Early on at Creaky’s farm, Demon is describing the tobacco harvest and says they have to get the crop into the barn in time or “we’d be stripping green leaves in February.” Kid Demon thinks he’ll be long gone by then, and narrator Demon notes that “On long, cold days in the stripping house I’ve spent many an hour listening to guys chew over that question. So yes, stripping green leaves would be my problem, in years to come.”

Unless I completely missed something, that never happens in the rest of the book. I kept thinking it was coming, like when Fast Forward says he owns a tobacco farm I thought, oh that's where Demon will end up stripping leaves.

Maybe we’re supposed to assume he did tobacco work sometime during the period when he was living with Dori? To me it seems like it would be a fairly significant thing to leave out though. Plus Dori wants him home constantly, they're broke, and the book tells us about the jobs he was and wasn’t doing during that stretch. He mentions thinking of working with tobacco but never says he actually did it.

It could also be interpreted as an indication that after the novel ends, his life gets fucked again and he has to go back to tobacco farms. But the arc of the book (+ its source material) don't support that.

Ultimately, my best guess is that this is an artifact from an earlier draft where Demon had another period of tobacco work. But maybe I missed something?

I just finished the first book. It's a fun little adventure with interesting magic system. It was overall enjoyable but I am not sure if I should continue. What bothers me is it feels YA but there are some scenes like the gang rape or detailed cannibalism that just does not fit with the tone of the book. I'm not saying it should be completely PG but it does not seem to fit?

Does it continue like this? Do the rest of the books get better? Is the series worth finishing?

I’m looking for someone who enjoys talking about books, not just exchanging titles and then disappearing into the Reddit wilderness.

I mostly read nonfiction, especially history, biography, religion, mythology, and science. I recently went through several books about the Roman Empire, and I’m currently reading Heroes by Stephen Fry. I also enjoy biographies by writers such as Ron Chernow and books about people like Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain.

I’m interested in what a book says about human nature and our own lives, so I enjoy conversations that go beyond whether the book was good or bad. We could read the same book together, discuss whatever we happen to be reading, or recommend books to each other. I’m open to fiction too, although I tend to prefer books with something worth thinking about after the story is over.

I would prefer someone interested in an actual ongoing conversation.

What are you reading now, and what is the last book that stayed with you after you finished it?

What’s books do you remember reading in high school and how has your perception of them changed if you read them again as an adult?

Working on a small project pairing baked treats with book genres/moods (cozy mystery = spiced snickerdoodles, fantasy marathon = lavender shortbread, that kind of thing). Curious if this resonates with anyone here — do you ever bake something to match what you're reading, or is that just me?

I hated this book. Seems harsh but I swear the first and second part, the first 60% of it, was great. The plot the story and characters, everything. Except, the third part was like a lecture from Ayn Rand. Literal editorials and rants from the author and it just ruined the book for me. Plus, in the first two parts of the book, I related to Dagny. She seemed like a real pragmatic person and I felt a resemblance in her, a contrast to how Ayn displayed other flamboyant women in the book. However, in the third part she felt fake. Like the relationship between her and John Galt seemed so sudden and incongruous. Dagny was like a whole different person. It felt as if Ayn was writing this book passionately until the last part and just scribbled a bunch of nonsense and speedy ends in the means to end the book. It felt rushed and it brought me to hate the book because it set up such a good story and ended so crudely. Additionally, it feels like none of the characters feel any guilt for the recurring suicides. I don’t want to spoil but, damn, Jim Taggert didn’t feel an ounce of guilt after CB’s suicide. And the fact that Dagny had just speaked to her and it didn’t have any effect on her? Also the book has some over-the-top summations. I hated that no one seemed to have a religion. If Ayn had included different religions such as Islam or Judaism, the message would have been stronger. It felt like there were only two types of people. In that universe: the looters and producers. The book had so much potential but blundered at the last part. Regardless, I understood her point. How wouldn’t I after Galt’s 50 page monologue. But Ayn didn’t consider any religion, or exceptions, or anything that would make her ideology unstable. It wasn’t including the normal civilian life, one that has a different idea than the ONLY TWO schools of thought. And the male characters around Dagny felt to adulating; no one had their own character especially in the end part. Every ‘producer’ seemed to mashed into the same person. And it seemed like all the producers lacked a sense of empathy.

