#(i was gonna buy the hardcover anyways)

[pee-com]

guys my super epic awesome bf bought me the riddler year one hardcover for my belated bday and Christmas gift

[harringtonisms]

and when the bonus chapter has a scene of jane and august running into shara and chloe in Pancake Billy's House of Pancakes then what?????????

GUYS!!!! LOOK AT THAT!!!! SVJAGSKABSKSGAKHDG IM SO FKING HAPPY!!!

[isawken]

filling up my queue and scheduling enough posts to last several months because i think february might kill me

the company i work for sold off my department to an entire new company without telling anyone anything ahead of time, even the directors, so i've been fielding questions from my team as if i also didn't just get slapped in the fucking face about it along with the rest of them

i am in charge of twenty people (which is fucked up and insane to me but what's even more than that is they respect me like what the fuck is up with that don't they know i'm a literal clown) and i'm having to hold each of their hands and mediate and troubleshoot and tech support all of them while we all try to figure out what is going on, and they all have two weeks to use any PTO they have because the company of course won't pay that shit out of course not why would they so we're going to be operating at 50% for the next two weeks and it's my ass that will be picking up the slack (which is my own fault and i don't regret it, i told them all to take the time they've earned because fuck the company and fuck the client needs, but god its still gonna be rough), and i'm just so angry, this shit is disrespectful, my team don't even make $20 an hour they don't deserve this and neither do i, and apparently the contract is up for renegotiation in 18 months and we're expected to see ~workforce reduction~ at the very least and total client annihilation at the most and it's just. i knew 2024 wasn't going to be like, awesome, but i definitely didn't think it was going to start like this. january kicked my entire ass off and now february is going to kick my tits off and then what's gonna come next? a break, perhaps? a break for my wretched soul? my weary heart doth not have faith! i'm going to make a bingo card of all potential things that could continue to get fucked this year and for each bingo i get i earn one (1) week long bender

also hey if you're reading this can you do me a favor. make me a little promise. never buy ziploc baggies or glade candles ever again. please. like you don't have to, obviously. if you super duper like those candles or w/e you can keep buying them. i won't be mad. but it would be cool if you purposefully avoided those products forever and ever and ever. for me.

anyways check out this cute binder journal i have assembled it’s the light of my life right now. i got honey yellow grid paper. i got plastic sleeve inserts i can put shit in. i got cute calendar pages. it’s iridescent. it’s got a heart shaped zipper pull. this motherfucker is the envy of all the aesthetic study influencers writing out their business class notes in a plain felt covered teal hardcover. this son of a gun is the all time in journalistic variety and potential. this is the bitch that’s gonna keep me alive

i'm so up my own asshole about this it's unreal

[dollarbin]

Nickel Bin #4:

Cat Stevens' Foreigner Suite

Though I'm surely as guilty of practicing it as the next music blogger, I don't know how to spell pretentious without looking it up.

But The Beatles surely entered every new Spelling Bee hoping pretentious would be the first word they were responsible for. They knew the concept all too well. After all, Yoko and John decided his schlong, and nothing else, was a worthy subject for a 40 minute film.

(No, I'm not gonna show you a clip of the movie here; get your mind out of the gutter; and anyway, the film was only ever shown once and is not available anywhere; so no slow-motion image of Lennon's Johnson for you; Yoko said "the critics wouldn't touch it"; neither will this blog...)

Paul meanwhile routinely praised his own music by posing as a nonexistent journalist named Clint Harrigan. And George was inspired to write Try Some, Buy Some to document "his sudden perception of God amid the temptations of the material world" while living in this house:

And Ringo... well you know The Dollar Bin is shy about criticizing Ringo, even if his website just announced a "LANDMARK PHOTOGRAPHY RETROSPECTIVE HARDCOVER “BEATS & THREADS” CHRONICLING OVER 70 YEARS OF HIS LEGENDARY DRUM KITS AND ERA DEFINING FASHIONS."

There is perhaps just one form of late 60s to mid 70s era rock pretension of which the lads from Liverpool never partook: the side-long song. Arthur Lee's Love introduced the idea of one long song filling an entire side of vinyl on their second record, and everyone, including Lee, instantly recognized that doing so was pretentious nonsense.

(By the way, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands does not count. Why? A) it's only 11 minutes long and takes up a side on its own only because it is at the end of a double album, b) it's too awesome to criticize in any way, and c) cuz I said so.)

