Are there any book clubs on Mastodon? The in-person ones around me keep petering out or are hard to get to, and the ones I’ve seen online are toooo big for my tastes. I have a slight preference for fantasy/sci-fi, but any genre is good. I just want to talk about books! #bookstodon #books #reading
books
When is a book finished? When you are done writing. After 50 revisions over 6 editions things feel right here. It is the story I want to tell. https://www.amazon.com/Some-Books-Are-Not-Sale/dp/B0B6XQB9BF #writing #books #florida
Edited 1y ago
Change Calibre's Default Theme to a Light or Dark Mode
Learn how to change Calibre’s default colour palette, theme or mode when the system default theme doesn’t cause it to change automatically.
https://www.adamsdesk.com/posts/calibre-theme-light-dark-mode/
#blog #books #bookstodon #ebook #technology #100DaysToOffload
#AynRand is quoted, misquoted, praised, and vilified — often by people who haven’t read her.
_The Ayn Rand Reader_ offers excerpts from her #fiction and #nonfiction: her ideas, her voice, her terms.
If you’re serious about understanding her — whether to agree or disagree — start here: https://aynrand.org/novels/the-ayn-rand-reader/
#philosophy #books #bookstodon #literature #AynRand #Objectivism
Hey Fediverse, I wrote a little book (#noai).
It's got beavers, snow, surf, games, coding, data entry, literary references, masks, vaccines and a race to the airport!
It's total FREE! And I'll even mail anyone a copy on request (see about).
<18k words.
https://2qx.github.io/monterey-protocols
#vermont #elbowsup #maskup #vaccines #smallpox #nonproliferation #books #publichealth #nurses #healthworkers #opsec #security
Edited 220d ago
"The Gift & The Legacy: African American Philanthropy as Power, Purpose and Promise, Taroue W. Brooks reframes the conversation, reminding us that philanthropy is not confined to financial contributions but encompasses time, talent, ties, testimony, treasure, and trust." By Staff Heart &Soul Magazine 9.16.25
https://www.heartandsoul.com/culture/the-heart-of-philanthropy/
#bookstodon #books #Blackmastodon #BlackFedi
Edited 290d ago
Reading Rainbow is returning after twenty years, with the incomparable Mychal the Librarian leading the way.
This show is exactly what we need right now.
Books are being banned. Education is under attack. The fascists want to control the narrative.
This is an opportunity for kids to learn to love books, literature & libraries while also fostering a sense of compassion, diversity, inclusion and tolerance.
#readingrainbow #books #literature #writing #mychal #tolerance #compassion #libraries
Book number 3 on my #StephenKing re-read journey.
This was a lot of fun to revisit. Another one I read decades ago. This has so many of my favorite short SK stories in it. Many many classics.
This book turned out a remarkable ELEVEN movie + tv adaptations. Absolutely insane. Talk about legendary.
Really hard to pick a favorite but Battleground is so much fun.
Edited 1y ago
They were grown men or at least had lived for several decades, which in some societies is considered the same thing.
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
Edited 290d ago
Monk and Robot: A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers #books #literature #dedication
🚨VOY A CERRAR LA CUENTA DE MASTODON Y VUELVO A TWITTER🚨
Bien, ahora que tengo vuestra atención (😆), os cuento: he reunido varios relatos que he escrito a lo largo de los últimos años en un libro, que he tenido a bien llamar Trece. Y vosotres diréis, «oh, Carlos, ¿por qué has escogido ese título tan curioso?». Me alegra que me hagáis esa pregunta. Pues, además de por las connotaciones que tiene ese número, porque son trece relatos (me he quedado calvo, lo sé). Alguno de ellos es de terror, tanto sobrenatural como psicológico. Otros son sencillamente inquietantes, y otros son apenas microrrelatos que se me ocurrían sobre la marcha. Pero todos llevan un poquito de mí. En el siguiente toot os dejo la portada y la sinopsis para que tengáis más info.
Como siempre, este libro es completamente gratuito, y lo podéis descargar en epub a través del enlace a mi nube de Disroot. Junto a él encontraréis otras historias. Si alguna de ellas os llama la atención, dadle caña sin miedo. O con él.
Y si compartís esta publicación para ayudar a que mi trabajo llegue a más personas me haréis el hombre más feliz del fediverso 😊
https://cloud.disroot.org/s/YdbStYSNMHAjkWd
#booktodon #bookstodon #LibrosGratis #libros #books #literatura #literaverso
My favorite books published in 2025:
Gliff - Ali Smith
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This - Omar El Akkad
Audition - Pip Adam
Dusk - Robbie Arnott
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng - Kylie Lee Baker
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones
Sour Cherry - Natalia Theodoridou
The Hymn to Dionysus - Natasha Pulley
Eternal Summer - Franziska Gansler (tr. Imogen Taylor)
The Silver Book - Olivia Laing
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh - Colwill Brown
Woodworking - Emily St. James
Edited 285d ago
2025 in #books, a thread, inspired by (but not limited to) https://shereads.com/traci-thomas-best-books-of-2025/ :
Two books I loved, part 1:
Gliff - Ali Smith
A fable about survival in a totalitarian surveillance state. A reflection on childhood, siblinghood, and the cost and worth of kindness. A dance with language and memory. I was torn between the impulse to read it all in one sitting and the urge to savor every single sentence.
