u/imm_uol1819

Big fan of turn based FF, I stopped playing after X and the more action-like combat in FF XII onwards used to make me retch.

But I gave it a go on the Switch and I actually love it! Reminds me of Dragon Age but with loads more classes.

The only thing that bugs me is how easy it is: I am at some temple on a snowy mountain (I'm playing it in Japanese and names are hard to remember), and so far I've been able to two-shot basically everything despite not grinding at all (time battlemage-archer). I even run through some areas without killing anything to avoid over levelling.

And the bosses so far were so straightforward, I didn't really need to change my playstyle around them.

Does it get harder later on? I still really like the gameplay and Fran is one of the coolest characters in the whole franchise, I just wish the game was a bit more challenging!

There's a market in Ica where sellers have loads of gaming stuff, from retrogames to newer consoles.

They're all selling Nintendo Switch 2 for 1000 sol, or 1300 with a game.

Where's the catch? Retailers I've checked in a shopping mall nearby are charging more than twice than that!

We've been trapped in Huacachina due to the landslide that hit the road to Arequipa. Our Peru Hop bus from Huacachina to Nazca and then Arequipa got cancelled twice.

Yesterday we visisted Ica and loved it, it wasn't a gringo colony like Huacachina and the food and city market were amazing.

But now we're a third day in Huacachina and need to stay sane: what could we do?

EDIT: thanks for the tips! We came from Paracas and we want to get as close to Arequipa/Puno as possible as our next Peru Hop step is Bolivia!

Option 1) take a bus from Ica to Nazca and wait there for the road to clear, then resume the trip with Peru Hop to Arequipa

Option 2) Visit lesser known villages in the area

Option 3) Open to suggestions!

Any recommendations are welcome, thanks a lot!

Hello, I'm 31m, 178cm 67kg and since I started taking Vivotif (3 tablets, one every other day), I've had a weird burning/crampy feeling in my stomach that comes and goes throughout the day.

My diet is pretty healthy: no ultra processed foods, no takeaways, always cook from scratch, so I'm pretty sure it's the Vivotif. I take creatine tablets, omega 3 ans magnesium glycinate as daily supplements.

Just wanted to know if anyone esle has had similar side effects?

If it helps, I've been taking the tablets hours after dinner, before bed.

First read: I struggled. It felt like a fever dream, an unpleasant one. Second read: super fun, I kept track of dates, events and wrote down what I felt could be explained but wasn't able to.

Was hoping we could crack this together!

Here we go:

**- Gradus, glass and Sudarg!**

1. Gradus Jakob = Sudarg of Bokay!! What's the link between the two?? Sudarg is mentioned as a phenomenonal guy who made a great mirror that was in the "King"'s bedroom when he lived for a bit with Fleur when he was young

1.1) The first time K. sees G., G. Is fixing some glass panes in the castle. MORE GLASS! Links to the accident at the Glass Factory that sparked the "revolution"?

1.2) Gradus keeps buying animals made of glass: a giraffe in (forgot to write down the city), then a hippo in Nice! He's just a big fan of... glass paraphernalia?

1.3) Gradus, pamphlets, glass factory, revolution, conspiracies... is this a parody of Russian revolutionary nihilists?

**- Miscellaneous:**

2. What dark word did K.'s gardener employ on J.S.'s last day? Note 998

3. "Promnad vespert mid J.S." -> meaning? I kept an eye out for Zemblan translations, but I only found out that "mid" means "with"

4. Why does K. want to know Jim Coates' "real" name from Sybil? Just to learn more about J.S. about the time he wrote to him about the woman who had a similar near death experience?

5. Did K kill a young guy by the river in Cedarn? See Index! The "young angler" is alive in the commentary, and sounds very much dead in the index!

6. Why did K keep buying ping pong tables?? From 2 to 3!!

7. Why are some characters missing from the index?? E.g. Nattochdag is mentioned at least 3 times but nowhere to be found in the index. K is just lazy?

8. Do the "crown jewels" exist, and where are they? They could be a metaphor for something. We know they're not in the castle, but they're INSIDE something. K stops after saying towards the end "they are in-".

9. In the castle, there was something with a walnut kernel inside it. What's that supposed to mean? There was a painter called Kernel.

First read: I struggled. It felt like a fever dream, an unpleasant one. Second read: super fun, I kept track of dates, events and wrote down what I felt could be explained but wasn't able to.

Was hoping we could crack this together!

Here we go:

- Gradus, glass and Sudarg!

1. Gradus Jakob = Sudarg of Bokay!! What's the link between the two?? Sudarg is mentioned as a phenomenonal guy who made a great mirror that was in the "King"'s bedroom when he lived for a bit with Fleur when he was young

1.1) The first time K. sees G., G. Is fixing some glass panes in the castle. MORE GLASS! Links to the accident at the Glass Factory that sparked the "revolution"?

