#and i had like 250 pages of reading for school

[thefluxqueen]

the devil won btw <- just binge read the foxhole court trilogy in 4 days (4th reread)

[kairithemang0]

Yknow what, I might as well see what happens

Gonna do the notes game, just gonna see what happens I dunno (I have a lot of stuff I need to do and no motivation so I’ll use the internet to force me to)

25 notes - I’ll finish reading Good Omens

50 notes - I’ll finish pulp musicals (I started it and got distracted, came back an hour later so damn confused I HAD MY EARBUDS IN AND EVERYTHING)

100 notes - I’ll draw more (both traditionally and digitally, I want to improve)

150 notes - I’ll continue writing a coffee shop au I started last October and never finished (it was like 75 pages and I just stopped :()

200 notes - I’ll listen to Starry

250 notes - I’ll try to get at least a 70% in Spanish this quarter

300 notes - I’ll clean my room

350 notes - I’ll work on eating healthier

500 notes - I’ll spend more time with my friends outside of school

750 notes - I’ll finish listening to all the musicals on my musical watch list (there are so many of them…)

1000 notes - I’ll get back to doing taekwondo

1500 notes - I’ll take a walk every day

2000 notes - I’ll spend more time with my family

2500 notes - I’ll rewrite my really bad Xehaqus fic from 2 years ago and try my hardest not to just delete all of it (I’d be rewriting 183 pages, I dunno I wanna see how I’d write it now without changing the entire plot)

3000 notes - I’ll actually start to study for school and not just wing it

4000 notes - I’ll stop being such an asshole to my parents Jesus Christ how do they deal with me

5000 notes - I’ll come out to my mom as trans

Try and reach the goal before uhhhhh I dunno April 16th

I may add more later, depends on how fast yall go through the goals, I have a lot of things I need to do (mainly because I need to start caring about my health and how I treat other people). I dunno, let’s see how this goes

Edit kinda did the “come out to my mom” thing soooooo idk I’ll figure something out for 5000 (maybe)

[ryo-kaikura]

Yan! Male Teachers + Male Yandere x male reader

*this is based on a dream I had this morning*

(Reader is on his last year so he's 18 (he's not held back I just try to make it okay with an adult partner) (my dream is PG-13(the yandere is made up), I just like spice)

My life is normal I guess, the difference with normal people at my age is my current school. This is takes "school feels like a prison" seriously with how we sleep at school eat at school and etc.

For our class, it's literally right next to the teacher's room. And each grade has a different section. Because it's a prestigious school the student is a lot more than the teacher by 50% of the teachers population.

Anyway, you might be asking, do you always have class? The answer is no, cause our right door is a building for gym and gymnasium. The door in front of us is where usually all the supplies comes in.

Today there is a monthly test. it's usually for additional points and support for our future. Example: last year it was making a sentence that's in correlation with a word and we can't use that word. There lots more but every time we were paired.

Look at that I'm also paired up again weirdly enough it's the "prince of the school" the one that's said to be the best for our grade, though his grade is in the top two, guess who's grade is higher? That right me. Since we're better than everyone, we get hallway to ourselves

It's so fun being better at him, when he gets a 100% me too, when he gets a 99% Boohoo I got a 100%. His body is also quite fit, but it's obvious with my height and body that I'm still better than him, with his being shorter than me. It's quite fun toying with him, his expression of flustered and anger add a smidge of pink on his face, neck and tip of his ears.

We're getting carried away. This year's test is a box of puzzles? With a textured flooring? Whatever. We saw the first test, summarizing a foreign language book, and there's our names on it. It seems like something from our teacher Mr. David. Then he shows up, "hello Mr. David" "Hello, (m/n)~" He was always flirty with me "hi Mr. David" "Hello to you too, mark".then he told us about it in detail "As you can see it's summarizing a book and because I prefer (m/n) than you, mark, (m/n) gets a 50 page and you get a 250 page it's sounds quite fair don't you think (m/n)" "Sure 😀"

Anyway, we're done with that, the next are some simple mathematics and that's from our other teachers. Wow it looks like we have to build a Miniature real life-like humanoid chess pieces. Now it seems like we're done but there's no announcement, then I realized the flooring is a bit whacky so I try to pick one up. It works. I open one and inside it is extra pieces for the sculpture and that's from Mr. Sears, the science teacher that likes to use science to hide a lot of things

It's similar with how some sounds lie it has a lot but there is none and then one of then sounds like it doesn't have any but when we opened it there was a lot of extra sculpture pieces. Then I saw one of the boxes has a piece of paper. I was about to read it out loud then I feel a finger right next to my stomach, and I couldn't help but feel ticklish and jerk away from the finger. Turns out it the said teacher, Mr. Sears, and he kept tickling me every time I try to say it out loud. In the end he made me stand up and go to a corner and read it in my head. Most of it was clues until the last number on the price of paper that said 'I will be going to *city name* in a few days' "I don't care" "What!" " We're not that close teach~, Well not as close as me and Mr. David~."

Then he stormes off, don't know what happened but in the end me and Mark Finished first.

*A few days later*

It seems like Mr. Sears didn't go and one of our teacher was suddenly sent to the hospital

*A few month later*

I finally graduated, best of the year as well because of that I get a lot of money lie a billion I think. But right when I was going head home, I felt someone covering my head, then two people try to grab me and they're quite strong, but not strong enough. Suddenly I feel something injected to my neck. And I grew weak and dizzy not long after I passed out. While why kidnappers was smiling over me.

It's been a while since I woke up but I still don't know where I am. There a window that just over my head so I'm able to get hold of it and pulled my self up and saw... A beach?

Then after looking around and the sun almost overhead meaning it's currently 11.30 ish o'clock. Three people come in and guess who? It the weirdos. Mr. David feels shy, Mr. Sears a bit nervous and Mark quite happy.

And the brought their own dish a I must say the best is Mr. David, with the other two being barely palatable. In the end we slept right next to each other.

*A year later* (I'm lazy)

My self-made company worked well, but my "wives" seems quite jealous of everything I do even though we haven't gotten married yet and Mark and Sears are working as my two secretary and David being at home. I must say David's body got more chubby and soft, I like it. Mark kept trying to be better at me at everything and kept losing, example: who can cum the last, I won, who's stronger, I won, and much more. And Sears gotten smarter at where he's hiding my stuff, like my underwear, sweaty gym clothes, a pen I chewed.

I'm happy there entertaining because I just remembered I'm a side character in a book and they're male leads, all three of them, and who's the female lead you ask? The new rising employee in my own company, Janice.

[babushka-blogging]

Listen, I know it's a classic for a reason, but I'm reading Jane Eyre for the frst time, I'm about 250 pages in, and it is SO FUCKING GOOD????

**Spoilers ahead**

Like I've heard “If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”

and obviously that's a banger, but in the context of the book?????? With the context of Jane's mere existence being rejected by her family??? With the context of her going to a school that would be considered hell by most children, being her one solace because it's the only place she's ever experienced love????

You don't understand how much this speaks to me. You don't understand how much I needed this book JUST NOW.

Also this is the first time I've highlighted a book before, and have a feeling it's going to be the start of a new era for me.

Here are a some quotes I've enjoyed so far (maybe I'll add more later)

"Wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin-dust."

"Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth."

Charlotte Brontë, I know it's been said uncountable times but you were a GENIUS.

