GDT: Wait, another game? TOOTTAWA

[A Star is Burns]

Feeling like dad book central up in here

 

[Lempo]

So what you are saying, is that you can't get into anything that doesn't have basis in reality.

Much of the Reacher stories (and movies), he's not in the military, that was just the background. Even so, it's called fiction for a reason.

If "having a storyline be 100% realistic" is a requirement, then I assume you only watch documentaries?

I'm ready to accept that Cyclops can blast optic beams and teenboy Peter Parker can come up with the recipe of super-strong but dissolves-in-an-hour web fluid,

but I expect the mechanics and schematics how Cyclops' ruby quartz visor and Spider-Man's web slingers work to hold up in a superficial examination.

The fiction creator buys the suspension of belief needed for the critical bits in the fiction by making the general stuff around it be plausible in the context.

I can't think easier way to ruin a war film than have people wearing different rank insignia than what they are verbally addressed with.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Feeling like dad book central up in here

Well, in fairness, we didn't get to sit in mom and dad's basement playing video games for endless hours, so we had to actually read books.

Now though, we tend to watch a lot of programs on TV while sitting on our davenports. Thank god for the TV trays so we can eat at the same time.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I'm ready to accept that Cyclops can blast optic beams and teenboy Peter Parker can come up with the recipe of super-strong but dissolves-in-an-hour web fluid,

but I expect the mechanics and schematics how Cyclops' ruby quartz visor and Spider-Man's web slingers work to hold up in a superficial examination.

The fiction creator buys the suspension of belief needed for the critical bits in the fiction by making the general stuff around it be plausible in the context.

I can't think easier way to ruin a war film than have people wearing different rank insignia than what they are verbally addressed with.

I get it. It's kind of like in DieHard, my old roommate, who was a facilities engineer, always use to start screaming at the TV when John McClane was crawling through the HVAC duct. He would start screaming that it wouldn't be smooth on the inside as all the screws and rivets would be poking on the inside of the duct and would rip him to shreds if he crawled through it.

I have no idea how accurate he was with that statement, but since he did that sort of stuff for a semi-conductor facility, I took his word on it.

That said, it was still one of his favorite movies.

 

[Lempo]

I get it. It's kind of like in DieHard, my old roommate, who was a facilities engineer, always use to start screaming at the TV when John McClain was crawling through the HVAC duct. He would start screaming that it wouldn't be smooth on the inside as all the screws and rivets would be poking on the inside of the duct and would rip him to shreds if he crawled through it.

I have no idea how accurate he was with that statement, but since he did that sort of stuff for a semi-conductor facility, I took his word on it.

That said, it was still one of his favorite movies.

Yes, but that's the other thing in films: The Eiffel Tower can be seen in every window in Paris. It's always Mardi Gras if you go to New Orleans. The tires screech even on gravel. And there's always a HVAC duct that a man can fit in.

Maybe a decade ago, my kid was talking with her granny through an online messenger. I had hard time suspending my misbelief and laughter when she read aloud everything simultaneously as she was typing.

Plus, I've seen the film, and John McClane was ripped to shreds in it.

 

[WreckingCrew]

I get it. It's kind of like in DieHard, my old roommate, who was a facilities engineer, always use to start screaming at the TV when John McClane was crawling through the HVAC duct. He would start screaming that it wouldn't be smooth on the inside as all the screws and rivets would be poking on the inside of the duct and would rip him to shreds if he crawled through it.

I have no idea how accurate he was with that statement, but since he did that sort of stuff for a semi-conductor facility, I took his word on it.

That said, it was still one of his favorite movies.

My favorite in movies is when people go flying through and/or landing on glass and get maybe 1-2 cuts or something...I've stepped on a single piece of glass before and it was rough

 

[A Star is Burns]

Well, in fairness, we didn't get to sit in mom and dad's basement playing video games for endless hours, so we had to actually read books.

Now though, we tend to watch a lot of programs on TV while sitting on our davenports. Thank god for the TV trays so we can eat at the same time.

