11th Heaven Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Hi all, just wondered what are some of the other book/literature related forums people here use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zcrow Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 I lurk a bit at malazanempire.com; they have some excellent recommendations. And they're pretty damn funny too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarius Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I frequent this board and the sffworld.com boards. I'm sure there's many others out there. Oh, I used to also be a denizen of the Jim Butcher boards -- in fact, that's where I got my user name -- but those forums are SOOOOO busy that it just took up too much of my time, so I quit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Why would you ever want to go anywhere else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I tried a couple general fantasy boards while i lurked here, and this one was always busier...plus more intelligent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarius Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 This one does have a high intelligence quotient, which is something I also enjoy about the sffworld and Butcher boards. I also like the number of Actual Authors who visit both here and sffworld. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I'm here the most, but I also post regularly at Malazan and SFFWorld. It used to be a lot more, but I've run out of time and interest for most. Around the release of WOT book I do still post a bit at places like theoryland or dragonmount, but I soon loose interest (I was once a moderator over at Wotmania). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry. Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I don't frequent book forums that much anymore, due in part to blogs and social media containing things that interest me more and which are closer to my current preferences. But I do post here occasionally, as well as going through the motions and poking the rotting carcass that is the successor site to wotmania (where, like Ken, I used to be a mod there). Every now and then, I'll visit SFF World (but I'm nice there, lest Rob B. smack me silly with a hockey stick ;)) and when linked to, I'll read forums in Spanish or Portuguese.But on the whole, I think forums are becoming dinosaurs. Not all that much "new" to discover after one has integrated oneself into the communal hierarchy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 gonna have to disagree with that Larry -> I think blogs are good for a person to curate a space for their interests/views, but forums are almost essential for dialogue between groups that disagree about things.in any case, this is the only forum I've found with a range of interests and intelligent people that make it worth visiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidan Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 @sciborg2 — Your two paragraphs seem to be at odds with one another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry. Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Forums, like most "mass" entities, tend to congregate toward some sort of mean. It works for mass-popular things (say, ASOIAF-related discussions, as this site), but not very well when it comes to say discussing Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor on an European-American-centric forum (I mention that book because I just finished reading it last night; very moving conclusion). Trying to have such a discussion here, for example, would not get one very far (although if one wants to discuss how WoT/Jordan might be a "sellout," that'll spawn several threads over the years ;)). Discussions of pro/con on forums usually only work for mass-oriented discussion topics; for things less widely-read, blogs and Facebook/Twitter provide much more focused discussion.But I could be wrong, I suppose. Maybe there is a multi-page discussion of Michael Cisco on some forum that I've yet to discover? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach H Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Occasionally take a lurking look at sffworld, the Malazan forums, and Matthew Stover's Overworld forum despite that one being barely alive. I'd have to agree that forums are looking less interesting to me these days, although unfortunately the blog scene isn't that appealing to me either.My favorite book forum was fantasybookspot from a few years ago--great mix of casual genre fans and capital L literature readers/reviewers, and as snark free as you'll get on the 'net. Too bad that site morphed into something completely unrecognizable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 My favorite book forum was fantasybookspot from a few years ago--great mix of casual genre fans and capital L literature readers/reviewers, and as snark free as you'll get on the 'net. Too bad that site morphed into something completely unrecognizable.I used to frequent that place quite a bit and wrote reviews for the site. I didn't like the direction it was going in, so I haven't been there in years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 @sciborg2 — Your two paragraphs seem to be at odds with one another.Hmmm, maybe. I should specify I meant entertainment and gen-chat forums. Dead Cities was good too, but this one seems to have more range in works covered.I agree with Larry that specific books will be discussed on blogs, but even then I find at that level I go for private email exchanges between a few individuals. That level of specificity is nigh impossible to accommodate in a general forum, in the same way few people are going want to have sustained discussions on the flaws of proof-by-induction as a method of teaching certain math concepts.eta:Forums are good for discussions that encompass works, but specific works will be harder to find a group for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11th Heaven Posted June 11, 2012 Author Share Posted June 11, 2012 Thanks for the responses. I'd like to take a break from fantasy so I'm not so sure about places like SFF world or Malazan - I'm looking for something a bit more general. I'm also interested in trying out somewhere with a different flavour/atmosphere. Not that I dislike these boards but a change could be nice. Several books/series I've really enjoyed I wouldn't have tried had I read about them on this site beforehand, and similarly I've not been too into a lot of what I've seen praised on here, so it'd be nice if I could find somewhere a little more in line with my reading tastes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarius Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Ahh. Well, if you want general, try Goodreads. It's not precisely a forum, in the way these are, but it's a good networking site for book lovers. It's easy to find discussions about all sorts of books there. It tends to be more oriented towards John Q. Bookreader than towards Intellectual Discourse, but you can find people who are interested in just about any book ever published if you just look around a bit. And many of us from here on Westeros are members over there as well.www.goodreads.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beniowa Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I used to frequent that place quite a bit and wrote reviews for the site. I didn't like the direction it was going in, so I haven't been there in years.That was the main reason I stopped going there too. The good news is that they finally separated the book section (Bookspot Central) from the rest of the site. They post a bit regularly now I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolverine Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Used to post on Malazan some but I am not into the series enough to stay current on book topics and there seems to be less other discussions that are as busy as here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 My favorite book forum was fantasybookspot from a few years ago--great mix of casual genre fans and capital L literature readers/reviewers, and as snark free as you'll get on the 'net. Too bad that site morphed into something completely unrecognizable.That was a pretty good place, if not very active, and really turned to shit. Jay Tomio (?) was really knowledgeable and had some really epic posts.Ahh. Well, if you want general, try Goodreads. It's not precisely a forum, in the way these are, but it's a good networking site for book lovers. It's easy to find discussions about all sorts of books there. It tends to be more oriented towards John Q. Bookreader than towards Intellectual Discourse, but you can find people who are interested in just about any book ever published if you just look around a bit. And many of us from here on Westeros are members over there as well.www.goodreads.comAnd that's another way in which LibraryThing is better than Goodreads. Under the Groups area there's a ton of subforums for genre and even your location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarius Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 And that's another way in which LibraryThing is better than Goodreads. Under the Groups area there's a ton of subforums for genre and even your location.errrr.....Goodreads also has a ton of different groups with ongoing discussions, so I'm not sure how that's any "worse" than LibraryThing.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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