[umejikisser]

me 'n you at the rooftop @ okaruto x female! reader . 250 words

currently, [name] was walking through the hallways, the school day had just ended, and it hit 4 o' clock, meaning that cleaning time was about to end. as [name] was about to go to the rooftop, she spotted a more than familiar girl walking in front of her.

"oka!" she yelled, and the other girl flinched at the sudden call for her name. she looked back to the person, calming down at the sight, "o-oh, hey [n-name]" she smiled, blushing slightly.

[name] walked so she could walk next to oka. "what are you doing up here?" she said, desperate to make conversation with the occult leader. "n-nothing really, i just w-wanted to read" she said, showing the book she held to [name].

"ooh alright, can i join you?" she asked, smiling brightly, the smile that oka dreamt about every night, "yeah, sure, i-i'd like that" she replied, trying not to fangirl over the girl. they both sat down at a bench, their shoulders touching.

[name] held the left side of the book while oka held the other. they both started to read, as they were around page 78, oka started to place her head on [name]'s shoulder, causing [name] to blush, since oka didn't show public affection a lot.

she smiled, feeling the dark haired girl breathing on her neck, she closed the book, and gave oka a kiss on the forehead, she felt safe because oka began to snore.

"you're so cute, i love you oka. when will i be able to tell you that?"

[koishua]

koishua's miscellaneous wip list!

say boo and pressure me into finishing these numbers <3

listed: 24/80 proper wips. had to sift through 250 drafts and veto most of them bc honestly we all know they weren't going to see the light of day!! have a suzu icon representing me rn <3 gonna be giving the other wips to the mooties who sent in for the ask game i created ages ago

№1 ) love till the sun sets | heeseung est. 15k

№2 ) from under the magnolia tree | beomgyu est. 10k — on february fourteenth, exactly five years ago, he’d gifted you a small magnolia tree he’d named after you. he’d said that he would love you for as long as the sapling you’d planted together would live. he’d even said that he would watch as it grew bigger and older with both of you taking care of it. he'd said that it would be the most beautiful thing in town. you'd believed him.

№3 ) we were beautiful | sunghoon est. 5k — you were fifteen when you’d first fallen in love with your childhood friend, seventeen when you’d called him your boyfriend, and eighteen when you lost him to life. broken apart by circumstances and necessity, everything you’d built up with him had fallen apart overnight. by the time the dawn of your nineteenth birthday had arrived, you’d no longer have the name park sunghoon present in your everyday life, only contained dearly in your memories and a journal, his name scribbled mindlessly on each and every corner of the aged pages.

№4 ) dear cupid | jake est. 15k — desperate to have his feelings of two years reciprocated, he finds a leather-bound book falling by his feet in the old campus library containing a guide on how to summon the very real and very quirky god of love and desire, cupid. in his next life, jake would come to write a book on why you should read holy contracts thoroughly before signing your name off in blood.

№5 ) man up | heeseung short fic

№6 ) ikigai | niki est 10k — lonely and trying to cope with the deeply settled rage at the world, reader stumbles upon a peculiar boy in the middle of a bridge and falls into a conversation with him where she utters eight damning words. the world consequently stops spinning and the univers halts as it is. time comes to a stand still and the only two ppl able to move happen to be her and the boy beside her. cue the next seven days of adventures in the dark streets, lit only by the streetlamps in the outskirts of tokyo.

№7 ) pocket locket | m. jaehyun short fic

№8 ) foreign exchange student!beomgyu drabble

№9 ) death is for those who stay | heeseung short fic

№10 ) the world and all her pearls | ??

№11 ) do yourself a flavour | ?? — ice cream parlour, r2l

№12 ) i blinked and suddenly i had a valentine | ??

№13 ) enha dates gone awry (in the best ways!)

№14 ) take you out | sunghoon assassin au short fic

№15 ) a conversation between the lost and unloved | yeonjun est 3k

№16 ) mothers and fathers | yeonjun est 5k — a conversation about hungry mothers and forgetful fathers with yeonjun, an unlikely friend from a country you've never been to.

№17 ) signs that enha are dating

№18 ) "why did you give me wings and want me to fall?" | ?? — hunger games-esque!au

№19 ) notes unread | sunghoon — letters you'd written for each other, unsent and unread.

№20 ) enha and your cute little secrets

№21 ) everything sucks, just kidding! | yeonjun short fic

№22 ) do not touch | jay est 5k — bnha!au, living with a quirk damning you to eternal loneliness, not being able to touch or be touched in fear of the other's demise, jay loves you from afar. he loves you without a single touch.

№23 ) i could drown myself in someone like you | gaon short fic

№24 ) dude, go to therapy | beomgyu text fic — your number neighbor just so happens to be choi beomgyu, your old nemesis from high school. it's too late when you find out about it, though, because you'd already dumped all of your emotional baggage on him. worst of all, he seemed to be concerned and not at all like the beomgyu of the past.

[raisinchallah]

i have to say i do think people are full on lying when they talk about english classes on this website like i was a total bookworm and loved writing as a child but that was like systematically crushed essentially the second i started taking dedicated english classes lol i always had kinda checked out teachers who seemed to enjoy humiliating students or thought u should read like a 250 page book over the course of 3 months and make you literally take notes for every page they were often my most vindictive and cruel teachers of any subject (tho i think the most vindictive teachers i had were math teachers i had a lot more nice very good math teachers than english teachers) made kids feel horrible for poor reading skills or were simply incompetent and boring.. two of the english teachers i had in high school were honestly the main precipitating incident to dropping out because i was failing to make up all the insane busy work or they like docked 50% of my grade on a paper because i wasnt in class that day for rosh hashanah lol something i informed them of in advance and turned it in a day later themes and meaning were covered only in the most pathetic miserable fashion of like standardized test reading comprehension questions i mean i had one really great english teacher but he was like such an outlier where he was mostly working in administration and was using our class as guinea pigs for his new curriculum he was developing and turning into a textbook and like we were literally his only class so he actually had time and energy to give people personalized feedback let students revise their papers for a new grade as many times as they wanted to ran really interesting class discussions on material we read in class and tbh focused more on history stuff than reading novels we did a whole project on learning about the american eugenics movement which was probably one of the most important and illuminating things ive ever learned in school but again this was like such a niche specific case i certainly would not generalize this to the grand world of high school english classes lol

[quotidian-oblivion]

Book recs!! ✨

Hi! So a bit ago, I met a lovely amazing anon on ao3 (who is a BLESSING compared to the other mean anons commenting out there, thanks Kat, you make mine and im pretty sure other author's days too). So we got into talking about books and I offered to make a list for her and post it on tumblr so other people too can scrounge through so here we are lmao.

I gathered this list from the personal notes I had made to myself to add these books to my bookshelf when i move out and also from another list i made for my little siblings because no way are they gonna not read the good stuff I found. It's like a rite of passage now.

Just a note: I don't read romance. But since books don't have the very convenient tags we get on ao3, I end up getting to romance-y parts. The only romance books I have read are middle school level romance lmao XD Nothing except kisses and stuff lol.

Let's go!

The Maze Runner series

Maze Runner

I love this book. This series. Ngl, one of the first books where I felt that heart-clenching feeling of hurt. Love the characters, the world-building was in the fandom for a brief while and I love the plot too. Better than the movie plot anyway XD

Mare Runner: Scorch Trials

Second book in the series, also very good. Literally an adventure. So many twists and turns. Once more, the characterization is also amazing!