1/
Lots of new connections. Hence, a re-introduction to a hopeful story, "A New Faith," available to read online or download (EPUB and PDF) for free at: https://tinjar.ghost.io/a-new-faith
#bookstodon #books #book #novel #story #fiction #hopepunk #solarpunk #climatefiction #sciencefiction #speculativefiction #mystery #thriller #detective #women #climate #climatechange #climatecrisis #extinction #survival #adaptation #migration #immigration #indie #indieauthor
Before Book One.
Between Harmony and Fire is now available.
A collection of mythic fragments from the world of Akidir.
https://books2read.com/u/bzlOXZ
#fantasy #books #readers #news #bookstodon #indieauthor
When Alice Gooblar-Perovic, Aahana Gupta, and Lydia Cruce were freshmen at Iowa City West High School, they learned that thousands of books, including "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Nineteen Minutes," were going to be pulled from classrooms across their state. This was in order to comply with Senate File 496, which said books and school materials must be "age appropriate." So they started a Banned Book Club. Two years later, the club is still going and growing, and the law is in trouble — the part of it that affected school libraries was temporarily blocked by a federal judge, while enforcement of book restrictions remains frozen under a second temporary injunction. @npr's Iowa Public Radio spoke with the three girls, who are now juniors, about how their goals have changed, and the community they've built.
#Books @bookstodon #BookBans #Iowa #TheKidsAreAlright #HighSchool #Children
Edited 356d ago
wants to read Graça Infinita
Conversando com amigo sobre este livro e, ao ler a sinopse novamente, se mostra bem atual:
"Os Estados Unidos e o Canadá já não existem: eles foram substituídos pela poderosa Onan, a Organização de Nações Norte-Americanas. Uma enorme porção do continente se tornou um depósito de lixo tóxico. Separatistas quebequenses praticam atos terroristas e a contagem dos anos foi vendida às grandes corporações. Graça infinita foi o último grande romance do século XX e teve um impacto duradouro e ainda difícil de ser aferido. Ora cômico, ora doloroso, ele encapsulou uma geração ligada à ironia e ao entretenimento, mas desconectada da imaginação, da solidariedade e da empatia. No romance, seguimos os passos dos irmãos Incandenza - membros da família mais disfuncional da literatura contemporânea -, conforme tentam dar conta do legado do patriarca James Incandenza, um cientista de óptica que se tornou cineasta e cometeu suicídio depois de produzir um misterioso filme que, pela alta voltagem de entretenimento, levava seus espectadores à morte. Enquanto organizações governamentais e terroristas querem usar o filme como arma de guerra, os Incandenza vão se embrenhar numa cômica e filosófica busca pelo sentido da vida. Graça infinita dobra todas as regras da ficção sem jamais sacrificar seu próprio valor de entretenimento. É uma exuberante e original investigação do que nos torna humanos - e um desses raros livros que renovam a ideia do que um romance pode ser."
---
Há anos, quero ler este, mas é uma obra de fôlego (1.144 páginas) e bem caro. E não sei se é viável na edição em e-book, pois já ouvi reclamações sobre erros nas Notas (existem notas gigantescas e até notas dentro de notas...).
Antes, devo ler um texto indicado aqui no Fediverso e disponível gratuitamente na Revista Piauí (a não ser que tenham metido um paywall), "Pense na Lagosta":
https://piaui.folha.uol.com.br/materia/pense-na-lagosta/
#DavidFosterWallace #InfiniteJest #GracaInfinita #PenseNaLagosta #ConsiderTheLobster #Livros #Books #Ensaios #Essays
a few years ago i mentioned that i wrote a book about the exciting, awkward and embarrassing experiences of growing up with computers and video games in the 80s and 90s.
i wanted to remember what it felt like being the only dorky computer kid at school. or what it was like to hear my first modem handshake sound. or starting the first flamewar on the school's national FirstClass BBS in the macintosh lab over the lunch-hour
it was originally something i wrote only for my family and friends who were there at the time.
and then i met all of you folks when i started my first masto instance 4 years ago. i had no idea there were so many hardcore retrocomputing and gaming nerds out there; unix and mac and ms-dos folks alike.
so i mentioned it casually. i was surprised by the interest in the book.
so i spent the better part of the past 3 years rewriting the book for *you* fellow mastodon dorkus malorkuses. the book is a celebration of all of the best (and worst) parts of a kid growing up in the digital age.