Well, guilty as charged on video games. But I've always carved out time for reading as well. And I've certainly read a few dad books amongst the nerdier stuff I read.

 

[hockeynjune]

Well, in fairness, we didn't get to sit in mom and dad's basement playing video games for endless hours, so we had to actually read books.

Now though, we tend to watch a lot of programs on TV while sitting on our davenports. Thank god for the TV trays so we can eat at the same time.

Preach that gospel brother

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Delete

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

In all seriousness, I do think the younger generation doesn't read as much. Not EVERY person but in general. Two of my kids were AVID readers all the way through high school. But now, between my kids and nieces and nephews that I'm close to (all in their 20s), only 1 out of 8 reads with any regularity and she's highly autistic. It's not that they don't read at all, they read stuff online but not ebooks. They play video games, magic the gathering, dungeons and dragons, get on reddit, etc.. ad nauseam, but rarely pick up a book. One of my kids is an big history buff, particularly airplanes and reads a ton of shit online about those.


In fairness, at that age, I was less of a reader. My first couple of years in college, it was academics and partying. I really began reading in earnest my senior year and beyond. I still go in phases. When I travelled a lot for my job, I read all the time. Nothing kills time better on a plane than reading fiction novels, especially on long trips to Asia where I can't sleep.

Now, I don't read at all from November to April. then we start going to our farm up north where we don't have internet or cable and I read a lot . Books are so cheap at goodwill (as are DVDs) that we stock up before we go to the farm.

 

[Bub]

Well, in fairness, we didn't get to sit in mom and dad's basement playing video games for endless hours, so we had to actually read books.

Now though, we tend to watch a lot of programs on TV while sitting on our davenports. Thank god for the TV trays so we can eat at the same time.

Back in the day it was all reclining on our divans while trading witty quips with the other quippy wits.

 

[WreckingCrew]

In all seriousness, I do think the younger generation doesn't read as much. Not EVERY person but in general. Two of my kids were AVID readers all the way through high school. But now, between my kids and nieces and nephews that I'm close to (all in their 20s), only 1 out of 8 reads with any regularity and she's highly autistic. It's not that they don't read at all, they read stuff online but not ebooks. They play video games, magic the gathering, dungeons and dragons, get on reddit, etc.. ad nauseam, but rarely pick up a book. One of my kids is an big history buff, particularly airplanes and reads a ton of shit online about those.


In fairness, at that age, I was less of a reader. My first couple of years in college, it was academics and partying. I really began reading in earnest my senior year and beyond. I still go in phases. When I travelled a lot for my job, I read all the time. Nothing kills time better on a plane than reading fiction novels, especially on long trips to Asia where I can't sleep.

Now, I don't read at all from November to April. then we start going to our farm up north where we don't have internet or cable and I read a lot . Books are so cheap at goodwill (as are DVDs) that we stock up before we go to the farm.

It actually took me until years AFTER school to start reading for pleasure. School actually killed my desire to read - being forced to read shit for deep meaning, symbolism, patterns, schemes, allegory, testing on minute details, etc absolutely ruined reading for me for the longest time. I'm also not a speed reader, I read closer to conversational speed, so having to read like 20 pages a night along with everything else left me no time to read for pleasure.

 

[tarheelhockey]

In all seriousness, I do think the younger generation doesn't read as much. Not EVERY person but in general. Two of my kids were AVID readers all the way through high school. But now, between my kids and nieces and nephews that I'm close to (all in their 20s), only 1 out of 8 reads with any regularity and she's highly autistic. It's not that they don't read at all, they read stuff online but not ebooks. They play video games, magic the gathering, dungeons and dragons, get on reddit, etc.. ad nauseam, but rarely pick up a book. One of my kids is an big history buff, particularly airplanes and reads a ton of shit online about those.


In fairness, at that age, I was less of a reader. My first couple of years in college, it was academics and partying. I really began reading in earnest my senior year and beyond. I still go in phases. When I travelled a lot for my job, I read all the time. Nothing kills time better on a plane than reading fiction novels, especially on long trips to Asia where I can't sleep.

