The Planet

Been thinking a lot about reading habits recently. What are your reading habits, and how have they changed?

Joh's been reading every day recently, which is a big change in reading habits for them but has been really good for them.

Meanwhile, I used to read multiple books a day when I was at school but now I tend to go through boom and bust periods where maybe I read 6 books a week and then I don't read again for a few weeks or even longer. I think that was part lifestyle change, part not needing escapism to the same degree, and part just not having access to books in the same way (I can't get to the library easily on my own and even ebooks are expensive).

I've been so envious of Joh reading so much though that I've been reading a *lot* more the last few weeks but I've already hit the point where it's too costly to keep up. I read really quickly, is part of the problem, whereas Joh can spend a few weeks on a book even when reading at top speed and a couple hours a day. I think if i can find a steady supply of books, I'd like to read every day.

I dunno. Just a thing I'm thinking about.

My state library is very good at ebooks, so that's where I get all my books without breaking the bank. I just log in with my library card number. I read a lot of fanfiction and free online stories, though, too.

I've been reading a lot of litrpg stories lately, for escapism.

Wysteria wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 10:35 am

My state library is very good at ebooks, so that's where I get all my books without breaking the bank. I just log in with my library card number. I read a lot of fanfiction and free online stories, though, too.

I've been reading a lot of litrpg stories lately, for escapism.

I think the US must be leaps and bounds ahead of the UK in terms of library ebook services. And I haven't yet really gotten deep into fanfiction at all. :/

Do you have any litrpg recommendations, out of curiosity?

The frustrating thing about LITRPG is that even though I like it a lot, a lot of the ones I like are Problematic and I don't think you'd enjoy them. I like the systems, I don't like the main characters.

I'll think about if there are any that are complete and also lacking in creepy subtext if you think about them too much.

corvabird wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 7:45 am

I've been so envious of Joh reading so much though that I've been reading a *lot* more the last few weeks but I've already hit the point where it's too costly to keep up. I read really quickly, is part of the problem, whereas Joh can spend a few weeks on a book even when reading at top speed and a couple hours a day. I think if i can find a steady supply of books, I'd like to read every day.

I dunno. Just a thing I'm thinking about.

Do they have to be books? If not, there's so much free fiction online! And I'm not just talking about self-pub, some of the best speculative fiction publications are entirely free, like:

• Tor (check out your preferred ebook vendor, they've made some collections available for free in ebook form too)
• Clarkesworld happens to be the main source of Chinese SFF in English but they usually have at least one story in translation per issue
• Can't forget Strange Horizons and its translation-focused sister publication, Samovar
• Uncanny Magazine (remember the Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction issue? There's one for fantasy too!
• On that note, LIGHTSPEED's DestroySF issues are all available for free as well
• Constelación just got its inaugural issue back in January. It's a bilingual (English and Spanish) magazine based in Paraguay

If you prefer to read on an e-reader, you can subscribe to the magazines' feeds on calibre and automatically create an ebook! If yours is a Kobo device, you can save stories to Pocket and access them easily (though without all the functions of the Pocket apps proper).

As for books and novels proper...

If you like YA, Riveted Lit offers several SimonTeen titles every month to read on their website.

You can find deeply discounted ebooks on Early Bird Books. They offer deals every day, but there's usually a very big all-genres (including non-fiction like history or crafts) sale on Fridays. Many titles go on sale at least once a month, there's no need to impulse buy. If anything you want is part of a series, just wait until the bundled series goes on sale, it's way way cheaper. Oh, and if it happens to be a book published by ORM (the publisher that runs the site), you get a link to another free book of theirs! You can also go straight to The Portalist for SFF and horror, but I've noticed many SFF-adjacent titles only show up on EBB for some reason.

I dunno if any of this helps you at all, and, I'm mostly guessing that you primarily read SFF because that's what my friends around here like (and I know about the stories you've published). I love reading classics, for example, so I can get stuff from Project Gutenberg or whatever. There are many literary fiction magazines free to read online, like Granta or Words Without Borders, but I've no idea if you read those?

Wysteria wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 1:20 pm

The frustrating thing about LITRPG is that even though I like it a lot, a lot of the ones I like are Problematic and I don't think you'd enjoy them. I like the systems, I don't like the main characters.

I'll think about if there are any that are complete and also lacking in creepy subtext if you think about them too much.

lmao this is why I'm not linking to the original stories I keep up with on AO3 etc.

