Books

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/35593507

This post has been written with the intention of starting a conversation surrounding the discourse about dark romance, because I am tired of seeing opinions that are pure black and white from both sides. Feel free to disagree or agree with this post, I am only here to share my personal opinion.

What is Dark romance? I think that at this point most of us know what it is --a piece of fiction that is created from writing and/or drawing with the intention of exploring darker and more taboo fantasies. This can range from anything mild like bondage to something more extreme like sexual assault.

First I would like to say this: Our fantasies do not always align with our desires. You may fantasize about having someone put a loaded gun to your head because for some reason it entices you, but that does not mean that you wish it would happen in real life.

“But why would somebody fantasize about being assaulted?” Some might ask. I find the answer to be not 100% clear. For instance, somebody who has been assaulted before, at any point in their life, might find comfort in such media for the reason that at any point they could put a stop to it (I.e. closing the book and not engaging with it anymore). But what about those who haven’t been assaulted? The brain is complicated and we can not always understand why we like or dislike certain things, and that includes the media we engage with. So, while for somebody who has gone through such an experience we could see why they may gravitate towards that type of content, in the former case it is harder to explain where it could possible come from. But I might have an idea as to why people who have never been in that situation might still gravitate to these types of books. It might just be the idea of danger that you could be in but not actually being in it that makes you chase such media. It is for the same reason that some people have the horror genre as their favorite when it comes to movies. It is about false danger that you could remove yourself from at any moment if it is too much to handle.

Are there lines in Dark romance that just should not be crossed? I believe so, and the perfect example is what happened to author Tori Woods who wrote a book about a man who had been attracted and fantasized about the female main character since she was 3 years old, waiting for said main character to turn 18 so he could inflict said fantasies onto her when the dude had constantly been around her since she was a child. That, along with what she said at the dedication page, has led to her arrest in Australia.

In other words: The line that shouldn’t be crossed is children.

What I would personally like to see more from the Dark romance authors:

My biggest gripe with dark romance is the fact that female main characters tend to be barely legal, or that some start as almost being legal (like 17) and once they become 18 it is okay to do whatever the male character has fantasized about doing to them (I’m looking at you Penelope Douglas). While “Haunting Adeline” by H.D. Cartlon is not that great in my opinion, one of the things that I had liked about it was that both characters were over the age of 25.

Now, most Dark romance authors provide trigger warnings, but there are instances where there are some that are either missing, being misused or not having any trigger warnings at all (which is the worst one). I would like for these authors to have sensitivity readers and to research so they could provide the proper trigger warnings that the readers need before engaging with their book. I have to used H.D.Cartlon once again because it is the first one that comes to mind. In “Where’s Molly?” one of the trigger warnings was that there is blood play and though I thought that I could handle it, when I got to the first scene I couldn’t stomach it and closed the book. The author had warned me about this and I could have chosen not to engage with it. I did engage, did not like the scene and simply separated myself from the book.

THAT is the point of a trigger warning. To give you the option of engaging or not engaging with the content the producer provides. And say that you didn’t know if you could handle it, the content warning had been provided beforehand so you wouldn’t be too put off by it.

Should people shame the genre? Whenever I think about the discussions surrounding dark romance I tend to wonder what people who practice bdsm, especially on the more extreme side, think about it. For the point that I would like to bring I would genuinely like to hear the opinion of somebody who is in the bdsm community because I feel like their point of view would add more to the discussion. (So if you are there, please do say if you think I’m wrong. As I said, the point of the post is to spark a discussion)

The reason as to why I am bringing up bdsm is for the reason that the community also has extreme sides. Some people practice rape play. Should we say then that by acting out a scenario of assault they are romanticizing and normalizing it? The people who are partaking in the act are real and why would you want to play out something that millions have suffered because of such an experience? In the case of bdsm, there is consent, it was talked about before-hand with a safe word for the two or more people taking part in the play to use and there likely had been constant check ins to be sure that everyone is alright. But, it’s also enacting a fantasy. And dark romance can also provide this but in another way. Both environments provide a safe way to explore said fantasy with the option to disengage at any point, for bdsm by using the safe word and for dark romance by simply stopping to read.

