u/unnecessary_snacks — reddlx

My first wish came true!!!

(Edit: Deleted and reposted because that first image was so blurry it PAINED ME. Sorry first commenter on the original post, I appreciate you! And then I realized I included the wrong email photo on this second try - FML 🫠. This is what happens when you try to post instead of sleeping at 6am after your 7th 10-hour shift shift in 8 days. Too late to fix now!)

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I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!

I really loved the first book in this series, it has exactly the sort of banter-filled bawdy Britishness that feels like it was written especially for me and my absurd sense of humor. I’ve already pre-ordered the book and the audiobook, but now I get to read it A WEEK EARLY!

Never in a million years did I expect to get this given its apparent popularity!

And I literally just got off my last night shift before a week of vacation, and I have little else to do tomorrow. Who needs sleep?! Thank you universe and thank you Orbit - your timing is impeccable!!!

u/unnecessary_snacks — 3 days ago

▲ 6 r/NetGalleyCommunity

Where are you seeing your average rating?

I have seen multiple discussions recently where folks mention their average rating on NetGalley.

Where are you all finding this stat? I have dug through all the pages I can see and I can’t find it! Is it because I am on mobile?

Thanks! 🙏🏼

Edit: thanks for clarifying everyone! I guess I have some calculating to do

reddit.com

u/unnecessary_snacks — 3 days ago

▲ 4 r/Canning

How tight should rings be AFTER the water bath?

Hi all, I am not that new to canning, I used to do it all the time, but I had a couple year break until last year and I feel like I’ve lost my knack. Last year I had about a 50% failure rate, and on my first batch of jam this year EVERY jar failed.

Possibly it’s my Bernadin lids (newly purchased this week), I’ve seen the posts on here about the issues with them, and I’ve now got some ForJars lids on order. But I followed every step of a recipe I’ve used for a decade, carefully measured a 1/4” gap, checked the glass for cracks, wiped the rims, heated my lids with 180 degree water, attempted finger tight, left them to sit for nearly 20 hours. I was meticulous!

The fact that they all failed makes me think that my issue could also be with how much I tightened them.

So my question to help troubleshoot: When the jars came out after the water bath I noticed that the rings were quite loose - as in slightly jiggling around and no longer finger tight. Is that normal? I cannot for the life of me remember if they typically loosen during the water bath, and if that might be a sign they weren’t tight enough? And if it’s normal for them to loosen, should I make them finger tight again before I leave them to sit?

I tried to search this question in the subreddit, but all I could find were tips on what finger tight means before they go in.

Thanks in advance! Also welcome any other troubleshooting tips.

Update: thanks for the tips everyone.

After a few additional batches last night and this morning, including two more bernardin batches (which still had some failures) and one with ForJars lids, I’ve come to the following conclusions:
- probably didn’t tighten the rings quite enough on my first batch where they all failed

Once I was tightening slightly more:
- despite the manufacturers instructions, I had more success soaking the bernardin lids in hot water. Those all sealed but several doing it with no hot soak still failed.
- ForJars lids seem like I got a 100% success rate (all popped right away, will have to confirm seals tomorrow after they have sat).

So I feel like it was a combination of a technique issue, plus the Bernardin lids being very finicky and/or my batch of lids is a bit defective.

reddit.com

u/unnecessary_snacks — 16 days ago

▲ 7 r/52book

Do you count rereads? What about rererere-reads or half paying attention re-reads?

I personally count rereads because if I haven’t read a book in a year or two, sitting down with it again in a dedicated way feels like it’s a full read. This has been working for me as a strategy in most cases.

But I have a different relationship with certain audiobooks. I read a lot of physical books and I listen to several new audiobooks every month. And then I have a handful of audiobooks that are comfort listens, which I often put on for even just a few minutes at random times throughout the day: when I am getting ready for bed / falling asleep, when I am folding laundry, when I am sitting in an Uber, etc etc. It’s what I do when I want something familiar and I don’t want to have to think too hard to follow the plot.

Two of these books I probably end up listening to in full at least once a month, but it feels wrong to count them because while I am paying attention, it’s not as much as for a first time listen (and maybe it just feels a wee bit embarrassing to list a book 6+ times?). By my usual measure, first time reading/listening this year, I am at 36/52. But if I include all those re-listens of the same thing 6+ times this year I am definitely already over 52 for the year.

I am genuinely interested in what others do in this situation. Do others have a comfort physical/e-book they do this with? Or is it an audiobook specific problem because of how easy it is to have them on when you’re doing something else? Is there a line where you say I’m not counting this re-read/re-listen?

