#books I like to re-read
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this isn't meant to be @ anyone. I've wanted to rant about this for a minute.
In defense of Harry Dresden, a kinda toxic hero—
I've had several instances where I recommended the Dresden Files and got replies like 'oh I tried that but the main character seemed kinda chauvinistic' or 'those are guy books.' I'm not gonna argue with that assessment. I agree that Harry has some prevalent issues of the toxic masculinity variety. He admits as much. He doesn't do much about it in the first 17 books but he admits it.
I do get annoyed when I interact with guy friends who read him as a perfect role model. There is a toxic fandom element out there, not unlike with Star Wars or Harry Potter. People who got the wrong message from a complicated piece of media. I was actually dating the guy who introduced me to the series as way of excusing some of his toxic behavior, which he had directly based on Harry. I started reading the series to try to understand why he thought that was a good idea, and after reading it we had a talk about why it probably wasn't. He's living his best life with his soon-to-be husband now but we've stayed in touch just to chat about new Dresden books when they come out.
It's not only okay to read and enjoy books with problematic characters, I think it helps people develop a greater appreciation for nuance. Even when the actions of those characters aren't immediately and unequivocally condemned by the narrative, enjoying a 'problematic' book isn't an inherently bad thing. But Harry usually does get kicked in the pants for his bad takes and that is a reason I enjoy the series. Yes, he has chauvinistic views, but those almost always come back to bite him. In fact it's hilarious to me how many times the scenario: 'Hitting on a hot dame? Whoops she's a fae queen who just stabbed you.' plays out. It's not hilarious to Harry but unlike the Supernatural bros at least he learns from his mistakes and starts to get suspicious of supernaturally hot women pretty quickly.
As far as female rep goes, it does go borderline on the 'strong yet sexy female character' tropes at times but ultimately it's leagues better on that front than adjacent media like Supernatural, Libriomancer, or any series I've read about Druids where every dame in the book is apologizing for being an inhuman supermodel while still being an inhuman supermodel. Women in Dresden Files have a huge amount of depth and agency, and only about 7 out of 10 are supernaturally hot. Their narratives are rarely centered but oh well, some stories are allowed to be about guys being dudes. Dudes and their supernaturally sexy male model besties.
Harry is very much meant to be a hero character in the story but we mainly get that from the way other characters interact with him. Usually when he's confronted with the fact that other characters see him as a hero it makes him uncomfortable. Internally he's hugely critical of himself. He's also deeply introspective and empathetic, which would be good things for men to model. Anyone reading Dresden Files and going 'aha, see—toxic masculinity is based actually' is thoroughly failing at media analysis. Which is the norm, granted, but don't blame that on Harry. Heck, one of the central themes is him being at war with himself and his baser nature, both in a relatable real-world sense and as a guy with the potential to be a mega powerful dark wizard.
Personally Harry's struggles helped me to unpack a lot of the feelings I was having about religion as I tried to distance myself from evangelicalism, but maybe that's just me. These thoughts aren't perfectly refined and I wanted to go into the cop worship issue to but I can't waste another hour on this.
