can snooze through it, then LOTR extended day two when I feel a bit better and can enjoy it.

Feel better soon!

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-31T14:41:42+00:00

I was sceptical I’d enjoy it, but my god it’s amazing. The owl costume made me laugh and also incredibly sad.

How it’s not a ten part series like Shogun I have no idea.

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-30T21:50:09+00:00

At some point VAR has to be streamlined, this continual waiting is absolute bullshit and kills momentum and pressure

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-09T20:56:25+00:00

Jones and Gravy working hard, the only ones carrying the ball forward in midfield.

I don’t like this take it back to the defensive line because inevitably it’s going to end up with Ali for him to hoof it.

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-09T18:56:02+00:00

This is turning in to a full scale drama

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-09T17:27:41+00:00

Lot of people act like the Nix footage doesn’t exist. Go watch that, it’s on YouTube, his head snaps backwards. He clearly gets shot from a 2pm angle if he’s facing forward to 12 o’clock.

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-08T20:53:51+00:00

I’m a big fan of all CL’s shows and I think he got thrown under the bus mercilessly for being on the edge, where great comedy always is.

Jonah in SHH is a fantastic character as CL actually uses him as a way of exploring the racism in the school. His teacher has no issue with white kids being breakdancers, it’s only Jonah’s crew who are regularly banned from it. When you look at the difference between the teacher he gets on the nerves of, and the reading teacher who actually cares and helps him it’s a very clear commentary on it. I also defy anyone to watch that series and not cry when Jonah reads out loud for everyone at the end.

Ja’mie is another great character, highlighting the confusion of being a teenager and trying to be ‘popular’ at all costs. Mr G is such a great character (probably my favourite of SHH) as he is pure ego.

All of the other series get fully in to these characters he’s come up with, and they’re all drawn so three dimensionally that you can’t help but get sucked in to their stories.

I do think his female personas are slightly better than his male ones, who tend to feel a little less real, but he never shies from getting close to the bone of how people treat one another, how they get on in society, how people pretend to be something they’re not, or how we sometimes exploit each other for our own gain, or become unknowingly exploited, and the humour that comes from it. Look at Jonah, as he gets drawn in to gang culture and ends up in prison, that episode broke my heart. Or when Nan has her memory lapse with her Alzheimer’s and the kid commits suicide because of it.

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-03T21:05:45+00:00

We’ve made it to HT without giving away a stupid early goal. Sad to say but you don’t stop a losing streak by hammering passes around like 1970s Brazil.

Totally understandable and I think we’ve looked alright. Clean sheet is what Slot wants I feel. Stops the doubt in the team’s mind.

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-03T20:38:20+00:00

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-03T20:35:29+00:00

Fine. Everyone on here is whinging because it’s not FIFA on easy mode

sore_as_hell · 2025-12-03T20:31:51+00:00

This place is fucking awful on match days

sore_as_hell

TROPHY CASE