Bee wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 1:48 pm

Do they have to be books? If not, there's so much free fiction online! And I'm not just talking about self-pub, some of the best speculative fiction publications are entirely free, like:

• Tor (check out your preferred ebook vendor, they've made some collections available for free in ebook form too)
• Clarkesworld happens to be the main source of Chinese SFF in English but they usually have at least one story in translation per issue
• Can't forget Strange Horizons and its translation-focused sister publication, Samovar
• Uncanny Magazine (remember the Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction issue? There's one for fantasy too!
• On that note, LIGHTSPEED's DestroySF issues are all available for free as well
• Constelación just got its inaugural issue back in January. It's a bilingual (English and Spanish) magazine based in Paraguay

If you prefer to read on an e-reader, you can subscribe to the magazines' feeds on calibre and automatically create an ebook! If yours is a Kobo device, you can save stories to Pocket and access them easily (though without all the functions of the Pocket apps proper).

As for books and novels proper...

If you like YA, Riveted Lit offers several SimonTeen titles every month to read on their website.

You can find deeply discounted ebooks on Early Bird Books. They offer deals every day, but there's usually a very big all-genres (including non-fiction like history or crafts) sale on Fridays. Many titles go on sale at least once a month, there's no need to impulse buy. If anything you want is part of a series, just wait until the bundled series goes on sale, it's way way cheaper. Oh, and if it happens to be a book published by ORM (the publisher that runs the site), you get a link to another free book of theirs! You can also go straight to The Portalist for SFF and horror, but I've noticed many SFF-adjacent titles only show up on EBB for some reason.

I dunno if any of this helps you at all, and, I'm mostly guessing that you primarily read SFF because that's what my friends around here like (and I know about the stories you've published). I love reading classics, for example, so I can get stuff from Project Gutenberg or whatever. There are many literary fiction magazines free to read online, like Granta or Words Without Borders, but I've no idea if you read those?

I do actually read a lot of short fiction! I already read from Strange Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, and Lightspeed actually. And Luna Station Quarterly. And I think I've read some from Tor's site as well. But they don't really fulfill the part of my brain that books fill, and I usually need to be in the right mood. It's like -- I have book mood, short story mood, and other mood (comic mood is a common one), and they don't really fulfill the same niche in my brain. :/ Hard to explain, definitely a me thing.

I'm kind of glad of the reminder of it all of these though! I don't regularly check and mostly go along when I see a title I like the sound of on twitter or something. I wonder if I should work them into my routine a bit just so I have short fiction when I want it? Hmm.

I've tried a bit with web fiction (mostly on Wattpad, but sometimes just people's websites when I see it recommended) but haven't found anything in a while that I get on with properly and I don't search very hard because constantly scrolling through fics, trying, and discarding them is an anxiety thing for me.

Thank you for all the links to discounts and things! And yeah, I usually do read SFF. It's not all I read, but it's my favourite and I'm not big on classic literature or modern literary fiction.

corvabird wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 1:59 pm

I wonder if I should work them into my routine a bit just so I have short fiction when I want it? Hmm.

This is why I suggested using calibre! You wouldn’t have to go looking for stories, they’d just be automatically packaged into an ebook for your convenience! Not much different from picking up a collection or anthology, really.

Wysteria wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 1:20 pm

The frustrating thing about LITRPG is that even though I like it a lot, a lot of the ones I like are Problematic and I don't think you'd enjoy them. I like the systems, I don't like the main characters.

I'll think about if there are any that are complete and also lacking in creepy subtext if you think about them too much.

On that note, I'm a literal year behind on it but I was really enjoying Delve. Nothing problematic so far as I can remember, although the violence could get a little* graphic. Not in the gratuitous '80s action movie kinda way, more in a not-papering-over-the-violence-inherent-to-the-system way.

The MC is an adorable teddy bear of a nerd who hates combat and violence and has an intensely minmaxed support-focused build, which are also points in its favor imo.

* Please note that I have a high tolerance to most types of violence in fiction and scale this to your personal limits accordingly.

InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 3:57 pm

Wysteria wrote: ↑

Fri 16 Apr, 2021, 1:20 pm

The frustrating thing about LITRPG is that even though I like it a lot, a lot of the ones I like are Problematic and I don't think you'd enjoy them. I like the systems, I don't like the main characters.

I'll think about if there are any that are complete and also lacking in creepy subtext if you think about them too much.

On that note, I'm a literal year behind on it but I was really enjoying Delve. Nothing problematic so far as I can remember, although the violence could get a little* graphic. Not in the gratuitous '80s action movie kinda way, more in a not-papering-over-the-violence-inherent-to-the-system way.

The MC is an adorable teddy bear of a nerd who hates combat and violence and has an intensely minmaxed support-focused build, which are also points in its favor imo.

* Please note that I have a high tolerance to most types of violence in fiction and scale this to your personal limits accordingly.

Oh yeah I started reading that and really liked it! I don’t know where I stopped but I never caught up, I should try it again soon

FYI Royal Road is one of the websites supported by FanFicFare so you can download it straight into calibre and keep it up to date!