Relax: I love Pink Floyd's Echoes (not to mention The Pentangle's Jack Orion) as much as any reasonable white guy, but you've got to admit there is little one can imagine more pretentious than declaring that your music requires listeners to concentrate for 18-23 minutes without pause because you're a big deal artist sent by the gods who cannot be bothered to meet the needs of radio formatting or real people with real responsibilities.

And that brings us to our first ever discussion of one of the Dollar Bin's greatest oddballs, Cat Stevens. It wasn't pretentious enough for Cat to fill the entire A Side of his career cauterizing 73 album Foreigner with one song; he also insisted on calling it a "suite".

The musical term "suite" has its origins in the 1500's and was central to Baroque era music; the idea of a suite was to assemble serious music together for the purpose of serious dancing. Bach wrote a bunch of them; time signatures were to be rigidly followed; everything was either homophonic (not homophobic, ye hasty reader, homophonic: all acceptable music is queer friendly) or polyphonic or, who am I kidding? I have no idea what a song suite actually is; all I can say that it's a serious piece of serious music; in other words it has nothing to do with Jethro Tull.

What I'm trying to say here is that taking three to seven pop songs, smashing them together (with either total or no elegance) and calling it a "suite" is comparable to me wrapping up last Wednesday's spaghetti in a tortilla, adding canned salsa, and declaring my pathetic lunch a Super Deluxe Burrito. Stephen Stills was of course the master of such pretension; see Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. I'll bet he's tucking into a spaghetti burrito as we speak.

Cat Stevens' Foreigner Suite is, admittedly, another totally pretentious addition to this club. And yet, it features everything we love about the Cat Man: sweet harmonies, dense sonic changes, passionate lyrics and his patented I'm-a-grandpa-who-zipped-up-too-fast-and-got-his-hairy-hacky-sack-caught-in-it vocal stylings. Plus he recorded the song while on tax exile in Jamaica and was appropriately enamored with reggae, so the whole thing is a fitting follow up to Paul Simon's Mother and Child Reunion.

My wife bought this record early in our relationship at a Salvation Army without my pretentious approval. I knew Cat Stevens. My long ago friend Thom Moore of Moore Brothers fame had shown us Harold & Maude and I'd been listening to Tea for The Tillerman since middle school.

(My buddy Eric and I once spent all of a sleepover listening to the title track on repeat; when we finally went to bed we turned it down as low as it could go while still remaining audible; therefore we woke up every other minute and a half when everyone belted out HAPPY DAY!; we had no access to, or interest in, drugs, so that was our idea of trippin').

But I'd decided early on that everything after Mona Bone Jakon (now that's a record that deserves a big deal Dollar Bin treatment; it's the overlooked third member of holy, end-of-the-60's, white people music trinity alongside Five Leaves Left and Astral Weeks) was a compromise, and that everything after Teaser and the Firecat was a worthy soundtrack for that film about Lennon's one-eyed monster.

So I turned my pretentious nose up at my lady friend's thrift store find, resumed listening to Daydream Nation, and thereby missed out on Foreigner Suite for the rest of the 90's.

But then we had a kid in 02 it was time to a) rewrite my pretentious first/last novel, b) drink more/cheaper beer, and c) listen to the records in my collection I had previously ignored, all in an effort to prove to myself that I was not simply a middle aged, balding dadman forever more. And that brought me to Foreigner Suite.

Let's listen.

Where to start? I count the soulful main theme (There are no words...) which opens the piece briefly and then comes back for an extended run at the end, then there's another two or three unique melody sections as well as the funk in the middle, and then the whole thing soars away with sweet piano doodling and a chorus that I can't begin to get my head around: heaven, Cat sings, must have programmed you. Is he singing to a 60's era, Warehouse-sized IBM machine? Or to Neil's new robot? Is he inventing the internet years before Al Gore did?

I love this song. I'd play it loud on weekends in our first real home whenever my wife was at work. My infant daughter spent the 8 minutes unpacking all her toys one by one, tasting each of them. And I'd sit on the floor beside her, tasting them too. Then she'd don every costume jewelry necklace in the house and crawl about, dragging bling wherever she went. And I'd sing along with Cat and crawl along after her, marvelling. After all, Heaven had programmed her.

And when she graduates from college this May I'll likely have Cat Stevens in my head:

When you're talking to me And the whirling wind turns to song Why it sets my soul free

Here's to Cat. He wound up donating all the money he saved on his taxes while in Jamaica to UNESCO.

More importantly, here's to Martin Luther King. Today's his day. His words and voice are currently knocking the wind out of my ninth grade students in all the right ways.

