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Where do people go to get actual real book recs that aren't just lists of demographics appearing in the book?

I don't have a library in my area I'm dead serious. I cannot go ask a librarian, there aren't any. None of my friends read what I read either. So I need suggestions. I actually didn't get much of a chance to develop an adult reading palette at all; the last time I read any adult fiction that I liked, it was discworld, in the year before Pterry died I read 25% of the Discworld books, basically just went through and read the ones that I wanted to read and I'm done now (I read all the Moist and Vimes books if that helps, but my favourites are Going Postal and The Truth). Before that it was Gordon R Dickson's The Dragon Knight series, which I have read all of.

I like:

narration that has a sense of humour without the book being a comedy. I really like when the narrator is a character.

when the magic is more artistic or religious than mathy, if there is magic.

mysteries or intrigue, a plot that is more about figuring something out.

world-building, specifically culture-building that includes Arts and Entertainment. Without arts your culture feels flat and unreal to me.

Historical fiction, or historical-esque fantasy. THIS is where I'm a stickler for accuracy but not in terms of wars or such; in terms of technology. I pick at the same things scifi people pick at, but only in fantasy and historical fiction. Yes I'm one of those people that nitpicks costuming in tv shows and movies.

Good solid description of people and places so people aren't just a list of names I'm supposed to memorise and the names are nothing to do with who they are. (Etymology people! Do it!)

Weird stuff that can't happen in reality is going on. This could be monsters or magic or aliens or whatever, but SOMETHING.

Hard No:

rape, especially a woman raping a man.

sexual and/or romantic content.

coming of age stories or stories about teens and 20-year-olds. I didn't like it as a child and I certainly don't like it now.

a focus on awkwardness, embarrassment, or anxiety. I don't care about protagonists that have these and find them annoying, not interesting.

Hard scifi. Feels like homework.

Dry prose. I will not read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Silmarillion for example. He's bad at writing in those works. When I read I primarily want the narration to be good, the narrator is my favourite character.

Tragedies.

A sense that the author is only writing this because they lack the funding to make it a show.

Present tense.

First person.

Social media and smartphones being a huge presence in the story.

Gaming, like video games and such.

My Favourite Books:

Watership Down, Richard Adams

Going Postal, Terry Pratchett

The Truth, Terry Pratchett

The Circle of Magic Quartets, Tamora Pierce

Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout

The Dragon Knight series, Gordon R. Dickson

A Little Princess, Frances Hodgeson Burnett

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

thelawfulchaotic

Librarians do have a secret recommendation website that I found while digging through our library website one time let's see if I can find it

Okay it is NoveList

There are lots of ways to search, but the way I did it was to find a novel I liked and then poke at the tags from there.

fuckyeahchinesefashion

OP: The weather is unbearably hot, but running the AC all the time leaves me weak. Any solutions?

Cnetizens: Get a winter melon, lie on a bamboo mat and cuddle it to sleep.

OP: Here’s my experience from last summer. Temperatures in Shanghai stayed above 35°C through July and August last year. I almost never turn on the air conditioner at night, only run a fan. Waking up soaked from the heat was pretty normal. Then I roll over, and my arms and legs touch something nice and cool. It’s not that sharp shocking cold that makes you shudder just really pleasant. What’s more it holds a steady cool temperature. No matter how long I hug it, it barely warms up. Once my skin moves away from its surface it cools down quickly again. It regulates itself surprisingly well. You don’t need to worry about it turning lukewarm.

Pros Great at keeping a constant cool temperature energy-free totally silent thick rind means it lasts a long time up to three months multi-purpose you can even hold it while doing squats or use it as a barrier so you don’t roll off the bed. Cons You’ll reek of vegetable odour after sleeping all night with it. You can’t eat it afterwards. Don’t get any ideas about turning it into a stuffed winter melon bowl. Don’t ask how I found out. It’s really heavy. Getting it home from the market is tough and throwing it away later is just as much hassle. The inside turns completely mushy watery pulp so you have no choice but to dump it. (cr 星辰大海随风去)

AC and electric fans can be found in nearly every household across China, yet not everyone likes keeping the AC running nonstop. Some people with extremely weak constitutions cannot stand air conditioning at all, nor can they bear constant airflow. That’s why people have come up with all sorts of ways to beat the heat.