Maze Runner: Death Cure

Third and last book in the series as a main. Heartbreaking. Did shed tears. Page 250 still kills me. O u ch.

The Fever Code

Also in the same series and OUCH. It's the characters before the whole drama happened and they're kids and higehrfwb 😭 No kidding I was squealing and nearly threw the book multiple times out of excitement. It solved a couple plotlines too. I adored it. Plus, it gave me some closure from the many many (inevitable) deaths.

Crank Palace

It's a novella, but clears the mysterious gap that was in the third book. Plus, it gives much much more closure but I'm still crying so do what you will with that information. I love the new "OC"s here too.

Trials of Apollo

The Hidden Oracle The Dark Prophecy The Burning Maze The Tyrant's Tomb The Tower of Nero

Listen- listen- I know this is kinda obvious and you might be asking "where's the rest of the pjo series?" but that's a given. My personal favorites are the pjo, hoo and toa series, but toa somehow spoke to me more because the main relationship wasn't a romantic one like all the other teen books I read. I also adore Apollo/Lester's character development? Like, at first he was this carefree god, then at the end of the series, he transformed into a person who cared so much and so deeply and was willing to die for others. That is peak character development and if I hadn't read toa, I would still be blundering around and confused with my multi-chap fics as to how characters actually develop. Because you can see that journey so clearly in toa.

Jinx series

Jinx: The Wizard's Apprentice Jinx's Magic Jinx's Fire

I love this series so much??? I am a sucker for fantasy novels and this was so so good. I love the storyline and-

AND I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE FOUND FAMILY ASPECT HERE. THIS. IS LITERALLY RELUCTANT MENTOR-FATHER AND HYPER AND KEEN MENTEE-SON. AHHH.

Anyway, this was my first found family novel. I loved the whole storyline too, this was also the series where I was first introduced to the concept of whump (without knowing what whump actually was).

The Mapmaker Chronicles

Race To The End Of The World Prisoner Of The Black Hawk Breath Of The Dragon

These were also some of the first whump books I read. And I especially loved this because the plot was it. A smartass scrawny boy who accidentally turned into a hero? Hmmm, I wonder who that reminds me of. (Tim Drake. It reminds of Tim Drake)

But the characters are also special to my heart. There is minimal romance in here. Any romance is to move the plot forward.

Also a mentor-mentee relationship here. Not so much found family to the heart seeing as the main character already has family back home, but the whole crew definitely is a family of their own. I especially adore Ash! Ahhh! She's lovely and amazing. Oh and Zain- *sighs* he is the perfect mentor figure to scrawny li'l Quinn. And the hateable characters are so perfectly hateable!! The author truly is talented at stories.

Although the second book could do with more whump

Nevermoor series

Nevermoor

This book was described in the reviews as "Harry Potter meets Alice in Wonderland" and it stayed true to its description. It had beautiful and amazing characters, and an evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship (though not at first) and I am a sucker for that. Also, I just love the character herself. Morrigan is a very good and fleshed out character and I will love her forever.

Wundersmith

We explore more of the evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship. But Jupiter, Morrigan's actual caretaker, is the PERFECT uncle/caretaker for her and he's so protective of her and i just-

*sobs* I stan.

Hollowpox

Here we discover some of that delicious power upgrades. I also love all the friends! HAWTHORNE IS MY FAVORITE AND WILL ALWAYS BE I LOVE HIM. Stunning characters here 💫 Also some wise comparison of the different isms and phobias (as in homophobia, racism etc.) here in terms of fantasy.

The Mysterious Benedict Society series

The Mysterious Benedict Society The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Riddle of Ages

This... was one of the first mystery books I had ever read (my actual first was Sherlock Holmes cuz I found it on my grandparents' bookshelf and read it cuz I had read every other book they owned which wasn't a lot). I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. It was calm and just- a bunch of kids going on a perilous journey to solve a mystery to save the city. Those kind of vibes. But the vibes were so good. So enjoyable. Every time I hear about this series, I just sigh in contempt.

There are very, very interesting characters here too. The characters are what made the story so good. All of them have unique quirks which they use to crack clues and form conclusions and dive into actions. Such good characters. 10/10, honestly.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

This is part of the Benedict society universe, but it takes place years before the main events. It has adventures of the leader of the group in the main series as a kid. This book has a special mention because the storyline was different to the style of the main series and it had tropes. Just- the friend and the character itself and- dnfhbevbiluw

Okay, I admit, Benedict here does remind me of Tim (my fav character in DC). Like y'know smol Tim with the camera? Those kind of vibes. Very strong vibes. I read this way before I discovered Tim even existed so maybe this book plays a part in my favorites?

Jessica Brody books

The fact that I put the actual author's name here should tell you something.

Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up

This book... brought me to tears. This was the second book that prompted salt water to slip out of my tear ducts. It was a strange feeling. Cuz I was not used to crying for books and movies and shows.

The plot just hit hard. A 12-year-old Addie magically time-travels to when she's 16 and experiences life as a teenager. The plot gives more than you expect. There are boys, yes, but that is a side plot, not a main plot. Which is why I love the book so much. Addie wants to be one of the "girly" girls who talks about boys and stuff and goes to parties like her older sister, but then as she lives the life of a teenager more and more, she realizes just how much she lost. Friendships, family, her personality, her interests, herself.

The part that made me cry was her missing her sister. Cuz, well, I'm an older sister. And my sister who is the oldest after me has the same age difference as Addie and her older sister. It wasn't just her missing her sister in that scene, it was everything crashing down on her that moved me to tears. Amazing book. If anything, I recommend you either read this or 'Better You Than Me' if nothing in this list goes towards your liking.

Better You Than Me

This was the first book that made me cry. It has two characters, one in middle school, the other who is an actress, swap bodies. So the typical middle school kid gets to live as a famous actress, and the famous actress gets to live as a typical middle school kid. Of course, neither of them end up liking their new life very much, but that only teaches them two important messages: appreciation and communication. God, I learnt so much from this book. I was like 13 or something when I read it and it resonated within me enough to make me cry. I adore this. SO much.

I Speak Boy

I actually have a library-borrowed copy with me right now XD It's about a middle school girl, Emmy, being very confused with the opposite gender. (Very much hetero, no homo despite it being published in 2021). But, once again, the reason I love this book isn't cuz of the romance (though it is kinda satisfactory but also a bit cliché). It's how the main character realizes that boys aren't everything. Just like in 'Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up'. It's a lot about friendship.

The reason why I like these books by Jessica Brody (I haven't read the others yet) is because of the Bechdel Test factor in it.

S. K. Ali books

Again you have another author's name. This time, it's Muslim fiction!

Love From A To Z

The first Muslim fiction book I've ever read. And yes, it is a romance book. But it does not have any touchy-touchy stuff (except in the Epilogue and a couple dream scenes, very vague though and only kissing). As in, the main characters follow mainstream Sunni procedures and do not touch each other as they're not married. Which just leaves room for a ton of emotional romance.

I adore this simply because I'm a Muslim Hijabi myself and I am very much biased.