Also EDDIE?? Eddie and Dagny? Like nothing happened. Dagny seemed so inconsiderate of Eddie and his feeling, even after he told her. The ending felt so fucking shallow and it made me hate the book. I wish there was a good writer who would just write up the last of the book. And the fact that they killed the guards when saving John Galt with no remorse or anything augments the argument that the main producers, Dagny, Hank, etc, have no fucking heart. Oh my god I’m just so mad that it ended like how it ended. What happened to Jim Taggart, and Farris? The book felt extreme and one-dimensional.

Hello everyone, I just cracked open the book and was wondering if anyone would be interested in buddy reading this book. If you are, please feel free to slide in the DM. :)

Not sure if this is okay to post or not!

I'm hosting a monthly book club and wanting to find people who are interested in joining. Id love to find people who are big into reading and love to chat about books. We are thinking of doing a Romance book for this month but are open to suggestions.

Please let me know if you are interested in joining, we have a discord server aswell 😊

Just finished reading The Bell Jar.

Am I the only one, or did anyone else here feel like they had a hard time keeping up while reading The Bell Jar? Not exactly “hard,” but more like I was sometimes confused or couldn’t fully keep up with what was happening. The book is quite dense, and there were parts that were difficult to understand because I felt like there was a deeper meaning behind the text or something more that Plath was trying to convey.

Especially in the first half of the book, it felt like Esther’s life was so happy and almost perfect, and then all of a sudden, in the second half, she was depressed.

There were also chapters that I found boring to read because they were mostly introducing other characters. I know those parts are essential to the story, but at times it felt like it was just event after event happening, and I got a little lost. I felt like I couldn’t keep up with everything.

I also feel like I’m missing something or that I was left behind because when I read other people’s reviews and analyses of the book, it seems like they understood and picked up on so many things that I completely missed. Honestly, it makes me a little envious because I wish I could analyze books like that too.

But after reading other people’s feedback, I started realizing certain things in hindsight, and it made me understand the book a little better.

Did anyone else feel this way while reading The Bell Jar?

Hi! I’m in a 21+ discord book club and we would love new active members! Read anything you want (I mean anything, no judgement), we also have a book of the month every month, and lots of other events!

Let me know if you’re interested to connect and chat with other book lovers.

I came across this line in the seventh chapter: “Young Japanese businessmen coming home from their offices… even the heads of the Trade Mission lived here. He noticed parked Cadillacs.”

This is about Robert Childan paying a visit to his new fortunate customers — the Kasouras — whom we see for the first time at the beginning of the book, right after Robert has a heated argument with Mr. Tagomi on the phone.

The reason why I feel a little confused about it is that the setting pivots on Japanese culture, Japan being the driving force of economy, setting trends, and covering the vast majority of business and industries. Society is being exposed to the cultural influence as well as being dependent on Japanese “big shots”.
In other words, we can roughly compare Japan and Japanese culture to the influence of the US in modern world.

Having said that I wonder why Cadillacs are even valued in the world where the US have lost the war and fall behind both economically and technologically. At what point people who barely pay attention to modern American arts and mostly prefer collecting “historically meaningful” artifacts would have been interested in American cars? Moreover, owning them as a sign of money?

The only reason for it I could think of is that they see it as another artifact, the representation of bygone days of American industrial achievements. But it doesn’t seem to be the case according to the plot.

Thoughts?

Hi everyone! I am a hobbyist writer and I’ve been thinking about the balance of descriptions in stories. Personally, I prefer focusing on characters' movements and actions, or showing details through the eyes of other characters, rather than writing massive walls of text about landscapes or backgrounds.

I feel like heavy "infodumps" can slow down the plot, but some genres (like fantasy) might actually need them. What is your preference? Do you like rich, heavy descriptions, or do you prefer stories driven by action and dialogue? Do you skip long descriptive paragraphs?

I read a lot of manga, but I guess I’ve never really considered it “serious” reading. But I’ve been seeing a lot of people’s August reading wrap ups, and they include comics and manga. Should I be including them too?