Winter melons are 96% water. Their surface stays several degrees cooler than the surrounding air, so sleeping with one in your arms is basically hugging a natural cold water pack. As long as the rind stays intact, you can use it all summer. Just watch out for ruptures — if it splits open, all the liquid inside leaks out. Using winter melons to beat the heat has been a folk custom in China since ancient times.

There’s also the zhufuren竹夫人(literally bamboo lady, aka bamboo wife), a similar popular cooling tool. It’s a hollow cylindrical cage woven from thin bamboo strips. Air flows freely through its gaps, carrying heat away nonstop.

Chinese people had plenty of other clever ways to stay cool. In 1978, the bronze jian fou was unearthed from the Marquis Yi of Zeng’s tomb in Suizhou, Hubei. Dating back over 2,400 years, it’s China’s ancient version of a refrigerator. Ice went in the outer vessel, and wine was stored inside the inner container.

The Tang Dynasty had cool pavilions built next to water. Waterwheels channeled cool air indoors. Some even pumped water up to the rooftops to create artificial water curtains. The cooling trick relied on waterwheels spinning fans paired with flowing water.

By the Tang Dynasty, plenty of icy treats already existed. The most famous one was su shan酥山, an icy dairy confection. Modern researchers have worked out its general recipe. First, heat dairy cream until it nearly melts and turns soft. Drip it onto a plate to shape it like rolling mountains, then store it in an ice cellar to freeze solid.

Song Dynasty people enjoyed frozen drinks too. Records of the Eastern Capital’s Dreams documents summer treats sold in Bianjing, the Northern Song capital.

Cold treats grew far more diverse in the Song Dynasty. Historical records show that as early as 962, the third year of the Jianlong reign—the exact timeframe featured in Where Winds Meet—the imperial court set up the Bingjingwu冰井务(Ice Well Service), an official department dedicated to making cold food for summer relief. Every summer the government handed out these icy delicacies to officials to help them beat the heat. Booming Song Dynasty commerce gradually made cold drinks accessible to ordinary people, and the variety of icy treats available to civilians expanded greatly. Documents note three major cold drink shops operating in Kaifeng, capital of the Northern Song, selling a huge range of refreshments including bingxue(icy snow), cold congee soup, licorice decoction, preserved papaya, fresh papaya, chilled lychee paste, golden tangerine balls, snow foam spleen-soothing drink, elsholtzia beverage, perilla drink, cold rice wine drink, soapberry syrup, sweet soybean candy, mung bean water, brined plum drink, jiangcha tea, Wuling San herbal mix, Dashun San herbal mix, lychee cream and snow foam plum wine. The most common cold drink back then was bingxue冰雪❄️, comparable to modern ice pops. In winter Song people filled bronze basins with water mixed with sugar, sometimes fruit juice and plant gel, and left them outdoors to freeze solid. These blocks were then stored in ice cellars. The following summer they would cut the frozen slabs into chunks or carve them into animal shapes such as dogs and foxes to sell at cold drink shops.

Street vendors also sold frothy soybean drink, pear juice, plum syrup, ginger honey water and papaya nectar. The menu rivals today’s trendy bubble tea shops. Vendors set up stalls everywhere — at street corners, alley entrances and bridge crossings.

queer-as-city-folk

nobody ever mentions this but Soviet jazz is really good

greg-jar-mp3

No clue what I would look up but Ill try and find some

queer-as-city-folk

fuzzyblizzardkitty

> oh it cant be THAT good

> what in the everloving mother of god

princesszeldazbyebye-deactivate

this is the funniest thing I’ve seen in any review ever

princesszeldazbyebye-deactivate

pidgefudge

hawk-feathers

This little bug has thoroughly stolen my heart.

might-be-a-potato

i-fuck-audis

@dove-does-stuff i think yuou would like this

plaguedocboi

So every year, my aquarium does a captive lobster hatchery project (hence all the loblings). The reason we’re doing it is because in the wild, loblings only have a 1 in 25,000 chance of surviving their larval phase. They’re plankton as babies and everything eats them. Additionally, as the Gulf of Maine warms, they are having even lower survival rates because the blooms of copepods they feed on as babies are happening earlier in the year, and they’re missing it.

