My friend the gourmet cook gets a thousand-yard stare when they see me chopping certain ingredients with a scissors instead of a knife.
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@kimlockhartga Height is another fine system. I used to shelve by geography. It was fine when I was a teenager, but as my reading broadened year by year, decade by decade, there was too much ad hoc decision-making involved. So many authors with mixed cultural and actual backgrounds, books in different translations, authors with books at different stages in different places in their migrant lives. So I finally switched to forenames. First names and height: far less uncertainty!
@CiaraNi I was dutifully shelving by author, until I got a heavy duty bookcase. I have a lot of big hardbacks and graphic novels, so those went into the heavier bookcase by how they fit. I could still continue to shelve the much bigger bookcase by author, but it seems silly to even try, now.
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@CiaraNi I was dutifully shelving by author, until I got a heavy duty bookcase. I have a lot of big hardbacks and graphic novels, so those went into the heavier bookcase by how they fit. I could still continue to shelve the much bigger bookcase by author, but it seems silly to even try, now.
@kimlockhartga You probably know the Height system so instinctively well now that switching some to By Author might just make them harder to find. Your system is a sensible, functional system.
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"And they are all Literary Fiction, seeing as they are all fiction. And literature."
Ok now you're just openly trolling me.
@CiaraNi I’ve always had an issue with the division of fiction into literature and … not literature. Who gets to decide what’s what? I certainly don’t want to. My introduction to SF&F was writers like Ursula Le Guin, Frank Herbert, and Harlan Ellison—all (to my mind) very literary writers.
On the whole, not an important issue, or a hill I will die on. But it works for me
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@CiaraNi I’ve always had an issue with the division of fiction into literature and … not literature. Who gets to decide what’s what? I certainly don’t want to. My introduction to SF&F was writers like Ursula Le Guin, Frank Herbert, and Harlan Ellison—all (to my mind) very literary writers.
On the whole, not an important issue, or a hill I will die on. But it works for me
@fgraver This is why wondering 'Is literary fiction a separate category?' is annoying, frustrating and entertaining, all at the same time. And unanswerable. I can't define LitFic, but I know it when I read it. And I also know that Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are not regarded as LitFic and I think they should be. The wisdom and insight and social advocacy in among all the laugh-aloud lines - a Nobel Prize-worth of literature in his body of work.
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My friend the gourmet cook gets a thousand-yard stare when they see me chopping certain ingredients with a scissors instead of a knife. I assume it’s just their pride that’s traumatised, because they didn’t think of being this efficient themselves, and them an expert.
@CiaraNi what do you cut with scissors? I'm curious what ingredients you find it more efficient for
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@CiaraNi I’ve always had an issue with the division of fiction into literature and … not literature. Who gets to decide what’s what? I certainly don’t want to. My introduction to SF&F was writers like Ursula Le Guin, Frank Herbert, and Harlan Ellison—all (to my mind) very literary writers.
On the whole, not an important issue, or a hill I will die on. But it works for me
@CiaraNi Also, I think my genres are very easy to sort. I look at the following things in this order:
If a novel has elements of non-existant technology, is set in the future, or has magic or other fantastical elements, it’s SF&F (Margaret Atwood, I’m looking at you!).
If there’s a mystery of any sort and a protagonist attempting to solve said mystery, it’s crime.
Anything else is other fiction.
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@fgraver This is why wondering 'Is literary fiction a separate category?' is annoying, frustrating and entertaining, all at the same time. And unanswerable. I can't define LitFic, but I know it when I read it. And I also know that Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are not regarded as LitFic and I think they should be. The wisdom and insight and social advocacy in among all the laugh-aloud lines - a Nobel Prize-worth of literature in his body of work.
@CiaraNi I definitely agree about Pratchett’s Discworld novels. And that’s a prime example of why I refuse to listen to the gate keepers.
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@CiaraNi what do you cut with scissors? I'm curious what ingredients you find it more efficient for
@nieuemma I only joined the Fediverse in 2022, but that's still long enough and enough reply threads ago for me to know that I will not be sharing a list of Ingredients I Chop With Scissors Instead of A Knife with the Fediverse
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@CiaraNi I definitely agree about Pratchett’s Discworld novels. And that’s a prime example of why I refuse to listen to the gate keepers.
@fgraver Agreed.
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@CiaraNi Also, I think my genres are very easy to sort. I look at the following things in this order:
If a novel has elements of non-existant technology, is set in the future, or has magic or other fantastical elements, it’s SF&F (Margaret Atwood, I’m looking at you!).
If there’s a mystery of any sort and a protagonist attempting to solve said mystery, it’s crime.
Anything else is other fiction.
"If there’s a mystery of any sort and a protagonist attempting to solve said mystery, it’s crime."
That's a great example of the kind of genre-categorising I've never been good at. Even when I'm browsing the library online, I dont have an instinct for Thriller contra Mystery contra Crime.
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My friend the gourmet cook gets a thousand-yard stare when they see me chopping certain ingredients with a scissors instead of a knife. I assume it’s just their pride that’s traumatised, because they didn’t think of being this efficient themselves, and them an expert.
the day it occurred to me to use scissors for cutting up food was the best day of my life
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the day it occurred to me to use scissors for cutting up food was the best day of my life
@coolcalmcollected So many ingredients that are so much easier to chop this way!
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"If there’s a mystery of any sort and a protagonist attempting to solve said mystery, it’s crime."
That's a great example of the kind of genre-categorising I've never been good at. Even when I'm browsing the library online, I dont have an instinct for Thriller contra Mystery contra Crime.
@CiaraNi I tend to blend all 3… (Don’t tell anyone).
I think my reading needs are simple, though. What I want is for literature to give me some insight into the lives of people unlike myself, preferably in settings I don’t recognise.
That’s why I tend to avoid middle-aged, white men writing «samtidsliteratur».
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My friend the gourmet cook gets a thousand-yard stare when they see me chopping certain ingredients with a scissors instead of a knife. I assume it’s just their pride that’s traumatised, because they didn’t think of being this efficient themselves, and them an expert.
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@CiaraNi I tend to blend all 3… (Don’t tell anyone).
I think my reading needs are simple, though. What I want is for literature to give me some insight into the lives of people unlike myself, preferably in settings I don’t recognise.
That’s why I tend to avoid middle-aged, white men writing «samtidsliteratur».
@fgraver I'm after the same thing. Worldwide literature, worldwide fiction, by authors diverse in age and genre and gender - books as a window, not a mirror.
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@datenhalde And I bet her pizza slices are excellently cut too. Good for her. Trailblazing in the kitchen.
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@fgraver I'm after the same thing. Worldwide literature, worldwide fiction, by authors diverse in age and genre and gender - books as a window, not a mirror.
@CiaraNi Agreed!
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It’s the same kind of stare my friend the librarian gets when she’s reminded that I alphabetise my books by first name.
@CiaraNi Oh, cool, I thought I was the only person who does that.
How would the librarian alphabetise books by Icelandic, Ethiopian, or Arabian authors? How about Tibetans and Indonesians who don't hvae surnames at all?
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It’s the same kind of stare my friend the librarian gets when she’s reminded that I alphabetise my books by first name.
@CiaraNi That is screwy decimal!
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@CiaraNi Oh, cool, I thought I was the only person who does that.
How would the librarian alphabetise books by Icelandic, Ethiopian, or Arabian authors? How about Tibetans and Indonesians who don't hvae surnames at all?
@Infrapink Ah! Delighted to learn it's not just me. I like avoiding exactly those kind of questions, having to work out where, say, the Icelandic authors are, etc.
