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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 07:18    
Mikael Hart

Mikael Hart

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BL can be nice. My only issue with it is that I find a lot of BL manga to be poorly written, and full of tropes/stereotypes. It can be an unrealistic representation of the gay community, and while I can see why some people like it because of that, the majority is not for me.

That said, I have read a handful of good ones that I really enjoy, including Canis by Zakk. Both of the main characters are solidly written, generally self-sufficient, relatable, and likable. Although there is a slight power dynamic a a technical sense (in the literal business sense), they are portrayed as equals in the relationship. Their relationship is also healthy, consenting, and one in which they can grow together. (Also, both art style and pacing are really great?)

And of course, it's fine if other people like other types of pairings and relationships, but healthy and realistic adult relationships is what suits me, regardless of sexual orientation. I generally find them to be annoying and/or distasteful otherwise. (Of course, there are exceptions, but few and far in between.)

Written stories seem to fare a bit better IMO. As for films, I haven't really watched any (so no opinion).


*fans River*

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 09:09    
Firn

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Firn

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I don't read BL manga (or any kind of manga), but there was one series I loved as a teen: Zetsuai, which was pretty much the only shonen ai manga published in germany at that time. Then it was discontinued and I did not have the time or many to continue reading manga when I started going to university. Years later I discovered that the series had been continued. I bought the next volume since I remembered loving the series so much and then, because it had been so long and I could not remember it well, I started re-reading the old mangas. And couldn't really understand why I ever liked it in the first place. Not only was it horribly drawn - all of the characters seem to have huge alien foreheads, but the characters represented any kind of clichè I don't like about romance storis. It was the "I just met you, but you are the love of my life"-story all over again and each and every single character in the series seem to behave completely irrational and outright crazy! And the storyline, apart from the love-story, was also pretty lame, as it was just about some family intrigues with more people behaving even crazier. :mcshock: :mcsleepy: Nope, really can't understand why I ever liked the seris. But I was young and maybe at that time that was what I thought love would be like.


I have become extremely picky about male romance books, because so many of them are just as bad. I prefer the ones that are not labeled under the romance genre, but proper stories, mostly fantasy, where the male characters just happen to be gay, but it makes no difference to the story. I have bought some pretty bad books in the past, where some of them seemed to have a story (if you can even call it that) that had the only purpose of getting two guys together for having sex. Ugh. I once read a book, where the summary of the first 10 or so pages was: Some prince gets captured by some bandits. The bandit boss interrogates him. They have sex in a hot tub. They are now deeply in love with each other. WTF?!
I had a few failure purchases like this so now I read a lot of reviews on goodreads before I buy books. Usually that works out pretty well. I only had 2 or 3 books where I didn't agree with the reviews at all, but apart from that I have found some of my most favorite books ever based on Goodreads reviews.

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 09:34    
Mikael Hart

Mikael Hart

Joined: Apr 16th, '07, 05:34
Posts: 18419
Hugs: 281866
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Location: Lordship of Wuffel
Aha, true, our younger selves do often like things that our older selves wouldn't. Sometimes a nostalgic trip back to childhood favorites turns out to be embarrassing. (That's often the case for me.)

I liked Sailor Moon a lot as a kid, but now I only appreciate it for nostalgic reasons. It's cute, but the romance isn't my style. I also don't know how I got so far into watch Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Would've dropped it so fast if I'd watched it the first time at this age because the early episodes were all over the place.


Oh, are your novels in German, Firn? *curious* owo

That sounds really awesome --that the theme of the book isn't the whole gay bit, but that there's other stuff going on and that it just happens to have dudes who like dudes. I like that.

I believe that characters should have a deeper goal for themselves than getting with someone, especially since I know some folks who emulate that. *facehands* There's more to life than romance.

Oh, you have a GoodReads account, Firn? I want to friend you there! D: I actually have a buddy who also has an account, and since she and I have similar tastes in books, we can recommend each other stuff we really like.

There's one series I really like, and although the protagonists so far have been male, the women that feature are in high positions of power and are intelligent and self-sufficient. Ever since I found the book at the airport bookstore, I became attached to it as my favorite book.

