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PaperclipPerfector  11hr ago (text post)   431 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026

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I'm reading the new Malazan Karsa book: No Life Forsaken and I noticed something strange. The foreword is dedicated to Youtube book streamers and Booktok explicitly. This feels oddly tacky and off-putting. I never really thought of Steven Erikson in that light. Anyone know if this is some new weird parasocial thing authors are doing? Or is Erikson a trailblazer.

Every time I see a section of a brick-and-mortar bookshop called "booktok" I cringe.

I've heard of video games that include a little notice at the start inviting the player to stream the game on Twitch, which strikes me as tacky in the same way.

Every time I see a section of a brick-and-mortar bookshop called "booktok" I cringe.

This would make me squirm. I'm now dreading going to my local trendy Brick-and-Mortar. Yeah the game thing feels the same way, it's almost like begging for attention. It would feel actually worse if they directly thanked certain game streamers on twitch by the handles

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