Now, I don't read at all from November to April. then we start going to our farm up north where we don't have internet or cable and I read a lot . Books are so cheap at goodwill (as are DVDs) that we stock up before we go to the farm.

The bolded is key. Kids today read an absolute ton… I’m willing to bet they spend far more time reading and writing than people did 100 years ago. It’s just that they don’t read books or even articles, and their writing is mostly electronic. They’re moving from a long-format physical experience to a short-format digital experience.

It’s really hard to say what that will mean for them in the long run. Mass production of novels hasn’t really been around that long, and literacy itself is only a few generations old in a lot of families. It’s been quite some time since anyone lived a full lifetime in the same media dynamic.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

The bolded is key. Kids today read an absolute ton… I’m willing to bet they spend far more time reading and writing than people did 100 years ago. It’s just that they don’t read books or even articles, and their writing is mostly electronic. They’re moving from a long-format physical experience to a short-format digital experience.

It’s really hard to say what that will mean for them in the long run. Mass production of novels hasn’t really been around that long, and literacy itself is only a few generations old in a lot of families. It’s been quite some time since anyone lived a full lifetime in the same media dynamic.

I think authors are adapting. Maybe it's me, but I feel like more books I've read have segmented into more chapters, or at least have more breaks. I recently read Matthew McConnaughey's autobiography Greenlights. It was a really good read, actually. At the same time, it feels written for a lower attention span. Lots of short stories and anecdotes with tons of breaks and different forms of writing. I could get into more books like that TBH. At the same time, I'm also a sucker for the occasional long form prose. The Brothers Karamazov, for example, is probably the greatest novel I've ever read. Just stunningly good prose. You couldn't do that in less than 700 pages.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I think authors are adapting. Maybe it's me, but I feel like more books I've read have segmented into more chapters, or at least have more breaks. I recently read Matthew McConnaughey's autobiography Greenlights. It was a really good read, actually. At the same time, it feels written for a lower attention span. Lots of short stories and anecdotes with tons of breaks and different forms of writing. I could get into more books like that TBH. At the same time, I'm also a sucker for the occasional long form prose. The Brothers Karamazov, for example, is probably the greatest novel I've ever read. Just stunningly good prose. You couldn't do that in less than 700 pages.

I would agree with that. Digital reading has changed the game quite a bit. I read a lot of long-format novels, but a lot of it comes in tiny chunks while I'm waiting for an appointment or for a pot of water to boil. 20 years ago maybe I'd have been leafing through a magazine instead, because I certainly wouldn't be carrying a 700 page novel around in my pocket, but today it's easier to just pull out my phone and read a few pages of a book I've been working on. The downside is that those novels really aren't written to flow 5 pages at a time, so some of the immersion gets lost. So even though I don't read a lot of newer stuff, when I do occasionally dip into them it's a relief to find them formatted in bite-sized pieces.

 

[Chrispy]

My daughter is reading more now than I did in middle school, but that's because I hit a major lull not finding good content for a pre-teen/early teen before I my parents started letting me read sci-fi and King.

Harry Potter was a huge boon to the child reading trend, not just because of interest but also because of the progressive difficulty of the books. Rowling hooked you with an easy to read book and made them harder as the kids got more invested.

Now she's completely obsessed with all the Rick Riordan series (to the point that she was pointing out the Egyptian god tie-ins in Black Panther without prompting) and moving into some new ones I never got into (Mysterious Benedict Society.)

It also helps that my wife is a voracious reader and insists on keeping the hard copies. Lots of bookshelves of choices.

 

[tarheelhockey]

My daughter is reading more now than I did in middle school, but that's because I hit a major lull not finding good content for a pre-teen/early teen before I my parents started letting me read sci-fi and King.

Harry Potter was a huge boon to the child reading trend, not just because of interest but also because of the progressive difficulty of the books. Rowling hooked you with an easy to read book and made them harder as the kids got more invested.

