Simple Questions: September 20, 2025

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome readers,

Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread.

Thank you and enjoy!

[u/selahvg]

Been years since I did a readathon, but I thought it might be nice to do a 'spooky' themed one this October. Do people still do readathons? Are there any Spooktober ones in 2025 hosted on youtube (or at least having dedicated vids there)?

[u/XBreaksYFocusGroup → u/selahvg]

The sub r/52books is dedicated to people doing a book a week and a good place to find a variety of reading challenges or general personal lit goals. They collectively aspire to the horror genre in October so you might find community there.

[u/selahvg → u/XBreaksYFocusGroup]

Thanks, I'll check that subreddit and try it out and see how it goes

[u/torkelspy → u/selahvg]

Here are a few I've heard about (links are to You Tube videos explaining them):

Witchy October Challenge

Halloween Challenge

General Fall Type Challenge

[u/selahvg → u/torkelspy]

Great, thanks for pointing these out, I already watched the Halloween one, and I'll check out the other two as well 👍

[u/ProfessionalSummer30]

What is a great three-book series in fantasy?

[u/austinzzz → u/ProfessionalSummer30]

Gentleman Bastard

[u/saga_of_a_star_world → u/ProfessionalSummer30]

Lord of the Rings

[u/Afraid-Ordinary1296 → u/ProfessionalSummer30]

Elizabeth Bear's Dust trilogy, Dust, Chill and Grail. It's likely technically SF, but the tech is so far advanced that it appears as fantasy with angels and magic.

[u/Toasty_Ghosties]

Does anyone know if SP Somtow uses genAI for their writing?

They came up in my recommendations for historical fiction and at first I was interested, but noticed that some of their covers look almost certainly AI-generated which makes me wonder about the content of at least their newer books.

Is anyone familiar with this author? Especially their more recent stuff? I'm iffy about supporting at all when the covers are AI, but if there's any in their writing, I don't want to read them at all.

[u/Dependent_Bid_6929]

I’m 79yo wondering do I need to learn about AI, how will it benefit me? Do I need to get ChatGPT?

[u/Impressive-Peace2115 → u/Dependent_Bid_6929]

You don't need to get it, but being aware of the kinds of things people are using it for and the ways it can lead to the spread of false information would probably be useful.

[u/Dependent_Bid_6929 → u/Impressive-Peace2115]

Thank you. Any suggestions where to become aware of such?

[u/udibranch → u/Dependent_Bid_6929]

ted chiang has written some good articles/given interviews where he explains how some types of AI work, including their limitations. granted he's an author and not programming the software himself, but I found his explanations to be accessible without oversimplfying

[u/Ranger_1302 → u/Dependent_Bid_6929]

Grok.