The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

We've never met, I was active on the Board for a while but left before you arrived the first time. Nice to meet you!

My family moved a while ago and I haven't quite managed to unpack all of my books (many of which I donated to the library before the move; books are big and heavy). I'm absolutely using this thread as a reading list, moved to my e-reader.

For authors, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files is the most represented, with Diane Duane a close second. Third would probably be Brandon Sanderson.

The thing is, I'm not much of a hoarder. When I had a proper bookshelf, I just donated old books periodically to make way for new ones. I'm still kicking myself for giving away my nearly-complete Animorphs collection, though.

A few weeks back, I saw the question: counting up the books on your bookshelves, who are the top five most-represented authors (excluding collected editions)? Being, well, me, I didn't want to just guess, so I went round and counted. ^_^

I've assumed "collected editions" means "the complete works of X", so have included simple omnibus editions and treated them as multiple books. I've excluded the kids' bookshelves as far too chaotic, and anything I've boxed up and put aside (sorry, Star Wars EU!), but have included the Kindle. I've also extended it to top 10, because... I have lots of time on my hands?

10 - Ken Macleod (13 books). Socialist Scottish sci-fi. Mostly series, but Newton's Wake is a fun standalone.

9 - Diane Duane (also 13). The entire Young Wizards series, two of them twice. This urban fantasy YA series starts with So You Want To Be A Wizard.

8 - David & Leigh Eddings (14). I own more, but have put a lot of them away. Epic fantasy; my favourite is The Redemption of Althalus.

7 - T. Kingfisher / Ursula Vernon (18). Younger fantasy, or horror, depending which name she's using. Mostly Kaitlyn's collection, but A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is a fun one.

6 - Jim Butcher (20). The entire Dresden Files. Adult urban fantasy; the first couple are a bit ropey, I think I started with Summer Knight.

5 - Timothy Zahn (22). Excellent sci-fi author who loves his twists. Writes Grand Admiral Thrawn for Star Wars. Outside that, I recommend Night Train to Rigel.

4 - Rick Riordan (24). Percy Jackson and the Olympians and all its spinoffs. Start at the beginning with The Lightning Thief.

3 - Dan Abnett (25). This surprised me. All Warhammer 40K books - Gaunt's Ghosts and Eisenhorn-Ravenor. Apparently there's a lot of them. I think the three Eisenhorn books are usually found as an omnibus, conveniently titled Eisenhorn.

2 - JRR Tolkien (45). I mean, what did you expect? Multiple copies of LotR, Hobbit, and Silm, plus all the Histories and various non-Middle-earth writings. Uh... start with The Lord of the Rings?

1 - Sir Terry Pratchett (100). I kept finding more! We have three side-by-side bookshelves in our living room, and Pterry runs across the middle row of all three and down to the next. Best known for the Discworld (I'd start with Wyrd Sisters or Guards! Guards!), but his standalone works are also excellent. Check out Nation sometime.

So that's me! Very heavy on the long-series authors, which makes sense given the question. Doesn't include several of my favourite authors (Rosemary Sutcliffe & Susan Cooper, for instance), but again... that wasn't the question!

I'd love to see other people's lists! You can do anything from just your top 5 "most books" authors, with no numbers or details, to... well, this. I'm not picky. ^_^

hS

I alas did not have any lilac around. That tea towel looks lovely though.

...Also, hi! I'm still alive, but I've been wrapped up in finals and general school labor, so I've been kind of absent.

Especially the bit about therapy. To be blunt, this Board isn't a confessional or a court of law; internet strangers are really not the people you want to display so much emotional vulnerability to. So, Yuki, please find a therapist, or at least someone you can talk to whenever you feel like you might be catastrophising. Like, this isn't the first time you've worked yourself up about something and had to be told to walk things back, and I wonder how much of this cycle can be averted by you venting to someone who knows you much better (and preferably offline, not on the Board), who can offer you more of a voice of reason.

I hope this doesn't come off as too harsh. I think I'm not the only person here who is worried about you. I hope you find the help you need.

Grooming is a set of actions performed with active intent to cause harm- it is categorically impossible to do so without being aware of what you are doing.

And secondly... To amplify what Ekwy is saying further, this feels a lot like self-harm by deliberately inflicting shame and fear on yourself. Please, please talk to a therapist; I also am not going to sign off on any punishment. As the confessor you've appointed, Ki, I hereby say "this doesn't sound like you've done anything significantly wrong", and also, "please try to find acceptance and forgiveness for yourself"; if being hard on yourself was going to work, it would have worked by now.

