The bookstores around here that I used to know turned into coffee shops where you can read....sadly I hate coffee shops and reading in my own language so I'll stick to English translation of light novels for my reading fix.
Though the idea of grabbing a drink while reading sounds good in theory I'd rather be in the comfort of my own house reading something I picked instead of the weird collection of stuff bookstores sometimes keep.
Doesn't help that it's all pretentious advice books written by ex politicians who want to make it look like they don't deserve to get shot in the head for stealing money.
I just want some fantasy or sci-fi adventure but that was too much to ask from a bookstore the last time I went to one.... admittedly quite some time ago
Doesn't help that it's all pretentious advice books written by ex politicians who want to make it look like they don't deserve to get shot in the head for stealing money.
You mean the ones that are bumped into being best sellers when they're bought as bulk for pulp by the Chinese?
Don't think the Chinese would buy the ones from my country but yes those kinds of books.
Chinese policy in my country is to just outright buy our infrastructure, no need for subtlety around here as our government will sell everything to the Chinese. I wouldn't be surprised if they started outright selling people at some point.
Oh yeah, I'm talking specifically about the royalties-as-bribes schemes, where ghost-written books that have no business being best sellers are bought as pulp.
The Chinese are shady as shit in their business dealings elsewhere, too, but when I think Bookstore, that's the particular scam I think of.
The book quality is the same they just don't have the bribes or awards here which I think makes it even more sad....though on the other hand bribes are barely disguised here, we haven't reached the hiding bribes as buying art stage yet.
We here are openly corrupt because we don't give you a choice of non corrupt politicians. And when the peasants get uppity just send in the scapegoat.
When I was last time it had nothing of interest. A lot of Michele Obama promoting as well as several feminist books and the fantasy / SF section was just mainstream stuff like witcher, game of thrones and stuff like that.
I liked going to bookstore to search for new books but not anymore.
From the best selling author of such hits as "Gap in the wage. Gap in the brain", "How big is big Mike, an autobiography" and "How to put the O in Obama"
I tried reading an English translation of a light novel. I think it was Rising of the Shield Hero. Or something like that. It was hard to read. I think it was a mixture of it being for pre-teens or teenagers and it being translated. Or so I think it’s for teenagers. Some of the stuff is questionable, but it does come from Japan so I can’t complain that much. It’s also a harder read for me because I’m coming from writers like Brandon Sanderson and Frank Herbert.
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky was one of the best things I've read. I put it off for years because it was so long but once I got a quarter way through I didn't want it to ever end.
Notes from the Underground is about 10% of the length of that, the rantings of an insane man basically, far deeper than one would realize at first, as it is the negative antisocial path many of us take at times, especially in a world like this. You begin to both hate and feel sorry for the guy at the same time. Only 5 hours, whereas Karamazov is 39 hours.
Then the Idiot is worth reading after those two, but honestly I'd just read The Brothers Karamazov over and over, what's in there has the ability to save people's souls and change the world, it's why many Russians us to keep it beside their Bible as their philosophy of life basically, the story of a Russian monk and his two brothers, one into lust/sensualism, the other an intellectual materialist, and you see how their lives play out (only Alyosha the Christian monk has a life that has any true goodness, the others fall into absurdity, just as the West has now abandoning Jesus, the LOGOS).
Dostoyevsky was warning of the end result of materialism/naturalism, and also Bolshevism before their massacres started but his message couldn't get out fast enough to stop them.
The Bible is best of all. Reading the gospel of John and Acts realizing it's all actually true is astonishing, it hits you this is what our entire reality is about. The entire time the full truth of our story was sitting on people's dusty bookshelves as Marxists brainwashed them into thinking it was all fairy tales.
In my experience with light novels the translation can vary so drastically between different translators that it can go from ,an absolute joy to read, to unreadable gibberish, even when it's the exact same chapter of a story.
Reading the fan translations of something like Overlord or TBATE was a very pleasant experience. They use simple language with well written description so you can easily picture what is happening in a scene.
On the other hand while reading a comedy Isekai about instant death about midway through the translator changed and it became so bad I can only imagine it's what trying to read with a brain aneurysm feels like.
There is a bookstore in Portland called Powell's. It's got a large selection of very little. There may be 3-4 books on any given subject, but they cover a lot of subjects. It's 5 floors high, and a city block wide. The bottom floor has 2-3 coffee shops, and the rest is books. The prices are way too high, and I have never found a comfortable chair. I think it represents Portland perfectly.
