@diazona@techhub.social avatar

diazona

@[email protected]

Software engineer, former particle physicist, occasional blogger. I support the principle of cake.

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bibliolater, to bookstodon
@bibliolater@qoto.org avatar

How do you feel when you approach the end of a that you have enjoyed ?

I am nearing the end of a seven hundred and forty seven page . Just forty five pages to go. I am experiencing mixed emotions as I have enjoyed the work, it increased my knowledge and widened my intellectual horizon; however, I will be glad when the book is finished.

@bookstodon

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@bibliolater @bookstodon If I enjoyed reading the book I generally find myself hoping there's a sequel

jason_w_karpf, to bookstodon
@jason_w_karpf@mastodonbooks.net avatar

New Study Achieves Breakthrough in Warp Drive Design - Press Release

A warp drive concept that works within known physics. At last!

@bookstodon @religion https://apple.news/AZ2WX4m78Qnq0LETaaeToJg

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@jason_w_karpf @bookstodon @religion Huh, well it'll be interesting to see what additional research happens along these lines. It sounds interesting but the press release sounds very promotional, so I'm reserving judgment.

(I wonder what the religion group's interest in this is? 🤷)

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

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@negative12dollarbill @dickrubin716 @bookstodon Interesting, I kind of had the opposite guesses: the title makes me think of self-help, but the image suggests something else (possibly YA)

CultureDesk, to bookstodon
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

AI-generated books on Amazon now have the potential to kill people, as they've moved into the realm of mushroom foraging. Guides have popped up like, well, mushrooms, packed with information that makes no sense and could easily be dangerous, illustrated with structures that are "the mycological equivalent of a picture of a hot blond with six fingers and too many teeth," writes Vox's Constance Grady. Here's more.

https://flip.it/ekbDMe

@bookstodon

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@doc @CultureDesk @bookstodon Depends on jurisdiction of course, but in the US, probably not. Or, I mean, you can sue anyone for anything, but you're not going to win if the only allegation you make is that they published something that was wrong.

Maybe a good lawyer could find some way to frame it as negligence 🤷

ChrisMayLA6, to bookstodon

While its good to see that books still hold their own (in revenue generating terms) with films & music (they outperform both), the big news is that video games generated more revenue globally than books & music combined.

As someone who has never played a video game, but reads a lot of books, I'm not sure how I feel about this... but it tells us something about where the globe's creative & receptive energies seem to be spent.


@bookstodon

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon Video games have much more revenue potential than any of the others, though - people can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a single game by buying in-game content. If this graph includes all that revenue, then I bet it's not giving an accurate impression of how many people play video games compared to reading books, and shouldn't be taken as a representation of how people's "creative & receptive energies" are spent.

Private
diazona,
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@OwenTyme @bookstodon I haven't heard a lot, but what I have heard has been good.

I haven't gotten the chance to use them myself since I so rarely buy physical books these days and the few times I did I couldn't find what I was looking for on bookshop.org, but I always check.

kmherkes, to bookstodon
@kmherkes@wandering.shop avatar

My humble offering to anyone seeking a weekend read:

Weaving In The Ends, a novella duology that starts w/a summer fling & ends w/a Winter Solstice brawl.

It's the closest I have to a feel-good story, it's a cozyish quick read that can be read as a standalone, or as an easy springboard into the world of 2 connected novels.

Available in print & ebook now, audio coming soon!

https://books2read.com/WeavingInTheEnds

@bookstodon

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@kmherkes @bookstodon Sounds like this might scratch an itch I've been having lately 😀 I'm putting it on my list

Private
diazona,
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@booktweeting @bookstodon Sounds interesting!

Private
diazona,
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@robbiedavis @pivic @bookstodon @hardcover Cool, I'll have to check that out!

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diazona,
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@hexbatch @OhOkKay @kenthompson @bookstodon @pluralistic I definitely agree that that is a good practice, either that or some other way of preserving drafts, notes, or evidence of incremental progress. (There isn't really anything special about Git in that regard; a commit history can easily be faked.)

But I also think it's not reasonable to expect, in general, that writers must have done this. There are, and (probably) always will be, many cases where an author doesn't have records of their incremental progress, and that can't mean they have no defense against an accusation of AI-powered plagiarism.