-Delta

I apologize for bringing up distressing issues multiple times.

A few thoughts, that others are extremely welcome to weigh in on. I am by no means an expert, but shall attempt to view this calmly and rationally.

First of all, the messages you sent to your friend do in no way sufficiently detail the issue, not that I necessarily want further details. Based on eight vague messages I have no way of determining whether or not active, calculated grooming has taken place. Based on the messages you seem to have been unaware of implications at the time, which I've taken to mean that in hindsight, perhaps some of that behaviour was inappropriate. I have no way of knowing that. But "grooming" is a specific thing, with a specific meaning, not a word to throw around lightly, so here's what I do know.

• Talking about sexuality with a younger sibling is not abuse. They might have questions that you, as an older sibling, might be equipped to answer, or just be curious. Being honest and having open communication about those topics is a perfectly normal thing. It's not grooming. I don't know the details, and I don't want to know them, but there's nothing inherently wrong with the topic.

• Letting a younger sibling listen to implicit song lyrics is also not abuse. You could just be wanting to show off a cool artist or a good song that you like. You even appeared to wait until they were older to show them a particular song, indicating that you deemed that one inappropriate. That is not abuser behaviour. Groomers have no concept of inappropriate, and they don't care if they make someone uncomfortable. The intention of a groomer is to constantly push boundaries and get closer to their intended victim. A groomer is aware of what they're doing. You can't groom someone by accident.

I am not asking for more details, but I am asking you to look within yourself and see if there was an intention of hurt and manipulation. The PPC Posting Board can't decide that for you. We are not your judge, jury or executioner based on eight messages where you proclaim yourself an abuser and not accepting arguments against it.

You came to the Board for confession, accepting whatever punishment we decided on, but I for one am not going to sign off on any punishment here. What I am going to do is to ask you, with every fiber of my being, is to please talk to a therapist. You have a lot on your mind, and a conscience that's weighing you down, and you seem in desperate need of a professional who can help you figure out all your thoughts.

You seem very worried that you are a bad person. For what it's worth, abusers don't usually worry so much about things like that.

/Ekwy

What.

I don't think I am really eqipped to talk about this, but from a cursory glance, this does not seem to be grooming, or a bannable offence.

-Ls

For various reasons, but mainly that I'm not in the best mental health state at the moment. Those with clearer heads should decide what, if anything, needs to be done with this.

~Neshomeh

I am not looking for reassurance. I am confessing something that shouldn't be kept hidden once I figured out the implications, and seeking comm consensus. I am aware, and will accept, any punishment afterwards, up to and including permanent ban and spin-off cancellation.

I have compiled some of the messages I first sent to my closest friend that I believe sufficiently detail the issue.

New tensions arise between the Trio and Neville, and Harry's new Firebolt makes him popular. Also, the Order ventures into topics surrounding the birds Bonds and the bees.

Are you interested in transhumanist sci-fi that explores questions of what "identify" and "being yourself" even mean when you're a digital upload of a person who can make fork into multiple copies of themselves (or even if you've gotten into simulated reality)?

Do you like your fiction casually queer? (Several characters are nonbinary, for example, and this has no impact on the plot)

Do you not particularly mind several characters being anthropomorphic foxes*?

Then you might very well like Qoheleth by Makyo. I finished listening to it lately (the book is free and there's an audiobook done by the author) and quite enjoyed it. It's not a particularly light or fluffy read - you may end up considering what it means to be you or punched in the feels, for instance - but if you're in the mood for something like that, I'd recommendQoheleth.

(I can't comment on the sequels, having not read them yet)

My main complaint is that the book has two plotlines that are almost independent of each other and that, because of said almost along with thematic reasons, it interleaves them. This means that you'll need to wait for a bit for the camera to come back around in a few placesz even though you want to know what happens next now.

*: No, I will not be expanding why I put a footnote on that lest it be spoilers.

• Tomash

I had forgotten about the day, but did manage to celebrate somewhat - though I had a towel on me because I was going to the Beach.

• Tomash

The year has rolled around, and it is once again the Glorious 25th. For truth! Freedom! Justice! Reasonably-priced love! And a hard-boiled egg! I am wearing a very withered piece of lilac flower, at least until it falls off.

If you were there, you know.

