Amber Sparks

Same, truly (and someday maybe I will have a windfall and open a weird uncomfortable books only bookstore lol)

(But my point not that these genres are bad at all - they are not! - but that because they are very very popular right now, some bookstores are jumping on the bandwagon at the expense of other genres and readers!)

I love a bookstore that can do both!

I have zero contempt for romance novels or romantasy! But I will say that I don’t think romance novels need defending as underdogs anymore, given how much they sell, how many are now Netflix films, and how many stores are opening with exclusive focus on romance! I’d say they’re pretty mainstream

Ok this would make SO much sense. I do get the sense that the owners themselves really love these genres, which, okay! I guess just not for me

(This is not a knock on DC bookstores which are generally incredibly and have largely resisted this trend)

Exactly! I think is what drives me nuts - people DO read other stuff, and plenty of bookstores are doing great without giving so much shelf space to those books.

Yes omg

Me too! 😂Luckily we have a lot of good ones holding down the fort.

😢

There’s nothing wrong with reading this stuff, obviously, but I don’t think it should be the *majority* of what the reading public is reading

It’s always so funny to me when I get these emails in my inbox about resort wear collections, as if there were still large numbers of people just spending weeks in Palm Springs in this United States of America

Resort wear? In this economy?

Okay that makes so much sense

It has definitely been a LITTLE weird to see critics being like NO ONE HAS EVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE and like …

It’s definitely worth it!

Ah, the phone has finally appeared again, retrieved from under the bed! Maybe use will be made of it now

SAME

Oh good! And yes I was thinking maybe because she’s an antiquarian bookseller, I think you may be right

That could be but I don’t think it’s ever mentioned in the first book? Maybe the second one? 🙏

Yep she vaguely mentions that it’s having some issues and then she just never charges it again? Like this lady and I are not the same

😂😂😂

It’s so good! And like for the first half I was like I get it, of course she would exist in this sort of unreal daze, but by day 317 I’m like WHERE IS A COMPUTER, ALSO JUST CHARGE YOUR DAMN PHONE

But again also, without being told that we’re in the past, or in some alternate world without the internet, it feels a little like somebody writing a story where everything could be solved by the characters having cell phones, then just inexplicably not having cell phones

Again, it’s a wonderful book, and I know there are like six more of these books so maybe that will happen soon? But oh my god, after the first ten days I would be OUT there, putting up posters, asking people on the street, getting a bullhorn out! Ma’am, DO something!

Maybe I missed it, but I’m a careful reader and I’ve seen no signposts suggesting the book takes place in the past, and the passivity of the main character in doing literally anything to investigate is truly distracting me - like 300 days and she hasn’t researched to see if anyone else has noticed?

Ok so I am really enjoying On the Calculation of Volume, it’s a beautifully written book, but it’s also driving me insane because it’s breaking one of my cardinal writing rules: just ignoring the internet exists!

Like couldn’t they have at least dubbed him, my god

Haha yeah they do make it work - it’s a great film but not because of him!

She is so fun to watch in this - her “If I were a bell” is DELIGHTFUL