#2024 in books

[gcantread]

Vengeance is not a wooden cup that empties. It is a jeweled chalice which endlessly spills over.

2024 in books: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

[happy-mokka]

2024 in books 📚

Previous: #1 + feedback #2 #3 #4 #5

#6 How to stop time

by Matt Haig English

This will be my 2nd Haig after "The Midnight Library". Again I am curious. "The Midnight Library" really was a tough read through the 1st half and with its whole theme hit really close to home, contemplating depression and life choices and all. This one now tackles the universal topic of L❤️ve and how to find it? Well...*gulp*...I guess I will be suffering with this one as well.

Anyway. Let's do this! Time is stopping for no one...

[shallicomparetheetolagrenouille]

2024 in books - May

The nostalgia!! Oh, it was such a comfort to read this - well, not for the content, but for the feeling of going back to something I loved in simpler times.

I realized I had to reread the Inheritance Cycle when Durza was mentioned at the beginning of this and I thought, "who?" So I actually reread the books in the Cycle and The Fork, the Witch and the Worm and it was a blast! I loved it, especially because I had forgotten a lot of what happens in Brisingr and Inheritance (being the ones I reread less often) and enjoyed revisiting the fictional places and meeting again the characters that meant so much to me in my teenage years and very early twenties. I giggled so much, especially when I knew that an event was about to happen or a character was about to show up (Glaedr, my love! And Thorn, my baby!). I don't think I have ever had so much fun with a reread!

Having read a lot more since then, in various genres, a lot of the narrative choices and language used felt simplistic and childish and narrow-minded, but considering the age of the author at the time of writing the novels, I could look past that and just enjoy the story and the feeling of adventure and exploration that I associate to the fantasy genre.

When I actually managed to get to Murtagh, I was ready to enjoy a continuation of that same experience and find out a bit more about two interesting characters from the Cycle: we didn't know anything about Thorn, aside from him having a musical mind and having been made to grow faster through magic, whereas Murtagh at least had more of a voice and we had a bit more of an idea of him.

The main themes of the book are dealing with trauma, grappling with one's identity and opening up towards others. Which meant that the interactions I had hoped to see at least a tiny bit of (with Arya and Fírnen, hopefully, or with a few elves in general, or even at a distance with Eragon and Saphira) never happened - only the very end of the book sees Murtagh's acceptance that he wants and needs 'a pack' like in Uvek's story, this first novel (because judging by all the open points and hints and subsequent interviews I watched there will surely be other books with him and Thorn as protagonists) was very much centered around his and Thorn's traumas and relationship and lessons to learn to live in the world as actual actors in it, not just as hermits watching things happen from afar.

And, to be honest, this was needed if there are other books in the works with them at the center: there were too many things that had to be explained about their past, both pre-meeting-Eragon, in Murtagh's case, and pre-Galbatorix's-death. So many new pieces of information were finally revealed about the Forsworn and life at court and how life under Galbatorix's control was - I have to say that so much of the past was kept nebulous (both to make it more threatening and mysterious and probably not to lengthen the Cycle further) that having a POV from that part of the world is a necessary correction for the series.

That said, had I not felt such affection and interest for the characters and the world, I would have skimmed a big portion of the middle part of the book.

The first half is engaging, even while facing the effects of trauma and war and torture: it is filled with movement and action and moments of reflection and love between Murtagh and Thorn, which make the confined feeling of just focusing on them for the whole time less heavy. Their minds are not those of an innocent teen and newly-hatched magical creature seeking to prove themselves and dabble a bit in vengeance, but rather those of veterans seeking a reason to rejoin the world without having to suffer more if possible, please and thank you.

The central part, instead, just lets all the despair and and new torture and hopelessness loose - it was hard to read and, to be quite honest, long. Since the author makes a point to make Murtagh say that he avoids remembering as much as possible, part of the need for mental and phisical torture was making him remember - and the flashbacks are the most interesting and moving part of that section, mind you, so cutting them woud not have improved it - but the overall feeling was of being trapped right alongside him and Thorn.

Luckily, I had hopes that this would follow the same scheme as the main Cycle and have either a happy ending or a bittersweet one, so I managed to work my way to the end, but even in the final section there were moments in which I hoped for a more streamlined plot. And I do not mean having shorter or fewer descriptions or less interaction among Murtagh, Thorn and Uvek - I mean that having obstacles before the final battle or before retrieving the thing or before finding the person is reasonable and expected and adds to the feeling of reality, but if they start being repetitive just to show me how difficult it is to get to that point, they become an obstacle to me, personally, the reader and I will not feel like pushing through because it will not feel like a rush towards the core of the adventure, but rather a slow drag through neverending sidequests.

That said, the resolution of the confict (both external, against Bachel and the maybe-literal-wingless-dragon-in-the-pit, and internal, against Morzan's influence on Murtagh's life and the effects of Galbatorix's torture on Thorn's mind) was satifying and the very end was sweet, though very open in a see-you-in-the-next-installment way.

The flashback of Tornac's final fight and sacrifice for Murtagh made me cry, I'll admit that.

I do hope that now that Murtagh accepted to be a part of the world again (and gained another kind of brother, he just keeps collecting them, just like Eragon did with him and Orik). we will see him and Thorn interact with other established characters.