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#original comic#artists on tumblr#comic#indie comics#every heart a doorway#seanan mcguire#id in alt text#my comic#my art#i started re reading it as this was loading and realized i shouldve drawn nancy with streaks in her hair#oughhhg i love this book#beyond this the aesthetics are also just so on point for my interests#like the creepy/gory subjects and the literal murder to be solved lol#i think id have probably gone to a nonsense world that pretended to be high logic#the opposite of kade's fairyland#crap now i want to design a world eVEN THOUGH IM BUSY ENOUGH
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#Or the 100th time if you re read the books numerous times#The fact that I'm older now and the actor looks like A BABY#I want to burn the world down#percy jackson and the olympians#percy jackson#Pjo#luke castellan#percy jackson disney+#I filled with rage I too would fight the gods
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"They [Casey] were commenting on all the little idiosyncratic things that Alex does, his little "isms". I had never heard anyone talk about it and I was so grateful that they had said something, because I did re-read the book and try so hard to find those little specific things that Alex would do." — Taylor Zakhar Perez
#rwrb#rwrbedit#red white and royal blue#alex claremont diaz#taylor zakhar perez#userninz#chrissiewatts#userveronika#userclara#usersteen#userlang#usermegsb#tusermira#firstprinced#mine*#he gets it :(#as soon as he said this i was like yeah i need to look back on everything#funny how he says no one really talks about it#WE'VE BEEN HERE SAYING IT SINCE DAY 1#re-reading the book to find little parts you can add into your own character.....🙂↕️🙂↕️#we got lucky fr
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there he is......the man of the house
#mine#ough hello not posted in a while!!#im busy doin portfolio stuff so . not much cat drawinign going on THO i will. hopefully do one tomorrow hehe#i was gna get stickers for my next shop update but its hurting me head so. gna order new prints hopefully!! this week and then#do stickers n postcards next time. i am so low on stock sihfdkggwe#need 2 buy envelopes also....my least favourite thing 2 spend money on#what hve i been up to ....i made a blanket!! maybe i will post picture. it was gna b a cardigan i started it like last year#n then i went 2 sew it together n was like. this pattern is insane also this wool is too thick so. blanky :)#its very good. good lap blanket!!#what else what else....been re reading lotr. im reading it on ebook i lov ebook sm. i love printed books but i jus absolutely cannot#read them. dyslexia gang rise up !!!!#im reading it so much quicker tho n also actually remembering it ....would die for gimli#also started rewatching cr2 >:) i dont . actually like th new campaign so KSDFKJDN rewatch it is#even tho i dont like molly. not that thats gna b an issue for long sifubshbhebwj#im so seepy...so cold.....gna rest now probably n play skyrim hehe#cat drawings tomorrow >:)#okay bye
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Peeta recognized the sound of whip on the flesh, don't even talk to me again.
#no you don't understand HE RECOGNIZED IT SO QUICKLY#I can’t get over the fact that his first reflex was to protect Katniss I want to cry#the hunger games#hunger games#Peeta Mellark is the man that every one wants but not deserves because he's just the best#peeta mellark#thg series#thg#It's horrible to re-read a book and be like “HOW DID I MISSED THIS INFORMATION THAT'SSO CRUCIAL”
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How I (roughly) imagine this scale:
1- I see myself as a faster reader than the average person. I can breeze through a text quickly and still understand almost all of it
2- I read at a "normal" speed. I need to pace myself but can consistently read and comprehend a text in a reasonable time frame
3- I see myself as a slower reader than other people. It takes me a long time to get through a text and if I try to go too fast I won't understand it
Obviously this can vary by your mood, the type of text, etc. and this is a very imprecise scale with some overlap, I'm just casually curious!!
#i consider myself a sloooowwww reader#i dont really track it when reading for pleasure#but when im reading something dense like a political theory text i've realized i can only read 6 or 7 pages an hour (give or take)#in order for me to feel like im actually Getting It i need to stop and annotate while i read and also frequently re-read certain passages#this is on my mind because im reading a book for my thesis prepping for the semester and it is a slog for me#it's very interesting but i have to break it up into 45-60 minute chunks with breaks or else i'll go insane because of how long it takes me#it took me 4.5 hours to read 30 pages im not sure that's normal hahahahaaaaa#when i read for pleasure it's still slow i just dont have a stat lol
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Just ignore me crying over an audio adaptation to an 127 year old Victorian novel.
#I´ve read the novel like 5 times#participated now a second time in dracula daily#and I´ll do it any time all over again#dracula daily#books#bram stoker´s dracula#things i like#re: dracula
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See the thing is, you read HtN and like yeah, obviously lobotomizing yourself so a dead girl’s soul doesn’t get cannibalized is completely fucking wild and you probably have to love someone at least a little to do that, but Harrow has spent the whole book having tension with Ianthe and fervently claiming to be in love with the Body— and then you get to Act V and Harrow is literally weeping wailing feral about Gideon, constructing Prince!Gideon AUs (which, she doesn’t know about Gideon’s paternity!! She is simply drawing upon a (romantic!!!) genre trope!!!) and role reversal AUs and fucking coffee shop AUs about Gideon, and she’s refusing to go back to her own body, and Abigail and Magnus and Dulcie so obviously and completely believe that Harrow is in love with Gideon because they directly compare them to Abigail and Magnus, and she says she’s saving the last dance. Agh!!! Aggghhhhh!!!!!!