It deals with so many aspects of romance though, like personality first, lust last, and whether they are the right fit or not and whether they actually like each other or the idea of each other and how families play into this and online hate and emotion control and of course, the marvels and oddities of life. It is packed with so much. And when I finished the book, I had a good long cry. This is the first book that made me cry the longest. Because- because I was starved for representation! And this book did it so well! I just- love this so much.

The author has published a sequel, Love from Mecca to Medina, I have yet to read it because I'm waiting for it to be in a library. I prefer physical copy books.

Once Upon An Eid

Okay, this is very Muslim-based, but if you treat it like Muslim Christmas, everything becomes clear XD Also, Ali wrote only one story here. This book is actually a collection of stories by different Muslim authors. And each story is so special. Many people don't really know how Muslims celebrate Eid or why it's so special (besides spiritual reasons) and what it looks like. This paints an accurate picture. And it contains most, if not all, types of Muslims celebrating Eid. Sunni, Shia, refugee, African, American, revert/convert, South Asian etc. So really diverse.

Saints and Misfits Misfit In Love

Very much love-centred, but also has very vague mentions of sexual assault/rape/non-con. Yes, in a Muslim community. It exists. A lot actually. But it's hidden and hushed down. Disgustingly.

But the first book addresses it and how a Muslim girl battles it. She's in love with a white boy, yes, but she doesn't give in to her white boy desires. Neither does she fall to a non-white boy, at least not fully.

Which is why I recommend that if you're reading the first book, you definitely, definitely read the second one along with it. Because I felt even though the ending of the first book was satisfactory, it wasn't satisfactory to me. But the second book was! Because at the end of the second book, Janna (the main character), comes to the conclusion that boys aren't everything. And even though there is a very perfect boy that fancies her and she fancies him too, she takes a breath and says that she isn't too focused on that. And I adore that. But she only comes to that conclusion after falling in love with many, many, many boys. I did get a bit uncomfy cuz romance just in general makes me uncomfy, its a personal thing, but I kept reading it cuz... Muslim fiction! Anyway, good book series. But I like Love From A To Z better.

Now, those are... a lot of books. And a lot of me talking. And there are still so many more. So I'm just gonna go through some quick filtering and put the titles and authors of the other books here in dot points.

London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (my first novel, Kat knows about this lol)

Skyfire series by Michael Adams

NERDS series by Michael Buckley (it's an acronym that stands for National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society. It's weird but I laughed a lot so)

Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens

Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton

Naughtiest Girl In The School series by Enid Blyton

Scarlet and Ivy series by Sophie Cleverly (fuck- I forgot to add this to the main list, but this book is hella hella good and I recommend it very much)

Bounce by Megan Shull (life lessons in here)

Sick Bay by Nova Weetman

The Adventurer's Guild series by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

Luck Uglies series by Paul Durham ("DADDY ISSUES!" screams Quo. "I love this book because I have daddy issues among other issues and that is all.")

Time Hunters by Chris Blake (it is very much a children's book, not even middle school, but I read it because it has an intriguing storyline and interesting historical facts that had me raising my hand in every history lesson)

There are no classic books here because that will need its own separate post.

And that's it! Thank you very much!

[nanowrimo]

Back to School: Interview with Chiho Nakagawa, Young Writers Program Educator

NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program helps over 85,000 kids, teens, teachers, and families set creative goals and tell stories they care about. We asked some of our amazing YWP educators to share how they take on the NaNoWriMo challenge in their classroom. Today’s advice comes from Chiho Nakagawa, who teaches English as a second language in Tokyo, Japan.

Q: What grade/ age level do you work with? What type of NaNoWriMo group is it (whole class, club, homeschool, elective, etc.)?

A: 10th grade, whole 2 classes of 80 students whom I teach three times a week, last year I did with them. Two years ago, I did it with all the students in the 11th grade (about 250 students)

Q: How long have you been doing NaNoWriMo with your students?

A: 6 years. During these 6 years, I skipped two years ago as my students had to focus only on preparation for their university entrance exams.

Q: How do you structure the entire project (for example, do you start prepping in October and write in November, do you have kids work on it all year, etc.)?

A: I start the NaNoWriMo project in April when our new school year starts. Once or twice a week, our students have time to read books in the morning homeroom. As our school has an online library, most of them read online. During their break in summer, they read more books and decide their best one. After the break, they have biblio-battles in class. They upload the picture of their favorite book to OneDrive to share their recommendation with all the other students. For the preparation of their creative writing, they think of a story in a group, looking at one picture. They write a sentence in turn to make a story. Sometimes, I give them the same starting sentence and they create the following sentences together in group. Though they start with the same sentence, each story expands in totally different ways, which shows them their varieties, diversities and uniqueness. When I have such activities, I usually let them write in groups using Google Jamboard. Then, just before they start writing, they start creating their main character online using the Avatar maker. After that, they create their own page using OneNote and upload their main character and plot in the roller coaster style format . After their writing in November, we usually create their collection of stories online and share it in class.

Q: What does a normal NaNoWriMo day look like for your students?

A: Full of creativity. They are obsessed with their stories. Many students talk about NaNoWriMo. Of course, there are some demotivated students who struggle with writing, and they say NaNoWriMo, YaRaNaiMo. YaRaNaiMo means “I won't do it�� in Japanese. Even though they have difficulties and feel discouraged, they use the great rhyme. The rhythm in Japanese “yaranaimo” sounds not terrible but cute like kids in kindergarten. They are full of energy and joy that shows they are interested in writing even when they complain.

Q: How do you set and manage word-count goals?

A: I believe in my students' autonomy. Nobody writes low goals. Some are even too ambitious but as it is their choice, I respect them. I give them some sample numbers and they usually arrange according to their skills. Last year, they set their own goals and I put them into groups. They made bar charts to show their progress in groups and they competed between groups, which I think was motivating.

Q: How do you manage grading? Do you grade?

A: No. As long as they try and enjoy the activity, it would be great. If they did, I give them points. If they did not try, I did not give them any grades. I just celebrate their writing.

Q: How do you approach revision/ publishing (if at all)?

A: I never check their grammar mistakes. I usually publish as they write. I can see some parts which are difficult to understand, but it would be okay. They will see that not a lot of their classmates read their novels as they are difficult to understand. The following year, they will do it in the same way and they will read their previous year’s novel. Then, they will find how much they have improved. Some of them told me not to show their previous one in class as they find their mistakes.

Q: Any NaNoWriMo tips or tricks to share with other educators? Hard-won lessons? Ah-ha moments?

A: NaNoWriMo encourages my students to read. My students are not bookworms but they read as they would like to know how to start writing and how to make a story. Also, they are interested in other students' writing and try to understand them. Reading encourages them to think and understand others, which encourages them to respect others and their own identity. While they struggle writing, I would like to help them but it seems that nobody can help them. They solve their problems by themselves as their novels are just from their inside, not from their outside. Finally, they know how to control themselves and how to talk to themselves.

Q: Have you ever run into resistance from your administration about doing NaNoWriMo, and if so, how did you manage it? What do you say to people who don’t see the point of having students write novels?

A: Yes, some say that I should teach English for English exams. Getting Exam skill is the most important and creative experiences are not practical, they say. However, creative writing is effective in preparation for exams as students think more logically and critically to make their work better. They learn grammar and vocabulary to make their sentences clearer. My students' engagement gradually changes their mindset and finally, they understand what they have achieved as their novels are based on what they have learned in other subjects and their whole lives. As everything inside of themselves is combined to make their novels and shows that it is a integrated learning, they finally agreed to make it and now, they encourage me to do it.

