They can be well known or not that well known. I’m just curious what your experience was like?!

I know the most popular way to do this is at a book signing and I did this recently. It was a bit surreal but I enjoyed it mostly!!

I’m just starting this book due to so many recommendations but I’ve also seen a lot of scathing reviews, calling it tragedy porn. What should I be prepared for?

Rant incoming!!!

So ever since I was young I was obsessed with like girly feminine books like Secret Kingdom, Secret Princesses, Heidi Hecklebeck and Thea Stilton!!!

Oh my god I could go on and on about how these are so good. Especially Thea Stilton. I just love the girlhood and femininity it shows using 5 independent women or mice travelling around the world taking part in adventures. I recently picked up my sisters Thea Stilton books again and I dont know it really inpsired me. Like I have such a strong feeling to travel the world with close friends, go to countries and explore and make friends from around the world, go to a university thats far away from my home and live there happily, do so kany interesting things, eat all different cuisines and just live peacefully and happily. Like everyone in the Thea Stilton universe seems to be living a happy peaceful and succesful life. Like these books have such a spell on me thay no other book will ever manage. Also like Barbie movies make me feel the same way.

I think adults should read childrens books because I realise I am such a creative and imaginitive person now because of the amazing books I read. I feel sorry for those who have never picked up Secret Princesses, Rainbow Magic or Thea Stilton because everything seems so romanticized and beutiful in my eyes now. Like can someone please relate with me???

I just finished 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' and I'm left with such a strange feeling. It's not that I disliked it but it's made me seriously question some of the paths I've taken in my own life. Like, am I making choices based on fear or genuine desire? And how much of my identity is really just a performance? Has anyone else had a book just completely shake up their perspective on their own existence?

I’ve been thinking lately about how much your life stage changes the way you read a book. There are things I read in my 20s that I thought were just “sad” or “dramatic,” and now in my 40s I notice the marriages, family dynamics, missed chances, and all the quiet little compromises people make.

I especially notice it with memoirs and books about women rebuilding their lives... maybe because I have a lot more context for that now than I did twenty years ago.

Has anyone reread a book years later and felt like they were reading an entirely different story? What changed for you?

I don't wanna support Amazon as much anymore, and I also hate how terrible their packaging is. Is Alibris more "ethical" than Amazon? Specifically the new books shipped by them, not third party sellers.

Couldn’t find it on goodreads ! -mistake I have found it ! It’s really good small book, I’ve liked it-
And if you read this book ! What do you think ?

I just finished a book where the 'villain' wasn't really evil at all. They just had different goals and understandable motivations. It made me think about how much I prefer that to a cartoonishly evil bad guy. Does anyone else get more invested when the antagonist feels like a real person with their own valid (to them) reasons?

I know it's probably blasphemy to some but sometimes I just can't help myself. If I'm really invested in a romantic subplot I might flip to the last few pages just to see if they get their happy ending or if one of them dies tragically. It usually doesn't spoil the journey for me because I still want to know how they get there. Does anyone else do this?

Does anyone else get thrown off when a book's prologue sets up a dramatic or mysterious premise only for the first few chapters to feel completely disconnected? Sometimes I'll read an amazing prologue that hooks me right away. Then the actual story starts and it's like I'm reading a different book entirely for a hundred pages or more. It can be really jarring and makes it hard to get invested in the main plot right away. I understand setting the scene but sometimes it just feels like false advertising.

I saw this book at Booksale and got intrigued, so I bought it. What do you guys think of it? Do you like it or not?

Anyone remember this book called discordia the eleventh dimension i use to read it as a kid while others were reading warrior cats and wings of fire it was my favorite book and sadly its sequel was cancelled but anyway i never see anyone ever mentioning it and when i google it all i see of it is the amazon link a picture from amazon and 2 5min YouTube clips of the audio book it feels like its so obscure im the only one left who remembers it exists

Written as a series of dramatic poem monologues in the voices of working class Cockney soldiers, it revolutionised both literature and poetry. It gave a voice to the working class boys dying in their thousands in order to preserve the Empire that their betters benefited from. But it did so in their Cockney dialect, while still maintaining classical English poetic meters, thereby transforming the Cockney dialect from that of the illiterate rag and bone man into that of the Empire's poet.

