I started Confessions of a Crap Artist by Phillip K. Dick and am not yet sure how I feel about it. Also started Tai-Pan in the urge to keep Shōgun vibe in my life after literally devouring the book, but Tai-Pan didn’t feel the same. Is on hold for now till I forget Shōgun a bit.

I sometimes wish I could go back in time just to read some of the books for the first time again. Monte Cristo would be at the very top of that time-travel agenda. Enjoy the ride!

I think it’s Lay it on me by Vance Joy. It has a part about him being sad, then there is love, and then an instrumental chorus to which I dance to (given a chance). I guess I find it pretty uplifting.

I am 10% into Lonesome Dove. Many people swear by it and to me has East of Eden vibes. I find the story a little slow but then there were a couple of scenes (all of which involved pigs) that made me laugh out loud. So far - worth it.

I’ll suggest you what another user here on Lemmy suggested to me: Replay by Ken Grimwood. Topic is re-living life, there is a love story involved, relatively short and easily written but good - you won’t need much brain to keep track of what’s up but it is still a quality read.

This is excellent!

Yes!! Funny story, I learned about redwood from a boardgame when I was six and thought they are some trees from this magic game world that don’t exist in real life. You can imagine how excited I was once I realized they are real and more so when I first saw them! Californian ones are the most impressive, no debate there, but I actually found quite a few across Europe too, often in super random places. So maybe you will also find some around where you live? You never know.

Lived in Bay Area for some time and been up to the Redwood National park but not to Santa Cruz! Just checked it out and now I have another reason to visit again. Honestly, I would have even stayed there - NorthCal’s nature is simply breathtaking - but unfortunatelly so are the living costs around there.

Trees! Those big, old giants which make you feel like they are indeed harboring some ancient wisdom, being there, in the same spot years before you, barely brushed by the passing of time. And then if they are evergreen not even season affects them - they just keep on existing, all tall and gracious. How awesome is that.

Not to mention academic/research text where authors are actually forced to pay to publish, only to have the articles end up behind a pay wall of given journal. If the authors want their papers freely available, they have to pay extra fees to the journal (we are talking thousands of dollars scale). Not a cent goes back to the authors or even research funding bodies. Long live Libgen!

Yes, yes, you are totally correct - delivery can make all the difference.

But I have to add that my main problem is that I am a scientist and big part of my job is to read immense amount of literature and memorize/connect often obscure terms. So when I read for pleasure (I love my job, but still) what I tend to enjoy the most are character heavy, emotional books with beautiful prose, written by people with deep understanding of life. Quite opposite to the academic literature.

So you are right, yes, this slog issue is not restricted to SF (e.g. I don’t read epic fantasy either; GoT and LOTR books I skipped myself as well), but SF in particular is something I really want to dig deeper, as there the ideas challenge my brain and remain lingering far after I finish the piece.

But! - I prefer to do it without being forced into a memory challenge. Because if I start and within the first two pages there are 15 names and 3 planets and lots of traveling (i really damn hate descriptions of pure traveling, like please lets just skip that part) then I lose interest in the main idea and the ideas are what I am after.

So Tldr yes, you are absolutely right, it is also the prose and the delivery, but still no prose or delivery would keep me long motivated or make me deeply enjoy reading work which has too many names or weird, invented terms.

Do you use diluted or out-of-the-bottle vinegar and does the fruit taste weird afterwards? I need to temporarily become a bit of germophobe and this sounds like a good way to take care of fresh produce.

It doesn’t refer to the interaction of liver with stones. The bile acids are produced in liver then transported to the gallbladder, where they are stored and released into the intestine when needed. The whole role of gallbladder is to accept and release the bile salts, the “stuff that liver makes”. But then sometimes gallbladder makes stones and it has to be removed because of it.

Never too late for good recommendations! I am happy such a good collection of suggestions was made, not just for me but for everyone. Thanks for contributing!

My adult swinging friend, try the slide too if you ever get a chance. Also brilliant.

This is so damn good. I maked these, poor gally <3

I think to really solve this we will need to wait for the kids from this generation to grow up, and those who “figure it out” teach others how to do it, through a (hopefully adapted) educational system or otherwise. Because, to be honest, we don’t really know what this is like. We think we do, but we don’t, not really.

Cycling. I don’t (yet) have all the fensi equipment nor an expensive bike and don’t do long, exercise-like laps. It is much more incorporated into my daily life. I have an oldschool road bike which I use for my commute and then every day after work go around the city with it for some hours (with small breaks for say shopping/eating; ca. 25-30 km per day). Longer rides on the weekends (average ca 100-120 km per weekend). Never was keen on sports but was always into little daily adventures and this combines the two. Last time: yesterday.

Hey I just finished the Replay and came to thank you again for mentioning it. Such an amazing book, absolutely one of my best reads so far. Cannot believe it is not more popular. Not only the plot got me, but also the way it was written, so… Human and intelligent. Also there is often quite some interesting info and emotional maturity in the dialogs, and yet they never felt forced, as those well-thought-through-exchanges sometimes tend to be. Just excellent. But gotta say: for once, for freaking once, the main character of time travel invests in stocks. I mean, come on, finally!

Anyways, you literally nailed it with recommending me this one. Will also look up now the other two from the list. Thanks again!

Thanks, especially for summarizing other comments. Also, sorry for my 1000 years of solitude misspell… Marques didn’t dream as big as Asimov haha