Everybody plays each other. That's all anybody ever does. We play parts.

Saffron ,'Our Mrs. Reynolds'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Kate P. - Aug 12, 2021 4:24:46 pm PDT #26922 of 28078
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

I don't rate most books except ones I really love, which get five stars. For a while I was rating the four-star ones, but stopped for no particular reason. I do use Goodreads quite a lot to log my reading, with a lot of useful-to-me tags that I sometimes use for recommending or purchasing books for my library, as well as my extensive TBR list.


-t - Aug 12, 2021 5:20:17 pm PDT #26923 of 28078
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

My TBR list is just sample chapters I’ve downloaded to my reader with no notes or anything so I spend a fair amount of time wondering why I snagged that one and if I really meant to (and generally yes, I did, but it was a couple of years ago after a random conversation or reading an intriguing review in a magazine)

And it’s the week that Ellery Queen and Asimov’s both come out so I will probably add some more to puzzle future me


-t - Aug 12, 2021 5:21:55 pm PDT #26924 of 28078
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I mean, I know it’s proverbially wrong but I do actually do a lot of judging whether or not I want to read a given book right now by it’s cover.


meara - Aug 12, 2021 9:36:43 pm PDT #26925 of 28078

It annoys me when anything less than 5/5 is awful. Like, I really want a 3 to be “it was fine” (not just in rating books but anything—like if you do a survey after talking to a customer service rep and if you don’t give five stars there must be something wrong and they’ll get dinged. But then there’s no real way to be like “this person was amazing” vs “they were fine and that’s all I usually need or expect from calling to ask what their mailing address is” or whatever.

(/damn kids off my lawn)


-t - Aug 13, 2021 8:43:00 am PDT #26926 of 28078
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Yeah, that has been an unwelcome development that is probably warping a lot more than is obvious


Toddson - Aug 13, 2021 12:10:23 pm PDT #26927 of 28078
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

Turns out someone's been plagiarizing their erotica from Supernatural fanfic. oy


amyparker - Aug 13, 2021 12:43:37 pm PDT #26928 of 28078
You've got friends to have good times with. When you need to share the trauma of a badly-written book with someone, that's when you go to family.

She's ripping off Dira Sudis?!?


-t - Aug 13, 2021 12:55:27 pm PDT #26929 of 28078
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Well, I'm glad someone figured it out! What a mess.


aurelia - Aug 13, 2021 2:24:20 pm PDT #26930 of 28078
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story. Tell me a story.

I like the half stars on Library Thing. I love being able to give 3.5 or 4.5 stars. It would be interesting to compare my ratings across the two platforms.


megan walker - Aug 13, 2021 5:35:10 pm PDT #26931 of 28078
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

I like the half stars on Library Thing. I love being able to give 3.5 or 4.5 stars.

I would love half stars on Goodreads. I'm constantly noting them in my reviews. The times I've been at Goodreads headquarters, half stars was always top of the list in terms of requests from almost everyone. I can't remember what their rationale was for not having them.