#I worry about 'cheating' the squares which is funny because like. are the book cops gonna arrest me.

[mogseltof]

Slow start to the year on reading! Good for writing though. (I'm just logging fanfic on the writing bingo because a) I have an entirely different, quarterly system for my original fiction goals this year that would be difficult to translate and are getting talked about on the author site, and b) because i really want to clear out my WIPs folder)

First up: the @batmanisagatewaydrug book bingo! First read of the year was volume 1 of Witch Hat Atelier, contributing to my goal of reading books that I have purchased but not read yet (an embarrassingly large category). Loved it, five stars, a plus, can't wait to dig into the rest of them, decision to buy that humble bundle fully justified.

Second 'read' was my housemate's copy of Ramen by Tove Nilsson, (I don't usually log cookbooks even when I do read them cover to cover). She's had this for a couple of years and we've never really done much more than have me pull it out to pickle eggs for my instant ramen habits (which picked up after reading Butter by Asako Yuzuki last year, a book which I'm still thinking about and might have been my favourite for 2024. Yuzuki and translator Polly Barton had a way of writing about food that really felt real and relatable and delicious, and may have kicked off an obsession with buttering my ramen). Anyway I had an excuse to take it to a friend's place on the weekend and we made tantanmen ramen and went through the recipes looking for good ones to try. Delicious, very extra, gave my friend an excuse to go to fujimart and use new ingredients and also get out her ramen bowls.

Third read was Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks, which is kind of a cheat for the bookseller square given it was for book club run by my favourite indie bookseller, but I've been wanting to pick up Banks's work (lol) and have asked this bookseller for a rec on that front before so I'm counting it! I also thought the bird on the cover was a robot before I read it so I didn't want to count it for that square and lose my excuse to reread some Redwall. ANYWAY absolutely wild book, I love an author who's willing to throw me in the deep end with no explanation and just take me for a ride. 4 stars actually, after discussion helped me calcify my thoughts, book club was great this month.

More book nattering and fanfic bingo explanations under the cut

My first DNF of the year was House of Leaves, boo. I think I let the hype get me on this one, in theory this is everything I love, in practise I lost my mind trying to remember what else of Danielewski's I'd read because he wrote about women exactly the same way in that! and it's not even the worst but i hated it! i might give this one another try in a couple of years though, I've noticed over the years that I skew heavily to non fiction at the start of the year and tend to rate fiction harsher in this time period.

My pick for the "20th century speculative fiction" is Tourmaline by Randolph Stow as part of my ongoing quest to read more Australian authors. It came up in discussion at a book launch I attended in January (Jasper Cliff by Josh Kemp which might be my literary or horror pick!), and Ikm enjoying it so far. I picked up Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright for the "2024 award winner", because it won last year's Stella Prize which has an award shortlist that I usually use as a reading guide (Hospital by Sanyida Rushdi was another favourite last year). My library had a fantastic nonfiction display this week so I've picked up some great titles including Conversations with People who Hate Me by Dylan Marron which I didn't realise had been published as a book, Putin's Trolls because I have been dying for a comprehensive write up on that whole investigation for years, and When Cops are Criminals, a collection of essays and histories of violence and corruption in Australian policing because I'm sick of hearing that "that's an american problem" in a country that keeps lowering the age of criminal responsibility pretty much just for indigenous kids.

Square I'm least worried about is "set in a country you've never visited" because I am a broke bitch who's never owned a passport! Square I'm most worried about is "2025 debut author" for mostly unfounded reasons, but the publication delay between Australian markets and the rest of the world is occasionally brutal, and the hold time on new authors with enough publicity for me to hear about is usually bad enough to push things back into the next year. I'm trying not to buy new books this year so that could be a problem, but I'm going to keep an eye on the local author lists and library events to try and find something cool. Square I'm most excited for is "Read + Make a zine"! I'm going to try and get out to the perth comic festival because last time I went people had zines out, but if I strike out I've got some ones I picked up from a literal brick and mortar zine shop in Melbourne a decade ago that I haven't looked at in years which is really cool. Also I've been wanting to zine some of my poetry.

OKAY DONE BOOK NATTERING. Fanfic bingo is mostly for fun because I realised I had a lot of shit partially started or written. To my dismay every square on this board has at least two WIPs that apply, including the "something entirely new" space because since Jan 1st despite declaring my intent to finish what I've already started I have more than 10 new fics in shiny new docs. The problem is when I finish short fics I get excited about writing more of them :/

Random fandom: "Timewarp" for Once Upon a Time. My housemates and I started rewatching this a while back and I went insane and figured out that Henry was basically perfectly positioned to realise something hinky was going on in town, no wonder he's annoyed Emma doesn't believe him that the place is cursed.

5 year old draft: "Action Movie" for Transformers Prime. It bugs me that Bulkhead/Wheeljack isn't a more popular ship, they're perfect. I started this movie date fic in 2020 and pulled it out of my iPad notes app and finished it!

Free Space: I finished "A Changed Wind", the first book in my Transformers Prime Primeswap AU and I'm proud of myself for finishing posting a long fic! Hooray! 🎉

Tumblr has decided I'm not allowed to paste things into the app so I guess I can't link those like I was planning (christ), so, archiveofourown.org/users/Mogseltof/works to read any of those.