"The Thief" series by Megan Whalen Turner is set in a fictional world with three kingdoms (two ruled by queens, one by a king). I'd love to tell you about it, but honestly, the story has so much amazing development and plot twists that I can't say one thing without spoiling another. *facehands*

The first book is a little tougher to read than the rest, since it sets up the characters and the setting, but once you get past it, it's clever, fun, and exciting.

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 10:48    
Firn

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Firn

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Yes, I usually read my novels in English, because either they are not available in German, but mostly because they are so much cheaper in English! Books are crazy expensive in Germany, usually around $20 for a paperbook and 30-40$ for a hardcover, because of something called the "Buchpreisbindung". It's a law because of which books always have the same price in Germany, unlike in the US, where a book will have a certain price once it gets released, but then becomes cheaper and cheaper with time. Here the price always stays the same. They say the law is there so books stay "affordable", but the only thing it does in my opinion is make books expensive. I also often buy my books used.

I think I made a GoodReads account at some point, but I don't really use it much. I usually just search for books there and read reviews, and then I put the ones I am interested in on my private Amazon wish list to keep track. So there isn't really much on my Goodread account. Also, I only really use it for the male romance books, as regarding other books Amazon reviews seem to be more relieable, so I don't think it represents my reading behavior well, because, of course I read many other books too. With Goodreads I might come across as some kind of weirdo who only reads gay novels. :mcheh:

I have not heard of The Thief, but I will check it out.

Right now I am reading the Last Herald-Mage series by Mercedes Lackey, also something I bought based on good Goodreads reviews, but so far I am rather disappointed. The main character seems to be a contantly whining spoiled brat, extremely dependant on others and even though I am almost finished with the first volume there hasn't really happend much story-wise and I have no clue where the story wants to take the readers, or what it really is about.

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 11:08    
Mikael Hart

Mikael Hart

Joined: Apr 16th, '07, 05:34
Posts: 18419
Hugs: 281866
Mood: Hugs are death squeezes.
Website: http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/mikael-hart/6844374/
Location: Lordship of Wuffel
Ooh, I didn't know that. Is that in German $? I'll have to go look at the conversion rates. XD

I don't think books here become cheaper with time... I mean, I don't notice if they do, but I don't think so? Unless you buy it used, maybe? I usually try to find used books I want for cheap at the ThriftBooks website. XD

It's interesting to learn that you buy English books though. Does that apply to most German folk who like to read too? Or does it depend?


Aha, I have a Google Sheet where I keep track of books I own and books I want; GoodReads is just there to keep track of what I've read overall (because I used to read stuff from libraries and not want to buy them).

Pfft, hey man, you like what you like! You're our weirdo. Actually, we're all weirdos to some degree. XD

Sure! I actually started a book club the last time I was here, and we read the Thief together in one of the threads. (Like, we'd talk about a chapter every week until we finished it together. Everyone just got their book from a library.) It was pretty fun. XD

Oh, her name sounds familiar to me. I looked at my Google Sheet and looked her up on Wikipedia though, but none of her books are on my list or ones that I recognize. Now I just feel confused... maybe her name was recommended inside the cover of a fantasy series I read or something.

That sounds pretty annoying. *pats* Robin McKinley writes pretty good fantasy and fairy tale retellings, if you like that stuff. I especially love Sunshine, which is about vampires (except they're portrayed as terrifying monsters). The main character is a girl, and I don't like or dislike her. The story itself is more interesting than the character, but although she gets caught in a lot of tight situations, Rae manages to handle herself alright.

I also like "The Tillerman Cycle" which are about these siblings who were abandoned by their mother. It's not a fantasy story, though, and was set some decades back in America, so it might not be your genre of interest. The protagonist is a pretty interesting girl. She's tough, and not a character you'd easily like, but one that you can respect. It's an interesting series.

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 11:33    
Firn

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Firn

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Books are of course in $ here, but I wrote the $ price, since that should be about right. A paperbook is around 18€ here, and that should be around $20.

I am pretty sure US books get cheaper in time, at least they do so on my Amazon wish list? It always tells you how much chaper the item got since you put it on your wishlist and they are always chapear after a while:
Image
(It says: "Price dropped by 10%. Was 9.99€ when you put it on your wishlist") And that's the regular price for the new book.