Q: What are the most meaningful things you or your students take away from the project? What's your best NaNoWriMo memory?

A: They find their identity. They read their friends' writing and they find they are different. They find their own uniqueness and start enjoying the difference. After NaNoWriMo, they praise each other for their achievement and effort and it was the happiest moment.

Q: Anything else you'd like to add?

A: They learn not only about language but also about rights such as copyrights and personal information. Also, they learn creation is enjoyable after their struggle. This is an output activity with creativity, but at the same time they learn input is important to make their knowledge richer. I would like to encourage my students to read more, but how much I told them to do, they did not. Therefore, I thought of a different method, writing a novel, and it was totally successful. They read as they need to write. Their reading starts as if they check samples.

Chiho Nakagawa is an English as a second language teacher at a private school in Tokyo, Japan. Her motto for teaching is to raise independent learners. Her project-based learning classes improve her student’s creativity and autonomy. At the same time, her students find their own identity and respect others as they experience differences and uniqueness. She is also good at creating classes making full use of ICT as a Microsoft Innovative Education Expert and Adobe Education Leader.

[varian212]

{Books read from July 8 to July 13.}

1

Author's Name: Erich Maria Remarque

Number of Pages: 250

Summary:

War breaks out in Germany in 1914. Paul Bäumer and his classmates quickly enlist in the army to serve their fatherland. No sooner are they drafted than the first images from the battlefield show them the reality of war.

My favorite quotes:

“Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”

''It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men.''

(The word "queer" means here strange, unusual, or odd.)

''We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.''

 ''We had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.''

“Ah! Mother, Mother! You still think I am a child - why can I not put my head in your lap and weep? Why have I always to be strong and self-controlled? I would like to weep and be comforted too, indeed I am little more than a child; in the wardrobe still hang short, boy's trouser - it is such a little time ago, why is it over?”

Thoughts on It:

The scenes where Paul returns home on leave for a short time were the hardest for me. Paul knew the place so well, yet everything seemed strange and meaningless to him. The books he had spent so much time studying for school seemed like a joke after his experience in the war.

Back home,the desire of people, especially men, to know more about the war seemed annoying to him. He had to lie to his mother that things were fine in the war, that he was safe, and that they had enough food. When the reality was exactly the opposite, there were scenes where Paul and the other soldiers had to hide their food from rats, where they had to stay buried underground until the barrage of shells stopped (the sound of which was loud and painful—a technique often used in war to keep the enemy awake as long as possible, rendering them incapable of fighting).

I think the most horrifying thing about this book is how Paul, along with the other soldiers, are made to join the army under the pretense that they are the "golden generation" that will save Germany. Of course, an idiotic phrase said just to make as many boys as possible join the army. No one prepared them for what was to come, and no one told them that they might not return home.

Next is a story about the author of the book, not a very funny one; you can skip to the next book title - City of Thieves.

Here is the quote from the beginning of the novel:

“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”

Erich Maria Remarque personally met Adolf Hitler in World War I, where both fought on the German side. Over time, it is said that their relationship (which was almost nonexistent, with them exchanging only a few words) fell apart.

The war ended, and Erich Maria Remarque returned to writing. He wrote his first book, which was not very successful (titled The Dream Room). He did not become famous until 1929, after his book All Quiet on the Western Front immediately caught the public's attention with many copies sold. 

What further changed the situation was an adaptation of the novel, the first adaptation (there are now three films), released in 1930.

After this first adaptation, the authorities heard about the novel, and of course, they did not like it. Remarque's work presented exactly what they were trying to hide—that war is grotesque, irrelevant to ordinary people, and that once you leave the war (if you are lucky enough to do so), your life will never return to what it was.

Remember, this was 1930, nine years before the start of World War II. 

By 1933, the Nazi regime made it a national crime to own a copy of All Quiet on the Western Front. All copies had to be handed over to the authorities.

Joseph Goebbels (chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and later Reich Minister of Propaganda) along with Hitler planned to go to Erich's house and kill him, considering him and his works a "threat to the ideology of the entire Nazi Party."

Fortunately, Erich was warned by his acquaintances of this murder attempt and left for the United States via Switzerland in 1939. The Nazis were not happy when they found out. But Erich lived his life continuing to write books, far from his homeland. The saddest part of this story is what happened to his younger sister, who remained in Germany.

Elfriede Scholz had to answer for her crimes as well as her brother's. Her crimes consisted of being overheard by her landlord saying that the Nazi-driven war was a lost cause, and his for writing this book.

Elfriede was judged and found guilty, and on December 16, 1943, she was beheaded, just four years after Remarque’s departure from Germany.

Erich did not know about his younger sister's death until after the war. He would dedicate his 1952 novel Spark of Life to her. The dedication was omitted in the German version of the book, reportedly because he was still seen as a traitor by some Germans.

I think the story behind this book makes it a million times more powerful, and I am sorry I did not give the book a chance until now.

Please give it a try, I don't think you'll regret it! And, of course, the latest adaptation of the film (2022) can be seen on Netflix, almost as good as the book.

Trigger Warnings!!!

Animal,death,death,gore,hospitalization,surgery,violence,war.

2

Author's Name: David Benioff

Number of Pages: 258 

Sumamry:

The plot revolves around two Russian youths; a looter and a deserter. Both crimes have the death penalty, but a high ranking colonel makes them an offer. The city is starving, but he wants a dozen eggs to make a cake. If the two of them can find these within 72 hours, he'll spare their lives.

My favorite quotes:

''You couldn't let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn't admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen. If you opened the door even a centimeter, you would smell the rot outside and hear the screams. You did not open the door. You kept your mind on the tasks of the day, the hunt for food and water and something to burn, and you saved the rest for the end of the war.''

“I never understood people who said their greatest fear was public speaking, or spiders, or any of the other minor terrors. How could you fear anything more than death? Everything else offered moments of escape: a paralyzed man could still read Dickens; a man in the grips of dementia might have flashes of the must absurd beauty.”

“You don't like the girl. You don't know what color eyes she has, you don't like her.”

“You're a writer. Make it up.

-What's the good news?

-Pardon?

-You said the bad news is we're going the wrong way.

-There isn't any good news. Just because there's bad news doesn't mean there's good news, too.”

“Those words you want to say right now? Don't say them.' He smiled and cuffed my cheek with something close to real affection. 'And that, my friend, is the secret to living a long life'.”

Thoughts on It:

I know some of you might not have high expectations just because it's a book written by the guy who also did Game of Thrones. That's what I thought too, until I read it and found that the atmosphere and characters he created are worth reading about and you'll find them interesting.

 Kolya, who is somewhat of a playboy, a semi-intellectual from the Soviet Union, and Lev, the protagonist, are set to spend 2 days together searching for eggs so that one of the leaders can make a cake for his daughter's wedding. (This creates a discrepancy, a sort of "let them eat cake" irony, because people are starving to death, yet this leader is thinking about a cake to please his daughter.) 

Kolya and Lev form an iconic duo, and finding eggs should be easy under normal circumstances. However, not in Leningrad, amidst a military conflict.

