The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[nana77]

Thought that I'm on the other side (not in the sense of that I'm rich): a shelving is empty, and thought I guess that if I'm gonna borrow so many from the local public library, it wouldn't be that unkind to give it the sole I'd bought (for 4$), which was missing from the serie I'm following.
I mean, if it's a physical book besides many digital others someone's used to, and it can be found used for cheap (which, still, it's not granted as the market is free), having no place can be passed by giving it to the public, local, near library and having it at hand, further (but imho).
I'm even surprised of myself to have thought that lol.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by nana77

Thought that I'm on the other side (not in the sense of that I'm rich): a shelving is empty, and thought I guess that if I'm gonna borrow so many from the local public library, it wouldn't be that unkind to give it the sole I'd bought (for 4$), which was missing from the serie I'm following.
I mean, if it's a physical book besides many digital others someone's used to, and it can be found used for cheap (which, still, it's not granted as the market is free), having no place can be passed by giving it to the public, local, near library and having it at hand, further (but imho).
I'm even surprised of myself to have thought that lol.

Yeah, but that's assuming you want to read paper books at all. Personally I don't buy paper editions if a digital one exists. I prefer reading on my Kobos to reading on paper. I'm not really keen on library borrowing either - don't want to bother with queues, return dates and so on.

YMMV, of course.

[CAFlanny]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, but that's assuming you want to read paper books at all. Personally I don't buy paper editions if a digital one exists. I prefer reading on my Kobos to reading on paper. I'm not really keen on library borrowing either - don't want to bother with queues, return dates and so on.

YMMV, of course.

I'm the same. I'll borrow paper books from the library if I can't get it as an ebook, but my first choice would always be digital.

[DNSB]

For me, while storing paper books was becoming an issue (the basement only had so much floor and wall space), that my aging eyes were not happy reading the font size in most of my books was the real push for me moving to ebooks which were much more comfortable for me to read and carry with me.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For me, while storing paper books was becoming an issue (the basement only had so much floor and wall space), that my aging eyes were not happy reading the font size in most of my books was the real push for me moving to ebooks which were much more comfortable for me to read and carry with me.

Well, I'm extremely nearsighted, so I don't really expect font size ever becoming a major issue for me. I'll likely never be farsighted enough. In fact, I read with a smaller font now (I'm 54) than I did 20 years ago.

Of course, I might develop cataracts at some point, but no one knows if or when they do. My mother was over 80 when she had to have them removed; OTOH I've known 60-year-olds who already had serious vision problems due to cataracts.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I miss the multiuse coupons they also used to have. I got a book for 61 cents from one.

I was trying to be reasonable in my rant. I really don't expect multiuse coupons again, nor 90% off coupons. Good times! But the occasional 50% off coupon seemed just barely within the realm of possibility. And, I have to admit in retrospect, I was backward justifying a purchase. For this particular book, I'd need 50% off to make it work. So, Kobo, don't refrain from sending me that 30% coupon! I'd put it to good use! Just not, quite, on this particular book.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Many of us don't really want to read paper books anymore, used or new.

Originally Posted by CAFlanny

I'm the same. I'll borrow paper books from the library if I can't get it as an ebook, but my first choice would always be digital.

Yep. Occasionally I'll use ILL to get a book that's not reasonably priced in digital, but it's the means of last resort.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by CAFlanny

I'm the same. I'll borrow paper books from the library if I can't get it as an ebook, but my first choice would always be digital.

My problem with that is that my branch is quite small, and mostly geared to recent best-sellers. I could do an interlibrary loan, but that's added faff. No, I only bother with books I can't get any other way and really want to read. My main use for the library is checking out a new author before committing to a purchase (the annoying issue of libraries having some but not all books in a series).

Otherwise, I don't bother - I prefer to buy and read at my leisure.

[JSWolf]

If you rely on Amazon for certain authors who only published eBooks on Amazon and you read on a non-Kindle device or app, you may be out of luck come July 1, 2026.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by issybird

I was trying to be reasonable in my rant. I really don't expect multiuse coupons again, nor 90% off coupons. Good times! But the occasional 50% off coupon seemed just barely within the realm of possibility. And, I have to admit in retrospect, I was backward justifying a purchase. For this particular book, I'd need 50% off to make it work. So, Kobo, don't refrain from sending me that 30% coupon! I'd put it to good use! Just not, quite, on this particular book.

Worse part is eBook is priced the same as paper, but you can't sell it later.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Worse part is eBook is priced the same as paper, but you can't sell it later.

Your rant is your rant and have at it.

