Weekly "what are you reading" Thread #70

So I decided to my sexual energies by reading erotic novels from both sexes.

For the moids:

For the foids:

Both books are shit, but apocalypse cultivator at least attempts to be not shit by virtue of being longer, to middling success. Ben Matterack, the protagonist, is surprisingly multifaceted (for a smut character written by a moid) While he does want to frick his secretary ( ) and she (eventually) wanta to frick him, their interactions don't immediately start with them panting and pawing each other like animals in heat, infact they actually disliked each other. Kudos to the author for not writing the book entirely one handed .

They do that immersive cuckholding thing that gacha games do where Ben is kinda a blank slate for the reader to imprint on, I don't remember any details about his appearance being written, other than his naruto tattoos and him being buff with a big . I imagine him looking like @KoreanZombieKing. The s*x scenes are more or less what you'd expect from someone writing erotic cultivation novels, however marshmallow isn't any better in that regard, and at least Ben has qualities one would find sexually attractive; In shape, gainfully employed, loving father and husband, big peepee.

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I've made a lot more progress in Huckleberry Finn and it's weird now that I'm older and chuddier. I can understand why a black person wouldn't feel comfortable reading that book because Jim is so absolutely fricking r-slurred, and Huck just keeps saying "well that's a dumb BIPOC for you." I always remembered the more progressive parts of it and everything else Twain did and said, but holy shit and I know it technically equally mocks a lot of white people as stupid, but there are just full chapters of Jim having extended "but I did eat breakfast this morning" arguments with Huck.

I picked up Baptism of Fire back again, after I dropped it about half a year back. I have a soft spot for the world of the Witcher, and I generally like the books, despite them being flawed in many ways, but by far the worst quality of theirs is that Sapkowski doesn't know how to structure a story. None of them feel like they have an over-arching plot.

Most of his novels (up to the point that I've read) just feel like a collection of short stories, that happen sequentially. And I have nothing against short stories collections - I think that the two short story collections (The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny) are much better than any of the subsequent novels - but they work because they're actual collections of disparate stories, that can create a much better feeling of the world and the its characters. These novels don't, because they have all the downsides of short stories, with none of the upsides. The end result is that the novels feel like they're meandering, never getting to the point.

For example: one of the high points of the series is the Grand ball at Aretuza. But it's not placed near the end of a novel like you'd expect of a climax. No, it's instead placed in the middle of the book, and after it the pace of the plot falls of a cliff, and the books spends the second half on neurodivergentally reviewing the geopolitical events of the world* and having Ciri set off on a completely new adventure, that ends with no climax and no conclusion. Which would have been fine, if we had gone from the Coup directly to her story, skipping the Brokilon chapter, because I'd work as a great setup for the next book. Or just close the book with Jaskier's tales, and leave Ciri's fate undetermined. Either one works. The other one should have been removed, and moved to the next book, because together they completely kill the book's pace.

* sidenote: this whole chapter made me understand why Brando Sando said in his lectures that worldbuilding is the least important part of the big three (plot, characters, worldbuilding). You can have entire chapters of nothing but characters interacting, and it's fun to read. You can have a lot of plot with very little character interaction and it's still interesting. But a chapter of nothing but world-building is fricking boring and just makes you wish it would end. See also: the first chapter in LotR.

Helena by Evelyn Waugh is the fiction I'm currently about 100 pages into, should finish it this weekend. I told @JoyceScaryOates I'd get into Scoop this year but I'm once again putting it off because I discovered he wrote a novel about the life of St. Helena and that taps into my harder.

At the moment I am Reading your post and the comments on It.

Finally finished Navola after a month in a half . I really liked it, but it inspired such dread for the protagonist that I found it hard to get through.

glad Paolo Bacigalupi is writing again. The Water Knife and the Windup Girl got me into reading to begin with

I don't read. If I read I would read the bible, the quran, and the torah and bghavad giga and industrial society and its consequences.

I'm reading Capotes Women, about Truman Capote and the swans.

The author isn't really smooth enough to get away with the sly, winking style he's trying to imitate, but it's mostly-interesting trashy reading thinly disguised as something with literary value.

One thing that did piss me off though is that the author writes off Edith Wharton in an aside, categorizing her as an oppressed married lady unaware her options in life were limited and she was a victim of society or whatever. "She was skilled in the decorative arts, the most important work of art being herself. For the most part, she had no idea she was living a hothouse existence, in thrall of the patriarchal society that defined her."

Completely ignoring the fact that, besides being a writer, Wharton was a noted interior designer (her book on the subject is still a classic) with a keen eye for architecture—hardly a do-nothing sitting around painting her face. She wrote frequently about women and their place in society as well, and obviously meditated on it and was far from unaware of the restrictions they grappled with. Weirdly, the author is aware Wharton wrote about women and society like that (ending by on a quote by her about women's emancipation), but still writes her off anyway. Come on, dude. /end rant

I am reading "The Lazarus Heist" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lazarus-Heist-Based-Hit-podcast-ebook/dp/B09QLTPPBW/ which is very enjoyable and also quite educational.

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Modern Villainess: It's Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash

porn s*x

Finished Heck House, first haunted house story I've read. Really enjoyed it, there was some weird sexual stuff, but it was whatever.

About to finish Suffer the Children and have been really liking it, neat concept and I really like most of the characters.

I'm reading The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi.

I've only read the first part, of presumably four, and it was either a lark of youthful hedonism, or a lame example of toxic masculinity. Nothing obscene, but the violent and irrational struggle against perceived injustice arising from psycho-social dynamics is pretty much this cesspit in a nutshell. Reads like it was written by an obsessive vindictive queer.

The only downside is that it reads like a 'young adult' novel written for angry man children in their early thirties who are obsessed with anime.

The beginning of part two reveals a nice literary device I wasn't expecting.

Would strongly recommend.