By the way, to be honest, I thought until the end that these guys would develop a romantic relationship. Things were becoming quite sus between them.

Although this book and All Quiet on the Western Front have much in common, City of Thieves seemed to me to be a couple of notches lighter than All Quiet On The Western Front. 

I remember when I read All Quiet On The Western Front, I had that initial feeling where I thought about how horrifying it would be for me to go through what the protagonist had experienced. Throughout the book, there are only one or two happier moments, although to say happy is an exaggeration.

All Quiet on the Western Front makes you feel powerless, it makes you believe that there is no hope left, that nothing is worth fighting for anymore.

In City of Thieves, although the atmosphere is equally brutal, equally grim, there are still some interesting moments that make you almost forget what kind of book you're reading.

I recommend reading All Quiet on the Western Front first, and then reading this one as a sort of solace.

Trigger Warnings!!!

Gun violence, Child death, Cannibalism, Blood, War, Sexual violence, Death, and Gore

3

Author's Name: Donna Tartt  

Number of Pages: 771 pages  

Summary: 

Theodore Decker was 13 years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day -- a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch.

My favorite quotes:

“Every new event—everything I did for the rest of my life—would only separate us more and more: days she was no longer a part of, an ever-growing distance between us. Every single day for the rest of my life, she would only be further away.”

“We looked at each other. And it occurred to me that despite his faults, which were numerous and spectacular, the reason I’d liked Boris and felt happy around him from almost the moment I’d met him was that he was never afraid. You didn’t meet many people who moved freely through the world with such a vigorous contempt for it and at the same time such oddball and unthwartable faith in what, in childhood, he had liked to call “the Planet of Earth.”

“There had been nights in the desert where I was so sick with laughter, convulsed and doubled over with aching stomach for hours on end, I would happily have thrown myself in front of a car to make it stop.”

Thoughts on It:

At first read, I loved it immediately -I felt like each part of the book had its own vibe, completely different from the rest of the story. I enjoyed Theo's life in Las Vegas; it seemed so dream-ish and reminded me somewhat and only a little bit of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses.

Theo's character seems complex, easy to understand and relate to in some moments, but impossible in others. The way he suffered, how one moment in his life spent in the wrong room managed to drastically change his life. Some would call it destiny; I think it's something much scarier and surprising than that. I don't think I managed to fully identify with him, though. And I don't think I would do the same things he did in the book. Sometimes I think about how insignificant his life was, how he spent all these years obsessed with that painting.

I honestly think that Donna has a thing for obsessions, how they can take over your entire life, change you into someone else.

The relationship between him and Boris seemed a bit confusing, and in the end, I concluded that they were just two quite lonely people, two teenagers who needed each other when no adult was concerned about them. I liked Boris as a character; I liked how he was brought back, although his departure from the book was rather random.

I expected him to continue with Theo.

Poor Andy, though. Sometimes I read about characters and think how terrible it would be to be in their place. Andy was hurt by the thing he hated most - the irony of it all.

Another character I liked was Hobie. Reminding me of Harold Stein from A Little Life, Hobie falls into that category of super chill characters who help the main character heal, become better, even if with a small, almost insignificant fragment. I really think Hobie managed to make Theo's life better and was one of the few normal adults in the book.

Pippa, I don't have much to say about her. An okay character, although the interactions between her and Theo seemed cringy (I think because of Theo). I found it interesting that even though Theo grows up and is no longer the same 13-year-old boy from the beginning, his life seems not to have moved on. He still thinks about Pippa and has a connection to the ring he took from Hobie's partner, and most importantly, Theo continues to think about the painting all those years - as if Theo never left the explosion, and he relives it over and over.

Of course, there are a few things in the book that were a bit dragged out and made me give it only 3,5 stars. Some descriptions were too long and unnecessary, to the point where I forgot what was happening and had to go back a few pages.

Here I'm referring to everything except the description of the work Hobie,(and then Theo too) did. Reading all those descriptions reminded me of another book that you might like if you enjoyed this one, namely The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr. It's about a lost and found painting, about all the beautiful work of restoring them (take notes, Theodore Decker ).

On the other hand, I wish some aspects were explained more. There's that contrast again between the multitude of descriptions of insignificant things and the aspects the author doesn’t address but should.

For example, I would have liked the dynamic between Hobie and Welty to be discussed more, but I understand that the events are narrated from Theo's perspective, who is too preoccupied with his own dramas and experiences. 

One scene that left me confused is this one;

“Tell Hobie to get out of the store,” he (Welty) said thickly.

In disbelief, I watched the blood trickling bright from the corner of his mouth. He’d loosened his tie by yanking at it; “here,” I said, reaching over to help, but he batted my hands away.

“He’s got to close the register and get out!” he rasped. “His father’s sending some guys to beat him up—”

-Page 44

Why is there no further mention of this throughout the book, and why doesn’t Theo tell Hobie what Welty told him, that his father had sent some boys to beat him up? I want to believe that maybe Welty was just in too much pain and not fully aware of what he was saying, maybe some flashbacks from the past?

Anyway,another issue I had with the book was the ending, which felt a bit too Hollywood movie-like for me.

I think it could have ended differently and better, without the final section of the book feeling like a Russian mafia x Depressed and obsessed after a painting boy fanfiction with the tag "dead dove do not eat" and "hurt/comfort."

The book seemed so perfect to me until then that I probably would have given it 5 stars (and so far, I've only given one book 5 stars in my entire life). I've seen other opinions saying they found it interesting, I couldn't swallow it.

I plan to wait a few years before reading the book again; I'm pretty sure my opinion will dramatically change, and this is just my immediate reaction to it all.

Overall, this book had the premise to be a masterpiece, but it turned out to be just a very good book. 

Trigger Warnings!!!

Death,depression,drug abuse (heavy),suicidal thoughts,attempted suicide,terrorism

4

Author's Name: John Edward Williams

Number of Pages: 278

Summary :

The novel follows the life of William Stoner, his career as an academic teacher in literature, the relationship with his wife, Edith, the affair with his work colleague, Katherine, and his relationship with his daughter, Grace.

My favorite quotes :

"He carried this feeling of loss with him throughout the graduation exercises."

"She continued to talk, and after a while he began to hear what she was saying. Years later it was to occur to him that in that hour and a half on that December evening of their first extended time together, she told him more about herself than she ever told him again. And when it was over, he felt that they were strangers in a way that he had not thought they would be, and he knew that he was in love." 

“He was forty-two years old, and he could see nothing before him that he wished to enjoy and little behind him that he cared to remember.”

“He listened to his words fall as if from the mouth of another, and watched his father’s face, which received those words as a stone receives the repeated blows of a fist.”

“Because in the long run' Stoner said, 'it isn't Edith or even Grace, or the certainty of losing Grace, that keeps me here; it isn't the scandal or the hurt to you or me; it isn't the hardship we would have to go through, or even the loss of love we might have to face. It's simply the destruction of ourselves, of what we would do'.”

Thoughts on It:

You don’t need much information before starting the novel, only that it is good enough to deserve everyone’s attention.

The summary doesn’t quite do the book justice, it is simply about the life of Stoner, first a student, then a university professor. In essence, not much happens, and most scenes are predictable. I think this is what makes the book so good��it presents the life of a man. Not a very happy life, not much, but still a life.