Obviously, the goal of this experiment is to grow the lobsters until they’re big enough to settle to the seabed and then release them, because they have a much higher likelihood of surviving to adulthood when they’re able to hide. Ideally, captive lobster hatcheries can boost the wild population and keep things stable, so we don’t have a major crash in a decade or two.

The first year we tried this was pretty bad. We had a lot of eggs, but very few babies. It turned out that the CO2 levels in the building spiked as more guests visited throughout the summer, and that settled into the water and threw off the pH and caused a chemical reaction that prevented a lot of the eggs from hatching. I think we ended up releasing three baby lobsters (which is still better than their wild survival rate but not great).

The second year was a little better. We added a de-gasser to the aquarium and got a ton of larval lobsters, but right as they were settling to the bottom we had a disease outbreak that killed most of them. We ended up releasing four babies at the end of the season.

But this year? Oh boy. We have so many lobsters that we had to release the first round early (usually we wait till September or October so guests can see them). We just released a total of FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE baby lobsters, and we still have over a hundred who haven’t settled to the bottom yet. I genuinely don’t even have words to explain how cool this is. OVER FIVE HUNDRED. We just added hundreds of lobsters to the wild population that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

Conservation is so fucken sick

monamoni

coffeepeople

One time a friend told me that if she wanted to have a chill night she would come to me and ask for tea and a book to read. I didn’t like tea at the time, but I always made sure my cupboards had them in case she needed a quiet night. One time I told my boss that I loved oranges, but couldn’t peel them because of my nails. For a year he made sure to peel me one at least once a week. Once my friends gave me a made up superlative of “most likely to have a pen they could borrow” and ever since I’ve made sure I always carry a pen with me. A long time ago, my high school librarian told me that no one would care what my grade in my sophomore chemistry class was if I’m bringing them doughnuts and asking them about their day.

coffeepeople

Sometimes friendship is about carrying pens and peeling oranges. But the point is, surrounding yourself with people who you want to do the little things for. The point of it all is bringing in the doughnuts because you’ve found the people who deserve the doughnuts.

big-smiling-monkey

How sweet it is to be with people you enjoy taking care of

elisecairo

katherynefromphilly

As someone who was alive when Bob Ross (and William Alexander before him — that’s where the approach is from) was on PBS, I can 100% testify that you can paint along with him.

You may need to learn how to set up your paints and such… but this is what people did, live, while the show aired. That’s what the show was for. I had family members create lovely works of art they enjoyed, which I still have on my walls, because William Alexander and Bob Ross both said:

SCREW METICULOUS CLASSICAL ART PRACTICES — JUST GRAB A PALETTE KNIFE AND BIG OLD BRUSH AND PAINT!

They freed a whole generation of people who were taught to paint detail and realism and exact representation of reality — people who largely gave up this kind of thing because it got tedious.

I watched the joy of family members as they rediscovered art as a messy fun spontaneous half hour activity.

Give it a try.

shopcat

look at this wonderful gif of scallops getting scared and scattering like a flock pigeons

elioftheasphodel

whatever. go my scallops

whitachi

last night I had the experience of "referencing a tumblr post that you think is widely known but turns out to not be as widely known as you thought it was" last night and it was this post. whatever. go my scallops

lifeafterpsychiatry

If you're comfortable accusing anyone of faking disability, you're not a real ally to disabled people

teaboot

One time when I was a kid a group of girls and I had to treat another student for hypothermia by ourselves because she had so many invisible health issues that the adults we asked for help didn't believe us. The student in question was actively hallucinating. When I finally ran for help the people I grabbed were slow as shit to respond, casually joking about how "dramatic" the person in question was.

The kid was picked up by an ambulance 30 minutes later.

Now as an adult working in security I get SO MANY folks- upper-middle aged mostly- coming to me to 'rat out' people they think are faking it.

I was once sent into a bathroom because a client demanded that the "fucker won't get out, so go drag them out"- I was NEVER going to do that, so I did a wellness check instead. You know who it was? A person recently released from the hospital after a car accident. They had a hole in their skull and major hearing loss. They couldn't answer the owner because they couldn't HEAR the owner.

Another time about a homeless man who got around town by kicking the ground from his wheelchair. "You know he doesn't actually need that thing, his legs work fine, it's just for pity points"- Oh, so he's not paralyzed, his wheelchair is performative? Funny story Dale, I actually know that guy, he was backed over by a truck and has chronic pain from his shattered pelvis. But sure, let's make him stand up and walk everywhere so nobody feels too bad for him and tries to help him or something.

