Pic mildly related. In the space of roughly a month, while working more or less full-time, I have accidentally read a 2,000 page long book, most of which is widely considered to be objectively shit. Is this normal? I consistently found myself getting hooked and reading far more than I ever intended to. On one occasion I even read a set of chapters which was about the length of The Maltese Falcon without stopping for food, drink, or sleep, but even without counting that occurrence, I'd find myself reading for hours on end despite being in the parts of the book that only contained shit. How do I stop this happening in the future? I don't want to get hooked by books that started out great but then continued to hook you on the false promise that they were about to get great again.
What do you do when you get hooked by a shit book?
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>most of which is widely considered to be objectively shit.
Get off the internet and reboot your brain.
harry potter isn't a bad series, Veeky Forums just hates it because either they hate JK rowling or they hate that adults read children's series or they hate that it's popular
Guys, it's not the regular HP books. None of them are "a 2,000 page long book". I accidentally read a 2,000 page fanfic.
Just read the books you enjoy, it seems like you've tried reading more complex literature and not enjoyed it, some of us have to be brainlets
What did you read?
Wrong. I certainly do not enjoy the things I read every day. But I don’t read fiction. I don’t read things to enjoy them.
The reading wasn't complex at all.
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Just ask yourself, "Why am I reading this crap?" If you can't produce an answer other than "maybe it'll improve by the end!", then you may as well just put it down. If a book is only saved by its ending, it's 99% of the time pure crap: books generally take a while to read, so if the journey to the end is bad, then it's a bad book and thus not worth the time/effort to finish it.
>wrong
Am I the only one who finds this highly autistic? And you enjoyed a 2000 page fan fiction, you're a brainlet
This seems like solid advice, although whenever I tried to do that back when I played a lot of video games, I found that asking the question immediately ruined the experience, mostly because I'd stop seeing the good and start only seeing the bad. For some reason my mind is pointing me to the paradox of hedonism, but I suspect that's not entirely correct.
That post wasn't mine. Hell, the post even said "I don't read fiction", so it clearly couldn't have been mine.
My original post was advice for op and you replied so I'm sure you can the confusion, why do you read things you don't enjoy then? I read non fiction as well but I enjoy it
Wait, it might just be tiredness but I'm confused. is from the OP and isn't.
>reading fanfic
why would you do this to yourself
What a mess
It was an accident, I sware. For some reason that I can't remember I was on TvTropes and decided to click the fanfic tab and the first example for whatever page I was on was from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I found the title irresistible and ended up looking at the YMMV page for it, only to find something that set off my maths undergrad autism (it was the P=NP if you have a Time Turner thing) and before I knew it I had read the relevant chapter, bookmarked chapter 1 of the fanfic, got hooked, and then kept on reading it. As I said, this was an accident.
You’ve stepped down a dark path. It’s not too late to turn around.
Do tell.
I knew it.
Why can't you just admit to yourself that you liked it at least somewhat? It lacks literary merit and editorial oversight, is bloated, clunky and cringy at times but there's real value in there.
I liked how it transformed and engaged with the lore of Harry Potter. The story started out as a parody but as it goes on there's a real appreciation for the works it's based on and its own world it's created.
I think it's foolish to dismiss it in its entirety with a hand wave.
>Why can't you just admit to yourself that you liked it at least somewhat?
I fully admit that. I'd say that most of the first 20 chapters were pure gold, and that it was still pretty good for a while after that, although, for all of the reasons you've listed, it went to shit after the Azkaban arc.
Fanfic is ass that’s all
Noted. Admittedly, the only fanfic that I can think of that I've considered reading is My Immortal.
That reminds me, the anime references are fucking annoying. Sure, some were ok when they were played for humour e.g. the MLP references, although that's not an anime, but most of them immediately destroyed my immersion.
It's been a while, what anime references are you referring to?
There's also a sequel to HPMOR that's endorsed by Yudkowksy...
HPMOR is definitely not shit even if it is a fanfic.
There's loads. Off the top of my head:
>there's a part that is blatantly a reference to Death Note, it talks about a ring that can kill someone if you know their name and their face and how... oh fuck it, it's basically a description of the plot of Death Note
>there's a number of FMA references, e.g. the Elric brothers are mentioned and HPMOR's Philosopher's Stone's physical form is closer to FMA's than HP's.
>Mad-eye talks about a Japanese guy that he fought who had shadow clones. That's a blatant Naruto reference#
>every dead unicorn's description matches that of one of the main MLP characters
>most shield-breaker charms are TTGL references, one of the spells is fucking 'gurren'.
Here's a review that's popular with its critics danluu.com
Don't forget about the Mahou Shoujo Hermoine Magica arc
List the things you liked the most:
Voldemort's tweaked origin story - very nice subversion and explanation of the stereotypical villain. I honestly wasn't completely sure that Quirrel was Voldemort.
Dementors as wounds of the world, death incarnate. Ties in very nicely into the whole theme and gives them more depth. Harry's Mary Sue-ish patronus gets a pass because it's a great scene and he teaches it to others as well.
Was that actually a reference to something? As far as I can tell, the review I mentioned in nailed the problems with it. That entire storyline should've been spread out and not a huge block of mostly pointless chapters that totally killed the pacing. If memory serves, that's what cemented my 'HPMOR went to shit after Azkaban' belief.
Will do. Once I've finished reading it, I'm secretly on chapter 111 and intend to finish it today.. Take this shitty image instead. I won't hide the fact that I found this Harry very relatable during the early chapters. That "you talk like an abused child" shit really hit home.
I think he just wanted to write a magical girl story. No clue what made him believe it was a good idea. I always thought it was a Madoka reference because of the whole Witches being Magical Girls and the edgy turn it took.
I imagine that in his eyes, Hermoine needed to think that she was a hero in order justify her not just fucking running from the troll.
Serious question about the story - how on Earth did Harry's actions make Voldemort grateful and lead to him obtaining the ressurection stone?
Ok, I've solved the spoilered bit except for the resurrection stone.
This thread is making my brain hurt
Then you're not the kind of crazy that builds a castle out of the crap and lives there.
Finished book, will actually reply to tomorrow, if the thread is still alive and I have the time. I still hold to what I said in . Without thinking much, I'd probably advise someone who was currently reading it to drop it after Azkaban. From that point onwards, it's as if the protag has no agency. I'm not Veeky Forums enough to say exactly why that ruins the remainder, but it's clear to me that it does.