1.2) Gradus keeps buying animals made of glass: a giraffe in (forgot to write down the city), then a hippo in Nice! He's just a big fan of... glass paraphernalia?

1.3) Gradus, pamphlets, glass factory, revolution, conspiracies... is this a parody of Russian revolutionary nihilists?

- Miscellaneous:

2. What dark word did K.'s gardener employ on J.S.'s last day? Note 998

3. "Promnad vespert mid J.S." -> meaning? I kept an eye out for Zemblan translations, but I only found out that "mid" means "with"

4. Why does K. want to know Jim Coates' "real" name from Sybil? Just to learn more about J.S. about the time he wrote to him about the woman who had a similar near death experience?

5. Did K kill a young guy by the river in Cedarn? See Index! The "young angler" is alive in the commentary, and sounds very much dead in the index!

6. Why did K keep buying ping pong tables?? From 2 to 3!!

7. Why are some characters missing from the index?? E.g. Nattochdag is mentioned at least 3 times but nowhere to be found in the index. K is just lazy?

8. Do the "crown jewels" exist, and where are they? They could be a metaphor for something. We know they're not in the castle, but they're INSIDE something. K stops after saying towards the end "they are in-".

9. In the castle, there was something with a walnut kernel inside it. What's that supposed to mean? There was a painter called Kernel.

Disclaimer: I've read all of his most popular books, TBK being my favourite.

PLEASE LET'S KEEP THIS SPOILER-FREE AS I'M ONLY 300 PAGES IN (PART 2)

To me, The Devils/Demons/The Possessed is a lot more "plot-centric" than his other works, where the characters' own philosophy/religious beliefs take the stage instead.

While the first 200 pages might feel confusing as things start to make more sense towards the end of part 1 and in the first half of part 2, this only makes me want to read more and find out about all the little hints and secrets scattered from page 1.

Add to this A LOT of dialogues - some of which are our beloved thought provoking debates about religion, good and evil, and happiness - and multi-faceted charecters, and you have a surprisingly readable 700 page brick.

Hello! I'm visiting Bolivia (La Paz, Uyuni, Salt Flats) and Peru in August, and I love reading local literature while travelling.

Which Bolivian classic should I read that will make me appreciate the otherworldy scenery of the Salt Flats? :)

EDIT: it needs to be in English unfortunately!

After going through everyone's suggestions + seeing what's available here in UK, I've narrowed my choice down to these four books for each stage of my trip in August:

- Lima, Arequipa: The Time of the Hero (La Ciudad Y Los Perros), Mario Vargas Llosa

- Cuzco, Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu: Deep Rivers (Los Rios Profundos), Jose Maria Arguedas

- The Amazon (Madre de Dios reserve): The Green House, Mario Vargas Llosa

Bonus to read on my way back home: collection of short stories by Juilo Ramon Ribeyro

What do you guys think? Can't wait to explore Peruvian Literature :)

World of Books isn't running their "buy 3 get 1 free" promo anymore, only "buy 3 get the 4th at half price" instead :( and their prices have been steadily increasing (source: I bought over 50 books from them last year)...

I LOVE 2nd hand bookshops / charity shops, but they can be hit or miss; a reliable and cheap online retailer would be ideal when I need something specific

What's your guys' go to? Ideally something that offers discounts on bundles as I don't mind buying 4-5 books at a time. I read 19-20th century literature from all over the world, looking to read more Eastern European lit (loving Russian lit atm) and French lit

Thanks!

Traveling to Peru for 5 weeks soon and looking for books by Peruvian authors that take place in Peru - any genre as long as it's fiction (including historical fiction)!

Bonus points if it's a classic, I'm a big fan of 19th-20th literature :)

Thanks!

Traveling to peru for 5 weeks soon and looking for books by Peruvian authors that take place in Peru - any genre as long as it's fiction (including historical fiction)!

Bonus points if it's a classic, I'm a big fan of 19th-20th literature :)

Thanks!

I hate abridged versions with a passion, I didn't know the full novel was massive and blindly bought a penguin classic edition from the 70s translated by Stephen Garry.

It's over 500 pages long and split between four sections: Peace, War etc.

To those familiar with both versions, what am I missing if I do decide to read the abridged version?

According to gpt the abridged version is better if "my main interest is the characters and relationships rather than the full historical epic."

I've been down a Russian lit rabbit hole for almost a year now: from Gogol to Dosto to Goncharov to Nabokov to Solzhenitsyn, but I still haven't read anything by Checkov and Pushkin.

Which one novel/collection of short stories would you recomend?