Bonfires In The Sky: What Are You Reading, Winter 2021-22?

No idea where to put this, but ...

My wife is very active on Goodreads. A couple of days ago she realized that our neighbor (a friend, as far as neighbors go) was on Goodreads, too, but my wife had never checked out her activity. My wife looked at her page, and apparently it was overwhelmingly (deep breath) alien erotica. Yes, you read that correctly. Romance novels about people hooking up with aliens. Now, my wife found this kind of surprising, not just that our neighbor would be into this, but that she would be keeping a public tally of the alien erotica books she has read. And yet, when my wife went to the page today to read me a couple of the book descriptions, the page had been deleted! Or at least made no longer public.

So, what are your theories here? What are the odds that just a couple of days after my wife discovered this page the page should vanish? Is there any way for the reader/reviewer to know someone has scoped out their page? Maybe it's a coincidence and she suddenly realized her page was public and was embarrassed? That would be some coincidence. Just kind of odd all around. What's up wit that?

Omg.

As far as I know, Goodreads doesn’t show you that but I only use the app, so I’m not really sure.

I’d have to assume that your wife’s account is a) in her own name and b) she may have accidentally friended the neighbour or liked a post?

She's visiting her secret love and won't be back for a while?

No idea. I do know that there are some good stories about this topic from James Tiptree Jr and Kij Johnson, but yeah, this does seem a bit something.

Of course the other option here is that the neighbour had her Goodreads linked to her Facebook and was posting status updates until someone noticed and had a word but it was just bad timing on your wife’s part.

lmao stevolende

Yeah, lol at that.

Seems most likely
Of course the other option here is that the neighbour had her Goodreads linked to her Facebook and was posting status updates until someone noticed and had a word but it was just bad timing on your wife’s part.
Happiest!
She's visiting her secret love and won't be back for a while?
So no more need for books!

There is definitely not a "x viewed your profile" function on Goodreads. More to the point, what's the big deal with alien erotica? Not like it's a Left Behind novel, a Jordan Peterson book, or the complete works of Jeffrey Archer.

Yeah it could've been a lot lot worse. Now to take a sip of morning coffee, Google alien erotica and see what comes up.

Doris Day, classic or dud?

I've started walking further afield in London and have picked from the shelf Geoffrey Fletcher's THE LONDON NOBODY KNOWS (1962, but seems to have been revised a bit later?). It contains drawings by the author, and a rolling discourse about London in a style that's now gone - as is a great deal of what Fletcher mentions. Indeed very little that he's specifically mentioned is familiar to me at all, even in areas I know - except The Roundhouse. He's rather obsessed with music halls.

Have you seen the film, the pinefox? Can be accused of poverty porn in places, but there's some astonishing footage in there and a lot of narrator James Mason looking awkwardly at the camera.

I think I haven't seen it. I seem to recall hearing that the film was very different from the book and shared little more than a title. Unsure.

i think there is a thing that suggests people to add on goodreads, neighbor was probably recommended to add your wife which made her think "oh no i wonder if people can see this" and then realized her profile was public

It certainly has a lot of footage of old music halls!

Any Flanagan and Allen action?

alas no, just ghostly choruses intoning music hall chants in abandoned buildings.

Any Flanagan and alien action?

lollllll

Read Torrey Peters' "Detransition, Baby," and also some chapbooks for an upcoming piece.

I recommend the Peters, though I found its ending a bit sudden for my tastes. I have a feeling that she's writing the sequel right now.

Any Flanagan and alien action?

The first time I read Herodotus I often found the long preliminary lead-up to Darius's invasion of Hellas to be tedious and confusing. This time I can see the structure he employed much better, and I am not nearly as confused by how it all connects, but the density of proper names for places and peoples who have sunk into obscurity over the millennia makes it slow going. Just processing a single sentence that may reference three or four distinct geographic features, cities, gods, peoples and personages by totally archaic and abandoned names can take multiple readings.

Aside from that, it's an amazing treasury of facts, myths, tall tales, and crazy cross-cultural misunderstandings that will generate arguments among historians forever.

Hey, all you reading people!!! LOOK at this brand new WAYR thread:

Lilacs Out of the Dead Land, What Are You Reading? Spring 2022