And, most importantly, here's to all the unpretentious people who spent today in service to others.

Cheers.

[kihaku-gato]

A REALLY lucky Thrift haul today!

There were a LOT of gems at the thrift for books (I'll later make a separate post on those which I didn't buy cause GODDAMN some rarities were on the shelves!) but what I got is still damn good in itself;

From the one thrift I got Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel (it is the lowest rated book and the last book from the Earth's Children series but I've never read it and it would help complete the series collection) and Guide to the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Iceland by Hordur Kristinsson (do I need a book on a place I'll never go to? No. BUT I GOT IT ANYWAYS. I'm a sucker for ID/guide books that come with range/location maps).

From the second thrift I would've gotten the cute wooden carved cat first but said to msyelf "I'm only gonna get it if I find a good book here" AND HO BOY DID I EVER. Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (I already own a newer print but its paperback, THIS one is an oldie hardcover!), and more importantly I also got Moreta Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey!!!! So with those fortunes the wooden kitty came home with me too. Sis/mom said it is very much a knick knack that fits me.

Bonus is that since it's made of wood Alice can't obliterate it by knocking off the shelves like she would with a more fragile material.

[loopy4lu]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Lets go over my haul and my thoughts on gifttsssss

Vintage Staedtler Pencils - SO COOL. They were produced in Germany before ww2 and stopped production during the war, they were from my pop and im pretty sure he just like... owned these? I love his weird "junk" gifts he used to have a little mystery box thing when we visited. Im prob gonna make him a drawing with them.

Big ass art set - From one of my friends, absolutely MASSIVE. Its got oils paints and pastels, watercolour paints, markers and pencils, normal pencils, acrylic paints and extra goodies. Like the whole galore. Im gonna make her an artwork too ( ´∀`)

Hardcover illustrated The Hunger Games copy - From my bestfriend, we spotted it in a bookstore together and we both rlly wanted it, and she remembered, found it cheaper (my little sales guru ♡) and gave me it. I LOVE MY BEST FRIEND SOOOOO MUCH (*/∀＼*)

Full Percy Jackson and the Olympians series - Up to the 4th book rn (had already read 1+2 and got 3+4 as an early present) and im gonna cry so hard reading The Last Olympian. I read the Magnus Chase books when i was younger and grew to love them more, and kinda decided i wanted to know the Annabeth lore.

Full Heroes of Olympus series - Will, in fact, once again, CRY. Like hey if i cant get all the details whats the point??

The Art of Feminism - My nans gift (along eith cash (　$▽$)) its about feminist art throughout history, plus its meanings and contexts. As an art nerd and feminist it was so awesomeeeee!!

4 plastic babies in matching fruit costumes... - Its a running joke gift with my friend ik its weird (^^;))) but.. yea she buys me babies every year, they do get better tho. the first year was one that had a motion sensor and would cry every time it sensed... yknow... motion. we were walking around the shops btw. for hours. and i was stuck. with a crying baby. and either it would cry in my bag, or i would have to hold it so people didnt think i was a creep and it would cry constantly... anyways one of the new babies has already been decapitated and de-limbed (never trust your friends with a baby guys)

Icecream from my teacher - I think she felt bad she didnt hear the birthday message at assembly or smth ( ´;ﾟ;∀;ﾟ;) but it was yummers

Chocolate - also yummers

So that basically sums up my gift haul... pretty great and i think theres still more to come!! Cant wait to read ALL MY BOOKS MUHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! AND USE ALLLLLL THE ART SUPPLIES YOULL NEVER STOP MEEEEEE

[tsnbrainrot]

I got a book from Blackwell's earlier this year and it was hardcover and like $22 including shipping, so maybe that would work for you? (I live on the east coast of the US)

oh?? really ?! that's actually not that bad! i'm surprised. i mean, im canadian so our money is worth less so it would prob. be more eexpensive than that... but considering how expensive books are in canada anyways, it might still be cheaper, or at least the same. the last hardcover i bought was paperback sized and 38.99$ + taxes. i keep meaning to buy natasha pulley's latest and it's something like 45$ + taxes. so maybe i should splurge for a uk cover. im also east coast side so at least shipping wise it should be similar....

thanks for letting me know anon, i really appreciate it and i'm def gonna look into it when swordcrossed comes out <33