#when I tell you that harrow’s final chapter is fucking euphoric she’s so happy. I swear she’s so happy Gideon’s alive it’s insane#the locked tomb spoilers#tlt series#the locked tomb#harrow the ninth#htn spoilers#tlt spoilers#tlt#the locked tomb series#harrowhark nonagesimus#griddlehark#I just re-read htn. it’s wild.#to be honest the river bubble plotline is so wonderful I’m so glad harrow got to have that.#abigail loving her. Magnus and dulcie. ortus apologizing for his role in her life etc. the ghost gang!!#fun fact: I want a TV show about the ghost gang. ortus pro marta and nonius vs the world. TELL ME you wouldn’t watch that shit#like the whole book is so miserable and act v is especially miserable but the bubble plot in act V is just. god it’s so good.
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misty quigley // the haunting of hill house, shirley jackson
#+ the following scene ... that's It. eleanor imagining theo and luke talking about her and feeling deep happiness.#only to realize there is no one there. and they have left her in the woods.#misty quigley#yellowjackets#edit*#web weaving#i haveeee to re-read the haunting of hill house.#but it genuinely scares me too much it needs to be an 8:30am commute book#i was sooo obsessed w it in high school i think i carried around a copy for like half of tenth grade
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I really need Gideon to know that Jeannemary said hi, please, the whole scene with teens death is so devastating, Gideon needs to know
#thinking about Harrow trying to tell that but she's saying it like 'the fourth cavalier says hello'#and Gideon doesn't know about the whole Harrow's haunted river theater so she doesn't take it as anything genuine#so Harrow continues with#'you absolute moron I'm not trying to talk down to you. Pent helped them trough the river. they're save..more or less'#if you wonder why I have so many posts with quotes recently i just been re reading the first two books#and I'm in shambles#the locked tomb#gideon the ninth#gideon the ninth spoilers#harrow the ninth#harrow the ninth spoilers
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I'm sorry, I will go nuts about Thousand Autumns on main, because this bit from Volume 2, Chapter 46 has been living in my brain rent free:
Yan Wushi literally just traded Shen Qiao for a sword he didn't even need, to a man who very likely would rape him and kill him, knowing Shen Qiao's only choice was to self-destruct and die. The worst possible betrayal... right after Shen Qiao had started to see Yan Wushi as a friend, to think that even if Yan Wushi was a monster to everyone else, maybe to him he could be different; maybe there was a speck of humanity hidden inside him.
And still, after all that, in excruciating agony after having shattered his own foundations and barely alive, Shen Qiao goes over every interaction they ever had and thinks that even if he could go back, and undo it... he wouldn't change it. He wouldn't take back knowing Yan Wushi, learning about the world, breaking out of his naive and secluded worldview. It makes me want to chew glass, because of course I've also seen people go "But when did Shen Qiao develop feelings for Yan Wushi?" and it's all... right there, with this being one of the most beautiful and subtle moments. Shen Qiao did fall first, and then couldn't even take it back, didn't want to take it back. And then cried about it. Someone save me from the Yanshen shaped Hell I find myself in!!
And I love MXS's writing because this isn't forgotten. Later on, in Volume 3, Chapter 79, Yan Wushi himself asks this, right before he sacrifices his own safety to lure Sang Jingxing away from Shen Qiao, in a reversal of what he did before:
Shen Qiao says he doesn't regret it. And I swear, when I first read the novel, at this part I instantly went "OH GOD YAN WUSHI WHAT ARE YOU ABOUT TO DO YOU HORRIBLE BASTARD NOOO" but then he proceeds to save Shen Qiao. All while spewing bullshit about how it doesn't actually mean anything. There's no feelings involved, of course not!
