The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Ohhhh, yes, I know THAT feeling. (I felt that way about the whole 50SOG thing and also about the dreaded Twifright.) Just as two examples only.

Hitch

Twilight and 50 Shades are worse then very moldy sliced bread.

There's a big difference between books I don't like and books that are awful. Those two are awful.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

when you read a book, find it written poorly/not very good, but then everyone on the Goodreads page is going on about how it's the best thing since sliced bread. Sometimes I wonder if I'm even reading the same book as them.

When you see a listing on Goodreads for a new book and the review section is full of crap. And the star rating is totally bogus.

What Goodreads should be doing is making reviews/ratings not able to be made unless the book is marked as read. That may not stop everyone from marking it as read just to put up a stupid comment and/or give a rating, but it will cut it down a lot.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm generally not interested in good reviews, unless it's from someone I "know". People like books for all sorts of reasons that are irrelevant to me, and why shouldn't they? I focus on the thoughtful two-star reviews, to see if the reasons the reviewer didn't like the book resonate with me. After all, if I'm looking, I'm already interested; negative input is more valuable. I do at least start with two-star reviews, as one-star reviews tend more to the "Awful" line, which doesn't tell me anything.

I do that when I'm looking for something on Amazon to buy. I look at some of the 1-3 star reviews. It's helped me move on and find a different brand to buy when I don't know the brand.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Books are meant to be read. If your book doesn't work well as an audiobook, then don't release an audiobook version. In the case of Jayne/Jane, it sounds like an important aspect of the plot for that particular book, such that the characters can't be renamed without impacting the symbolic significance of the story, in which case the fact that it doesn't work well as an audiobook is just tough. Some artistic choices are only relevant in a particular medium and don't translate well across formats.

But it can work as an audiobook. Have the male characters read by a male and have the female character read by a female and have the narration read by the author.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What Goodreads should be doing is making reviews/ratings not able to be made unless the book is marked as read. That may not stop everyone from marking it as read just to put up a stupid comment and/or give a rating, but it will cut it down a lot.

It is entirely legitimate to leave a negative review for a book you've abandoned and marking it as DNF rather than read is useful and informative.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

It is entirely legitimate to leave a negative review for a book you've abandoned and marking it as DNF rather than read is useful and informative.

Then it could be done were no reviews are allowed to be made until the book has a date finished and ARC is a word in the review if the date finished is before the date published.

This way, the stats won't be as screwed as they would be the way it is.

As for DNF, nothing to be rated/reviewed until at least a week after publish without an end date.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But it can work as an audiobook. Have the male characters read by a male and have the female character read by a female and have the narration read by the author.

Still not good enough in my case. How does having a male (or female) narrator reading dialogue directed TO Ja(y)ne help me know which they are referring to? Especially when both Jayne and Jane are in the scene/conversation? Matching up genders would only help when Ja(y)ne is the one doing the talking.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Still not good enough in my case. How does having a male (or female) narrator reading dialogue directed TO Ja(y)ne help me know which they are referring to? Especially when both Jayne and Jane are in the scene/conversation? Matching up genders would only help when Ja(y)ne is the one doing the talking.

Now I'm just imagining the characters going "Me Jane" and "Me Jayne"

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But it can work as an audiobook. Have the male characters read by a male and have the female character read by a female and have the narration read by the author.

No.
The only solution is a better choice of names that don't sound the same, but are commonly female and male versions of the same name. It's a lazy or thoughtless choice.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

It is entirely legitimate to leave a negative review for a book you've abandoned and marking it as DNF rather than read is useful and informative.

I like the wording The Storygraph uses when you mark a book as DNF. Besides noting how far you got in the book, it offers you the opportunity to give an "explanation" rather than a "review".

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No.
The only solution is a better choice of names that don't sound the same, but are commonly female and male versions of the same name. It's a lazy or thoughtless choice.

I agree with the first part of your statement. But I'm not quite certain why you think the traditional genders of the names have anything to do with the confusion in my scenario. It's completely irrelevant in my mind. Group dialogue would be just as confusing if two male characters (or two female characters) were named Jayne/Jane. I trip over who is being spoken to/about because the names sound identical. Period. Gender doesn't enter into it. The narrator changes their tone enough to easily identify when one of the Ja(y)nes are doing the talking.

It's "Bob looked warily at <name>" that's the problem when spoken. Spoken by anyone.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

But I'm not quite certain why you think the traditional genders of the names have anything to do with the confusion in my scenario. It's completely irrelevant in my mind.

Yes, the gender is irrelevant, except the original story is a father and a daughter named after the father.
It's perfectly possible to have two traditionally male names that are the same on the birth cert but in usage sound different. The Stephan example still works.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Group dialogue would be just as confusing if two male characters (or two female characters) were named Jayne/Jane. I trip over who is being spoken to/about because the names sound identical. Period. Gender doesn't enter into it. The narrator changes their tone enough to easily identify when one of the Ja(y)nes are doing the talking.

It's "Bob looked warily at <name>" that's the problem when spoken. Spoken by anyone.

Agree totally. Also easily avoided. Some authors expend considerable research on names.
Even Bob and Bab with some Irish accents is poor*. Bobby and Bab, or Bob and Babby, or Bob and Roberta, or Robby and Bertie is better.

[* Towel in some parts of Ireland sounds a bit like Tahwl (very short e and long a)]

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Still not good enough in my case. How does having a male (or female) narrator reading dialogue directed TO Ja(y)ne help me know which they are referring to? Especially when both Jayne and Jane are in the scene/conversation? Matching up genders would only help when Ja(y)ne is the one doing the talking.

I can see how that could be a problem. But it depends on if there are any such scenes and if that may be an issue or not.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

On today's episode of 'confusing Goodreads reviews'

Attachment 201619

= Jayne
= Jane

[issybird]

My earworm since this discussion started. Thought I'd share.



You're welcome.