[lockedtowers]

im supposed to be getting ready for work so heres some run ons

aka brina rambles, also this is not rebloggable for a reason. this is shit ive worked on for ages. across blogs i have deleted and everything. i dont want random ppl rbing it without permission and taking info and i want it set up so if the info is taken it can still be traced back here. esp with how long ive been deciding on names for those courts lmao. they’re not the most ingenius or anything but i still put work into it yknow.

so anyways basically cassies bio dad vas is ofc a full blood fae, and a hybrid of the two main ‘courts’ by wonderland standards bc ofc im going with the basis that is shown both in syfy canon and ouat canon of wonderland denizens have a very different physiology to other realms, Jefferson in ouat remembered everything in his original life and just had the new memories shoved into his head too which drove him upending, i write that into cassie she has her old memories because of her physiology but the new memories didnt really settle in her head at all, so she only has vague understanding of it all. her twin brother has all his old memories but he also has the new ones so he very much so leans into the ‘im gonna fuck around and see what happens cause this is great’ bc hes a clown, but anyways. and yes i play it as jefferson is from wonderland, i write my jeffy on my sideblog, i also write grace, ima do what i want, but abc kept going back and forth with it, they mention his home in ouatiw but then in ouat they imply hes not from there so they didnt give a shit either, i can do what i want

but again main point, there’s no reason why other realms faeries would have the same physiology as wonderland faeries would, and ive played it into threads too before, the general descriptions of cheshire cats generally lean heavily faerie like, cassie is the cheshire while her twin brother is the dormouse, in syfy verse those are more titles than actual being. but shes a faerie she has an animal transformation which makes that also an actual being, and while her title is generally just ‘cat’ to most people, she is aligned with and technically a cheshire cat, she has the grin they associate with cheshires and she often times acts as a sort of guide, but also a very annoying pot stirrer in multiple ways, and a main thing that i play on a lot is how she guides ‘oysters’ aka humans to hatter, which is something people dont bring up a lot. in aaiw the cheshire cat is essentially toying with alice and leading her on to where she should go, and while alice is following the rabbit, the cat is manipulating the system in its own way as well. im actually gonna go buy another crappy edition of aaiw just so i can annoyingly tab it and stuff and im debating a cruddy paper one or a good hardcover— anyways

so like obviously creative liberties here, faeries arent really canon to wonderland at all but like fair folk magical aspects are still present, like the pig turning into a baby and shit, all the wildcarding that happens. creative liberties, its free media now to do whatever the fuck you want. i know many people hate adaptions and im sorry they hate fun im gonna do what i want.

now most commonly people separate fae by seelie and unseelie, or ‘good and bad’ faeries is often how they describe seelie and unseelie. and whilst im sort of doing similar (but giving them new names bc again, wonderland is not the human land, theres no reason that they have to have the same names) im also adding to it, adapting it, etc etc. Even in the separate courts, there are subtypes, but the royal families of each court would have at least a basic gift with all the powers of the subtypes, which is essentially why they’re the ‘royal family’ despite their own powers being so much weaker than an individual only showcasing one subtype of magic. more equals greater, despite the obvious issues with that, more or less.

The two ‘courts’ or ‘good and bad’ as the ‘good’ would have one believe, the current names i have going for them would essentially be translated to Deyreins, the ‘good’, and Bludveils, the ‘bad’ (i still have to fix the spelling on my bios on the sideblog tho lol). Bludveils centuries ago were cursed by the Deyreins to an eternal binding of honesty, which means they have to be truthful in words, but they can use twist the truth through twisting and confusing tales, purposefully manipulating it to sound like something else while theyre still being truthful, and basically just using loopholes to get their way. And the results of that curse is used against them to frame them as massively villainous, cruel, and evil creatures. What the Deyreins did not count on was the Queen of Hearts using this to further her own gain, and villainizing both sides as a way to essentially wipe them out from the face of Wonderland. Those that are left on Wonderlands main plane hide their species, and the rest had to escape to an astral plane to protect themselves from her.

But a large portion already had to escape because of Cassie’s father. Most will only recognize him by one of two names, the White Knight who destroyed the house of black and gave reign to the Reds and Whites, or as the monster, the creature of everyones darkest fears, the creature accused of slaughtering villages for fun and embarking on chaotic destruction for the thrill, The Jabberwock. By all accounts, he is both. His animal transformation is the monster itself and he was always the one taking the head, but never the one given the crown. Which is ironic given his existence is due to a romantic tryst between a noble of the Deyrein court and a royal of the Bludveil court. The twins didn’t get equal parts of the bloodlines the way he did, Cassandra inherited a lot more Bludveil than Deyrein, the curse affects her too, but Mason got almost nothing from it. It’s recessive in his body, but the curse doesn’t act on him. he has nothing to worry about, she does.