"She doesn't need that scooter, I've seen her get out of it."

"Look how fat he is, because he just rides around and refuses to get up."

"She doesn't really need that cane- she comes here without it all the time"

Sincerely, truly, from the bottom of my heart- as someone who isn't physically disabled but hears this shit all the time- fuck off

kuttithevangu

Being a calm, gentle, non-reactive person is really hard work, which is probably why many people are none of these things. Personally I think it’s worth it but sometimes one does want to just roll around on the floor wailing at the top of one’s lungs

starlightxraven

Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry.

appalachian-werewolf

"Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry."

It fucking better.

mrsjdavis

Like to charge, reblog to cast?

sandersstudies

I think a great way to improve communication with kids (and adults) is to make every yes or no question a this or that question.

I started doing it when after brain surgery my husband had trouble forming responses to questions for a while, and realized that the habit was helping my students engage more truthfully with me.

Some examples:

Yes/No: “Did you clean up your room like I told you?”

This/That: “Did you clean up already, or do you still need to do that?”

Yes/No: “Are you going to sit quietly?”

This/That: “Are you ready to sit and do our quiet activity, or do you need some time by yourself first?”

Yes/No: “Are you doing anything fun for your birthday?”

This/That: “Are you having a party on your birthday, or are you going to relax?”

I think many children (and adults!) are averse to telling adults “No,” especially when a command is implied. (“Did you clean your room?” “Are you going to sit quietly?” Hmmm if I say ‘no’ I will be in trouble with the adult.) So they are actually pretty likely to just lie and say what they think you want to hear.

Presenting a this or that question provides an alternative to lying, a ‘no, but’ scenario where they are presented with the reasonable consequences of a No (“if you’re not ready to sit quietly, you cannot do our quiet activity with us yet.”)

unfavorableinstigation

I find it useful professionally with adults too - "Did you have a chance to finish that project, or is it more of a next-week item?" When done sincerely (rather than passive-aggressively), it gets over rough ground lightly: it gives the other person a solution you clearly already find acceptable, so they don't have to flail around trying to defend/excuse themselves, they can just take the solution and everyone can move on.

intosnarkness

Why is it revolutionary to know a person?

Someone I have worked with for a decade is retiring. He and I have been close- we’ve traveled together, shared meals, talked about our families and our hobbies, spent time. We text. We talk. We’ve know each other for ten years.

I went looking for a gift for his retirement, and found a watch that relates to the specific kind of car that he works on as a hobby. I bought it, and then invited people to chip in if they wanted.

My coworkers are acting like this is miraculous?

“How did you think of that?” I knew he had a hobby and I googled it?

“How did you know he works on those?” I listen to people when they talk.

“How do you always buy such good gifts?” I listen when people talk to me. Most people are dying to talk about their interests. You just have to give them an in. If your memory sucks, start a note in your phone and write down what people express interest in. Look at it every so often before you hang out to refresh your memory.

“I never would have thought of that.” I didn’t, really. I just spent 20 minutes looking at eBay and Etsy and a few subreddits. It’s easy if you try.

Honestly, if you want to make connections with people, express interest in their passions. It’s easy if you practice it.

i-survived-that

ID: A youtube comment with 11 likes by Niceone, it says "I've lived 46 years without knowing this. How nice of life to save some of the best bites for later." End ID.

Normally, people tend to get frustrated, even jokingly, if they miss out on something. This comment was on a song from 1974 and it made me smile quite much. Simply appreciative. Like a dessert after dinner.

phinarei

It is genuinely mind blowing to me just how many Tumblr posts have changed my life for the better and taught me to be happier. Not all of the thoughts originate on Tumblr, but the way people collect and frame them has literally changed my brain chemistry.

wutheringheightsfilm

every day it just concerns me how little compassion people have. no compassion for those living in the global south. no compassion for immigrants. no compassion for disabled ppl. no compassion for addicts. no compassion for prisoners. no compassion for children. like holy shit ...

wutheringheightsfilm

i made a separate post about this but actually there are plenty of people cough white people who care about animals more than they ever do human people . not what i'm talking about make your own post

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