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@hexbatch @OhOkKay @kenthompson @bookstodon @pluralistic Pretty much, yeah, as long as the email server operator is trustworthy. But even then, there's no particular need for Git; you can just email yourself a draft. (Unless you want to keep the contents of the draft private even from the email server operator)

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@OhOkKay @hexbatch @kenthompson @bookstodon @pluralistic There is nothing in this scenario we're discussing that would give AI tools the opportunity to scrape your drafts. (Unless you choose to use a website that uses all content they receive to train AI models.)

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diazona,
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@ferngirl @bookstodon Currently finishing up "The King's Seal" (https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/1315c50a-e30d-4cb7-8b2d-86c309e1cb4a), which is the end of a series... which I actually don't think is all that great - it's fine, but not a standout - though I suppose the fact that I did stick with it through a 3-book series has to count for something 🤷

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diazona,
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@skaeth @bluGill @bookstodon Ooh that's an interesting take. A bit surprising to me, actually. My understanding of DNF has always been to stop reading with no intention of ever coming back to it.

There have been many times I stopped reading a book temporarily because it's not what I was in the mood for at that moment or because I got too busy with other things in my life or so on - sometimes even because the book is good enough that I want to save it for a time when I can properly appreciate it - but I planned to come back and finish (or reread it from the beginning) later. It just doesn't feel right to tag those books with the stigma of a DNF label.

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@skaeth @bluGill @bookstodon Ah I see. I dunno, I just feel like there's a huge difference between DNF and DNF-for-now in terms of what it says about the book.

FWIW I've never been one of those people who had any trouble setting aside a book temporarily. Reading a book cover-to-cover all in one sitting is just not done, in my world. (Unless it's a super-short book I guess.) At a minimum I have to stop at some point to, like, get food or something. And I can't bring myself to find much of a meaning in the distinction between taking a half-hour break to eat, or taking a 10-hour break to go to work, or taking a 3-week break because of various other things I have going on in my life, or so on.

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@skaeth @simon @bookstodon Other people's opinions are extremely overrated 😛

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@skaeth @bluGill @bookstodon Usually only one at a time for me, although sometimes I'll have two going at once if they're different genres. At least, only one (maybe two) at a time actively. It does happen that I'll put aside a book temporarily and read another book in the interim, especially if the one I put aside is one I expect to be really good and the other one I pick up is less good.

BTW this is a very interesting discussion, thanks for starting it 🙂

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@skaeth @bluGill @bookstodon Good question - yes, I usually do follow through with finishing books later. I'll typically get far enough into the book before putting it down that I'm invested in finding out how the story concludes. But I don't necessarily know, at the time of putting the book down, when I'm going to come back to it. (in rare cases it takes years)

I'd say I use a mix of borrowing and buying to get my books, although a lot of them I actually get as free ebooks from promotions by Barnes and Noble, so I don't know if that really counts as either! What I can say is it's quite rare I'll spend money to buy a book unless I know I really like it, or I have a very strong expectation of liking it based on other work by the same author in the same genre.

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diazona,
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@ametonym @bookstodon I think I don't agree with that. I mean, sure there were a few typos that should have been fixed by better copy editing, and the story was certainly more complex than it needed to be in a few places, but neither of those detracted very much from my experience.

Or, I guess I should say, I don't think more aggressive editing would have made the books substantially better for me. I'd believe it could have done so for many other readers.

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diazona,
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@CindySue @bookstodon nice! Having the option of that outlet to disconnect from work is pretty great

Jennifer, to bookstodon
@Jennifer@bookstodon.com avatar

I saw this book at the bookstore last month. The title made me laugh so I had to get it. Started it this week and so far love it. @bookstodon

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@Jennifer @Nonya_Bidniss @bookstodon hahaha nice to see someone at B&N leaning into it. I am intrigued, I'll have to check this out.

Likewise, to bookstodon
@Likewise@beige.party avatar

Cozy mysteries?

I’ve read & enjoyed Still Life by Louise Penny, does that count? I recently found this book, The Thursday Murder Club & it was called a ‘cozy mystery.’ Do you all have any recommendations, do you like this genre or am I’m just 100 years old?
@bookstodon

diazona,
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@MardraS @Likewise @bookstodon Ooh sounds great! I'm adding that to my list.