They’re only have fae though, the other half is Witch, their mother is the Queen of Spades and an extremely powerful sorceress, and trysts like that are not meant to happen according to the Deyrein courts, they are not supposed to exist. they’re essentially not allowed to because that threatens the order the deyreins built for themselves centuries ago and regularly slaughter bludveils for trying to fight against. no matter which way its sliced or diced, they’re in danger from just about every single point. if their family bloodlines got out, from the hearts for threatening the fact they stole the crown from the rightful heirs, from the deyrein fae for threatening their control over the other plane because its proof they can coexist in ways other than treaties and threats and submission.

and ofc jack is just a bitch whos mad cassie didnt bend the knee to him, is obsessed with her anyways due to her fae magic, and doesnt want his crown threatened that he never earned in the first place. he’ll say otherwise like ph i played my mother and i worked for the resistance, bitch you stole that land you stole that crown get fucked, anyways.

thats all my rambles on that bc funnily enough this was supposed to be about what blood does to cassie lol and i never got there.

[wireframearson]

i had a dream last night that i was watching a pm seymour video and one of my posts got in and i was so excited, and for some reason i remember the post very vividly so here it is:

"So, I have a friend who works as a waitress in a very rich area. Let's call her J. The place she works at has a "ask for anything, get anything you ask for" policy. So that means like steaks grilled in mayo, a scoop of strawberry ice cream on top of your tomato soup, whatever weird food request you ask for (within reason) can be made. Because of this, the place is notorious for having a bunch of weird clients, and weird clients bring weird tips. J has been tipped $100 in $1 bills, full hardcover books, many copies of the bible, oddly frequently she gets tipped boxes of matches? but sometimes people will choose to buy the restaurant some ingredients. Does the place need them? No. Do they use them anyways? Yeah, it's just that little bit of extra money they can save, of course they're gonna use it. So one night the place was busier than it ever had been. They were severely understaffed due to a flu going around, and literally every single table was filled. Apparently there was some sort of health craze going around with olive oil salads? Like, imagine everything on a caesar salad but instead of caesar dressing it was just a load of extra-extra-virgin olive oil. Something about 'clearing out your insides'. So the restaurant was serving just a bunch of salads drenched in olive oil. Eventually the place ran out of the stuff, but people just kept coming in and ordering olive oil salads. And the more times J turned people away who ordered it, the more restless they got. J got called every word under the sun, got scoffed at, even had a bottle of wine thrown at her once (she caught it, thankfully). Eventually a client walked in, saw J on the verge of tears and stressed out of her mind, and gently took her hands in his own. He didn't say anything, only nodded his head and made a motion for J to follow him. She stepped outside to see an old, beat-up truck with several wooden crates in the back. She opened one to see it FULL of extra-extra-virgin olive oil. She fell to her knees and started to sob, and the client went inside and came back out with the rest of the waiters on duty. They all carried the oil inside and ended up going through all of it (roughly 100 bottles) in the next 12 hours. The client kept coming back day after day with more olive oil shipments until the craze began to die down and people stopped ordering the olive oil salad. The client walked in for the last time and waved at J. She motioned him over. 'I never got your name,' she said with a nervous. And she hadn't, cuz she had been so busy she never thought to ask for it. The client smiled at her and said 'You can call me Jesus'."

[theavatarspirit]

the urge to buy books I’ve already read,,,,,,,,,unbearable

[bellsong]

oh nice i found frankenstein online just as i predicted

[copperbadge]

Earlier this year, when I was getting ready to publish Fete For A King, I thought, I want to level up and buy my own ISBN again, like I did for Six Harvests. 

An ISBN is the identifier that allows bookstores to sell your books and libraries to catalogue them, and while Lulu will issue you one for free, they retain certain rights if you accept, and I like to own as much as possible of the work that I do. In other countries, you can just...ask for an ISBN and it’s given to you, but in the US some shady-ass nonsense company called Bowker owns all the ISBNs. One will cost you $125, but you can also buy in bulk; 10 will “only” run you $295. And I thought, well, I will probably write nine more books in my lifetime and if not, I can give them to friends. 

And then I wrote two more books this year and published a compilation of all three.

Each book needed two ISBNs, one for epub and one for paperback, and the compilation needed three because of the hardback, so this year I went through nine ISBNs. Given that I have more books in the pipeline and could use to assign ISBNs to some of my older work, I went back to Bowker today to look at buying another bulk of 10, and noticed that for $575 you can buy 100 ISBNs. 

