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in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

Podcast interviews with authors. Sometimes citations in YouTube explainers or public debates.
in reply to Wugmeister

in reply to some_guy

I remember song exploder! I listened to it a lot when I was a kid. I'd love to listen to a podcast like that, but with authors talking about their books and explaining why they made the decisions they made
in reply to Wugmeister

Damn, has that show been around that long? How long ago were you a kid?
in reply to some_guy

This was about 12 years ago, i think. By "kid" I mean teenager.

I'm just not used to podcasts sticking around for more than four years.

This entry was edited (55 minutes ago)
in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

I used to use reddit, ive seen answers to one of my reddit posts like the same exact list made from the comments from chatgpt when asking for suggestions based off books i like so it might actually be helpful or it mightve pulled directly from my post where I stated my preferences and asked for suggestions. It was weirdly close to the old post.

Ask Lemmy reshared this.

in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

Some years ago I downloaded from the high seas some torrents accounting for more than 34,000 ebooks. I loaded them in Calibre. Now, when I want to read something new, I just mindlessly scroll through the collection with my eyes closed and pick a book at random. So far, I've discovered good titles with this method ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Now, if you're talking about physical books, I tend to just wander around the bookstores or book fairs until I have my bags full and I'm too tired to walk anymore 😅.

This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to bazzett

picking things to read completely at random sounds like a huge waste of time
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to nutsack

Only if you're what I call a "methodic reader", that is, someone who knows exactly what you want to read and don't want to derange from your preferred list of genres, themes and/or authors.

In my case, I like to experiment reading from authors or genres that I don't know, in different languages, many times using only the cover and title as a guide. I've discovered that things like recommendations, book clubs and social networks are not my thing. I apply the same criteria for things like manga, mahwas, webtoons and so on. So far, I can say that I've liked ~80% of what I've read.

in reply to bazzett

there's just a lot of books in the world, and a limited amount of time for you to read them. i like having at least a rough idea of how I'll invest my time
in reply to nutsack

Yes, everyone has different views about that. Personally, it's precisely because we have limited time that I want to experience a variety of things without limiting myself to a subset of all of the literature. Many people like to read, say, mainly Sci-fi and that's good: they know exactly what they like. Me? I tend to get bored of a particular genre or theme pretty easily, and that's why I like to be chaotic. One more thing: I really, really dislike other people or machines telling me what to read, so whenever someone gives me a book recommendation, that book goes to the bottom of my priority list 😅.
in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

The esoteric method of YouTube citations + RL recommendations + Google search "[topic I'm thinking about]+ Reddit"+ source of the anime I've watched. It's fine so far but I've just gotten back into reading so I may still add yet more esoteric methods.
in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

my favorite local bookstore has employee curated picks scattered around with little hand written 1 paragraph reviews on the shelf. going in there is like a reward for finishing the last thing i read. i love independent bookstores

a fun thing that works in just about any bookstore is to go straight to the penguin books section. the standard of quality from them is quite high

This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to nutsack

I basically do the same. The tiny local bookstore I like has a big table in the middle with titles picked by the owner. Something in there will be interesting. I can always just ask the owner if I'm stumped. It's a bit easier because I'm not a single-genre reader, so I'm spoiled for choice.
in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

With difficulty. I consult several guides. Give the highly rated stuff a read.

Reddit printsf is good.

Reddit litrpg

Winners and nominees of awards. Nebula. Bram Stoker...

Goodreads.

Royal road

Scp foundation

Fimfiction

Ultimately, find a good author, read their everything.

This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

When I’m running out of books I start asking anyone interesting that I’m talking to what they are reading. If they are into that book I buy it on the spot, while we’re still talking. Occasionally they are reading something completely shit, but I’ve hit some gems. Then you have something in common with that person which is a bonus.
in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

I'm a big science fiction reader. Mostly I:
* Look up lists of winners and nominees for the big awards (Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C Clarke)
* Read reviews for successive books in a series when I liked the earlier ones
* Find articles on the top SF books of all time or by year, written by respectable sources
* Get recommendations from friends who also read SF
* Occasionally post threads in the SF community here on things I've read and see what comes up in the comments
in reply to AFK BRB Chocolate

I recommend a fantastic niche subreddit r/printSF to you as well. I've found many great books there and enjoy the discussion too. Sorry for reddit but that community isn't nearly as active here, although it definitely has the potential to be since I always see enthusiastic discussion about SF books from Lemmyngs whenever they're brought up.
in reply to murmelade

Thanks, though I'm just not going to give Reddit any more of my clicks. I left there at the first big exiguous and I'm not going back.

There aren't a lot of posts on the SF community here, but when I've posted something interesting it's gotten a lot of activity, so I know there are people reading it. Here's one from the end of the year.

in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

trends, friends and my own ends

old sci-fi is my ends, there's always more than I can ever hope to absorb

in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

If you're looking for wholesome yuri manga specifically I would recommend the facebook group "Wholesome Yuri Manga Panels" if you're on there

It's a public group with 100K members

I hate facebook but family members are on there and that's the only way I have contact with some of them and that facebook group is only on there

I have an entire library of wholesome yuri manga in tachiyomi but it's probably over 100 and I don't have an easy way of sharing the list since tachiyomi doesn't have a way to export categories as a text list

Also there's a guide on my gitlab snippets which is linked in my profile bio on how to find wholesome yuri

This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to x4740N

This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

Looking through hugo/nebula nominations.

friends

i used to use goodreads but since it's owned by Amazon, i don't trust it an switched to thestorygraph.com which has really nice recommendations. of course it recommends based on my usual tastes but often also has some books i would never have checked otherwise, which i quite appreciate.

in reply to Xilabar the Dice Goblin

The New Yorker books podcast and the NY Times books podcast, questionable publications for sure but their arts sections still remain very good, and the Guardian books section. Also the musician and writer John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats always has amazing and unusual recommendations on Gus Bluesky account.

You should read Neko Case's memoir if you want my two cents. It's amazing.

This entry was edited (17 hours ago)