Edit: thanks for the comments. I could have made the title clearer because I am most interested in how people count a frequent comfort re-read, and I can see from the comments that having a comfort audiobook doesn’t seem to be a super common experience here. And audiobooks are clearly a polarizing topic!

I know that counting is a personal thing, and there’s lots of ways I could do it. So I appreciate those who shared their own approach, I find all the different ideas helpful as I figure out what works for me and gets me that dopamine hit (as u/Brontards so delightfully put it)!

reddit.com

u/unnecessary_snacks — 17 days ago

▲ 9 r/52book

30/52 - Consumptive week fuelled by Lego disassembly

Got through a lot of books in the last week(ish) thanks in part being motivated to review a couple of ARCs I had due, and to having some time off. I spent loads of time getting caught up on chores which got me through three(!) audiobooks… the main chore being starting to painstakingly disassemble my many LOTR Lego sets in advance of an upcoming move.

__5 stars__: Mortedant’s Peril by RJ Barker, new release I got as a last minute ARC (thank you NetGalley/Macmillan Audio). Really good murder mystery and found family vibes, excellent narration in the audiobook. If you like the Tainted Cup/Ana and Din mysteries, you may like this too.

__4 stars__: The Bullet That Missed, Brigands and Breadknives, and To Dream In Darkness. All solid and enjoyable. It’s pretty typical for me to jump around genres, so we’ve got another murder mystery, a cozy fantasy adventure, and a somewhat depressing romantasy.

I am enjoying working through the Thursday Murder club series by Richard Osman, and I enjoyed The Bullet That Missed more than the prior entry in the series. Although the ending was the most over the top hard / hard to believe yet, I accept that this is a bit of a ‘suspend your disbelief’ series.

To Dream In Darkness is an upcoming ARC from Ann Liang (thank you NetGalley/St Martin’s Press), who’s work I’ve never read before. Slow burn, lots of yearning, somewhat novel (to me) ancient Chinese mythical setting. One to look out for when it releases in October if you like that sort of thing!

Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree was as much fun as Legends and Lattes, still cozy but with more adventure, I really liked it.

__3 stars__: The Fake Divination Offense by Sara Raasch. New release (thank you NetGalley/Macmillan Audio). The first book in the series, The Entanglement of Rival Wizards, was a fun and different take on the academic rivals to lovers trope in the spirit of Ali Hazelwood and I quite enjoyed it. This book was disappointing in comparison, too many tropes (sports romance, fake relationship, forced proximity etc etc) and just OK.

__DNF__: Not included in this count is Cat Sebastian’s Star Shipped. I tried to start this audiobook and the narrator was so horrible I barely made it past the first chapter. If anyone has read this and loved it, I need convincing to give it another try.

If you’ve read/enjoyed any of these, I welcome your thoughts!

u/unnecessary_snacks — 1 month ago

▲ 57 r/52book

Almost halfway! [25/52]

New here, and new to actually attempting a reading challenge this year! Reading a book a week felt really ambitious for me, but I started getting into reading more regularly last year and was consuming books at such a pace I thought it might be doable. I finally sat down and had a look through my good reads, and was feeling really pleased to realize I am almost halfway to my goal - so I just had to share somewhere!

I definitely have been trending towards light and/or smutty romances this year, but I’ve finally accepted that life’s too short, and if that’s what I need to read to read regularly, then so be it! That said, I feel like the regular practice has been helping me build my attention span, and I’ve been able to tackle a few more challenging books this year quite quickly that in the past might have taken me weeks to get through. I feel ready to attempt The Witch King by Martha Wells again, which I gave up on part way through last year.

4.5-5 ⭐️ reads so far:

- The Tainted Cup and Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett. I love a mystery, particularly ones that feature spunky older women, which probably has something to do with all the Murder She Wrote I watched as a child with my mother. I really enjoy the relationship and banter between Ana and Din. Just really well done mysteries.

- Morfran, Dark Lord Reformed by S.B. West. This was an ARC I just picked up this week on a whim to review. Short and light hearted take on the reformed villain turned hero. I could find things to criticize, but I had so much fun with it I just had to give it five stars.

- At least some of the Murder Bot series by Martha Wells, but they all blend together in my mind, it’s a bit difficult to distinguish which ones were the best.

Pretty much everything else falls on the 3-4⭐️ spectrum. I’ve done a better job picking out things I know I’ll enjoy this year which has probably helped my progress as well.

u/unnecessary_snacks — 2 months ago