Now she's completely obsessed with all the Rick Riordan series (to the point that she was pointing out the Egyptian god tie-ins in Black Panther without prompting) and moving into some new ones I never got into (Mysterious Benedict Society.)

It also helps that my wife is a voracious reader and insists on keeping the hard copies. Lots of bookshelves of choices.

Sounds like a similar dynamic to my household.

Early teen is a remarkably hard time to find good quality content. Anything over a decade old seems old to someone that age, and the classics aren't written with them in mind at all. Meanwhile 99% of the new releases are straight-up trash that should have been self published.

 

[Chrispy]

Sounds like a similar dynamic to my household.

Early teen is a remarkably hard time to find good quality content. Anything over a decade old seems old to someone that age, and the classics aren't written with them in mind at all. Meanwhile 99% of the new releases are straight-up trash that should have been self published.

I've accepted I'm never getting her to read Dune. Hell, my wife struggled to get through it and she's the amazing reader.

The difficulty I have is figuring out when she is ready for some of my favorite sci-fi content. Orson Scott Card will be given to her at some point, but when is she ready for Ender? Same with Butcher, either Dresden or Codex Alera. The Hunger Games novels are in the house, but I haven't read those so I don't know if it's time yet. Ditto Twilight, but I'm leaning toward Oh Hell No.

I think Wicked and the other alternate fairy tales might work soon. She was a big fan of the pirated Youtube of the original cast musical, so the books might work well.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I've accepted I'm never getting her to read Dune. Hell, my wife struggled to get through it and she's the amazing reader.

The difficulty I have is figuring out when she is ready for some of my favorite sci-fi content. Orson Scott Card will be given to her at some point, but when is she ready for Ender? Same with Butcher, either Dresden or Codex Alera. The Hunger Games novels are in the house, but I haven't read those so I don't know if it's time yet. Ditto Twilight, but I'm leaning toward Oh Hell No.

I think Wicked and the other alternate fairy tales might work soon. She was a big fan of the pirated Youtube of the original cast musical, so the books might work well.

Twilight is just sooooo bad on both the literary and "molding good human beings" level. But it seems to be catnip for a certain kind of reader.

One of my middle schoolers devoured the whole Riordan catalogue and wants to do Hunger Games next. It's probably a little old for him, but I feel like reading up to a more mature age range is less risky than doing the same with movies or music. I was reading R-rated stuff (like King and Crichton) by middle school and it did a lot more good than harm, in the sense that it kept me from dropping the reading habit.

 

[WreckingCrew]

I've accepted I'm never getting her to read Dune. Hell, my wife struggled to get through it and she's the amazing reader.

The difficulty I have is figuring out when she is ready for some of my favorite sci-fi content. Orson Scott Card will be given to her at some point, but when is she ready for Ender? Same with Butcher, either Dresden or Codex Alera. The Hunger Games novels are in the house, but I haven't read those so I don't know if it's time yet. Ditto Twilight, but I'm leaning toward Oh Hell No.

I think Wicked and the other alternate fairy tales might work soon. She was a big fan of the pirated Youtube of the original cast musical, so the books might work well.

If she likes Star Wars at all a lot of their newer canon releases are in the tween/teen category
21 Best Star Wars Books for Tweens & Teens: Ages 9-16 Years

 

[Lempo]

Did they really just play Tom Jones there?

Why, is it particularly unusual?

 

[The Jerk Store]

I've accepted I'm never getting her to read Dune. Hell, my wife struggled to get through it and she's the amazing reader.

The difficulty I have is figuring out when she is ready for some of my favorite sci-fi content. Orson Scott Card will be given to her at some point, but when is she ready for Ender? Same with Butcher, either Dresden or Codex Alera. The Hunger Games novels are in the house, but I haven't read those so I don't know if it's time yet. Ditto Twilight, but I'm leaning toward Oh Hell No.

I think Wicked and the other alternate fairy tales might work soon. She was a big fan of the pirated Youtube of the original cast musical, so the books might work well.

How about some of the Doctor Who books?