Is there a problem with the consumption of dark romance? Unfortunately, this is where this post might be seen as being shameful. My take on this is that, it is not the authors themselves that are producing this type of content that are the problem (except with the instance in which they seem to be romanticizing grooming and pedophilia), but rather the way in which said content is being consumed.

There is nothing wrong in engaging with sexual content. Like with all things, even if it is badly made there can be fun in it. But arriving at the point of refusing to read something if it doesn’t have smut, no matter how little, the point is that there needs to be smut in it, sounds concerning.

And unfortunately I do think that a double standard is taking place in this community.

Say that you had recommended a video game to man, a game with a story so powerful and heartwarming that it moved you to tears, with artwork so amazing it pulled you and locked you into the world that the dev(s) promised you in the game description. Now, say that said man hits you with “Is there a sex scene in it? I won’t play if there isn’t any.” You’d think that man has a problem.

So, if that man has a problem for not playing a game if it doesn’t provide sexual content, why do readers who also only consume content alike think there is nothing wrong with it? Is it because it is fiction? Video games are also fiction. Is it because books aren’t hurting any real people because said people do not exist? Video games also have people that do not exist so they also technically aren’t hurting anybody.

The thing with sexual content is that it provides dopamine and while I can definitely see that it would be easier to develop an addiction by playing or watching because they require passive actions, why do we think that written smut, while possibly harder to develop an addiction to, could not have the same effect? We know that exposure to sexual content can have damaging effects on the consumer as well and that is especially the case when it is the only thing that somebody partakes in. But why is this not also applied to books? Sexual content is the only thing that some are asking for, to a point of refusing to read anything that doesn’t have any “spice”.

But what do you think? Is it really that black and white or is there nuance when it comes to Dark romance?

TLDR: Dark romance is a gray discussion about morality and fantasies that has a right to exist without being shamed but also to be criticized where it is needed, and while the consumption of it is not a problem, the over consumption might be.

What are the best books and book series originally released in languages other than English (but which have an English translation) in the genre of high Fantasy?

I make EPUBs and have decided that I'd like to open up a form for requests for EPUBs of communists (defined so broadly it encompasses authors I or someone else would not call communist, whether anarchist or Marxist, Stalinist or Bordigist, and so on). If you have a book or pamphlet that you think would be easier to read or access if it were a snazzy epub, please let me know and I'll try my best to put it together.

Bonus points for any other civil war books that don't focus on the actual military activities

I just read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel , and it's living rent free in my brain.

It was such a powerful book in so many ways. I loved the way the different storylines and characters were tied together, some intricately and some just loosely, as well as the multiple perspectives, timelines, and storylines.

I believe it was originally suggested to me as a book similar to the TV show LOST(2004-2010) and it did satisfy that quite well.

Other books that I have read and enjoyed in a similar vein include:

• The Silo trilogy by High Howey ( Wool, Shift, and Dust)
• Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch (Pines, Wayward, and The Last Town)
• Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
• MaddAddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood (Oryx & Crake, the Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam)

Does anyone have any book suggestions for something similar I should look for?

Thanks!

I read and enjoyed Kafka on the Shore years ago (although I could barely tell you what it was about now). After enjoying Kafka I've tried a few times to read some of his other stuff and inevitably end up stalling out. This has happened with IQ84, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and now with Sputnik Sweetheart. It's always during the first chapter that I get bogged down in this miasma of being bored, and the reoccurring theme of one of the characters going on and on about some classical composer and the sublimity of their works (blah blah blah). It starts to grate on me as pretentious, boring and droll. Does anyone else feel this way? I was honestly kind of surprised that he has consistently used this same device in multiple stories I've read, to the point that now it just feels silly that there's always some character right from the get go that is this BIG classical music aficionado. It might seem to be a weird thing to key on, but it just bores me to encounter it over and over, right from the start.

Amazon refurbished Kindle Oasis 10th on sale at woot.com $99 for 8GB $129 for 32GB

I'm working on a dystopian literature class, and I'm looking for one more book to add to the curriculum. The kids are about 13, and somewhat sensitive to more adult topics. That's one of the reasons I've chosen not to assign 1984.

