#especially if it's not like a mass market paperback

[britneyshakespeare]

I love AbeBooks bc you can absolutely tell who is trying to rip you off

[possumteeths]

One thing about veilguard that bums me out is that this is the very first bioware game that I dont feel any desire to play again. All of the decisions made in the game either dont matter or are made for you so there’s no wondering like “what wouldve happened if I did this instead of that?” There’s so many moments in the game where it felt as if I should really debate what option to pick, only to realize through playing more that decisions really don’t matter. So all decisions made in later stages of the game just kinda feel meaningless.

Everything is set up so one dimensionally that the replay value is unfortunately very low. Theres very few ways to play things differently. I was incredibly disappointed that you do not have the option to kill Lucanis’s shitty cousin. You dont even get any option at ALL over what to do with him. It doesnt matter what you do with the bald warden dude, it doesnt matter whether or not you chose to kill that rando mayor… and the list goes on.

I used replay bioware games just to get different DIALOGUE! This game had very little in terms of meaningful dialogue! Much of the dialogue between characters feels so flat or unrelated to the plot. Character conflict is extremely forced so replaying the game wouldn’t necessarily give you anything new to chew on. Its frustrating that Rook is designated as the group’s therapist, but is often completely sidelined by everyone and everything going on! I romanced Lucanis and he still was hella flirting with Neve which made the romance route feel like a complete afterthought.

Approval ratings dont matter at all, theres genuinely nothing that changes besides your own insight to the different characters worldviews. If someone disliked something, you dont get different dialogue or attitude or nuffin! What does hardening even do in DAV? Neve or Lucanis being hardened has no impact on anything at all besides some rando skill buffs. I thought maybe Harding or Davrin’s endgame sacrifice wouldve meant something more if you had some way of hardening them.

It felt just kind of random to kill off one of your companions in the endgame. Especially when you’ve played through the entire game making choices that were ultimately meaningless. The choice of who dies in the endgame feels just as meaningless as everything else because you the player have spent the entire game realizing that approval ratings dont matter, plot choices dont matter, characterization choices dont matter etc. So if they want to do something as heavy hitting as killing off a main character, wouldnt it have made more sense to build it up in a way that there would be SOME emotional impact? If you were able to harden Davrin or Harding, then killing them wouldve hit harder dang it! Killing off characters feels just cheap when youre overly aware that nothing matters.

No matter your choices in this game, its still going to play the exact same every time with very little deviation. Its almost like playing a telltale game or something. The plot is pathed out for you, your choices are superfluous, your romance options are as noteworthy as skyrim’s “put on a necklace, okie doke now you’re married.”

The game itself isnt bad, but it reminds me of a mass market paperback book. The kinds that come out monthly. You know exactly what the plot is gonna be, you know there’s gonna be a cast of characters, you know theres gonna be bad guys and good guys.., and then you finish the book thinking “Yup that was ok!” Then you shelve it and never look at it again because its one amongst 17492820102 others in the genre. To use another metaphor, this game is buttered toast, it feels like something youve had before, its familiar, it tastes good… but thats it. Its just bread and butter, and theres no sense dressing it up or toasting the bread more or less because at the end of the day… its still toast.

[thesandsofelsweyr]

as the resident angsty jason expert: what do you think he would do to self-soothe

I hope I can live up to this amazing title you've bestowed upon me 🤩

Reading, of course. His faves are the secondhand, mass-market paperbacks he picks up from old bookstores he visits. (You can usually find him with one tucked into his back pocket.) He'll also listen to audiobooks if he's busy doing something else, like working out or sketching new weapon designs, but he prefers the feel of a book in his hands (and loves the old smell, too.)

Smoking (I'm a sucker for smoker Jay in any universe.)

Running, especially when its warm and sunny out. This is also one of his grounding techniques, as it reminds him that he's out of that damp pit of a cell, done rotting away in the cold bowels of Arkham.

Lounging with his one-eyed Mastiff/Pit Bull mutt while he watches his telenovelas.

Cleaning his guns.

Designing new tech, like his helmet, armor, the drones he takes with him to Gotham, weapons, etc.