Private
diazona,
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@DejahEntendu @bookstodon Sounds interesting!

ninsiana0, to bookstodon
@ninsiana0@mastodon.social avatar

What books are you ending your year on?

I'm currently reading NIGHT SIDE OF THE RIVER by Jeanette Winterson.

@bookstodon

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@ninsiana0 @bookstodon For me it's the last book of the Wheel of Time series - I've been working on the series since January and it was my goal all along to get to the end this year

hollie, to bookstodon
@hollie@social.coop avatar

I love when you emphatically express to your family that books are a most welcome gift, and THEY BELIEVE YOU! :)

@bookstodon

The same stack of books but from behind, showing how the Lord of the Rings volume has the edge of the pages in red with Tengwar (Elvish script) in white. Translated it reads, "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them"

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@hollie @bookstodon oooooooo 😍

I mean, I shouldn't complain since I recently got a haul of books myself, but that stack looks beautiful and I definitely have a bit of book envy!

diazona, to bookstodon
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

Very excited to have paper copies of my new favorite books, the Dragon Blood series! It's been a while since I bought any physical books but these were worth it. Even though I already had all the ebooks 😁

https://app.thestorygraph.com/series/126035

@bookstodon

Private
diazona,
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@ninsiana0 @bookstodon Wise words 😀 although I wouldn't discount the satisfaction that comes from achieving a goal over a long term. It's not the biggest deal but it is something.

I actually do have one goal I really care about, which is to finish the series this year... I'm definitely running a little behind on that (only 10.6 books in, out of 14) but it's close enough that I might just make it. 🤞

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@ronsboy67 @ninsiana0 @bookstodon Yeah, but then you have the satisfaction of meeting your goals to keep yourself happy... the rest of us have nothing.

(congrats though 😀)

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@ronsboy67 @ninsiana0 @bookstodon Well... again, way to go on achieving goals, but I gotta admit I don't understand the appeal of that one 🤷

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@ronsboy67 @ninsiana0 @bookstodon That makes sense, but personally I would think the thing to brag about is all the other stuff you got to do in the time you saved, rather than than how much less reading you did. (just my opinion of course)

diazona,
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@hybridhavoc @ninsiana0 @bookstodon 😁 thanks for the encouragement!

Private
diazona,
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@anomnomnomaly @BackFromTheDud @pseudonymsupreme @bookstodon I wonder if Waffle House wait staff get discounted waffles though... I would do a lot for an easy supply of cheap waffles

Private
diazona,
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@SimonRoyHughes @reading @bookstodon none of the above 😛

appassionato, to bookstodon
@appassionato@mastodon.social avatar

Pegasus

Pegasus: How a Spy in Our Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy is the behind-the-scenes story of one of the most sophisticated and invasive surveillance weapons ever created, used by governments around the world.

@bookstodon




diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@appassionato @bookstodon Hmm... I could see this either being a fascinating technical analysis (which I would love) or practically a horror story (which I would hate), depending on how it's presented

markw, to bookstodon
@markw@mstdn.social avatar

awww yiss 😎
@bookstodon

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@markw @bookstodon I really have got to start reading that series

diazona,
@diazona@techhub.social avatar

@markw @bookstodon The only thing holding me back is that I'm currently making a big push to finish and I'm kind of hesitant to be reading multiple sci-fi/fantasy novels at once, it can get confusing

Private
diazona,
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@frankejames @TeresaHeartchild @bookstodon @bookgaga Hmm, well... I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but to me the yellow cover comes off as a bit less trustworthy, like the paper version of an infomercial or whatever it is that gets people into Scientology. I couldn't tell you exactly why that is though... it's not just the yellow color, but something about the combination of various visual elements. I guess it must be reminding me of a book from my past, or something.

Private
diazona,
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@Likewise @bookstodon Both of those seem like overly strong reactions to me.

Personally, I probably wouldn't make much of it because I know that my taste in books doesn't align with a lot of other people's. But I would ask what they liked about it, consider how well their reading preferences align with my own, and probably look it up on , and based on all that info if it sounds interesting I'll add it to my to-read list.

I would never take someone's positive review of a book to mean that it's trash, unless I know that their preferences are diametrically opposed to mine, and in that case it's not too likely I'd be listening to that person in the first place.

Private
diazona,
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@Narayoni @bookstodon attn: Mythbusters

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