Which Book Are You Currently Reading?
- Thread starter Joy
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2018
- Gender
- male
A Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion I read South and West earlier this summer, but hadn't read any of her other books. They had this at my local library, so I picked it up. I'm a little nervous, because I feel like Didion has a very straightforward, no nonsense way of writing and I feel like I'm going to be graded on what I understand while I'm reading
Cfrock
Keep it strong
Just finished Demon Seer by Kurtis Eckstein. I saw this advertised on Reddit and got it on my Kindle since it was free. I want my money back.
It's similar to Twilight in that it's pure wish fulfillment for the author, only instead of being written by a repressed MILF it's written by some nerd with a fetish for horns. Miriam, the female lead, literally exists to love the protagonist, Michael. It's not just her role in the story, it's her background, her sole motivation, the only aspect of her as a character. Michael falls in love with her instantly and the book never gives us a reason for his complete and utter devotion other than she's the most beautiful person he's ever seen, despite the horns, the skeletal wings, the tail, etc. It's all so perfect. The way they interact is ridiculous as well, being almost entirely **** like "You are my everything," and "Without you I am dead". Miriam makes a big deal out of how they can't be together (yawn) and some powerful demon tries to kill Michael because Michael is destined to be the super special demon king for some reason. The book literally ends with the bad guy grabbing Miriam while Michael watches and then... It's over. It ends mid-scene with absolutely no resolution or even climax. Oh, and Michael's sister has powerful psychic abilities for some reason. It's never explained and exists for convenience in a single scene.
Turns out Mr Eckstein, who's only other book is another self-published affair, has this grand narrative he wants to share with the world. Three storylines that intersect across three series of novels. This is one of them and there are more to come (please follow the link to donate to his Patreon). To call this over-ambitious wouldn't suffice. Eckstein has bitten off not only more than he can chew, but more than he can chew of a food his body can't digest. This man cannot write. It's not just the shockingly bad quality of his characters and plot, it's the actual prose itself. For starters, there's an abundance of typos, missing words and straight up using the wrong words. It's clear Eckstein never proof-read this thing before he uploaded it, a sign that he either doesn't care at all about quality, or that he's deluded about his own ability. Aside from errors, it's so flat and poorly structured, with characters' emotions and thoughts just baldly stated. No attempt is made at nuance or subtlety or sub-text. No credit is given to the reader to intuit or interpret or infer, and there's an incessant preoccupation with explaining things "logically". For example, when Michael is himself turning into a demon (no spoiler warnings because don't read this book) it's clunkily explained that his body cannot create mass out of nothing so he has to eat so his body can convert the food matter into his new horns and wings. It's clear that Eckstein is worried readers might say "How does that work?", as though he's trying to pre-empt criticism within the story itself. It reeks of insecurity and a lack of faith in not only his reader but his own writing.
I'll give an example of how bad the prose is in this book. Here's a direct quote:
"He already knew her tear ducts were connected to her emotions in this way. She always cried when she was upset."
This is a rant because I hated this book. It's a perfect demonstration of why self-publishing has such a poor reputation, how delusional some self-published writers can be, and how valuable an editor is to the writing process given that Eckstein doesn't have one and it shows in every single sentence. There's part of me that wants to lay the blame for Eckstein's total lack of storytelling ability at the feet of his self-proclaimed love of anime, but that's an entirely separate rant and my doctor says I should limit myself to one a day.
Anyway, I don't know what I'm going to read next. It'll either be Animal Farm by George Orwell, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, or Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Thank you for your patience while I scream into the void.
It's similar to Twilight in that it's pure wish fulfillment for the author, only instead of being written by a repressed MILF it's written by some nerd with a fetish for horns. Miriam, the female lead, literally exists to love the protagonist, Michael. It's not just her role in the story, it's her background, her sole motivation, the only aspect of her as a character. Michael falls in love with her instantly and the book never gives us a reason for his complete and utter devotion other than she's the most beautiful person he's ever seen, despite the horns, the skeletal wings, the tail, etc. It's all so perfect. The way they interact is ridiculous as well, being almost entirely **** like "You are my everything," and "Without you I am dead". Miriam makes a big deal out of how they can't be together (yawn) and some powerful demon tries to kill Michael because Michael is destined to be the super special demon king for some reason. The book literally ends with the bad guy grabbing Miriam while Michael watches and then... It's over. It ends mid-scene with absolutely no resolution or even climax. Oh, and Michael's sister has powerful psychic abilities for some reason. It's never explained and exists for convenience in a single scene.
Turns out Mr Eckstein, who's only other book is another self-published affair, has this grand narrative he wants to share with the world. Three storylines that intersect across three series of novels. This is one of them and there are more to come (please follow the link to donate to his Patreon). To call this over-ambitious wouldn't suffice. Eckstein has bitten off not only more than he can chew, but more than he can chew of a food his body can't digest. This man cannot write. It's not just the shockingly bad quality of his characters and plot, it's the actual prose itself. For starters, there's an abundance of typos, missing words and straight up using the wrong words. It's clear Eckstein never proof-read this thing before he uploaded it, a sign that he either doesn't care at all about quality, or that he's deluded about his own ability. Aside from errors, it's so flat and poorly structured, with characters' emotions and thoughts just baldly stated. No attempt is made at nuance or subtlety or sub-text. No credit is given to the reader to intuit or interpret or infer, and there's an incessant preoccupation with explaining things "logically". For example, when Michael is himself turning into a demon (no spoiler warnings because don't read this book) it's clunkily explained that his body cannot create mass out of nothing so he has to eat so his body can convert the food matter into his new horns and wings. It's clear that Eckstein is worried readers might say "How does that work?", as though he's trying to pre-empt criticism within the story itself. It reeks of insecurity and a lack of faith in not only his reader but his own writing.