Wrapping up in a weighted blanket burrito in the corner of his room after he wakes up from another night terror 😞

Taking care of his houseplant. When he moved into his little shack in Venezuela, the previous tenants left behind a practically dead houseplant, which he nursed back to health (He has a soft spot for broken, ruined things, especially abandoned ones.) Whenever he travels to the states for extended periods of times he brings his houseplant with him to his safe houses. (In my mind it's a trailing plant like a pothos or a philodendron, but I could also see him with a cactus since he is the prickly sort 😉)

Later, after the events of the game when he's living overseas, he takes up cooking.

He has to constantly be doing something because idle time brings back the past 🙃

[gender-trash]

THE VANCOUVER TRIP BOOK HAUL POST (in approximate order of acquisition)

from elliott bay book company in seattle:

google reviews lied to me there weren't any used books here. still, this bookstore was open fairly late and for this we must credit them. for some reason there's a thin line between "queer friendly bookstore" and "unsalvageably astrology-pilled woo dispensary" and elliott bay book co is kiiiinda straddling it. on the other hand they stocked swindles 2 AND the hands of the emperor so clearly SOMEONE working there has taste.

massy books:

the problem with becoming bookbindingpilled is i sometimes find myself picking books up from used bookstores purely because the binding is really nice, which is how i wound up with that book in the center of the top row. in my defense it's a folio society edition for cheap how was i meant to resist??

cross & crows:

the proprietress of this bookstore was really nice & chatted with me fairly extensively about the vorkosigan saga books :) for some reason i am under a wizard's curse to own extremely mangled mass market paperback editions of same; e.g. my copy of barrayar has had about a half inch eaten away from the fore edge on both front and back covers by some sort of bug. true to form, this copy of ethan of athos has a hole burned in the front cover.

white dwarf:

i walked in here hoping to buy some dumbfuck vintage pulp scifi with extremely inaccurate robotics content and i was NOT disappointed.

pulpfiction books:

tor books is periodically like "hey what if we do ANOTHER collection of chinese science fiction and fantasy short stories in translation" and every fucking time i open my mouth like a baby bird. product/market fit babey

macleod's:

google reviews described this as a cave of used books and they were NOT WRONG. this store was barely navigable with all the stacks of books on the floor and had a deranged bordering on nonexistent organizational scheme. lots of rare books with awesome binding. grading on sheer Used Bookstore Ambiance this was by far my favorite. i think that book on dutch golden age paintings weighs like ten pounds by itself.

the paper hound:

i didnt take any pictures of the shelf labels bc i was definitely flagging at this point but they were Deeply idiosyncratic <3 cute little store with quite a lot (especially for its size) of weird obscure shit pertinent to my interests.

(at this point i got on a bus, missed my stop bc i had no cell service and no way to check directions, got on a different bus, took the subway back to where i'd parked the rental car, took every possible wrong turn until i stumbled upon the hotel again, dropped off my books, and took the car to...)

carson books & records:

the checkout clerk commented on my eclectic taste and it was almost 10pm and i'd walked like eight miles while hauling around a suitcase increasingly full of books so i just said 'yeah'.

and now we play the fun game of "which of these are for fic research, which ones are for various hyperfixations, which ones are 'sequels' to nonfiction i really enjoyed, which ones i just thought Looked Interesting, and which ones are things i've seen recommended and hadn't managed to acquire yet"

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Analysis: Of Mice and Men (Cultural References)

Bindle: A bag, sack, or carrying device.

Bindle Stiff: Hobo; transient who carries his belongings in a sack.

Bunk House: A sleeping quarters intended for use by multiple people.

Talcum Powder: Very similar in texture to baby powder, talcum powder was used mainly after bathing or shaving.

Apple Box: A box used for storage or as a stepstool capable of holding a person's weight.

Scourges: A widespread affliction, an epidemic illness or the consequence of some natural disaster, like fire, flood, or a migration of locusts.

Pants Rabbits: A sexually transmitted disease, known as pubic lice.

Graybacks: The equivalent of ticks or lice.

Liniment: A topical cream for the skin that helps with pain or rashes.

Jerkline Skinner: Lead driver of a team of mules

Stable Buck: A derogatory name for an African-American man who works in the stables.