It's just. I love the symmetry of it, which is clearly intentional. Of having Shen Qiao, after Yan Wushi's betrayal, find himself unable to regret having met him. And then the same thing, but explicitly, right before Yan Wushi's one conscious, unselfish act of kindness.
#been re-reading the books like an insane person and there's just SO MANY LAYERS AND DETAILS#so many things are mirrored or paralleled in different ways#thousand autumns#qian qiu#yanshen#yanshen meta#I ship them so badly. I went through the entire ao3 tag at this point and I need more :((#more angst especially. I do get why there's so much fluff but can I just. I need them to YEARN
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I must say I read all of the Stormlight Archive books this very year and as much as I love theorising, I’m afraid I cannot participate bc I have not a fucking clue what you besties are ever talking about. This shit was in the books?
#every theory is like#‘the dawnshard of the unmaking at the recreance of the heralds and the vasher of the netherworld#stormlight archive#kowt speculation#kowt#what is all this I don’t even have the time to re-read the books
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Something something Jason feeling like he doesn't quite fit as "Greek" or "Roman" as a metaphor for bisexuality, particularly the semi-canonical bi-coding in his half of experiences during the Cupid scene and how Favonius and Cupid speak to him in parallel to the scenes confirming Nico is gay.
Something something the camps as metaphors for traditionally acceptable forms of relationships and Nico living as a rogue outside of them, rejecting expectation (ergo in himself representing a metaphor of queer identity and living outside of boxes and defined/usually hetero-allonormative/binary ideas of what love/relationships should look like) versus Jason struggling with the expectation to conform to a label and even discussing with Nico both of them remaining at CHB together.
Something something the inverse of Jason shifting away from the camps after he breaks up with Piper, feeling lost and unable to find a place between the camps as he begins to explore his queer identity properly for the first time versus Nico only remaining at CHB because he has entered a relationship. In this essay I will-
#pjo#riordanverse#jason grace#nico di angelo#analysis#i know ive semi-rambled about this before here#but i was thinking about it on the discord the other day#for those in the discord forgive it being mostly copy/pasted from my rambling lol#i say ''semi-canonical bi-coding'' re: the Cupid Scene because. well. it's in the text! it's pretty overt!#which means it's pretty canon but nobody ever really discusses it and Rick has never acknowledged it#but also he never acknowledged Reyna's aspec-coding until a rare instance of him responding to q's on twitter#(that chain was also specifically sparked by me in that instance - due to him replying to my open letter about aspec coding in the series#- which i still find amusing cause it is SO obvious he didnt read it)#and he only like once acknowledged his mostly unintentional aspec-coding of the Hunt on goodreads#and very frequently goes ''death of the author - whatever i say outside the books is irrelevant and doesnt matter. read it how you want.''#''if you can get it out of the text then there's your canon.'' which i respect. reject ''word of god'' canon embrace analysis
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Pippin is canonically older than both Éowyn and Éomer... This feels illegal somehow
#he's a year older than eomer#that's... like#idk SOMEHOW I never thought of this#Pippin is baby okay#also isn't éowyn like the youngest named character in the book (after bergil obv.)#she does not feel like the (second) youngest character in the book#I need to emotionally recover from this#pippin took#eowyn#eomer#lotr books#lotr#tolkien#emily (re)reads lotr
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I Am so glad that my first time reading Dracula is through Dracula Daily and Re:Dracula. It is so immersive reading along with Mr. Harker, whose voice actor is incredible btw, all of them are!!!! Cannot recommend it enough
#like genuinely I get the creeps and I am on the edge of my seat!!!!!#it has also gotten me into a crapton of other email based books so thank you!!!#I am always so excited to receive that notification in the morning and it gives me something to look forward to after work#i do think this has genuinely rekindled my love for reading#dracula daily#re: dracula#also this book fuckin rocks??!!!#bram stoker dracula
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