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beecycling

@[email protected]

Writer, Geordie, crone, Friend of DeSoto, Anarcho-curious

Interests: Writing , Sci-Fi, Stoicism, Atheism, Humanism, Science, Star Trek, Crochet, Anarchism, Red Pandas, Cats, PokemonGo, Fountain Pens, Journaling, Active Travel, Solarpunk, Minimalism, Tea, Revolution

Born at 322ppm

Avatar is a red panda. Header shows hot tea being poured into a cup, as steam rises, with golden light behind it.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

dickrubin716 , to bookstodon
@dickrubin716@bookstodon.com avatar

I would love to get your thoughts and feedback on my from my latest book, The Challenges of Being Me. Do you like it? Does it capture your attention? Without knowing anything about the book, what genre would you say this cover best fits? @bookstodon

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@dickrubin716
It's not really eye-catching. I'd assume it's a memoir, but then there's a disconnect between the woman in the picture and the author name, so that would confuse me on that score.

Have you tried using Canva for making covers? They've got plenty of free pre-made ones, that you can tweak and customise in many ways.
@bookstodon

Jennifer , to bookstodon

I need some new science fiction to read, who has some suggestions? I don't like military sci-fi. For reference, my favorite series is the Expanse, I also enjoyed Scalzi's Collapsing Empire, I love Robert Charles Wilson's books. I mostly enjoy space operas and unique stories about technology, for example I really liked the recent book Mountain in the Sea about AI and intelligent octopus. Suggestions from the awesome Bookstodon community? @bookstodon

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@LordWoolamaloo @Jennifer @bookstodon Seconding that. Adrian Tchaikovsky is amazing - and you won't run out of books very quickly, because darn that man is prolific!

Have you read the Bobiverse series, by Denis E Taylor? Starts with We Are Legion.

And Nathan Lowell's Ishmael Wang books, which is a kind of space competency porn. Nobody can make you glued to small details like Nathan Lowell. Starts with Quarter Share.

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@LordWoolamaloo @Jennifer @bookstodon I've been following the Ishmael Wang books since they were coming out serialised on the Podiobooks website many moons ago, narrated by the author. They're still going. The newest one just came out in audio, though they have a new narrator these days. I get the audiobooks, since that's how I started the series, but they're on ebook and paper too. They tend to come out in trilogies, apart from three more stand alone ones after the first triliogy.

herhandsmyhands , to romancelandia
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club avatar

@romancelandia

I watched series 1 of Vera, and wasn't impressed.

https://herhandsmyhands.wordpress.com/2024/02/26/vera/

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@herhandsmyhands
@romancelandia
I've watched a few episodes, usually when staying at someone else's house. I'm not really into police procedurals, so I'm not that keen. I do like spotting bits of Newcastle and the North East that I know.

kimlockhartga , to bookstodon
@kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar

@bookstodon Do you own any autographed books? If so, did you personally meet the author at a signing?

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon I have five signed Terry Pratchett books, all from in person signings. And a few other more obscure authors. Oh and I recently picked up a second hand book with a signed book plate in it by Aliette de Bodard.

beecycling , to bookstodon
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

I finished R.F. Kuang's Babel yesterday. Bloody great book. I feel like something lighter now, so starting Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.

Oh and the current audiobook I have going is Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. I believe all these books are ones I got tipped off too by Reading Glasses podcast, which seems to be influencing me a lot lately. 📚 @bookstodon

beecycling OP ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@bookstodon Going from Dark Academia to Cozy Academia. I'll get whiplash. 😁

courts , to bookstodon
@courts@infosec.exchange avatar

Ok, so this is really annoying. My copy of Anne Leckie's Translation State wasn't properly cut, so every couple of pages I need to carefully slice them open...

@bookstodon

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@courts @bookstodon Just a little glimpse of what it must have been like reading in the 19th century.

beecycling , to bookstodon
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

I'm still reading Babel by R.F. Kuang, but found the hardback I had from the library was just too honking big and unwieldy and put me off picking it up, or reading in bed, or taking it out in my bag with me. So I've bought the paperback and dropped the hardback back off at the library for someone with stronger wrists than me. @bookstodon

beecycling OP ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

Also bought today for the TBR pile: Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, The Cloisters by Katy Hays and Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. (Audible for that last one.) A lot of these definitely influenced by the Reading Glasses podcast. :blobcatread: @bookstodon

beecycling , to bookstodon
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

After enjoying R.F. Kuang's Yellowface so much, I'm now reading Babel - which I got from the library. It's a 500+ page honker, and the library copy is a hardback so I can't exactly slip it in my pocket to carry around. It's definitely an at home read. Enjoying it so far. She has a very readable style. @bookstodon

beecycling OP ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@olliethewobbly @bookstodon Yeah, I saw about that. Gross.

beecycling OP ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@Jennifer @olliethewobbly @bookstodon There are times she made me gasp at her audacity. It's a great character piece.

beecycling OP ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@olliethewobbly @Jennifer @bookstodon She's so oblivious, and as self-centred as a black hole. I listened to the audiobook and it works very well as audio.