Stetson Hat: A famous brand of hats, especially cowboy hats.

‍Swamper: A general assistant; handyman.

Murray and Ready: An employment agency, specializing in farm work.

Work Slips: Proof that people had been hired to do a job.

Cultivator: A farming tool used to stir and soften the soil either before or after planting.

Cesspool: A well or pit filled with drainage or sewage.

Slough: A muddy or marshy area.

Tart: A woman who tempts men or who is sexually promiscuous.

Buck Barley: To throw large bags of barley on a truck.

Lynch: To illegally execute a person, generally applied to the hanging and/or burning of African-Americans in the south.

Slug of Whiskey: Equivalent to a hip flask of whiskey.

Gut Ache: A stomach ache.

Airedale: A type of dog, specifically Terrier.

Pulp Magazine: During the 1920s-1950s, inexpensive fiction magazines. From 1950 on, the term also came to represent mass market paperbacks.

Luger: The Luger pistol was an expensive, high maintenance weapon manufactured and used primarily in the German army.

Euchre: A card game played in England, Canada, and some parts of the U.S.

Two Bits: Twenty-Five cents.

Rag Rug: Rugs created from rags that were tied together by knots.

Kewpie Doll: A particular style of doll, one that was usually won at carnivals.

Phonograph: The first device for recording and playing sound, most specifically music.

Parlor House: Could be considered a restaurant, but more often parlor houses were brothels.

Hutches: A form of furniture, very similar to a wardrobe.

Welter: A boxer (refers to welterweight, a weight class in boxing).

Nail keg: A wooden barrel that could usually hold 100 pounds or more inside.

Russian Hill: Affluent residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California.

Travels with a Donkey: Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), one of Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest published works.

Varro: Marcus Terentius Varro (116-29 B.C.E.), Roman scholar/author and horticulturist.

Velasquez's Cardinal: Seventeenth-century painting by Spanish painter Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez.

Zane Grey: American adventure novelist (1872-1939).

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[mermaidsirennikita]

i think we need to start judging adults who only read fanfiction

I mean, I can't really argue with this... especially when I see people saying that they don't read "real books" because they're "not as good as fic". Like—I kinda doubt that you've read widely enough to have an informed opinion if you're saying that.

The thing about fic is that there are gorgeously written, well-edited fics available. For sure. But that being said, I will always have a different level of respect for people who put the work of writing and editing (whether you're working with an editor in a tradpub or an editor you're paying for your self pub'd book) an original piece of fiction on the market.

Because, and this is something I just don't think gets discussed enough in the fic vs. books convo—fic authors have a ready-made audience. Even when you're writing with a small fandom, you work is going to people who are there to find the fics and are open to the world or characters (or both) in which you are writing. If you're not writing an AU fic, you don't even need to worldbuild.

(And this is also why I do still have respect for people who actually do the work of adapting their fics. Some do this more than others, and they still have their built-in audience carryover, but they still do need to convince new readers. Not every reylo book is a hit, people!)

Additionally, I feel like fic readers often applaud the wrong things. You'll often see people talking about how great it is that a fic is 500K words... If you weren't set in for this saga of fic writing, which is often responsive and changed on the fly, and something you WILL be reading as it's written... Would that really work as a book?

I mean, for context, the average tradpub historical romance novel is between 80K to 100K words. That will come out somewhere between 350-400 pages in a mass market paperback. You're telling me that 5x that isn't going to be flabby as hell?

And maybe, in a book world, that would be like... a trilogy. But I would bet that most long-running fics need a fuckton of fat trimmed. And I suspect that many good fic writers would agree with me. Because fic, for so many writers, is not supposed to be your best work. It's supposed to be experimentation. That's why the expectation is that fic writers don't even get constructive criticism unless they ask for it!

I would also bet that the truly high quality fic writers are not only reading fic. Or at least, didn't always. But that's me!

[thethirdromana]

In honour of Doctor Who's 60th birthday, here are 60* things that I like about less popular** Doctor Who stories.

(*in multiple posts because I'm falling foul of the character limit)

(**IMDB rating of less than 7/10)

1. Susan is great in The Sensorites. She's at her absolute best in stories like this where she gets to be genuinely a bit alien and a bit weird.

