Kaylee: So how many fell madly in love with you and wanted to take you away from all this? Inara: Just the one. I think I'm slipping.

'Serenity'


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."


Dana - Dec 21, 2021 4:29:46 pm PST #27250 of 28067
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."

It can be hard to tell if this is a bad book or if this is maybe a pretty good book that I am just not in the mood for right now.

These are the ones I've had to learn to put down. If I'm not in the mood for it now, move on to something else. If I get back to it, fine. If not, there's always more books (and fic).


-t - Dec 21, 2021 5:00:30 pm PST #27251 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Yes, that’s reasonable. And I can usually do it, but does increase my TBR


Consuela - Dec 21, 2021 11:24:50 pm PST #27252 of 28067
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

I read Zoe Rosenthal is Not Lawful Good the other day and it's entirely charming: a very strait-laced high school senior with an even more strait-laced boyfriend falls into fandom and cosplay, and ... events transpire. It's pretty solidly YA but I would recommend, esp. if you like Rainbow Rowell. It's kind of like that but with lower stakes: it's unlikely to make you cry.


Kalshane - Dec 22, 2021 6:02:05 am PST #27253 of 28067
GS: If you had to choose between kicking evil in the head or the behind, which would you choose, and why? Minsc: I'm not sure I understand the question. I have two feet, do I not? You do not take a small plate when the feast of evil welcomes seconds.

It can be hard to tell if this is a bad book or if this is maybe a pretty good book that I am just not in the mood for right now.

That's a really good point. It's interesting, I pick what shows and movies to watch and what video games to play based on my mood but I don't really consider it with books. I suppose part of it is that books are a larger time investment where my mood can potentially change throughout the reading whereas visual media is generally consumed in smaller bursts.

Zoe Rosenthal is Not Lawful Good

I already love it for the title alone. Also sounds like something I should recommend to my son to read.


-t - Dec 22, 2021 8:13:22 am PST #27254 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Oh, I bought that after reading a review or something and then got distracted (in part by reading the author's autobiographical webcomic which is pretty interesting) and didn't actually read it...thanks for the reminder, Consuela!


meara - Dec 22, 2021 9:15:02 am PST #27255 of 28067

Sounds like my jam, I shall put it on the list! RN I’m mostly looking forward to Yuletide.


askye - Dec 22, 2021 12:53:45 pm PST #27256 of 28067
Thrive to spite them

I like movies that are so bad they are good but not movies that are bad but boring. However with books if I don't enjoy something and can't get into it I'll put it down and not read it.

Which means there are a lot of classics I haven't read because I couldn't get into it and that made it hard to pay attention. I do go back and try some but not books that are just bad.

I thought the second sci fi alien kidnapped book might fall into the so bad it's good territory but no it felt like one of those fanfics where someone will put in the notes or on an AO3 tag that there is no real plot it's just about the smut because the world building and stuff was so thin but the smut was boring. and badly written.


Jessica - Dec 23, 2021 7:25:41 am PST #27257 of 28067
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

I like movies that are so bad they are good but not movies that are bad but boring.

Totally agree - I would much rather watch a movie where the writer/director is trying to do something ambitious and fails spectacularly than a movie where by the end I still don't know why the creators wanted to make it.

I've been unable to finish many objectively good books recently because the part of my brain that knows how to read anything except category romance has been on sabbatical since June 2020. I can still do audiobooks but I'm incredibly picky about narrators so I have an ever-growing stack of will-get-back-to-after-the-pandemic.


Kate P. - Dec 23, 2021 8:48:58 am PST #27258 of 28067
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

Same here, Jess. Queer romances, not-too-dark mysteries, and children's books have been my mainstay during the pandemic. And fanfic (also largely queer romance). Can't focus on anything too taxing or depressing.


aurelia - Dec 27, 2021 7:48:17 pm PST #27259 of 28067
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story. Tell me a story.

I know completionism is a thing for some people.

The Divergent trilogy may have broken me of that.