I’m worried what kind of output I’ll ramp up to if I know I have 100 ISBNs to fill before I die, but I definitely could fill more than another 10 ISBNs just with my back catalogue, and if I buy two sets of 10 ISBNs that’s $590 anyway. 

I’m gonna need to wait a paycheck or two, but...yeah I think I’m gonna buy 100 ISBNs. And then just...pray for my immortal soul or something. 

I mean, if we subtract twelve-ish for the books that already exist that need them, and another eight for various special editions (hardcovers, compilations, etc) that’s 80 remaining, and if each book requires two, that’s forty books. Which is only one per year if I live to be eighty-three. 

Forty books. And that’s terrible. 

I suppose I could just like. Become a publisher. There's nothing saying I have to WRITE all forty...

[pipermca]

(Err, reposting this separately because I realized I was glomming a whole side "me! me!" post onto @decepti-thots' post about the Megastar book, and that was not my intention. So... Go read their post and then come back here. XD)

Oh man, that Megastar book!

I've had this book on my To Read list for ages. It's an absolutely ridiculous amount of money if I wanted to order a physical copy from the bookstore (it's only available here in hardcover for some reason???) but it's extremely reasonable on the Kobo ebook store. Maybe I'll buy it for my next book to read.

(No live blog/reading because then I'd never get through it, but I promise I would share my thoughts after I am finished with it.)

But also... I've had vague thoughts about possibly filing the serial numbers off of The Renegade and the Hound, and rewriting it as a were/shifter furry novel. (I've never made any attempt to hide the fact that I've been a furry forever, but if this is news to you... Well, now you know.)

Renegade is just a standard mid-fantasy adventure romance/chosen one trope with robots. Turning it into a furry novel would mean a bit of reworking of some of the "lore" (for example, managing to find a method for Shockwave's dark combiner magic to work - it's probably gonna be gruesome, lol) but I think it would translate extremely easily. Plus, no one outside the fandom (and very few inside the fandom, really) give a shit about Bluestreak and Hound, so it's not like people would read them and go "Hey I think this is Hound from Transformers." XD

Also, I have no intention of ever trying to sell it to a larger publisher; if anything it would be a self-pub, or I might market it to one of the small furry presses that are around.

Anyway, I've had that on the back burner for a few years. If I ever find my interest in TFs seriously starting to wane I might pull out my red pen and start marking up Renegade to see how ridiculously fuzzy I can make it.

[dent-de-leon]

Hi, Leo! I hope you don't mind this random question. Do you happen to know if buying the Lucien novel is gonna be cheaper after release date? Or is it better to pre-order? I'll be able to afford the ebook version but I love handbook so I was wondering, you know? Thank you anyway!

hi!! oh I don't mind at all. I'm no expert, but I'll try to answer as best I can. I do think you should be able to save some money if you're willing to wait--it looks like you can get CR's previous book, Kith & Kin for about $18 now. And it first released at the end of November, for what I believe was $28.

Right now pre-ordering the Lucien book will cost you $28.99. It's always probably gonna be a little more on the expensive side, just because it's hardcover. But if you wanted to wait for a while, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get it cheaper.

[alexcabotgf]

tag 9 people to learn more about their interests

TAGGED BY: @punishebe (thank u sm angel 🤍 🤍 🤍)

MUSIC

fave genre? rock of all kinds (classic/pop/indie/alt/punk etc)

fave artist? bands: fleetwood mac, the gits, counting crows, the 1975; solo artists: stevie nicks, joan jett, phoebe bridgers, halsey, lana del rey

fave song? you missed my heart by phoebe bridgers

song currently stuck in your head? male fantasy by billie eilish but also that our god is an awesome god gospel for whatever reason

5 fave lyrics? i have so many faves so these are gonna be the first ones i can think of off the top of my head

it hurts me to be angry / kills me to be kind — bob (cousin o) by the gits

you couldn’t have / stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody / who loves you more — moon song by phoebe bridgers

and she wonders is this real / or does she just want to be queen — the highwayman by stevie nicks

rulers make bad lovers / you better put your kingdom up for sale — gold dust woman by fleetwood mac

so you pull down the shades and you shut off the lights / because somehow we mixed up 'goodbye’ and ‘goodnight’ — possibility days by counting crows

radio or your own playlist | solo artists or bands | pop or indie | loud or silent volume I slow or fast songs | music video or lyrics video | speakers or headset | riding a bus in silence or while listening to music | driving in silence or with radio on (i don’t drive but if i did definitely with radio on)

