The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by theducks

Yup! Why Wings on those fighters? Weapons could be mounted on pylons if they needed to be away from the fuselage.
Banking for turns?
The one that set my teeth on edge was Alien with a space craft with dripping water, chains dangling in a vessel that could go zero gravity in an emergency. (Even a sea going navy has no gear adrift rules)

Hollyweird has so much poor science-practicality that a lot of Authors seem to treat as gospel.
J W Campbell had a rule: If you are going to break known science, the explain why (the known does not apply).

If you believe anything that Hollyweird says, you're damaging your brain. They invariably get almost everything about law enforcement wrong. They get almost everything about weapons, guns, gun laws, carry permits, etc. wrong. They get politics WRONG. They put Sheriffs in cities, answerable to mayors (as if) and the list goes on and on and on. That's just a few things from last night, never mind the usual. (Don't get me started on anything scientific at all--e.g., space flight--because that's just excruciating to watch.)

And then they lecture you, too, which is hilarious. "Hey, here we are, we're experts and genyuses and we're gonna lecture you about Topic A, even though anyone with a room-temperature IQ can easily see that we have NO idea what we're talking about!" (on ANY topic at all; doesn't matter if it's a political hot button, or not, or PC or not PC etc. They are just...scary illiterate.).

Hitch

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I told my late sister that B5 was one of the all-time great TV series, really. I mean, if you think of "firsts," it was one of the first, if not the first, to have a multi-year, planned story arc. (Where 4-5 years down the road, soemthing would occur and you'd say "OMG, so that's what that meant in Season 1!)

The "good guys" didn't all look human and the "bad guys" didn't all look alien--the opposite, oftentimes, in fact.

Thanks for reminding me--I keep meaning to re-watch that. And yes--the "fighters" acted as they ought, in space, rather than acting like F16s.

Hitch

It was just a shame they rushed the penultimate series when they thought they weren't getting renewed. Then they did another final series and had already used the material. I've watched it twice and it's definitely due another viewing.

Andrew

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

It was just a shame they rushed the penultimate series when they thought they weren't getting renewed. Then they did another final series and had already used the material. I've watched it twice and it's definitely due another viewing.

Andrew

Yes, that was unfortunate. But still...miles better than so so many others. :-)

H

[4691mls]

Overdrive Libby app telling me how many people are waiting for a book I'm reading drives me nuts. It's gonna take as long as it takes for me to read a book. I'm not going to drop everything else in my life and speedread just because other people have the book on hold.

When I put a hold on a book I do so assuming that each of the people ahead of me may have the book for up to the maximum 21 days. That's just how it works.

(Before anyone asks - yes, once I finish a book I will return it and not just let it sit until it expires.)

[ownedbycats]

Reading a cozy mystery, and in the first chapter...

The conversation was interrupted when the door to Yeast of Eden opened, the bell chimed,

There was no bell on the door to the bread shop, so I hadn’t noticed them leave.

Before I could reply, the shop’s phone rang. Olaya picked it up with a snappy, “Yeast of Eden!” The bell on the door tinkled and a customer came in as she listened for a moment.

Schrödinger's bell?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Schrödinger's bell?

The author seems to suffer from serious memory issues.

[ownedbycats]

A few chapters later, the protagonist mentions the bell is broken.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

A few chapters later, the protagonist mentions the bell is broken.

Perhaps the book should have been titled, "The Mystery of the Phantom Bell" or "The Haunted Bell" or something like that.

[issybird]

So many self-published books suffer from this, things even a minimally attentive proofreader would catch. And if the author doesn’t care, I don’t see why I should. I’m finishing up a book from KU which irritated on the level of “it’s” for “its”, from an author who claims to teach English and have a doctorate (so much for American education), when I came across a reference to “Shirly McClain”. I’ll finish the book as I’m so close to the end, but I grudge each additional page as I know it’s lining the author’s undeserving pockets.

[ownedbycats]

The book was published by Kensington. Other books by the same publisher I've noticed several times the editing is a bit sloppy.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

The book was published by Kensington. Other books by the same publisher I've noticed several times the editing is a bit sloppy.

Is 'sloppy' a euphemism for not bothering?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by theducks

Is 'sloppy' a euphemism for not bothering?

Probably.

One of my favourite examples comes from this book:

A moment later, a small Belgian puppy came racing into the parlor. Annie scooped him up and hugged her.

[jhowell]

A moment later, a small Belgian puppy came racing into the parlor. Annie scooped him up and hugged her.

Clearly in the course of scooping him up Annie was able to get a better look at the underside of the puppy.

[Multics]

I have to vent. DRM and Calibre and win-7 doesn't mix. I've only been able to download book from baen.com which doesn't use DRM.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Multics

I have to vent. DRM and Calibre and win-7 doesn't mix. I've only been able to download book from baen.com which doesn't use DRM.

Some books on Kobo.com are also DRM-free -- scroll down to 'eBook details' and you'll see under download options. Seems more common with self-published books.