I had thought to assign The Maze Runner, but after reading it, I was underwhelmed, especially as a standalone book.

The other books we're reading are:

The Giver The Hunger Games Lord of the Flies Matched Ender's Game Fahrenheit 451 The Minority Report

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Hi,

My Kindle won't boot anymore and keeps getting stuck in boot screen, so I thought this might be a good time to get away from Amazon, even though that device was great.

So, what non-kindle readers would you recommend?

It should have color and background light and it shouldn't be huge so I can keep it in the back pocket.

And, since I don't have any experience outside the Amazon ecosystem: how is the experience of buying and transferring books to non Kindle readers?

Update: I did research based on your recommendations. Thanks for all the input, that was way more than I expected! I settled for the Kobo Clara Color since it seemed to almost perfectly match my needs and Kobo and the model itself got heavily recommended here and on the web.

tl;dr: I'm about to publish my first urban fantasy book, Hispania Obscura, set in Madrid and the Iberian Peninsula. And I've written a short story set in the same story universe so people can get a taste of the style. It's only in Spanish for now, but I hope some of you can enjoy it still.

Hello everyone.

After much more effort than I thought it would take, but at the same time with much better resulting quality, I have published the first book of an urban fantasy series set in present-day Spain. It's called Hispania Obscura.

Yes, it will be available only in Spanish for now. I didn't want to use any kind of AI or similar tool to translate it because I want my words to remain mine, and still haven't been able to find a good, professional, translator (that I can afford). But if you, or someone you know, can read in Spanish, then hopefully you will find this take on the genre from a hispanic perspective refreshing and interesting. The book follows the style of the Rivers of London and Dresden Files series, but with a definitive cultural twist more akin to Western Europe and, specifically, to the Iberoamerican community.

The people I trusted with the drafts tell me they were pleasantly surprised, that it's a fresh departure from my previous SciFi stories and that they really liked it. (I'm trying to take that as a compliment).

The book will be available on all the usual platforms, both as an ebook and paperback. But in the meantime, I have a short story that can serve as an introduction to the world. It's free to read here:

https://filedn.eu/lbXhsTkoStBSNOSmjyuK4zH/Un%20d%C3%ADa%20cualquiera.pdf

What I would really appreciate you could do, if possible, is the following:

1. ⁠Vote for this post so others can see it.
2. ⁠Help me spread the word with acquaintances or friends you think might like it. This time I have chosen not to use Big Tech socials, so anything that can make it more popular is very helpful.
3. ⁠Read the sort story if possible, and give me your most sincere feedback. Although, like any author, I would love all comments to be positive, I am also eager for improvement suggestions for future installments.

Thank you very much in advance! And I hope it also cheers you up a bit in these days when the news don't really help that much. And I hope I will be back soon with the final product once it clears the final editorial hurdles.

J.R. Cruciani

Please share books that affected your worldview or changed your thoughts.

For me, it’s A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman. I studied business and work in finance, and before reading it, I never questioned the idea that capitalism was just the natural way of things. This book made me realize that capitalism is man made. It had a beginning and it can have an end. Wealth and poverty are not just inevitable, they are created by human decisions. That perspective really shook me.

Do you have a book that had a similar impact on you?

Shroud is a really good piece of hard sci-fi that explores first contact with an alien intelligence. It has creative world building, good characters, and a creative take on alien life.

I want to get into philosophy. Recommend me some basic and understandable books. I'm looking for collection of philosophical essays and articles. But others will do too.

(Read through CloudLibrary)

“Are you happy here?” I said at last.

I felt a little spoiled when I was reading this book, primarily because thrillers are some of my favorite types of books and I have read some that have twists on every page and then here was The Secret History, starting with the death of a main character, telling you who did it and then rewinding the clock and through the whole book showing us why it happened the way it did.