2. "So," said someone at the BBC, "we're going to produce an allegory for different political systems, using insects. Choreographed by a mime artist. On a budget of about £2.50." The Web Planet might not entirely have succeeded, but my god, you have to love that they tried.

3. They introduced Jamie, the best companion, in The Highlanders! How is does this have less than a 7/10 rating, what is wrong with you people. It's Jamie.

4. I applaud the utter bonkersness of The Underwater Menace, and Patrick Troughton really gives it socks.

5. The Wheel in Space is proper 60s sci-fi: Servo-Robots, x-ray lasers, radio beams! I can practically smell Penguin mass-market paperbacks thinking about it. And with the introduction of Zoe, it completes my all-time favourite TARDIS team.

6. The Dominators contains the Quarks, who are adorable. They weren't supposed to be, but it doesn't matter.

7. Zoe is still relatively new to the TARDIS, but she has heaps to do in The Krotons. Nice having a female companion who's written as smart and capable.

8. We have entered the 70s, so with Colony in Space, we get Social Issues. Especially an Evil Mining Corporation, which are always fun.

9. More Social Issues in The Mutants, but this time they're paired with big sci-fi ideas. Ancient tablets! Strange life cycles! Love how much is going on here.

10. The Time Monster is like the Eurovision of Doctor Who. Deeply silly, but what would Doctor Who be without silliness? I'm sorry about Jo's coccyx too.

11. I love that they returned to Peladon in The Monster of Peladon, especially with the 50-year time jump. I'd like to see that kind of follow-up more often.

12. Is it not cool to love K9 any more? Well, I like my Doctor Who with a dose of silliness, and The Invisible Enemy delivered that. Every time traveller needs a robot dog.

13. The design of the Seers in Underworld is excellent, I love a brass dome.

14. Doctor Who doesn't have enough giant squidmonsters looming on the horizons. I'm glad the The Power of Kroll does something to address the deficit.

15. The Creature from the Pit gave us the line "a teaspoon and an open mind", and I appreciate it for that at least.

16. Romana wears one of her best of many splendid outfits in The Horns of Nimon.

17. I liked all the arch dialogue between the Doctor, Enlightenment and Persuasion in Four to Doomsday.

18. Heathrow airport is an underrated setting. I also appreciate how Time-Flight prominently features Concorde, making it far more 80s than they could ever have planned.

19. I don't intend this to be damning with faint praise (even though it probably sounds like it) but my favourite thing about Arc of Infinity is that we get a little jaunt through 80s Amsterdam. I do love a tram.

20. Babyfaced Martin Clunes doing his spoiled princeling thing in Snakedance is enjoyably disconcerting.

21. Terminus is tense and scary and bleak. Another one that I'd expected to be more highly rated.

22. Warriors of the Deep gives us a very solid base under siege. Silurians + Cold War is a winning combination.

23. Landing in a modern village doing a historical re-enactment in The Awakening is a witty touch.

24. I can’t say I enjoyed the idea of the Doctor’s violent moods in The Twin Dilemma, but I have to commend it as a punchy way to introduce the new regeneration.

25. The Mark of the Rani should surely get some love just for introducing the Rani: camp, delightful, iconic.

26. Herbert turning out to be HG Wells in Timelash is a lovely twist and handled well.

27. The Trial of a Time Lord is so grand and ambitious. If the show hadn't been struggling in general at this point, it would be among the all-time greats.

28. With its colour-coded gangs and faux-urban slang, Paradise Towers is gloriously of its time in a way that currently feels quite naff, but that I suspect will be fascinating to revisit in about 30 years.  

29. Delta and the Bannermen is action-packed and has one of the best titles in 80s Who.

30. Possibly the most terrifying moment in all of Doctor Who is Kane's face melting in Dragonfire. This series is nothing if it doesn't send children running for safety behind the sofa.

