Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. Let’s just say the first scene is a very NSFW scene with the MC who’s a 15 year old. Just made me feel real gross inside and yet people love this book.

Hey, I totally understand. Old work is hard to understand because of outdated language. As well, someone might give a long lecture on how they interpret a text. But as long as you back up your interpretation with lines from the book, your interpretation can be very very different. As a writer I sometimes see people go really deep into my work. This honestly makes me so happy to see someone interpret things at such a deep level. But not all details I insert are intentional. Not every flower is a symbol. Consequently some people interpret everything as a deeper symbol and that can be overwhelming and is usually untrue.

Therefore, readers miss key information and symbols authors put in their work but readers interpret symbols the writers did not intentionally put in. This can be fun but becomes a bit too much if the reader interprets every line and every word as something greater.

Hey, at least you learned that as a teenager instead of as an adult. Though as a teenager I adored Fahrenheit 451 and still do. I’ll see people talking about how ‘weird it is for people to walk anywhere’ (maybe because I live in the car-centric dystopia of America) and I think back to that book.

What is that?

Oh wow that’s super cool! I’ve never really been into YA but I have so much respect for those authors. John Green especially.

Hey I understand that. I have a collection of all World of Warcraft books (besides the ones that were entirely retconed from the lore) and I’ve read them all. Not really the most beautiful literature by most people’s standards and I defs hide the cover if I’m reading them on the bus or something but idk, I really love them. In the trash is treasure sometimes.

Yeah, I defs grew out of that whole “reading to look smart” thing back in middle school. I really really don’t want people asking me about what I’m reading because how do I explain to them “yeah I’m reading a book about different fishermans’ stories catching bluefin tuna.” That’s not really very exciting at all.

I’ve always felt the same way as you to be honest. In fact part of why I got into reading was that I started writing short stories outside of the education system. Then, when I read books outside of school, it felt far more freeing.

Brandon Sanderson “The Way of Kings” is probably the best high fantasy book I’ve read and probably the best high fantasy novel that could exist. But it’s like 900 pages, I loved that book to death but I’m not reading it again when I could read 3-4 new books. I’d recommend it though.

Brandon Sanderson “The Way of Kings” is probably the best high fantasy book I’ve read and probably the best high fantasy novel that could exist. But it’s like 900 pages, I loved that book to death but I’m not reading it again when I could read 3-4 new books. I’d recommend it though.

I think reading’s important. There have been a lot of studies done about how most American adults can’t read above an 8th grade level. Here’s one I found: https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy though I will be honest, I haven’t looked in depth into their study methods and I haven’t seen any peer reviewed studies pop up about this.

I think reading’s important. There have been a lot of studies done about how most American adults can’t read above an 8th grade level. Here’s one I found: https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy though I will be honest, I haven’t looked in depth into their study methods and I haven’t seen any peer reviewed studies pop up about this.

Really? I found the opposite thing to be true lol. I remember there was this one kid who would put Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on her desk every day so people could ooh and aah at how smart she was for reading such a big book.

Personally I love it when children’s media, especially pre-teen and teen stuff is written from an adult. As long as they stay true to what they felt back then, I think it creates a lot of fascinating insight. As an adult looking back at the person you were, you can see the puzzle pieces which made you, good and bad and can comment on those.

Personally I love it when children’s media, especially pre-teen and teen stuff is written from an adult. As long as they stay true to what they felt back then, I think it creates a lot of fascinating insight. As an adult looking back at the person you were, you can see the puzzle pieces which made you, good and bad and can comment on those.

Honestly I think forcing people to read gives them resentment. Same with a lot of the subjects forced upon us in school.

It depends. If I’m ever able to publish physical copies I’m definitely sending a few for free to some big libraries if I can. Libraries have given so much to me in my life and I feel like it’s my duty to give back to them. So, while I don’t get more money from the library after the initial purchase of the book, I just care about more eyes on my work and less on the money. I want to inspire artists like they have inspired me.

I hoard usually plant ID books and bird ID books.

Thought about this for like 10 minutes and I’d want to read a great book earlier, like 10-15 years old when I stopped reading. My entire life before that point, I never really read, I thought I just wasn’t smart because I “didn’t like to read.” I did, I just didn’t realize it.

So, my pick would be Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Besides a horribly long conversation near the beginning of the book, it’s basically perfect: half a masterpiece, as I say. I think that book would’ve gotten me into reading fantasy way earlier.

Hey, I’ve literally tried reading that book four times, each time I remember why I quit: there’s 100s of pages of buildup with little payoff. A great book the first 100 pages, gets tedious the rest of them. I want to sink myself into that strange, unsettling world for longer but I can’t take the boredom.