Definitely read The Anatomy of Story if you’re a writer/interested in writing as a craft. It is by far the best guide on plot structure I have ever read and even though it focuses mainly on Hollywood plots it can be adapted to any story form. I use it as a starting point for everything I write, highly recommend it!
I know I should, I’ve gotten a couple of chapters in, but I just started the First Law trilogy and it’s so good. Definitely after that though, definitely…
finishing up The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. very long, and I struggled for the first half of it with keeping track of the dizzying array of characters, but overall pretty good. I enjoyed Primeval and Other Tales by her much more, however.
next up will be Soldiers and Kings by Jason DeLeon (Land of Open Graves, his previous book, was a goddamn gut punch, and expecting the same from this one - both deal with migration at the southern US border). also looking forward to James by Percival Everett.
Both are (or can be) basically relational databases, so you have a table for authors, one for genres maybe, one for physical location, and one for books. You create a new book, and that “form” then gives you fields for Title, Description, Rating, whatever you need, and then pulls data from the other tables for Author, Genre, etc.
If you’re not used to relational databases, the Golden Rule is basically:
If a data type is unique (e.g. Title, Description), it stays with the “product” (book, in your case).
If the data type can be used for more than one item (e.g. Author, Genre), it should (probably) have its own table.
You can take it a step further and make tables for all Descriptions, Titles, etc., and then those get related to the book by a unique key, but this is probably unnecessary for your use case.
All of this is incredibly simplified, and if anyone who works with databases sees it, I’m sure I’ll get corrected 😅
Anyway, you might not need to think too much about any of the above, as both platforms have user contributed templates!
As for experiences: Used Inventaire a few years back, metadata was a nightmare, it was trying to pull data from Wikidata (nice in theory) but did not check if e.g. the author already existed, so there were five of them with varying degrees of data. No fun.
Bookwyrm is pretty cool, made the mistake to go to a small instance that was plagued by technical server problems, tried to export the books I had already put in and import it to a bigger instance, didn’t work (and was somehow not supposed to, I was later told 🤷♀️ Though that’s a feature that is apparently worked on). Other then that it’s petty nice, pulls data from Openlibrary, which works very well and you can also add metadata to OL if it’s not there. And the whole social thing with following people and writing reviews, good stuff.
I used to use Delicious Library but the developer went to work for Apple and he can’t develop the app any longer. I switched to Book Tracker but it’s trying to be more than I want so I’m not set on it.
I agree with this message: in fact I am not against doing it by hand. It could be a nice life project. I will look into all the advice that you have given me, thanks everyone!
Well, unfortunately, StackExchange was just how I remembered it: lots of snarky assholes waiting to pounce on newbies. Account created, question asked, bitchy response received, then account deleted. Thanks for your suggestion in any case.
You might try the Evidence Explained forums answered regularly by Elizabeth Shown Mills. She is a specialist in genealogical citation but she is based in Chicago Manual of Style. www.evidenceexplained.com/forums/citation-issues
Or you could just take your best stab at a citation and wait for some eagle-eyed all knowing person to correct you 😄
Yeah I know what you mean, I’ve reached a point where I can just about stomach going there if a Google-search finds relevant information on something I’m researching, but I draw the line at active participation or even logging in.
I’ve done a quick search and found a list of Discord boards that are tagged with #grammar.
This one looks promising, and the list says there are currently 20 people online (take with grain of salt, though): The Grammar People
If you could share your specific question, maybe there’s more research that can be done (or maybe someone here knows the answer) 🤔
Sounds like the other commenter got it. I’m commenting because the only time I’ve ever posted about a book o couldn’t remember was “The Dark Lord of Derkholm” also by Diana Wynn Jones! Great book of you haven’t read it. She wrote Howell’s Moving Castle too.
The book you’re describing is most likely “The Shadows Between Us” by Tricia Levenseller.
Here’s why it matches your description:
Island Nation in the South: The story begins on the island of Iolara, a tropical island with a strict code of conduct called the “Way.” Discipline and Quest to the North: The protagonist, Alessandra, is being punished for practicing magic, which is forbidden. She joins a group on a quest to the tyrannical Empire of Aethel in the north. Crown Prince with Magic and Internal Struggle: One of the main characters, Kallias, is revealed to be the crown prince of Aethel. He possesses forbidden magic that manifests as dark veins and threatens to consume him if he uses it too much. Abandoned City, Temple, and Possession: The group ventures into the ruined city of Aethel’s former capital and break into a temple. There they encounter the Shadow Queen, an ancient deity who temporarily possesses one of the characters. Evil Palace and Power Struggle: The climax takes place in the Obsidian Palace, carved into a mountain, where Kallias faces betrayal and assassination attempts from his siblings vying for the throne. Although some minor details might not perfectly align with your exact memory, the core plot points you mentioned strongly suggest “The Shadows Between Us” is the book you’re looking for.
Unfortunately, that’s definitely not it. I’ve never read anything by Tricia Levenseller. None of the other names align either. :( Thanks for the input though!
Are the readers-in-residence allowed to read their books on their phone?
In simpler terms, you won’t find labels like “fiction” or “biography” on the shelves. Instead, you’ll find genre labels lifted from book titles (“Living by Fiction”), poetry lines (“Flood the Margins”) or wordplay (“Subject, Object, Predicament”).
I get what they’re going for, but good grief that sounds like it would be annoying if you’re looking for a particular book.
Organization: Shelved largely in order of acquisition instead of by subject or author.
Benefits: This encourages readers to browse rather than search directly. This leads to chance encounters with books outside their usual interests, expanding horizons and making unexpected connections.
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