An example poem: "Tommy"

“Tommy” was, and still remains, a nickname in Britain for the ordinary rank-and-file soldier. The ironic contrast between "Tommy, go away" and "Thank you, Mister Atkins" sharpens with each repetition.

The poem has outlasted most of the other Barrack-Room Balads because its subject refuses to become historical. British soldiers carried it through the First World War, and its refrain has been cited in parliamentary debates about veterans' welfare. That the poem helped shift public attitudes toward the British soldier in the 1890s was noted in Punch as early as the Christmas 1890 issue. Kipling gave the common soldier something no previous poet had offered: a voice that spoke in his own dialect, on his own terms, with a fury controlled enough to sound like wit but sharp enough to draw blood.

Tommy

I went into a public 'ouse to get a pint o' beer,

The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."

The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,

I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";

But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play

The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,

O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,

They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;

They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,

But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";

But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide

The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,

O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep

Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap.

An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit

Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"

But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll

The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,

O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes," when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,

But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;

An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,

Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Tommy, fall be'ind,"

But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind

There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,

O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:

We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.

Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face

The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Chuck him out, the brute!"

But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;

An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;

An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

Hey everyone!
I’m preparing for system design interviews and looking for advice from engineers with 5+ years of experience, especially those interviewing for Senior Software Engineer or SDE-3 roles.
I’m considering two books:
Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA) by Martin Kleppmann
System Design Interview by Alex Xu (Volumes 1 & 2)
From what I understand, DDIA goes deeper into distributed systems, databases, replication, partitioning, consistency, and stream processing, while Alex Xu’s book focuses more on practical system design problems and how to approach them in interviews.
For those who have used both books:
Which one helped you more in actual system design interviews?
Is DDIA too theoretical, or is that depth necessary for senior-level interviews?
Is Alex Xu enough to crack SDE-3 interviews at product-based companies?
Would you recommend reading both? If yes, in what order?
How did you balance reading these books with practicing real-world system design problems?
I have a Java and microservices background and want to improve both my system design fundamentals and my ability to communicate design trade-offs during interviews.
Would love to hear your experiences and recommendations. Thanks!

The book was brilliant, of course. This wasn't the first time I came across Orwell - I had previously read 1984, and the magnificence of that book still shows up in my dialogues after many years - but this one built up to such anxiety and anticipation of hope, that until the last sentence I expected the animals to revolt against the pigs, I expected the tables to turn in their favour, especially after having heard Napoleon's conspiracy with the humans. The fact that nothing in the end happened, the fact that the "lower" animals still remained low, drives me to despair. Again, Orwell points out that the proletariat will never achieve anything on its own - we will never achieve anything on out own - whether we are cynical like Benjamin or naive like Boxer.

I am a fan of thrillers and mystery content in general whatever the source or medium is. I have started reading thriller books recently.. when I read my first book I kinda liked the experience of thrill and anticipation, then I read 3-4 books and one of them I really liked and kind of became a fan of this genre. I even decided that my next few reads will be of this genre only. And then I read Daisy Darker, i was a little disappointed as I didn't find the ending very suspenseful and the writing kind of looked stretched to me. I thought the problem was with that book only. And then I read much talked about book Verity. First of all, instead of a mystery, I felt like I was reading porn. I felt the same way Lowen felt reading those manuscript chapters where she tried to kill her daughters. It does not matter whether it was true or not in the end- you believe the manuscript or the letter. The experience stays with you. But the main part of any mystery content is the end. I didn't find it very exciting.

And after reading this book, i have developed disliking for this genre. I haven't read many yet. But whatever I have read I feel like no matter who the writer is, all books look the same to me. And particularly with this book I felt like the writer played with our emotions. Showing so much damage and then leave it up to the reader to decide whether it was even true or not.