The Reading Room

Q: How did the elves not check the barrels which they noted were "probably not empty"?

1:17 AM

@Bookworm is this on-topic? It doesn't appear to be about finding a quote from a work of literature but rather just the origin of a quote. (or maybe about what the original version was?

2 hours later…

Bookworm

3:04 AM

So I realize that they were eager to go back to the party, and the person responsible for the barrel management said they were empty, but surely they must have felt that they were obviously not empty when they contained big, heavy dwarves? How did they not check inside? I thought for the whole ti...

j-r-r-tolkien the-hobbit

2 hours later…

verbose

4:57 AM

@Randal'Thor I’m rather pleased with myself about the answer to your question about the south in “A Hundred Years Hence” 🙂

5 hours later…

Q: Was Lily Potter actually pregnant with her second child at the time of her death?

9:30 AM

Some sterling quote-identification answers from new(ish) user shoover recently

Rand al'Thor

9:42 AM

@verbose Rightly so! That was an incredible answer. I hope it can go HNQ and get the votes it deserves, but unfortunately the votes might be a little late to be HNQ-eligible.

@GarethRees Indeed, I'm thinking to bounty one or two of them, especially new answers to older questions which are likely to get less attention naturally. (Newish contributor here, although he joined the site in Feb '17 and first posted in Dec '19.)

7 hours later…

CowperKettle

4:56 PM

Bookworm

I've seen some websites explaining that she was and that Snape was to be the godfather of the second child. This theory doesn't make sense, because if Lily was still mad at him why would she have "talked James into it." However, this website says that this theory is Canon because Rowling replied ...

j-k-rowling harry-potter

5:16 PM

@CowperKettle Is that from 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown? (Did you get this from YouTube?)

6:05 PM

340 + 336 + 324 = 1000 answers out of 4,188 that are currently on our site:

Is there a good way to look for questions I can answer? I've been scrolling through the Unanswered section, but there's a lot of pages.

(and most of those are for books that I didn't read)

@CowperKettle Gosh I hate you so much

@bobble You can go through tags

there are also pages and pages of tags

True, but there's a "search" button

CowperKettle

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Why?

@Tsundoku No, I got it from Facebook.

6:14 PM

@CowperKettle 2B or not 2B :P

CowperKettle

Ah!

It's not easy to find the gems in 1000 unanswered questions — but you don't need to stick to questions about books you've read. If the question is about short-stories or poetry then it might not take too long to read the text

Right! Or song-lyrics

These are good ideas, thanks!

Check the unanswered questions for specific tags, e.g. unanswered questions about Enders Game

6:16 PM

Also: this question about whether Collins planned to write more fiction - well, she has written & released another book since, the prequel book. (Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes)

I think that less than half of the questions I've answered were about books that I had previously read

If the question is about the meaning of a short passage in a book, you might be able to answer it by reading just that passage plus a bit of context

If you speak other languages, it might also contribute a lot to this site

Even if just a little, like me

I know enough Japanese to find someone who speaks English - that's about it

Ah. My Korean is super rusty, but I can also explain some Korean with a strong cultural background/knowledge

@CowperKettle Found it. It is from 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Lee Mack is good at this sort of jokes.

6:25 PM

Here's my list of bookmarks — questions I'd like to see answers to (or better answers to), but which I haven't had inclination to write myself

How should I write the tag for anonymity

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Anonymously, obviously.

Thanks

(rolls eyes) I'm just going to put "anonymously" in the tag excerpt

6:41 PM

Okay, found a poetry question I could work on an answer for :D The poem title and quote were inaccurate, so I've suggested an edit to fix them in the meantime.

nice

3 hours later…

10:03 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr "Questions about anonymous authors or anonymously published works of literature"?

On reading "Caged Bird" (the poem I'm planning to answer a question about) - it's just so pretty. I'm glad that this question introduced me to it.

Eddie Kal

@bobble If you are talking about Angelou, I would recommend you read her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Two sides of the same coin. Thematically tied.