I keep very close track of book prices on my wishlist, because I always try to catch a good deal whenever a book is sold used for cheap. I usually try to get my books for less than 5€. Sometimes books sit on my wishlist for 1 or 2 years, before I can buy them. The only expectation I make is for series. I don't want to read volume 1 and then have to wait 2 years till I get volume 2 cheap. By then I will have forgotten what the book was about. :mcheh:


The book club thread sounds like an awesome thing, I would love to take part in something like this. I don't think I ever saw it, but back then the forums were more active, so it was harder to keep track of everything.

You're not missing out much on Mercedes Lackey. It's not one of the worse books I have ever read, but it's also not really very interesting and the characters just aren't too likeable. It's also too cheesy for my taste. Talking white horses and stuff like this... :mcshock:

I'll check out Robin McKinley, but the The Tillerman Cycle really doesn't sound like my kind of book.

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 13:37    
memoriam

memoriam

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*casually stalks the book conversation* o3o"

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 22:03    
Mikael Hart

Mikael Hart

Joined: Apr 16th, '07, 05:34
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Come and join us, Memo! Do you enjoy reading too?


@Firn: Dang. I mean, books here probably sell at $10-15 on average. (I buy 'em used for under $5 on ThriftBooks, though.)

And yes, you're right; looks like a lot of books get cheaper on Amazon. Well, not only books, but some products too. I've just never noticed that! D:

It was (THIS) thread. Taking a peek in there, I see that we were on a third book for the club before we started drifting. I tend to read a lot of YA, so if there's something of that genre that you have in mind, I'll be glad to read it with you.

I know that feel (that you have about Lackey's books). I've gone through plenty of books like that; often times, they aren't bad enough to discard during reading, but after I finish, I'd just forget the story and characters.

Talking white horses... need to be written with the right style and in the right genre. I wouldn't be opposed, but it really depends. XD

Sure thing! The did a Sleeping Beauty retelling that was pretty interesting! Uh, as for Sunshine, I think there was a brief adult scene in there. Just fyi, in case it's not your cup of tea.

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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 22:59    
memoriam

memoriam

Joined: Feb 14th, '11, 01:50
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I do, but I haven't read a proper book in years I believe. And by now I'm very picky :qsweat: I have an eye on 2 series', but first gotta warm up with reading 2 books I bought about 2 years ago and never touched them because I told myself I was too busy to read them :mcargh:

And can't really join now, 'cause I gotta go to sleep, work tomorrow QnQ Although just tomorrow and the day after, then I'm on vacation XD

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In need of materials? Go to ~Memoriam's~
Free avatar/room items & knuffels!
Make the ⁂＊ℭonfetti ℜain＊⁂ with me!

Dec 21st/22nd 2016, R.I.P. Tila. We'll miss you, you cuddly little stinker <3
Dec 7th 2019, R.I.P. Candy. I'm sorry, my sweet little rumball...
Jan 8th 2020, R.I.P. Cotton. Farewell my golden adventurer </3
May 15th 2021, R.I.P. Kreska. I love you, angel...
Feb 3rd 2022, R.I.P. Kropka. Goodbye, my *starshine*
Nov 27th 2022, R.I.P. Strzałka. You will be missed, lazy ball.
Jan 5th 2023, R.I.P. Iskra. Spark until the end.
Jan 26th 2024, R.I.P. Mocha. You can fool around now, baby <3
Feb 22nd 2024, R.I.P. Latte. Now you are truly a free spirit...
May 29th 2025, R.I.P. Ścieżka. The toughest fighter. We miss you dearly.
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 Post subject: Re: THE MYSTERIOUS JELLYFISH DOMINATION ♡
Posted: Oct 22nd, '17, 23:49    
Mikael Hart

Mikael Hart

Joined: Apr 16th, '07, 05:34
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Location: Lordship of Wuffel
Aha, I feel you. I have a book I'm half way through reading, but I haven't touched it in months. *facehands* You really have to make time for reading sometimes.

Ooh, vacation~!

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