31. Got to love it when Who gets aggressively anti-Thatcher, and they never did it more than in The Happiness Patrol.

[mostlyghostie]

hi, I really love looking at your art and the commissions people make! it's so satisfying to look at piles of books that people have loved.

this might be out of the blue, and only peripherally relevant, if at all (and please ignore if it is), but I was wondering what your thoughts, if any, on the differences between UK and north american paperbacks? it's the age old debate of, 'should you break the spine or not'; but I've noticed that in that UK paperbacks (and mass market paperbacks) are often much stiffer, and often will not open fully /unless/ the spine is cracked, as opposed to NA trade paperbacks (that are floppy and lie open by themselves), which renders this debate moot, almost, as some books do not require spine cracking at all.

[it has to do with the direction of paper grain in books, whether the grain runs parallel (floppy) or perpendicular (stiff) to the spine of the book]

I'm not sure where I wanted to go with this but I just wanted discuss it. thanks for your time, and I love your art!

Thanks for the explanation about the grain- I have wondered about this and thought it was a paper quality thing.

As I'm sure is obvious from my drawings, I actively enjoy breaking the spines as I read, I find you only have to do it once or twice in a book to access all the pages, then it stands up to lots more reads without further breakage. The issue I have with the US ones is that the covers themselves tend to be floppier and curl up if you bend the books in half, which doesn't happen with UK ones.

I do find that I often like North American literary fiction covers more than the UK ones, so I have a few on the shelves I've bought while on holiday. I am always a bit amazed how different fantasy/horror covers are between the regions though, I am not as keen on the very literal fantasy art and all the 'Number 1 bestseller!' bumf on US covers.

I'm obviously biased to what I'm used to, above all else I prefer secondhand books and below all else I hate dust jackets and often lose them on purpose. Also I like that books aren't subject to VAT in the UK, which makes them cheaper- buying books in Canada especially is much too pricey for me to do it too much, but I did lug home a very heavy 'Ducks' by Kate Beaton last time I went because I wanted to buy it from Nova Scotia.

[brongusthearcanist]

Sci-fi and Fantasy are linked in a strange way. Both deal with impossible premises and both typically have what we call "magic" but we don't normally call Sci-fi shenanigans magic, unless they are strictly spiritual. Sci-fi approaches the impossible as if it's simply not possible yet, and that this world has made a break through, allowing them to make this possible. Sci-fi also tends to spend a lot more time explaining how something works with science, or a modified version, while Fantasy explains it through the supernatural and mysticism.

Obviously no series in either category perfectly follows these rules. The cosmere explains that the supernatural is actually natural and measurable, therefore spiritualism is just another part of science. Star wars in my opinion does the opposite. It takes place in a society with future technology and all the trappings of Sci-fi, but it does it in a very fantasy way. Lightsabers are I think the best example, why would you ever need a sword when everyone else has laser guns, because cool fantasy that's why, it's a laser sword. The futuristic elements are portrayed with a mystic elements. And of course there is magic, they try to make is sciency later by explaining that the force is medicorians or whatever, but it still operates on a spiritual and mystical level, and truly isn't completely comprehensible. Which is in contrast to the Cosmere where all the mystical elements just feel like science that hasn't been explained yet.

Dune is where it gets a little weird to me. I think most people would put this in the hard Sci-fi camp, but I disagree. Yes this series is to Sci-fi what Lord of the Rings is to Fantasy, but I think there's a lot of Fantasy in there. I mean the voice? That's magic, Bene Gesseret being able to transmute substances in their body including poison? Magic. Prescience? It comes from a magic drug, made by magic worms! Yes the books do try to approach this from a very sciency way, but a lot of it just feels like magic, no matter how much Herbert tries to make it scientific. (Btw Sanderson's favorite book series other than the Wheel of Time is Dune, so you can definitely see a lot of his inspirations in this, in fact Taldain, the setting of white sands, is definitely just Cosmere Arrakis, like it even has its own version of sand trout.) There's also a shit ton of mysticism in Dune, and yes much of it is discussing the manufactured nature of religion and aspects of spirituality to control the masses, but there is also a sense that not all of it is made up, that the people in power are manipulating truth without really knowing what it is, just so they can get ahead and stay that way.