In that context, it seems fairly understandable to think that I should not be comparing this book to the fast and forgotten triumphs of Dan Brown but more meditative, characteristic journey of people who are friends. Normal teenage people just living life really, attending college, falling in love, studying haha

To me that feels like Harry Potter, Tolstoy, it feels like warmth and love. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of tension in this book and the characters are for the most part not likeable because they are rich assholes but compelling because of how truly Donna Tartt embraces her characters and lets them be as they are, she lets them run around in circles doing their own little things and because the writing is so good, you engage with their actions and want to follow them wherever they go.

This is a book built on great pacing and rigid structure, there are only eight chapters and they are really big ones. The shortest is like 19 pages and the big ones are 82. What it allows the book to present to the reader is a story told in stages where each stage is a mood, a haze, a drunken splendor of amazing writing and aesthetics that put shame to anything Instagram can create; each stage being able to stand out distinctly meanwhile living cohesive with the others.

That can sometimes backfire and it does, sometimes you have no idea what happened just twenty pages before, only because most of the text feels like you're in a trance, drunk and moving through the motions of life. That's probably my only complaint about the book aside from Donna Tartt showcasing large sections that read as Islamophobic but not having the gall to use the word Islam instead using the fiction term isram which is just confusing, especially when one of her principle character's whole mythology is built around meeting people that actually existed in real life, like George Orwell!

Overall: I really adored the book, the vibe it brings and just how beautiful the writing is. While I understand it feels like not much happens in the story itself, that does not take away much from the book because it was never going to play that card anyway, from the moment we see Bunny falling down that cliff to it's last sci-fi/afterlife reunion.

Apologies for the ranty nature. I read alot of books sure but my writting is trash

I started reading Sanderson with tress of the emerald sea. It was fantastic and Sandersons style was very catching to me. Recently, I made the decision to read more of his work. Sanderson suggested on his site an order and I started by his suggestion with Mistborn. Absolutely loving it still very catching but, in my opinion, it's much weaker than tress a book he made much later. Just going into the last of the 3 in the apparent first run so I'll be done in about 5 days. Thus, I'm looking for my next few books to read.

My major worry is that it just won't catch with me. If I start a book that's reasonably good but doesn't pull me back in I find myself failing to read it or anything else for quite some time. I essentially took a 6 month reading hiatus when I read Lessons in birdwatching a good, though very flawed, book. I'd do 20-50 pages a month with that book. Before I was reading daily for a few years, and after I've been doing the same, but sometimes I just find a book I won't give up and can't find myself excited to read.

He states that his suggestion to start with mistborn comes from the fact that he finds elantris to be weaker. With this in mind I'd like to know if it'd be worth it to skip the book, read the wiki or some synopsis, and move on to his more recent work. With nearly 600 pages that book would take 3-6 days of reading depending on how well it catches.

Is this sacrilege? Is the writing a serious downgrade for somebody who liked very much liked mistborn though thought it weak at times?

The authors great though. The guys got me planning to read what I asssume is magi-punk from the cover art for mistborn 4 which is not something I'd do normally

"Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" examines the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi bureaucrat instrumental in organizing the Holocaust. Eichmann was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina in 1960 and tried in Jerusalem for crimes against humanity. Hannah Arendt controversially described Eichmann as "terrifyingly normal," emphasizing his thoughtlessness and blind obedience to orders rather than inherent sadism or hatred. He executed his role as a logistical organizer of mass deportations and killings with bureaucratic efficiency, seeing himself as a law-abiding citizen fulfilling his duties.

Arendt coined the term "banality of evil" to highlight how ordinary individuals, through moral disengagement and adherence to authority, can commit horrific acts. She criticized the trial for its theatrical nature and questioned Israel's jurisdiction, arguing it was more about Jewish suffering than Eichmann’s crimes. Her work sparked debates on morality, justice, and the nature of evil, challenging traditional views on Nazi perpetrators.

What are the best public domain books that you've read? My currently downloaded books include "The Time Machine", "Pride and Prejudice", "Frankenstein", "War and Peace", "On Liberty", "Metamorphosis" (all from Librivox), etc. I especially like "Crime and Punishment" and "Brothers Karamazov" and others by Dostoevsky since they delve deeper into human psychology, values, and morality. Also to add, Librivox is so fucking cool and now I have something to listen to on my daily bus/car rides.