I can't wait!!

[dzknik]

fellas is it gay to cover my entire house with imagery of my muse, the centre of my life, the sun in my galaxy

[whitneyzombie]

Oops I dropped my updated drive of DnD resources that I'd NEVER put the 2024 Player's Handbook on, or any other materials.

That would be so reckless of me. Who would leave 100+ DnD materials just laying around?

[astraldraco]

My (late) contribution for Make A Terrible Comic Day! I've been going to the library more often lately so this has been coming up a lot, cause I want something to read but have had trouble finding anything that I'm comfortable with.

If anyone has recommendations please please let me know because I am struggling.

[hkthatgffan]

The image used in the background of the Gravity Falls logo HAS BEEN FOUND!!

It's located in France!!

I made a thread on Twitter explaining the full story and how I even asked Ian Worrel and Alex Hirsch about it, but lemme run down quickly how it was found and where it is!

After 3 years of searching with some friends on and off, we had no real luck. I've been working on a video about it for a while but decided to try one more time. My friend @trickengf suggested looking at international logos as they may have more of the image available and sure enough...we found logos like the Japanese and Russian GF logo had more visible detail of the image.

From that, Tricken made a remake of the image and used it to find it. He ended up finding the source at about 3AM for me, lol!

My friend Fried Oreos then confirmed the image was old enough to fit the criteria of pre GF pilot, by determining the image was on the Textures website it was sourced from since 2008!

Then, my friend Alex M managed to buy the HD image and we were able to analyze its metadata for more info!

Turns out, the image, called "LandscapeMountains0009," was taken by a Nikon D70 camera on April 18, 2007!

THE GRAVITY FALLS LOGO IMAGE IS ALMOST 18 YEARS OLD!!

From there, we began looking for the location. The meta data had no location, but other images taken around the same time showed signs of maybe the location being in Europe.

After over a day of searching, Tricken, Alex M and Oreos FOUND IT!!

The location of the image is a mountain range near the town of Sers, France...near the border with Spain.

Exact coordinates of the closest viewable angle of the image is 42°54'23.2"N 0°06'05.6"E

This is a major discovery and one I cannot believe we did. While this search was started by me in 2021 with some friends, it was TrickenGF, Alex M and Fried Oreos who deserve all the credit for this discovery! They were the geniuses who tracked all of this down and were able to connect the dots to get to this point.

You guys are amazing and I am beyond grateful for all of this.

Finding this image means that fans can now recreate the Gravity Falls logo as they want with anything they want. For example, Tricken made this for me using the image :D

Or, you can do this, lol

We now have it!

For 12 years as we looked at the Gravity Falls logo...we were in reality looking at a mountain in France...NOT Oregon!

So, I guess this is a major W for France but sorry, Pacific Northwest, Gravity Falls is actually French, lol!

I still can't believe we found this. I'm so happy :P

[junodoom]

swordtember day 8: sun

[queerpossums]

2024 books read (so far)

(i’m 2 books behind schedule but i’m trying so hard to catch up)

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I read this for my english class in January. Definitely one of the best books I’ve had to read for a literature class.

2. (currently reading) The Men Who Loved Trains by Rush Loving Jr.

I’ve been trying to finish this book since August but am only 40% done. It’s very readable but a bunch of shit came up so there were a good few months I didn’t pick it up. It’s about the Penn Central merger and the generally dismal state of American rail transportation. I picked it up after listening to the Well There’s Your Problem series on the Penn Central. Hopefully I can get my shit together and finish it soon.

3. (currently reading) Orientalism by Edward Said

Just started listening to the audiobook (pirated from audible because I couldn’t find an audiobook through my local or university library). 35% through it as of today and I want to write more about it once I finish it.

I haven’t posted about books before but I’m trying to read more this year and have been having good luck finding really good books.

[gcantread]

Quiet mouth, bright mind.

2024 in books: Hild by Nicola Griffith

[happy-mokka]

2024 in books 📚

#1 Coraline

by Neil Gaiman

English

I managed to finish my previous ongoing book on December 31st, so I can start with a clean sheet into this year.

This will be a first-read. I'm beyond curious. Gaiman No.3 after Good Omens and Stardust.

(Note: I'm physically incapable to read multiple books at a time. Almost causes me pain to start another while there's still unread pages in a current...no matter how dull, boring or mediocre it might be, I need to finish first.)

[shallicomparetheetolagrenouille]

2024 in books (July #2)

The fact that I had't read anything by Elsa Morante before 2024 is honestly heartbreaking, I should never do that to myself again. :P

The writing is so beautiful it could make me cry even if the content were a grocery list and the protagonist is so fascinating - both in his adult version as the narrating voice and as Arturo-the-child-then-teenager in the novel. The fact that it ends with the beginning of the voyage and the island disappearing from view makes the preceding story all the more dream-like and mythical in tone - just wonderful!

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was forced to read a Donald Trump autobiography for one of my college courses. It was just the plot of Boss Baby. He thought nobody would notice. 

[mahoganyamore]

in cold blood

[miwkchii]

Toxic old man yaoi?? In my gravity falls???

[catchymemes]