Stoner's relationship with Edith, his wife, is complex and difficult to understand. Certain behaviors of Edith suggest she might suffer from some mental illnesses, but these are never addressed further in the book, likely due to the period in which the book is set (pre-WWI to a few years after WWII).

Their relationship seemed sad to me, one that no one would want to have. Stoner tried, I believe, to be a good husband and father. I’m not sure how well he succeeded, nor how much he actually tried.

If I were to recommend just one book out of these four, it would definitely be Stoner, as seen in the rating.

Although I just finished the book, I am sure I will reread it soon. Now I understand what people mean when they say they have a comfort book.

Trigger Warnings!!!

Themes of sexual violence, ableism and alcoholism

Moderate ones : Abandonment, War, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

Just remembering when Oldest was a child in light of people condemning medicating children. Now we had no idea he was autistic but we were reasonably positive he had ADHD.

He could not learn to read. At 3 he could recognize the names of any dinosaur but even at 7, words like "the" stymied him.

Now my child is not stupid by any stretch. As a teen he studies history for fun. It was just not something he could process.

To make things worse, he was given a gifted younger brother who learned to read by himself by the age of 4. In school he passed the grade level books in his classroom, got sent to pick books from the next grade up, passed those, and got sent another grade up to borrow books -- unfortunately once to Oldest's classroom as his teacher didn't know.

My child was convinced he was stupid. It helped a bit when I said that as much of a reader as I am -- I can cover 1000 pages in a day and read probably 250 books a year -- I didn't really learn until I was 8. Not sure if I could have and just nothing interested me until Narnia or if my brain was just not ready. And showing him studies showing the normal age for learning to read is not 5 or 6, its anywhere from 4 to 8.

It was hard but we were keeping it from hurting too bad... until 2 months before the end of second grade. You see third grade marks a transition where kids need to be able to read better and write more, and he was a year and a half behind the benchmark. The principal, which had been my teacher and speech team coach when I'd been in high school called me in to explain she had to hold him back, for his own good. That it wasn't a step taken lightly because they knew the harm it does to a child's self image but that he failing continuously would do just as much. (Made worse because there was talk at the same time about his brother skipping a grade, which would have put them -- 2 years apart -- in the same grade.) Because of our history, she agreed not to make it official until the end of the year, but wanted me prepared, because as she put it m, there were only 8 weeks left and there was simply no way he'd catch up that much that fast.

He had a doctor's appointment for ADHD a couple days later because I'd been told they shouldn't be given meds until they turned 8. He was quickly diagnosed and given Ritalin.

The change could not be overstated, and at the end if the year, he was exactly at the benchmark, having caught up that full year and a half in 8 weeks, something that a brilliant and dedicated educator (because she was truly invested in the best for all her students, she was a good one) thought utterly impossible.

All for the low price of taking one pill every morning. Don't refuse children medications to make their lives better and easier.

[bereft-of-frogs]

friday! and a nice friday too, the sun is out and everything!

books:

(finished) This Wretched Valley - Jenny Kiefer: I maintain this would have been better/scarier if they had been good at their jobs lol, like I said last week. Like imagine how scarier if you're doing everything right and still can't escape and slowly realize there's some*thing* keeping you in the wilderness? Personal preference.

(finished) (phone book) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: You know, I didn't love this one as much as I did on the first pass a couple years ago. A weird opinion shift: I really don't like Cohmac haha. I remember liking him before and this time I'm like...no you can't have custody of Reath, I don't like you. Ok, that's...not the most mature book critique but still. I wish either Jora hadn't died or Dez or Orla had taken custody of Reath :( But it does make me consider giving Midnight Horizon a second chance, because my opinions shifted so much, maybe the opposite will happen with that one. Or maybe I'll just be able to further justify my Cohmac dislike.

(in-progress) (phone book) The Rising Storm - Cavan Scott: Bell is back! I missed Bell and Ember. Not too far in yet but at least I am back on track. I feel like this is where things start getting sadder which makes me happy (sorry Bell) :)

(in-progress) The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien: I'm like 30 pages from the end lol, I only read this while I have my morning coffee, just to explain why it's taken me like three weeks to read a 250 page children's book.

tv:

(finished) Anthracite (Netflix): What an insane amount of subplots for 6 EPISODES?? Either Netflix needed to greenlight like...4x as many episodes or once they got their budget the writers needed to cut like half the subplots and tighten up focus. I'm still honestly reeling. It did do a good job getting you to care about the main characters despite all the insane plot stuff. Also this was weird: like 90% of it was really well shot, and then randomly there would be a scene that looked like it was shot by someone in high school. I don't know if they had to go back in for reshoots or what but occasionally it was like oof that's not good.

(finished) Baby Reindeer (Netflix): Everyone was talking about this so I had to check it out. It's very intense. Is it bad I found the comedy shows were the hardest scenes to watch, despite everything else?

(in-progress) Under the Bridge (Hulu): Seems like sort of a standard mystery but I'm really just here for Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone and the moody vibes and so far am satisfied.

(in-progress) Constellation (AppleTV+): Nice little bit of unreality/space horror so far. I actually got got by a couple scenes, I'm so desensitized to horror that it's nice when I actually get creeped out by something (the ARM in the second episode!!). Looking forward to seeing where this is going, judging by the first two episodes, seems like my pet conspiracy theory (the Lost Cosmonaut theory) is getting a high budget AppleTV adaptation, never thought I'd see the day. Also I got kind of hyped about the Canadarm cameo in the first episode. The shot panned over the space station and I out loud shouted 'it's the Canadarm!', startling the cat

film:

The Apology (2022): Apparently this was the only movie I watched this week, it was ok, mostly just background noise for making lunch/writing. I wish it had leaned more comedic, which is not something I usually say but I think it would have fit if they'd committed to making a really dark horror-comedy rather than flipping between predictable melodrama and some pretty funny catharsis.

craft update: I am free of the tyranny of having to purl! I joined up the two sides of my sweater so I'm knitting in the round now yay! It turned out I didn't have a problem with needle size, the whole thing did fit on one circular needle so now we're cooking with gas.

to do:

finish the work day. ick. but depending on how long it takes me to get through actual work, I can probably get some writing done too

laundry, both clothes laundry on my lunch hour (now) and sheets/towels at my parents'

I'm through 8 out of 12 chapters of current wip! Unfortunately chapter 9 is SO action-focused. why did I do this to myself. I mean I know why because then chapter 10 gets to be angsty but damn I have to block out so many action scenes. why.

I ordered a filing cabinet. it arrived. most of the negative reviews were about how hard it was to put together. so I should put 'assemble filing cabinet' on this list but I think 'let filing cabinet percolate' is a more realistic entry

I might go to a local yarn store on my way up to my parents' tomorrow, because it's local yarn store day and I do not need any more stitch markers but BUT I want more stitch markers. don't @ me I know I have plenty of stitch markers.

pick a new book: I'm torn between giving Kill Show another shot, starting the other book I have checked out of the library (The Deep Sky) or a secret third thing

have a good weekend everyone!

[theartofdreaming1]

For the weird writing asks and sorry I'm on mobile on the train, can't copy the questions right now but:

4, 15, 16, 35 aaaand 40

Sorry <3

4. What's a word that makes you absolutely feral?

Hmh, I don't know if I really have a specific word like that (or at least can't remember on the spot), but I guess the most recent time I felt like I'd go feral over a word was while watching episode 2 of Pushing Daisies, when we see Ned getting dumped at boarding school and his father's saying good-bye and we get this absolutely cutting narration:

"I'll be back," he lied.

