Luca E

I clicked TRENDING STORIES and found, Love in a time of hatred vol 2. Simple question which is probably stupid, but how do you find vol 1? I like to start at the beginning.

I have one supplementary question to help clarify what decides you to pick up a story and read the first chapter. What makes you pick a story and open chapter one? If you say summary, title, author, that's all the answer I need. If you say genre or tags, I need more, why this story and not a hundred others in the same genre or with the same tags. You can say, I open every new story, you can say it was recommended (where?). THE QUESTION: Thinking about the last and only the last, story you clicked to open chapter one. Why did you choose to open that story?

I'll take a look 👍

I read these blogs about authors and stories and I agree with you they are very useful and informative and influence what I read. People's comments I'm not sure about, they are very varied, I don't think they influence me too much.

Thing is, how do you know what might be a good story before reading it, and before reading it you have to, as it were, pick it up off the shelves. When looking at the shelves you have only the info from the presentation, title, author name, summary, cover image, genre, tags, etc. So whilst I don't go looking for author names they are right there with the story title and both influence me.

@ReaderPaul you have good reason to be weary, if anyone thinks AI gives you correct information they are mistaken, because it only searches the web and compiles what it finds, and we all know the web is full of crap. Ask a question on a forum and you get everyone's opinion, their prejudices, and more besides, everything except the answer to your question.

This was a great story with real believable characters and an interesting plot. Struggling with what life throws at you and trying to surmount obstacles and deal with the bad stuff, is the general theme. The story is about young gay men and the mc Aled who is trying to come to terms with his sexual orientation in a less than supportive family situation. Highly recommend, very well done.

Really liked the characters and story, if you continue it, I would read it, definitely!

You are absolutely right, it has no bearing on anything, but I still pay attention to superficial things like names and covers and even does a title grab me. What can I say, I'm influenced by even the most mundane things when choosing what to read, maybe (as I said before) because there is so much choice I'll use anything to narrow down what I pick up to read.

People have brought up the topic of AI with the view that they are emphatically opposed to anything with even the slightest hint of AI influence. It's not the thread topic (should maybe start one), but my thoughts are: have you heard of Ludittes?

Interesting! I read story descriptions and reviews, although often they are not very comprehensive. Views, I ignore entirely, number of page hits doesn't influence my choice of what to read. Same for reputation, if that means classic, promising authors, because who decides that and on what basis? But still, being honest, names like cover images influence me even despite myself. I'm trying to decide what to buy (read) in a shop with the shelves packed full. Spoilt for choice, or too much choice, which usually leaves me in the story in process section and I hardly ever look at old stuff!

Not suggesting that at all, wondering if author names (real or pseudo) influence choice of reading, like cover images?

I don't think anyone has ever brought this up before. Leaving aside story recommendations, and irrespective of genres or tags, in process or completed, summaries, titles, covers, there is another aspect to searching for stories to read which influences my choice to take a look or not. This may appear silly, superficial, or not something you even consider yourself, but the author's name influences my choice. I tend to avoid silly names, single names, or other names that simply are not proper names. So John Masters, J Masters, no problem, JM001, or SuperMasterJohn, I flip past. I wonder if other readers find author names influence their choice of what to read. If you are wondering why, I see silly names as authors who aren't serious or are in a different universe to the world of books and literature. And yes, I know it's probably stupid on my part, but I'm like that despite everything, it's how I am and I kind of think there must be others like me or there are other things about stories that make you flip past without bothering to open and look?

I don't know about Matt, too early to say, I'm more worried about an explosive ending 💥

There are a lot of sheep! 🤣 I suppose, but I know nothing about farming, sheep or anything... Oh, and yeah, good chapter.

Have you ever asked yourself why the Netherlands is such a cool country? They made same sex marriage legal years before anywhere else (2001). They made cannabis legal (2013) and don't need to fight a drugs war. They have legal prostitution (18 years old) it's a self-employed legal profession. Around 95% of Dutch people speak English and 75% speak German, and they speak these languages well because they learn early in school. They also have windmills and tulips, a very flat landscape, and are not big church goers (64% of people have never been to church). Homosexuality has been legal in the Netherlands since 1811 and the age of consent is 16 (perhaps because they don't go to church?). And, no, I'm not Dutch, in case you thought this was some cultural self-promotion.

unless you happen to live in the Netherlands. Dutch kids are some of the happiest in the world. Learn something about another culture - 5 minute read... https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/16/dutch-children-unusually-happy-healthy-avondvierdaagse-walking-festival

I was once travelling by train from the coast to London after arriving in England. I had a question about what time we would arrive so decide to ask the two gentlemen sitting opposite. "Excuse me," I said, "do you speak English?" They were Scottish, bit like Irish, strong accent.

@Ron you bring up pronunciation and irrespective of where you live English is a language which does not pronounce words the way they write them. Which leaves a lot of scope for variation. Need examples? We write monk we pronounce munk, we write colour or color we pronounce cula, culaw. If we said col-law, you might think we were saying collar. Essentially, it's speech laziness, which sometimes makes it difficult for native speakers to understand one another. This is not confined to English, it happens everywhere. One question is, when is speech an accent and when is it slang?

Belonging... a huge topic open to discussion. Somewhere to call home... yes, but that can change. If you belong to something, somewhere, other people, by definition, do not belong, they are excluded. So, it's nice for you to belong, but crap for the outsiders.

Is any country somewhere to be proud of? “patriotism… is, of course, far better than individual selfishness, but… inferior to universal charity and should always give way to universal charity when the two conflict.” CS Lewis.

It was a wonderful chapter, from Chester to London, meeting Harry's parents and his best friend from his childhood. But I can't help having a niggling fear that everything is going too well and something bad is going to happen.

What is the number in the green box that ranks trending stories?

Exaggerated mannerisms, comportment, and speech, or simply as Robbie Williams said, all the good looking men are gay! Oh it seemed forever stopped today All the lonely hearts in London Caught a plane and flew away And all the best women are married All the handsome men are gay

I think Callum is a nice guy with a crush!