AN: March 2026 Pick - Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz > Likes and Comments

Our March pick got a shortcut from March Madness nominee to book of the month pick as Tom went with Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Ouch!! $12.99 for 163 pages? 14 week wait for the library loan. 1 audible credit for 4 hours 13 minutes? i hate a novella priced at the price of a novel.

Yeah, that’s not awesome. I was able to get it from Libby in relatively short order. The queue may be long, but the book is short and a quick read so it went faster than normal.

I agree it is a bit on the expensive side for a novella AU$18.

This is becoming a trend for publishers to overprice shorter works.

I enjoyed the previous book I read by Annalee. Autonomous. Hopefully this one is as good.

Unless I am mistaken, this is the first time we have read a book by the partner of a previous S & L Book Pick author. We read All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders in 2016.

They are also our 4th non-binary author.

Lucky to have just read this one, really enjoyable.

As book readers we get used to the low price per hour of entertainment from a book. Meanwhile we're paying $5 for a cup of coffee, or $15 for a movie plus another God knows what for snacks. And don't get me started on what it costs to drive.

Anyway, I also got sticker shock from the cost for a novella. Murderbot did it successfully and it looks like this book is going gangbusters. It's a 14 week wait at LAPL tho I will note that there are five "quick loan" copies for those who are willing to obsessively refresh the Hold notice to see if one pops up. *cough* I'll probably wind up paying. It's less than the price of one day's drive to work.

8 cents a page is just ridiculous and greedy. They try and get away with short stuff but just imagine if Brandon Sanderson books were priced the same. Would you pay $100 for Wind and Truth? And remember, your not actually buying the book from Kindle anymore, only the access rights until Amazon decides otherwise.

Must not be popular in Wisconsin (most of state is pooled for digital). Put a hold on digital Audio book yesterday and a few hours later I could have gotten it, but suspended it. I want to finish some other stuff first, and at only 4 hours it won't take me long to get through it once I start.

Automatic Noodle is part of the latest Humble Bundle containing books by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz. These books are from Tor.com in EPUB format. I don't know if it's region-locked.
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/ch...

Mark wrote: "Automatic Noodle is part of the latest Humble Bundle containing books by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz. These books are from Tor.com in ERPUB format. I don't know if it's region-locked.
ht..."

“This promotion is not available in your region”
Boo!
£9.99 for the kindle edition and not available at either of the library systems I have access to :(

John, It the principle of the old consumer saying, : That just not right, I buy a lot of novellas and tordotcom is generally very good with their price point for their novella. My favorite novella series , Penric & Desdemona, is $ 3.99 as a rule and 1 at 6.99, which I consider the high end price of a novella.

I see a similar price point for many top novellas these days. This one is in line with "This is How You Lose the Time War", the Monk & Robot duology, Murderbot novellas, Wayward Children series, The River has Roots, and others in genre.

I have no idea how Lemony Snicket's Poison for Breakfast would be classified as far as genre goes, but its price point was similar.

And same thing on the literary side. I just read Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These" and it also had a roughly similar price point.

But I also don't judge value by volume when it comes to books. /shrug

Ruth wrote: “This promotion is not available in your region”
Boo!"

Same experience here in Canada. So unfair! It's so easy to buy whatever you want in the states, while everywhere else you get one tenth the variety, no good deals, and you have to pay extra for shipping on everything.

The price we pay for living in a more stable and sane country, I guess... Do I want the good deals more than I want free access to health care?? 🤔

It is expensive but also was the best SF I read last year. Very wholesome :D

You can use VPN for humble bundle, btw.

Silvana wrote: "You can use VPN for humble bundle, btw."

I was wondering about that. Never used a VPN before, but was thinking of doing so and wondered if it would work for this. From what I saw, it’s risky as keys are region locked too, causing later issues, but that discussion was mainly around games, so I’m not sure there are the same risks for books.

I just got it off libby! New to the group, excited for my first group read!!

Jackson wrote: "I just got it off libby! New to the group, excited for my first group read!!"

Welcome! We’re a friendly bunch, so feel free to participate in the discussions. We don’t bite.

Except maybe Ruth. No, the other Ruth,

Jackson wrote: "I just got it off libby! New to the group, excited for my first group read!!"

That's awesome. Welcome! This is about as short a read as we will have, but that just gives us more time in the month for discussion. Or to catch up on Feb's read if you are like me.

We are also a bit of a bifurcated group in that some prefer to hang out here, some prefer to hang out on the Discord server, and some of us hang out on both. Here is a link to the Discord server if you are not already a member there as well. https://discord.gg/e2YUWzz But don't feel any need to join if you would just prefer to hang out here.

Also this is a great time to be here in this Goodreeds group, since the March Madness voting is going on. Tends to be a bit busier in general around here while that is going on, can taper off a bit at other times.

Hope you have a great time no matter how you choose to participate in the group.

Trike wrote: "Jackson wrote: "I just got it off libby! New to the group, excited for my first group read!!"

Welcome! We’re a friendly bunch, so feel free to participate in the discussions. We don’t bite.

Excep..."

This is slander! Ruth doesn’t bite, just merely engages in vicious battles with the supreme sword…

Unless you meant me… in which case… hey, it was one time! And just because my old school friend still bears a toothy scar is no reason to hold it against me!

I read this late last year. I really enjoyed it. I wanted noodles when I was reading it. Alas, I did not get noodles.

Call the robots.

I think it makes sense that a novella might be priced similarly or higher than a full-length novel. I have never looked at a 1000+ page tome and thought, "Oh yeah, that's inviting."

This brings to mind one of my favorite Mark Twain -isms:
"If I had more time, I would have written something shorter."

Stephen wrote: "Ouch!! $12.99 for 163 pages? 14 week wait for the library loan. 1 audible credit for 4 hours 13 minutes? i hate a novella priced at the price of a novel."

Or you could pay $11.80 if you don't use a credit, I think it's about the same amount as a credit costs if you're on two credit plans like I am, but it's much cheaper than most audiobooks cost. I've noticed that Audible tends to price its audiobooks based on the length of the book. I'd personally go with an audiobook if the cost of the ebook is bothering you and the audiobooks prices are more based on length.

It's a really good book, and I'd suggest you buy it or get it from the library.

I just finished automatic noodle and wow. I was blown away by how much a group of robots could tug so hard on my heartstrings. What a creative and wonderful read. I’m normally a fantasy/sci-fi series guy. But reads like this are perfect when I need a palette cleanser in between long series or books.

And how quick you're in with them. Like Sweety's decision to give up the human-passing look to lean more in to who they are. Or Staybehind's back story. really enjoyed this one.

started at lunch already finished I liked it I too am now craving hand made noodles

Biang! Biang! (Not bad for a human.)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Iy1...

Also "biang" is the most complicated chinese character in the world.

This was such a fun and nice read last year for me. I'm pleased to see it as the March book pick. I hope everyone is hungry now! 🍜🍜🍜

Tamahome wrote: "Biang! Biang! (Not bad for a human.)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Iy1...

Also "biang" is the most complicated chinese character in the world.

"

I am hungry now! Nom nom :-)

This was a terrific read, only my 3rd 5-star of the year so far. I really liked the satire of it combined with the found family cozy feel.

It reminds me of the Three Robots shorts John Scalzi wrote for Netflix’s Love Death + Robots series. This one titled “Exit Strategies” is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2VbiaejfEEM

Newitz was a bit more subtle than that, but a lot of the same vibes.

I definitely was thinking about those shorts while reading this.

It was similar vibes.

I'd call it a solid 4 Star read, but I needed a bit more. It felt unfinished.

Which if it's the start of a series I'd be up for more.