Did I mention the elevator has doors for each floor, so you never know which one will open up?
Gonna have to disagree--I love Powell's! Last time I was there I got an out of print Russian cookbook, a handful of oldschool Caldecott and Newberry Award winners from before the 1980s/90s when awards actually meant something (today these awards are basically a participation trophy for being on the progressive stack), and some foreign language books that are very hard to get in the US.
It's a great pace for general searching, but specifics can get annoying. I went looking for videogame history and found 3 books. Car design had a book. The comics selection was nice though.
Wim Hof method is helpful, I've been doing it daily a few years.
The Chinese medicine herb = Magnolia Extract: half tsp to target GABA, nasty taste so get pills if you can’t stand a strong bitter taste, good for panic attacks, feels like a small amount of xanax. I limit to 2x a week as backup for worst attacks to avoid tolerance. No on needs benzos but pharma is evil.
I work in a independent book store. We only stay afloat by selling napkins, candles, greeting cards and knitting supplies. People do still buy books though, and the Norwegian publishers churn a lot less bloat.
Not pictured in Anon's pic, the eleventy thousand James Patterson books or the new, flavor of the month author writing a techno thriller about (popular topic) in (popular city).
Not even just books. TV shows, movies, cashiers at Walmart. Everything is a historical first that's so important and so necessary and is just what society needed". It's become a shibboleth that means "this is establishment propaganda".
The bookstores around here that I used to know turned into coffee shops where you can read....sadly I hate coffee shops and reading in my own language so I'll stick to English translation of light novels for my reading fix.
Though the idea of grabbing a drink while reading sounds good in theory I'd rather be in the comfort of my own house reading something I picked instead of the weird collection of stuff bookstores sometimes keep.
Doesn't help that it's all pretentious advice books written by ex politicians who want to make it look like they don't deserve to get shot in the head for stealing money.
I just want some fantasy or sci-fi adventure but that was too much to ask from a bookstore the last time I went to one.... admittedly quite some time ago
You mean the ones that are bumped into being best sellers when they're bought as bulk for pulp by the Chinese?
Don't think the Chinese would buy the ones from my country but yes those kinds of books.
Chinese policy in my country is to just outright buy our infrastructure, no need for subtlety around here as our government will sell everything to the Chinese. I wouldn't be surprised if they started outright selling people at some point.
Omg how did you know!!!!
I must quickly hide lest they find me.
Oh yeah, I'm talking specifically about the royalties-as-bribes schemes, where ghost-written books that have no business being best sellers are bought as pulp.
The Chinese are shady as shit in their business dealings elsewhere, too, but when I think Bookstore, that's the particular scam I think of.
The book quality is the same they just don't have the bribes or awards here which I think makes it even more sad....though on the other hand bribes are barely disguised here, we haven't reached the hiding bribes as buying art stage yet.
We here are openly corrupt because we don't give you a choice of non corrupt politicians. And when the peasants get uppity just send in the scapegoat.
When I was last time it had nothing of interest. A lot of Michele Obama promoting as well as several feminist books and the fantasy / SF section was just mainstream stuff like witcher, game of thrones and stuff like that. I liked going to bookstore to search for new books but not anymore.
Is Michael finally revealing how he picks out outfits that hide his package?
"Hide your junk in your trunk" by Big Mike O.
Now in every store near you.
From the best selling author of such hits as "Gap in the wage. Gap in the brain", "How big is big Mike, an autobiography" and "How to put the O in Obama"
THe idea that people that read books would want to read her books is how you know those publication numbers are made up.
I tried reading an English translation of a light novel. I think it was Rising of the Shield Hero. Or something like that. It was hard to read. I think it was a mixture of it being for pre-teens or teenagers and it being translated. Or so I think it’s for teenagers. Some of the stuff is questionable, but it does come from Japan so I can’t complain that much. It’s also a harder read for me because I’m coming from writers like Brandon Sanderson and Frank Herbert.
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky was one of the best things I've read. I put it off for years because it was so long but once I got a quarter way through I didn't want it to ever end.