Obviously genre, especially in books are really just marketing terms designed to help find the right audience for a particular story. This is the same with YA. YA is an even less concrete genre as it requires very little. Mistborn was not originally marked as YA, it's an epic high fantasy, but after a couple years the boys at TOR figured out that it has a lot of the trappings of YA. It's fast paced, has a young strong female protagonist, a dark dystopian setting, and is written in pros that don't require an incredibly dense knowledge of vocabulary, making it easy to comprehend for all ages. It was a no-brainer for Tor to start printing a YA version(just a paperback with a different cover that is stylized in a way that is very common for YA). YA really just means a teenager could read this without feeling like it's homework. That's really it. There are a lot of people who hate YA for incredibly weird reasons. I personally am weary of YA, simply because I enjoy a slower plot with more room for nuance and sitting in the moment. YA tends to be more fast paced, which I enjoy, but it often comes at the cost of depth. There are a lot of YA books that I enjoy and a lot that I would enjoy if they were written to be a little more "boring". But some of y'all really just don't wanna read anything that is labeled as YA, and I'm positive it is just misogyny. Like y'all just don't wanna read books that are popular and "primarily" marketed towards women, and it's really, really pathetic.

I don't know how this turned into what it is, and I don't have a final point to end this on that will tie it all together. Enjoy this ADHD clusterfuck of a post where none of my points are truly taken to completion

I do not know how to end this, I just wanted to talk about it

[specialagentartemis]

I've seen this refrain go around tumblr a lot: "Capitalism has got people treating artists and entertainers as though they should hop on their bicycles like a chained bear, the moment the audience cracks its whip." "Artists do not owe an audience anything." This is true and fair. Treating artists like art-producing machines and demanding they crank out art at a schedule amenable to you, only containing content or themes that you want, is unfair and unreasonable and dehumanizing.

However, capitalism has also got creators treating their (potential) audience like they are obligated to buy their thing as soon as or even before it comes out. In this same reblog chain, the bloggers are shaming people for not buying books at a rate that the authors would prefer. They frame it as a moral imperative to buy books before the series is finished, because the author requires it. I have also seen this regarding pre-orders: exhortations to pre-order books, especially debuts, or else you are ruining an author's career and don't care about marginalized artists. Framing not doing so as "refusing" to, as if you are required to and spitefully denying your obligation. That's also not a fair or reasonable way to treat people.

Authors are not beholden to their audience, but neither are they guaranteed one. Buying books is not the pinnacle of activism, and there is no moral failing to not purchasing a given thing.

Anyway as ever the problem is the death of mass market paperbacks, publishers demanding authors be their own marketers, and capitalism. Not other randos with a limited entertainment budget and their own reading preferences.

[punished-lincolnshire-poacher]

when nerd shit was nerd shit

i have this perception that—largely before i was born—nerd shit was actually niche and lacked mass-market-appeal. It was *by* and *for* autistic outcasts. oh heads up in case you want to bail: this post is going to become centered around Magic: the Gathering. But in the 20th century, things like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons and X-men were, seemingly, obtuse and unappealing to much of the population. They simply built a bond with their niche demographics, who in turn kept interest alive beyond their cancellation or discontinuation in some cases. Naturally, the rights holders kept running different calculations until they found ways to flatten and mass-produce those IPs for maximum profit, thereby expanding their demos as much as mathematically possible and flooding the market.

I could be mistook, but based on my highly subjective personal experiences, I have this feeling that Magic: the Gathering was one of the last and biggest things to cling to its relatively dry, tepid "nerd shit" status. It, too, succumbed eventually—but only recently. For its first 25 years or so, the game kept its audience by being truly mentally stimulating. The lore maintained its appeal by... well, it didn't, but it certainly captivated me when i was an autistic tween and i'm sure there were at least hundreds of others like me in that respect. They used to publish mediocre paperbacks! About the lore! of Magic: the Gathering! Most of the ones I read were ultimately nothing special. But "The Thran" by J. Robert King will always hold a special place in my heart.

For 25 years, Magic: the Gathering was weird, and I was weird for liking it. *That* itself was a piece of what made it so endearing to me. I'm writing this in 2025 and Magic: the Gathering feels dead for my purposes. It's still a product with frequent new releases that can be found on shelves all over the world, but that's all it is. Its current state is no longer a one-of-a-kind card game that challenges you and engrosses you with its complexity. It has congealed into a boring fucking product.