we're all busy old tired stressed folks now. so every memory and cringetacular story is short enough to read on a 5 minute bus/metro/toilet ride. they're weaved together into an arc that starts at my family's first Tandy TRS-80 and ends at my school's Mac LC II and building my first Pentium 133.
it's finally published, and i'm super proud of what it became thanks to everyone here nerding out for years.
enjoy the book. i wrote it just for you. ❤️
paperback edition: https://mybook.to/EDuUf
DRM-free ebook (EPUB format) and chapter samples here:
https://tomotama.itch.io/mages-modems
#books #indiePublisher #bookstodon #author #macintosh #vintageApple #vintageComputing #msdos #dosGaming #yeg #canada #alberta #bbs #smolWeb #indieWeb
![The rear cover of the book, showing a Carmen Sandiego-style letter from the ACME Detective agency. The letter has a picture of a spazzing out kid wearing a Just Do It sweater.
The letter reads:
ACME Detective Agency
Dear Detective #0294,
As discussed, I have enclosed a hardcopy of VGA256's journals discussed at the departmental briefing. The journal entries are chronological, and document the suspect's computing and gaming activities from the early 1980s to late 1990s - his childhood and adolescent years.
Each vignette is an introspection into the suspect's self-described obsessions, including but not limited to:
* IBM PC, Amiga, Apple ][, Macintosh, Tandy
* MS-DOS, MacOS, Windows 3.1 & 95, UNIX
* NES, GameBoy, Sega Genesis, TI-85
* Modems, BBSes, CompuServe, Prodigy, ISPs
* Warez, FTP, Usenet, IRC, Shell Accounts
* Origin Systems, LucasArts, and Sierra On-Line
... and so on. The stories are a treasure trove of immoral and illicit activities that made him the dysfunctional adult he is now. I hope these will be of value in building your dossier on this delinquent.
I expect a report on my desk by Friday.
Deputy Chief Conover
Brat & Punk Division](/proxy/post_attachment/201680/4c3f9d6273.png "The rear cover of the book, showing a Carmen Sandiego-style letter from the ACME Detective agency. The letter has a picture of a spazzing out kid wearing a Just Do It sweater.
The letter reads:
ACME Detective Agency
Dear Detective #0294,
As discussed, I have enclosed a hardcopy of VGA256's journals discussed at the departmental briefing. The journal entries are chronological, and document the suspect's computing and gaming activities from the early 1980s to late 1990s - his childhood and adolescent years.
Each vignette is an introspection into the suspect's self-described obsessions, including but not limited to:
* IBM PC, Amiga, Apple ][, Macintosh, Tandy
* MS-DOS, MacOS, Windows 3.1 & 95, UNIX
* NES, GameBoy, Sega Genesis, TI-85
* Modems, BBSes, CompuServe, Prodigy, ISPs
* Warez, FTP, Usenet, IRC, Shell Accounts
* Origin Systems, LucasArts, and Sierra On-Line
... and so on. The stories are a treasure trove of immoral and illicit activities that made him the dysfunctional adult he is now. I hope these will be of value in building your dossier on this delinquent.
I expect a report on my desk by Friday.
Deputy Chief Conover
Brat & Punk Division")
Edited 276d ago
Bookish and blogging friends, The 2026 Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge blog hop topics are available now. The first one happens on January 7.
I made a post to transcribe all 50 topics as the original image didn’t have alt-text. Hope to see you all around at Long and Short Reviews this year: https://lydiaschoch.com/the-2026-wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-topics/
#WritingCommunity #Blogging #WednesdayWeeklyBloggingChallenge #LongAndShortReviews #Books #Bookstagram
A Holiday in July: M. Pax Dimension Event Sale! For a limited time, step into worlds of space opera, steampunk adventure, magical realism, and strange discoveries with exclusive store-only deals. https://www.mpaxauthor.com/a-holiday-in-july-m-pax-dimension-event-sale/
#books #sciencefiction #readingcommunity #mustreads #scifi #fantasy #speculativefictioin #bookstodon
Starting my 2026 book thread with a beautiful cover 😍 And the book behind it is just as beautiful. Just the sort of 'place as character' narrative that I really enjoy, this is a lively and lyrical exploration of a certain landscape and the people, animals and plants that inhabit it. Even the clouds and the geology get a voice.
However heavy our lives may feel, Solà reminds us how fleeting they are to the mountains and the woods, which is perspective I find comforting.
I'm reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Galapagos".
This is a novel from **1985**... and, while it's not "great", I'd still recommend it for anyone living this current time, plus, it's kinda funny.
It manages to:
- describe AI techno-bros as what they are: self-centred assholes.
- (shallowly) describe incels before those were a concept in our collective imagination.
- (very subtly) establish a clear connection between all those self-proclaimed "apolitical" people and... nazis.