LincolnRamirez , to bookstodon
@LincolnRamirez@mstdn.social avatar

Setting myself a completely different challenge for this year and onwards. Any recommendations, would be very welcome!

@bookstodon

https://conversationsaboutbooks5.wordpress.com/2024/01/21/mapping-the-world-in-books/

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@LincolnRamirez @bookstodon You could try Elif Shafak. She's Turkish, though lives in the UK now. I've read The Island of Missing Trees, 10 minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, The Bastard of Istanbul and The Architect's Apprentice, and they're all great.

herhandsmyhands , to romancelandia
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club avatar

@romancelandia
Brit friends, help? Would someone from a good family--not aristocracy, but perhaps landed gentry--refer to themselves as "a posh" when talking to someone else. As in, "I may be a posh from (place), but..."

(please share for reach)

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia It wouldn't be standard usage to say "a posh" as the word is primarily used as an adjective. As in "She's really posh", rather than "She's a posh." There is a more informal term "posho", that is a noun, so they could say "I may be a posho..." But beware, that's apparently also a type of food, so could cause confusion if readers try to look it up!

MirrorAyako , to allstartrek
@MirrorAyako@universeodon.com avatar

1/8: Starting at 8PM Eastern, we live toot Star Trek episodes playing on the H&I network, using the hashtag . If you don’t get the H&I station, you can also stream. Join our group @allstartrek for updates!

It’s not the three tenors but a bunch of mourning Klingons.

TOS (8ET): Journey to Babel
TNG (9ET): Heart of Glory
DS9 (10ET): Tribunal
VOY (11ET): Extreme Risk
ENT (midnight): Storm Front, Part 2






beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@sezduck @ColesStreetPothole @MirrorAyako @allstartrek
In addition

  • almost died from a bioweapon disease, with only Julian for company.
pivic , to bookstodon
@pivic@kolektiva.social avatar

‘It’s totally unhinged’: is the book world turning against Goodreads? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/18/goodreads-review-bombing

I hate Goodreads. The site is just a continuation of Amazon as a surveillance capitalist nightmare, one that's never updated. Bugs are rife.

I prefer Bookwyrm and The StoryGraph:

https://bookwyrm.social
https://thestorygraph.com

@bookstodon

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@eddeeMN @pivic @bookstodon That's been how I've used it for ages. I'm not even going to do that next year. Just going to use a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are much more fun than Goodreads.

Really now my only reason to still be a member on there is to make sure the details of my books (that is, the ones wot I wrote) are on there and correct.

sunflower , to bookstodon
@sunflower@plush.city avatar

recommend me a book! i like fantasy, paranormal romance, sci-fi, queer fiction. i need 12 recommendations from other people for a 2024 reading challenge :blobcatblep:

@bookstodon

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@sunflower @bookstodon
Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather - space nuns (some queer) on a living ship. And there's a book 2: Sisters of the Forsaken Stars.

The audiobook is in the Plus catalogue if you're an Audible member.

SusannaShore , to bookstodon
@SusannaShore@wandering.shop avatar

System Collapse by Martha Wells, the latest MurderBot book, is out today and it's great. Read my review: https://susannashore.blogspot.com/2023/11/system-collapse-by-martha-wells-review.html

@bookstodon

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@ianturton @SusannaShore @bookstodon Are you sure? I just got an email from Audible saying it's available now. And it's available on Kindle.

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@Rhube @ianturton @SusannaShore @bookstodon Weird. Must be a mess up somewhere. But is that by Tor, by Amazon, or by the printer maybe, not getting the stock to Amazon in time. Hope your order arrives swiftly from Blackwell's!

herhandsmyhands , (edited ) to romancelandia
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club avatar

As a voracious reader with a very tight budget who doesn't mind trying new authors: I wish to hell that publishers understood that they would get a lot more of my money, now and in the future, if they made first-in-series books accessible.

If you price all books in a series at $13 or more in digital, you are guaranteeing I won't be able to try, unless I remember to ask at the library.

@romancelandia

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia There are some series I'm reading as audio, because the ebooks are way too expensive. At least on Audible it's just one credit.

rabbit_fighter , to bookstodon
@rabbit_fighter@mastodon.world avatar

@bookstodon I'm looking for book recommendations for an 11yo who reads at a much more advanced level. He likes sci-fi. He has read the Hitchhiker's Guide series and loved them. I think he would enjoy some more 'hard' sci-fi as well. He needs something challenging but without subject matter that is too mature. Thanks for any help!

beecycling ,
@beecycling@romancelandia.club avatar

@rabbit_fighter @bookstodon Maybe the Bobiverse books?

https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse

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