The fall has been twofold. The lore, for one, was never amazing but it built up some real steam in the 2010s. There were ask blogs, moodboards, all the shit that fandoms have. It had a pulse! The catastrophic mishandling of the War of the Spark story material was a fatal blow to that community. Virtually no one was willing or able to trust the writers after that.

Mechanically, the decline is just a slightly more dynamic iteration of boot theory; there is no further incentive to design and curate a genuinely intellectually stimulating card game. You can just introduce unending chase-variants and limited releases and you'll make even more money than when you put actual thought into your game design. It's a fate worse than death.

I miss when nerd shit was nerd shit, and I especially miss Magic: the Gathering. For me, it's heyday were the dicey years. Kamigawa, Lorwyn, Alara... my heart is still there.

Please, if you can, show me that I'm wrong. I want to be misreading the situation. I wish I was a stereotypical old person complaining that the good old days are long gone. I'm so afraid I'm not.

[starfxkrinc]

okay okay....like i said kai smells like the ocean she smells like a sea creature (sexy) likeeee sea salty skin and her soap and ambergris and seaweed and salt spray for her hair like. shes a fish girl shes a mermaid she has an ever present girl smell to her like she smells blue and sarah gets her to wear perfume and lotions to try and get rid of it bc it makes her horny but it doesnt work it just mixes all together

courtney...smells like an animal (sexy) like her body smells kinda creamy and musky like how cats smell like oatmeal kinda. but also smells clean in a boy way like its kinda woody she kinda smells like jj lowkey but not as spicy as him but like shes like when you smell your cats neck and its soft powdery and milky? also slight tobacco smell bc she #smokes

erykah smells smoky but like incense not like weed/cigarettes. kinda sandalwoody but also smells kinda bright like cereal and orange juice...like those single serve cups of fruit loops you get at school but she eats em without milk. always smells like outside because shes always outside even after she showers.

dez smells like a grandma (positive) like she uses her grandmas makeup and products so its that vintage powdery violet smell but also smells herbal like tea bc shes always drinking plain green tea so she smells like grass. but also sits in grass alot. also always smells like whatever was cooking in her house it sticks to her clothes.

alicia wants to smell like a hotel lobby sooooo bad but she smells like her shared bathroom with her sisters: body spray, hair products, lotion, kinda muggy like the bathroom after a shower and someone uses the most fragranced body wash and a shower steamer. shes very clean but because of this she always smells like a pogue. never loses her body smell which is warm and very spicy it tickles your nose.

sam smells like dirtttttt and rotting leaves but rotting leaves when they first start to turn so its earthy and sweet. also smells like old paper from 70s mass market paperbacks and cigarette smoke. vaguely yeasty like beer and has pretty bad body odor tbh. like she actually does kinda stink.

liana always smells like a baby she never lost that milk teeth smell especially bc she takes baths a lot so she really smells like a powdery baby. but its like a rich musky milky smell like its similac not breast milk.

[optiwashere]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers (ू•‧̫•ू⑅)♡

Aww, thanks 💜

Finding a series of books in well-worn mass market paperback at a used bookstore.

The first day of autumn after a really bad summer, because I can't stand the heat.

Slowly mastering a song on an instrument, riff by riff, until I can play it through at tempo. Add., it's even better when that song is very technical or extremely heavy or, better yet, both!

A good and heavy, tactile mechanical switch on a keyboard.

Cooking with fresh ingredients, especially veggies.

[sobreiromecanico]

Leituras da semana (#45 / 16 Dez 2024)

No Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, está em curso uma retrospectiva da categoria de "Best Dramatic Presentation" dos Prémios Hugo - já percebi que vou ter muito que ler nos próximos tempos, pois a série anda a ser escrita desde 2020 (!). Mas hoje destaco a mais recente entrada desta série, relativa aos prémios de 1983 que incidiram sobre um dos melhores anos de sempre do cinema de ficção científica e fantasia: 1982. Vejamos: Blade Runner, The Thing, E.T. The Extraterrestial, The Dark Crystal, Mad Max: The Road Warrior, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Tron, The Secret of Nimh... e porventura mais alguns, fora do cinema americano, que me escapam agora. Vale muito a pena ler esta retrospectiva, ainda que tenha de discordar num ponto: The Dark Crystal é um excelente filme, e se é certo que o protagonista não é nada de especial, Aughra e os Skeksis serão tudo menos esquecíveis.