BOOKS

fav book genre? mystery/thrillers but boy have they been disappointing me lately

fav writer? not to sound uneducated but i don’t think i have one. i haven’t read enough books from one singular author to consider them my favorite, the closest one would be gillian flynn since i’ve read and liked all of her books but idk

fav book? once again i don’t think i have an all time favorite standalone book, but the two favorites of 2020 for me were sleepers by lorenzo carcaterra and white oleander by janet fitch

fav book series? the millennium trilogy by stieg larsson

comfort book? probably something i used to read as a kid like the sisterhood of the traveling pants series

perfect book to read on a rainy day? either a hard hitting contemporary or a thriller

fave characters? i don’t have many favorite book characters but an all time fave would be miss lisbeth from millennium trilogy

5 quotes from your fave books that you know by heart? here are some that have stuck with me (even tho i haven’t read some of the books they’re from,,,,anyway)

for you, a thousand times over — the kite runner by khaled hosseini (leech rally haven’t even read this book but i think about this quote at least once a week)

for the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. they may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change //  what woman here is so enamoured of her own oppression that she cannot see her heel print upon another woman’s face? — the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house by audre lorde

always learn poems by heart. they have to become the marrow in your bones. like fluoride in the water, they’ll make your soul impervious to the world’s soft decay — white oleander by janet fitch

i’ll take care of you / it’s rotten work / not to me. not if it’s you — anne carson’s an oresteia ofc! a classic!! that i haven’t yet read lmao

a painful truth, and yet we must endure // he’ll have my hatred anywhere he goes — oedipus at colonus and oedipus rex respectively, transl. by david mulroy

hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending | reliable or unreliable narrator  | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS (depends on the genre) | judging by the covers or by the summary | rereading or reading just once

TV AND MOVIES

fave tv/movie genre? drama, horror, thriller

fave movie? a few years ago i would’ve said girl interrupted but i’m not sure if it'd hold up at this point so i’ll have to go with my all time favorite franchise which is scream <3

comfort movie? anything that i have fond memories of watching (e.g american honey, empire records) or anything i used to watch as a kid (e.g lotr)

fave tv show? prison break. those bald men running around just make me feel a certain type of way

most rewatched tv show? probably house md but desperate housewives is a close second

5 fave characters? 

gale weathers — scream

michael scofield — prison break

lisbeth salander — millennium trilogy i know i’ve already used her for fave book character but noomi rapace’s portrayal is chef’s kiss

tauriel  — the hobbit 

and of course i have to include my wife, the loml alex cabot  — svu

tv shows or movies | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or binging (i usually binge older shows but prefer when only 1 episode is released per week) | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once

TAGGING: @joanna-lannister @xavierdalon @retrodame @henry-cavill @hannahhunti @moonlight  @sonosions @anyataylorjoy @simmonsjemma @anistonjen + everyone else who’s interested in doing this!

[willowgast]

tag game time!

i was tagged by the lovely @contre-qui, with the aim of tagging nine people to learn about their interests - i'm unlikely to find that many people myself but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it! going under the cut because this is a pretty long(ish) one.

music!

fave genre a little bit of everything but right now especially medieval folk & pop rock

fave artist a strange mixture of måneskin, kraftklub, siames, cavetown, and rainbow kitten surprise

fave song hard choice, but probably 'brothers' by siames & eddy capparelli

most listened to song recently either 'coraline' by måneskin or 'king orfeo' from the child ballads

song currently stuck in your head 'happy pills' by weathers

five fave lyrics oh boy, this is gonna take some thought.

"called to the devil and the devil said / hey! why you been calling this late? / it's like 2a.m. and the bars all close at ten in hell, that's a rule i made / anyway, you say you're too busy saving everybody else to save yourself / and you don't want no help, oh well / that's the story to tell" ('it's called: freefall' by rainbow kitten surprise)

"today i coo, today i caw / i have a pistol party and i kill 'em all / i think i might be scared / of the man and the men with their hands inside / and the women, oh, the women all they do is cry / and i, well i lose my mind" ('little pistol' by mother mother)

"so did you pack your bag, or did somebody pack it for you? / take me to the sad, sad party that you're bound to / whether you're a 'have-not' or a 'have', i got a question / are you living dead, or is this some kind of possession?' ('blast doors' by everything everything)