As it is also Towel Day, the most appropriate link I can share is to the official teatowel of the Glorious 25th.

hS

I think you mentioned reading IAHF, or something? Congrats on the gender!

Glad to see you back! Have some more lemming repellent!

Nice to meet ya, returnbie, I’m Linstar!

—Ls

I've gotten into DE myself lately, although I haven't quite gotten through it yet. Good to see you around here again.

You did doctorlit's hand, as I recall; that was fun. Welcome back!

hS

Hey, PPC.

Hope everyone on here is well! I briefly hung around here in the spring of 2016, and several years and many life events later I've decided to stop by again.

Back in the day, I posted as Ivy-M-Blue, talked about Sherlock and Doctor Who, and had a small weekly post where I would deduce things about Board members based on photos of their room.

Currently -- well, turns out I'm trans, and I go by CJ and use he/him pronouns. I enjoy Disco Elysium and am yet to find a TV show or movie recently that's really caught and kept my attention. I'll keep a sentence from my old introduction as it still does a fairly good job at summing things up: in addition to being a voracious reader, I am a musician, an athlete, a student, an actor, and occasionally a good person.

Nice to re-meet everyone, and meet people anew!

No worries on having to read it in pieces. You gotta do what you gotta do.

In the books, Godric's Hollow is the name for the village and the Potters simply had a cottage there, but ofc in this verse the Potters' status as a Most Ancient House is reflected in their ancestral home. I was inspired by Kentwell Hall for the general look and... Gryffindor vibe. And also because the film location for Godric's Hollow was the Guildhall in Lavenham, which is nearby.

Dobby is having the time of his life!

I think Harry was doing a sort of "plausible deniability" thing. Since he wasn't the one who made the Hollow visible to Muggles, he could just invite them over and see what they make of the weirdness--which in Gary and Rose's case, was a lot of "oh, special effects!" rather than "oh, magic is real". I imagine the "secret context" is basically saying "as long as I don't specifically say 'magic is real and I'm a wizard', the Ministry won't come after me because I could also literally just be discussing Muggle fantasy books like The Hobbit". It's a bit rules-lawyering!

And also, I don't think the Ministry put a Taboo on wizards talking about magic--they only seem to show up if you do magic in front of a Muggle, or if a Muggle got sent to the hospital because of magic. Though the latter sort of Muggle-baiting seems to be regarded as largely a joke in the books, because only Arthur Weasley seems to take it seriously at all. I imagine in Purityworld, where Muggles are more or less considered subhuman by the people in power, Muggle-baiting is only illegal in writing, but rarely ever prosecuted. Harry thought if he could keep Gary and Rose out of the really dangerous stuff, then they could have a laugh at the talking mirrors and what not and maybe Gary and Rose would think, oh, maybe the secret context is 'magic' all on their own without Harry mentioning it outright. That... did not go as planned.

I'm sure it comes in handy if you're referencing a book for an essay and need to flip back and forth! More eco-friendly than multiple post-its, for sure.

The Fawleys are in Cantankerous Nott's "Sacred 28" list, which forms the basis of the Most Ancient Houses. They're largely considered a "good Pureblood family" in fanon.

Draco is literally wearing leather pants though ;) Buckskin breeches are skin-tight as well!

Regulus had always been committed to social expectations in the books, given that he was the favourite between him and Sirius. But it's clear he also feels compassion and loyalty towards characters that don't share the same social strata as him, as we see with him and Kreacher, so it makes sense that once disillusioned from the Death Eaters/Knights of Camelot, he would seek to associate with people similarly at odds with Voldemort/Gaunt's ideology in order to deradicalise himself. So yeah, that makes him a perfect role model for Draco!

And, to be fair, the comments he makes about gentlemen not flaunting their wealth is... sort of common sense with the truly wealthy/old money folks. The nouveau riche flaunt their wealth; old money maintain things to be passed down to descendants. And you dress according to what the host sets, so if Lily specifically wanted a casual Christmas, then it would be gauche to wear dress robes. Draco is operating off of what he knows, which is that you wear dress robes to evening social events, and therefore ends up a bit of an odd duck!

The orangery is most definitely warm, since oranges need that sort of temperature to grow, so the peacocks will be fine. :D

They chased Scabbers into the east wing, where Charlus' wards did a lot of the rest of the work. I imagine a lot of the standard horror movie haunted house tropes came into play to get Gary and Rose into the dungeons. It is a magical house...

Thank you for reading!