Notes from the Underground is about 10% of the length of that, the rantings of an insane man basically, far deeper than one would realize at first, as it is the negative antisocial path many of us take at times, especially in a world like this. You begin to both hate and feel sorry for the guy at the same time. Only 5 hours, whereas Karamazov is 39 hours.
Then the Idiot is worth reading after those two, but honestly I'd just read The Brothers Karamazov over and over, what's in there has the ability to save people's souls and change the world, it's why many Russians us to keep it beside their Bible as their philosophy of life basically, the story of a Russian monk and his two brothers, one into lust/sensualism, the other an intellectual materialist, and you see how their lives play out (only Alyosha the Christian monk has a life that has any true goodness, the others fall into absurdity, just as the West has now abandoning Jesus, the LOGOS).
Dostoyevsky was warning of the end result of materialism/naturalism, and also Bolshevism before their massacres started but his message couldn't get out fast enough to stop them.
Augustine's Confessions I listened to last week.
The Bible is best of all. Reading the gospel of John and Acts realizing it's all actually true is astonishing, it hits you this is what our entire reality is about. The entire time the full truth of our story was sitting on people's dusty bookshelves as Marxists brainwashed them into thinking it was all fairy tales.
In my experience with light novels the translation can vary so drastically between different translators that it can go from ,an absolute joy to read, to unreadable gibberish, even when it's the exact same chapter of a story.
Reading the fan translations of something like Overlord or TBATE was a very pleasant experience. They use simple language with well written description so you can easily picture what is happening in a scene.
On the other hand while reading a comedy Isekai about instant death about midway through the translator changed and it became so bad I can only imagine it's what trying to read with a brain aneurysm feels like.
There is a bookstore in Portland called Powell's. It's got a large selection of very little. There may be 3-4 books on any given subject, but they cover a lot of subjects. It's 5 floors high, and a city block wide. The bottom floor has 2-3 coffee shops, and the rest is books. The prices are way too high, and I have never found a comfortable chair. I think it represents Portland perfectly.
Did I mention the elevator has doors for each floor, so you never know which one will open up?
Gonna have to disagree--I love Powell's! Last time I was there I got an out of print Russian cookbook, a handful of oldschool Caldecott and Newberry Award winners from before the 1980s/90s when awards actually meant something (today these awards are basically a participation trophy for being on the progressive stack), and some foreign language books that are very hard to get in the US.
This was probably 7-8 years ago.
It's a great pace for general searching, but specifics can get annoying. I went looking for videogame history and found 3 books. Car design had a book. The comics selection was nice though.
Used bookstores near me have healthy inventory of scifi and fantasy but the new bookstores are insulting.
“All The Fire That We Hold Tomorrow”
Fucking hilarious, and so true. Actually, the rest of it is all true too, but that’s the best one.
Sounds like a real book lmao
HINT: Bookshops are immune to looters because ferals can't read.
To be fair keto can beat anxiety.
Wim Hof method is helpful, I've been doing it daily a few years.
The Chinese medicine herb = Magnolia Extract: half tsp to target GABA, nasty taste so get pills if you can’t stand a strong bitter taste, good for panic attacks, feels like a small amount of xanax. I limit to 2x a week as backup for worst attacks to avoid tolerance. No on needs benzos but pharma is evil.
Also honey/lavender Yogi tea
and Tadin Seven blossoms tea (a bit cheaper for the lemon balm, passion flower, tc..)
Fasting is great, about to do a 7 day water fast.
I work in a independent book store. We only stay afloat by selling napkins, candles, greeting cards and knitting supplies. People do still buy books though, and the Norwegian publishers churn a lot less bloat.
Not pictured in Anon's pic, the eleventy thousand James Patterson books or the new, flavor of the month author writing a techno thriller about (popular topic) in (popular city).
Let me guess...Uncle Hugos
Don't forget the tons and tons of copies of Spare, probably got a couple spare ones laying about last I was in a bookstore.
I can relate to every new book being brave or timely
Not even just books. TV shows, movies, cashiers at Walmart. Everything is a historical first that's so important and so necessary and is just what society needed". It's become a shibboleth that means "this is establishment propaganda".
If you stick to actual literature, which is already years if not decades old, you don't even have to venture into a book store.
Also, this is because more women than men read, which is why they are tailoring their stores to them.
accurate
They have had kind of a resurgence. Amazon killed bookstores but then Amazon killed Amazon books so... bookstores survived.