I think I've never felt this strongly over the use of such a simple word as 'to lie" before, but this simple phrase (and word) really felt like a punch to the gut, damn.

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

No, I can't bring myself to write in books; I once just wrote my name on the very first empty page of a book (I think in pencil, even?) and I have felt absolutely horrible about it ever since (it doesn't help that my handwriting is atrocious). If I want to mark some phrases/passages from a book I'm reading, I write them down on a blank index card (complete with page citation) and put that in the book or I use some tiny sticky-notes 😅

The only exception I've ever made without a guilty conscience was writing the inscription of the ring from LOTR into my edition of Heinrich von Kleist's "Die Verlobung in St. Domingo" ("The Betrothal in Santo Domingo"), which I had to read for school xD

Similarly, I can't even fathom dog-earing any book on purpose! I try to keep my books as pristine as possible, even doing my darndest not to open my unabridged edition of Les Miserablés too widely, lest the spine gets more cracks and becomes even uglier (a very futile endeavour, since it is one of those boring black penguin paperback editions and the book is over a 1000 pages thick and you're inevitably gonna get some cracks in the spine, but I just cannot help myself)

And since I don't like taking baths and don't have a tub in my apartment, I don't read in the bath (I also would be terrified of getting my poor book wet).

But at this point in my life I'm mature enough to take a live-and-let-live stance on these things, so I won't judge people who do this to their books too harshly ;) (I can definitely see the appeal of handwritten margins in books, although the concept of dog-earing a book still makes me wince just thinking of it- but as long as it's not my book, it's fine)

16. What's the weirdest thing you've ever used as a bookmark?

Boy, I'll use anything at hand as a bookmark (although now that I have gotten some of the bookmarks I designed myself printed, I usually have something at hand) and since I'm quite messy, an improvised bookmark can be anything - grocery receipts, return receipts from library books, other books, whole comic book issues, empty envelopes, you name it 😅

35. What's your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

Rules, what are rules? 😉🔨 Honestly, I don't think I consciously follow any rules when I sit down to write my little stories - I just bang my head against the keyboard until the words sound like the story that is lodged somewhere inside my brain;- I once had to take a "Writing" exam in which we had to write a strictly structured 250-300 word pro-contra-essay and it was absolute agony - I like my creative writing to be joyful and free (once it gets past my crippling perfectionism and debilitating procrastination, that is ;)

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

I'm always very fond of Emily Dickinson's "Hope":

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.

[gojorgeous]

hellooo i finally had time to read both the alpha gojo and the assassin gojo fics and godddd were they so good 😭😭😭 i had a stressful week in uni so im so glad i saved ur fics to read them on the weekend 😋😋 PLS KEEP EM COMING!! ur like my fave jjk fic writer rn 😭

-🫀

HELLLLLLOOOOOO 🫀 HOW HAVE YOU BEEN BB??

omg i’m so glad my fics give you a break from school. i literally just started my semester like 2 weeks ago and i’m already behind 💀 these bitches gave me 250 PAGES OF READING to do BETWEEN the tuesday and thursday sections which basically means i had wednesday to read 250 of dense academic text… i think not.

ANYWAY thank you for the kind words bb i 💖 you i hope you have an amazing rest of your day MWAH MWAH MWAH

[prongsiess]

Food for thought:

Back in November I read Harry Potter and the Welcome to the World of Grey by sobsicles on ao3 (amazing fic btw, one of my all time fav reads and easily my fav Drarry fic) and was astounded that it took me a whopping 4 days (spanning over 2 school days and a weekend) to read. I was like?? What?? Why is this taking so long??

Anyways, finish the fic, start the sequel (that I think took me 2 weekdays to read) and finally decide to check the word count. HPWWG is a 456k words fic and my dumbass was confused as to how it took me soooo long (4 days, not even the full 96 hours of those 4 days, mind you) to read it. The sequel, Draco Malfoy and the Path to Paradise, is 124k words, and again, I was beating myself up for it taking so long.

Meanwhile my physical tbr hadn’t changed in months and I had a half-finished paperback on my night stand that I just couldn’t bring myself to pick up "because there’s just too much of it left and it’s just too long"… the paperback was like 250 pages and I was halfway done… I’ve binge-read multi-fic series with thrice the amount of words a 250 pages standard size paperback can fit in less time than it took me to force myself to pick up that book again.

Ao3 has my whole heart but by god hasn’t it screwed over my reading style.

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

Recently, for the first time in years, I read a book that wasn't for graduate school and wasn't something I'd read before.

I'd seen my friends @elwing and @kareenvorbarra blogging about the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, and the setting and one of the characters (Irene/Attolia) seemed so much my type that I bought the first two books. But, honestly, grad school killed a lot of my longtime love for reading, and in any case, I felt guilty about reading things not for my program when I'm perpetually behind. And I felt especially guilty about reading SF/F, which I love so much that I sometimes regret not specializing in it academically, but which has very little to do with my actual research.

So I didn't read them (or any of my "new" SF/F books) for about a year or a year and a half after buying them. I don't know what snapped the other day, but I simply decided to try and enjoy reading a complete novel (after breaking the ice with a short story, Zen Cho's "The House of Aunts," last year). And I picked The Thief, the first in the Queen's Thief series, and brought it with me while I was waiting through some medical appointments.

I'm really glad I did, because I had a blast reading it! I barrelled through about 250 pages without stopping, paused for a brief conversation, then finished it with full enjoyment.

The book is engaging and extremely accessible in style, which may have helped me jump back into long-form reading for pleasure. I get the impression that it was geared or at least marketed towards older children, even while being very enjoyable for an adult (I wasn't at all surprised that it was originally published in the 1990s, which was kind of the era for that). At the same time, there isn't much sense of urgency or quickness about the pace, as there often is in shorter novels for children (or was in my recollection from years back). Personally, I was happy to read lots of descriptive passages of the characters meandering around the countryside.

I guessed some things from my friends' blogging—I'd seen art and brief passages about a number of the characters, so meeting them for the "first" time was like "oh, it's you! I know who you are!" But I had no context for these people and the scraps I knew about them until I kept reading. There was one character whom I guessed would end badly through his absence from what I've seen of the fandom, and indeed, he did. I only saw part of the big twist coming, though, so it was actually very fun to encounter it with only disconnected, Tumblr-filtered ideas of these people and this world.

I really enjoyed the quasi-Greek setting and names. I don't often see that done as straightforwardly as here with secondary world fantasy, so I got a big kick out of it as a Greek-American, especially given the jabs at elites who dismiss immigrant and diasporic culture. The subversion of the magus's condescension towards Gen's knowledge of Eddisian stories and pronunciation was extremely cathartic, lol.

Irene/Attolia was as spectacularly my type as suspected, even though she only appears briefly (but what an impression!). I loved Eugenides himself, more than I actually anticipated—the type really depends on execution, but I found him delightful. Sophos and Eddis/Helen were, too!

So it was, all around, a great experience to have after years of slogging through dense articles and academic texts. I have The Queen of Attolia up next, and I'm looking forward to reading it.