"but what if i run out of fertiliser? / what if the clouds run out of rain? what if lemon boy won't grow no longer? what if beaches dry of sugar cane?" ('lemon boy' by cavetown)

"now they tell you that you're their muse / yeah, they're so inspired / but where were they when they called your name / and they lit the fire? / when the voices came, you cut your hair / but you're stilled confused" ('joan of arc' by arcade fire)

books!

fave book genre fantasy all the way

fave writer bernardine evaristo, leigh bardugo, madeline miller

fave book oh dear, here we go. 'circe' by madeline miller, 'six of crows' and 'crooked kingdom' by leigh bardugo, 'girl, woman, other' by bernardine evaristo, 'good omens' by neil gaiman & terry pratchett, 'the raven cycle' series by maggie stiefvater, 'oranges are not the only fruit' by jeanette winterson, and a whole lot of old norse literature of dubious authorship (but especially 'gisla saga' and 'hrafnkels saga freysgoða', and pretty much all of the eddic poems in the volsung cycle)

fave book series it's a tie between leigh bardugo's grishaverse novels and maggie stiefvater's 'the raven cycle'

comfort book 'the secret kingdom' by jenny nimmo

rainy day book any of my norse books, sagas or poetry

fave characters nina zenik in the grishaverse, ronan lynch in 'the raven cycle', gisli in 'gisla saga' (not sure if that counts as a character or historical figure, dependent on perspective...?), and circe in, y'know, 'circe'

five quotes from your fave books?

"i thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but i see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands" ('circe' by madeline miller)

"'spreader of swords, it is your own sons' / corpse-bloody hearts you've chewed up with honey, / proud man, you've consumed dead men's meat, / eating it as ale-dainties, sending it to the high seat' [...] with the point of a blade she gave the bed a bloody drink, / with a hel-keen hand, and set the dogs free; / she woke the servants, and in front of the hall-door / she flung a burning brand: she paid them back for her brothers. / to the fire she gave everyone who was inside, / who'd come from myrkheim after murdering gunnar and his men; / the ancient timbers fell, the temples smoked, / the buildings burned of budli's kin, and the shield-maids inside; / their lives stemmed, sinking into hot flames." (gudrun avenges her brother in 'atlakviða', a poem in the old norse poetic and elder eddas)

"you aren't a flower, you're every blossom in the wood blooming at once. you are a tidal wave. you're a stampede. you are overwhelming." ('crooked kingdom' by leigh bardugo)

"from the passenger seat, ronan began to swear at adam. it was a long, involved swear, using every forbidden word possible, often in compound-word form. as adam stared at his lap, penitent, he mused that there was something musical about the ronan when he swore, a careful and loving precision to the way he fit the words together, a black-painted poetry. it was far less hateful sounding than when he didn't swear." ('the raven cycle' by maggie stiefvater)

"but where was god now, with heaven full of astronauts, and the lord overthrown? i miss god. i miss the company of someone utterly loyal. i still don't think of god as my betrayer. the servants of god, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. i miss god who was my friend. i don't even know if god exists, but i do know that if god is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it. i have an idea that one day it might be possible, i thought once it had become possible, and that glimpse has set me wandering, trying to find the balance between earth and sky. if the servants hadn't rushed in and parted us, i might have been disappointed, might have snatched off the white samite to find a bowl of soup." ('oranges are not the only fruit' by jeanette winterson)

hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending first | reliable or unreliable narrator | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or by the summary | rereading or reading just once

tv and movies!

fave tv/movie genre fantasy, travel/road trip & comedy

fave movie the secret life of walter mitty, supernova, any and all ghibli films, scott pilgrim vs. the world, lord of the rings, the how to train your dragon trilogy

comfort movie the lion king (original), how to train your dragon, from up on poppy hill, kiki's delivery service

movie you watch every year elf, howl's moving castle, love simon

fave tv show she-ra and the princesses of power, skam, bee and puppycat (i guess more of a web series than a tv show?), adventure time, the it crowd

comfort tv show adventure time

most rewatched tv show skam, every october without fail

five favourite characters catra (she-ra and the princesses of power), sana (skam original), marceline (adventure time), moss (the it crowd), inej (shadow and bone netflix adaptation)

tv shows or movie | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or bingeing | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watches online

tagging (absolutely no pressure, this is a pretty long one!): @crowcaves, @the-obsidian-soul, @natscbi, @somehowmags, @gabrilearnelle, @clockwords, @starsspace... and that's it, that's as close to nine as i'm getting, but if anyone else just feels like doing it then feel free to consider yourself tagged!