No seu blogue/newsletter, Andrew Liptak aborda a crescente procura por edições especiais de livros, fenómeno a que as redes sociais, onde a imagem é privilegiada, não serão de todo alheias. Imagino que um livro bonito fique melhor na fotografia ou no vídeo do que o mass market paperback que ser encontra nas estantes das livrarias, mas não me posso pronunciar muito sobre isso: é uma realidade que não conheço, a de booktoks e afins (mas tudo o que gerar novos leitores é bem-vindo). Dito isto, não sou alheio ao fenómeno: já comprei vários livros que desconhecia apenas e só pela capa, e se durante anos adquiri sobretudo trade paperbacks, hoje em dia dou por mim a escolhar ocasionalmente alguns exemplares de capa dura, sobretudo quando já conheço os autores e tenciono ler os livros pouco depois de terem saído (Simon Jimenez, Vajra Chandrasekera ou Nnedi Okorafor são compras imediatas, por exemplo). E por colecção, claro, e por apreciar formatos físicos. Enfim, desde que os paperbacks continuem a ser abundantes e acessíveis, está tudo bem.

[onheil-ferguson]

Hey, in case it wasn't clear from the content I share, I am absolutely disgusted by the push in bookish social spaces to "keep politics out of it."

A book simply existing is a political statement.

Books printed in common languages and/or translated materials are political. The existence of audio books and large print and braille and mass market paperback printing are all political.

The act of writing is political.

The act of reading is political.

(Especially if you're not a man or not wealthy, etc.)

I don't care what genre you're into. Even textbooks are political and boy oh boy could we write a dissertation on that!

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of years of political discourse and development rolled into every page you will ever read whether you choose to acknowledge that fact or not.

If you want to keep YOUR individual bookish social space "apolitical" then YOU need to seek out like minded people. But you absolutely cannot tell everyone else that they are not allowed to recognize and discuss the politics of books. It is a PRIVILEGE for you to have an apolitical bookish space. If you do not want to see or hear politics, then make use of the moderation tools that are available to you or move to a private invite-only space.

[mermaidsirennikita]

But Books, Though: A Blogger Intro

Hi! I'm Caroline. I read a lot of books. 99% of these are currently romance novels. That could change, but it hasn't in a while. Sometimes, you will see my opinions on things like TV, movies, niche topics. Sometimes, you will see a reblogged post. Mostly... it's books.

Update: I am a Pango Ambassador! What is Pango? It's a website for buying and selling used books (forgive me if that's the exact language of their ad, it plays a lot for me because the Internet Knows All).

If you wanna try it and save money, use code DIFFICULTWOMANREADS for $5 off your first order of $10 or more. Do I get an affiliate kickback? Yes. But it's in the form of Pangobucks, enabling me to buy more books to rant about. Use it or don't, totally up to you!

I like Pango because a) I find that more of the sellers on Pango are actual people versus chains b) it's easier for me to tell the condition of the book I'm getting and ask questions c) I've found a LOT of collectible romance novels there. And, big one: they have a tagging system and categories by genre. Which means you cans search everything from thrillers to historical romance Makes it way easier to find niche books.

Even if you aren't a collector, though, I think it's a great way to be a little more sustainable and pick up physical media you could always sell again or trade in to your local used bookstores. (Highly recommend doing that! It's fun!)

I'm a big used books girly in general because it's a great to save money (often cheaper than ebooks for mass market paperbacks especially) and... I don't know. I love a good find.

Quick Links:

My rating system

My ARC review tag

My Bookstagram

My StoryGraph

My book recs tag

^ This is for all rec requests I get, as well as book reviews wherein I would recommend the book (all books I recommend are 4 stars or higher on my rating system, unless otherwise noted).

There will be repetition, as I rarely leave a rec request hanging and don't often remember to link back to previous asks. Also, new books happen! I also don't currently have subcategory tags breaking them up. I'm sorry. Eventually, I'll try to do that, but... it would definitely require some work, as I've been recommending books on here for literal years :).