I'll give an example of how bad the prose is in this book. Here's a direct quote:
"He already knew her tear ducts were connected to her emotions in this way. She always cried when she was upset."
This is a rant because I hated this book. It's a perfect demonstration of why self-publishing has such a poor reputation, how delusional some self-published writers can be, and how valuable an editor is to the writing process given that Eckstein doesn't have one and it shows in every single sentence. There's part of me that wants to lay the blame for Eckstein's total lack of storytelling ability at the feet of his self-proclaimed love of anime, but that's an entirely separate rant and my doctor says I should limit myself to one a day.
Anyway, I don't know what I'm going to read next. It'll either be Animal Farm by George Orwell, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, or Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Thank you for your patience while I scream into the void.
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2016
Was there a half naked dude on the front cover?? The bad books love it
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2018
Actual book, I recently started rereading the Two Necromancers/Unconventional Heroes series by L.G. Estrella, hoping to get the last book soonish.
I recommend, in no particular order:
Harry Potter (lol on the obscene off chance that you haven't read it)
The Belgariad series by David Eddings (starts with Pawn of Prophecy, it does follow some potentially obvious tropes but I enjoy it)
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain by Richard Roberts (and sequels, somehow I can't find an official series name, albeit all start with the same first 5 words; basically the daughter of two superheroes manages to accidentally become a supervillain without their knowledge, chaos ensues, I haven't gotten to the last book yet)
Young Wizards by Diane Duane (YA, quasiscientific magic system, be prepared for weird words like Temporospatial Claudication, does hit some dark moments, death, etc, but it's all done very well IMO)
I've also been reading a crapton of fanfiction, such as The Stormreaver by Faykan, wherein Harry Potter winds up taken by demons and raised by Gul'dan, so that even when he winds up back on Earth due to an accident involving a Hearthstone getting zapped by a warlock energy blast he's trained as a warlock and capable of summoning a Voidwalker. Yeah, it gets kinda nuts in some ways, but then again most fanfics do. A couple other (of probably dozens I could suggest) good fics include:
The Arithmancer by White Squirrel (it and its sequel are done, there's an extended epilogue/quasisequel in progress)
Nightmares of Futures Past by Viridian (in progress, author has been having some major medical issues for years, just saw while writing this and alt-tabbing that there's a big improvement in his health so hopefully more chapters will be released soonish)
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (aka HPMOR) by Eliezer Yudkowsky (of Less Wrong) (I wasn't able to finish it the first time because I kinda... freaked out... during a certain, major... event... of spring break and at the time the fic wasn't finished peeking ahead I couldn't see a resolution to said issue I had with it at that time, hoping to go back and reread at some point now that I know that the issue I had with said event was resolved by the end of the fic)
I recommend, in no particular order:
Harry Potter (lol on the obscene off chance that you haven't read it)
The Belgariad series by David Eddings (starts with Pawn of Prophecy, it does follow some potentially obvious tropes but I enjoy it)
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain by Richard Roberts (and sequels, somehow I can't find an official series name, albeit all start with the same first 5 words; basically the daughter of two superheroes manages to accidentally become a supervillain without their knowledge, chaos ensues, I haven't gotten to the last book yet)
Young Wizards by Diane Duane (YA, quasiscientific magic system, be prepared for weird words like Temporospatial Claudication, does hit some dark moments, death, etc, but it's all done very well IMO)
I've also been reading a crapton of fanfiction, such as The Stormreaver by Faykan, wherein Harry Potter winds up taken by demons and raised by Gul'dan, so that even when he winds up back on Earth due to an accident involving a Hearthstone getting zapped by a warlock energy blast he's trained as a warlock and capable of summoning a Voidwalker. Yeah, it gets kinda nuts in some ways, but then again most fanfics do. A couple other (of probably dozens I could suggest) good fics include:
The Arithmancer by White Squirrel (it and its sequel are done, there's an extended epilogue/quasisequel in progress)
Nightmares of Futures Past by Viridian (in progress, author has been having some major medical issues for years, just saw while writing this and alt-tabbing that there's a big improvement in his health so hopefully more chapters will be released soonish)
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (aka HPMOR) by Eliezer Yudkowsky (of Less Wrong) (I wasn't able to finish it the first time because I kinda... freaked out... during a certain, major... event... of spring break and at the time the fic wasn't finished peeking ahead I couldn't see a resolution to said issue I had with it at that time, hoping to go back and reread at some point now that I know that the issue I had with said event was resolved by the end of the fic)
CynicalSquid
Swag Master General
I have been reading the A Series of Unfortunate Events books to try and get back into reading. I just finished The Reptile Room and will probably start The Wide Window later today. They are not bad books, and pretty easy to read. Daniel Handler has a pretty annoying writing style with these books though which gets kind of distracting at times.
I kind of outgrew the books before finishing the entire series so I didn't enjoy the end ones as much. Going back to them I couldn't enjoy reading them anymore. I find the writing style is annoying like you said and particularly for a grown reader with the constant explaining of the meaning of certain words.
However when Patrick Warburton does it in the Netflix series it works a lot better and doesn't come across as annoying at all. I love the TV series so much and find it is even better than the books were and is more suitable for adults.
Personally have just started reading A Game of Thrones. The first book in the series. I am enjoying it so far and like the writing style.