For me, the difference between an ebook and a pbook is so pronounced that I tend to think of them having the same text as an accident and therefore irrelevant to issues of pricing, ownership, transference, what have you.

The other aspect that really helps me over the hump when I want a specific book is that I do think books are largely fungible. Not that all books are interchangeable, but that I always have something else good enough to read. Even (bringing this around to my earlier post) when it comes to something I'd really, really like to read like the $32 book that I won't be buying!

[LostHisMarbles]

This will be my little (rant) note stuck inside that tree, like in the Aesop fable; i may have mentioned these here and there, i honestly forget. Oldfart! If i have, my humble apologies!

I am sick and tired of:
- the "advances" relating to publication, aka self publication. Contrary to wishful thinking, socially-induced wishes and 'correct' nu-ways of thinking? Just because you think you have a voice? Does not mean you should use it.
Same way having a right need not necessarily entail your being wise to exercise it.
All you achieve is a personal contribution to drowning what little's worthy inside a sea of crap; the floating variant at that.

- the last 2 generations of "writers", the majority of which learned the world through a monitor, but think they understand/can empathise/have gotten down to it and what do you know, also believe they've something worthy of being shared; or worse yet, worthy of our respect and consideration.

- the last 2 generations of "writers" that never watched the movies they should have (too old, too slow, too boring for them), never read the books they should have (too old, too difficult, no pictures), never 'bothered' with other forms of arts, aka that never took advantage of all's that's gone before them so as to cultivate themselves, just a little bit; not only would they have been wiser, we'd additionally get to /sigh a lot less often.

There; out of my chest

[LostHisMarbles]

Sorry, i have three more!

- i hate GoodReads.
Just yesterday, i saw a 1/5 review, a scathing 1/5 at that, because the "reviewer" hated spiders! How dare the author include mention of spiders in his own novel? Offensive! Her "review" is by now months old, i only just happened to come across it yesterday mind; no one's seen fit to remove it. Am guessing "rights".

- i hate authors that make accounts in GoodReads and post their "reviews". Be a professional?

- i hate authors that make accounts in GoodReads and post "reviews" about their own book; worse yet, some do not shy of not only giving themselves a 5/5, but asking us to go easy on their work because it means so much to them, the poor things.

(don't they have some moderation in there? Or is it a lack of ethics altogether?)

[Sirtel]

If you hate GoodReads, why visit it? Personally I don't much like it either, but I just avoid it most of the time (occasionally I do look up something there, but not often). I don't usually base my book buying decisions on other people's reviews and recommendations (again, there are some exceptions), so it's easy enough for me to not use websites that I find irritating.

[Sirtel]

As to the spider-hating reviewer, I wonder what she would say if she happened to read Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. A spider-like alien species and human explorers' contacts with them is the main subject of the novel. That poor reviewer would probably sue Mr Vinge, if he were still alive.

(Yes, I do know arachnophobia is a real thing, and I feel a bit uncomfortable around spiders myself. But trashing a book because it mentions the object of your phobia? That's a whole new level.)

[Yapyap]

For me, GoodReads doesn’t in any way represent any attempt at “objective” reviews - I see it essentially as a micro-blogging-review site for people to jot down their own personal thoughts about the books they’ve read, and star ratings are completely dependent on people’s very subjective enjoyment or whatever factors bias them towards whatever star rating they give.

I don’t think many people on GR really even write their reviews intending them for others although some obviously do - they’re still largely written for people’s own benefit (for example I’ve occasionally looked at my review of a book I don’t ever remember reading but apparently did 5-6 years earlier, back when I still wrote down my thoughts on what I had read, and see that a) I’d read it, b) what I thought about it).

So a 1* review because a book had spiders in it seems completely fine to me - and also, having the reader note that it had spiders and they hated that, seems actually more useful than just a star rating with no explanation.

I do very occasionally look at other people’s reviews when it’s a book I’m feeling weirdly unsure about, whether before buying it (trying to avoid the reviews with actual spoilers) or after reading it and feeling like there was maybe something I’d missed, so I’m curious what other people got out of it. Most of the time I don’t bother though.

On a rant note, what I do hate is authors (especially self-published ones, it seems) including stuff like “12,000 five star reviews on Amazon/Goodreads!” in their book description/blurb. I mean, good for your self-esteem, I guess, at least if we assume most of those are by actual people and not a bot army, but not particularly informative for me.

And I also very much dislike it when authors throw tantrums on social media about people on GR / Amazon giving their precious book a 3* review - heck, on GoodReads, that means “I liked it”; most of my books are 3* reads! - and whine about the meanness of people. I’ve seen some even suggest that you shouldn’t leave a review or a rating at all unless it’s 5 stars.