#free reading log

[nerdladydraws]

My Reading Journal Format, Including a Free Canva Template!

[igbylicious]

*BANGING AGAINST THE BARS OF MY ENCLOSURE* SCI-FI 99 LINE SCI-FI 99 LINE SCI-FI 99 LINE SCI-FI 99 LINE

YESSSSSS 99 LINE SCIFI ASDKJDSJSDJKSDKJSJKD <3<3<3

okay so this came to me when i felt nostalgic abt firefly lol, so there's a few obvious inspiration points from there. the basic rundown is this;

the 99ers are down-on-their-luck space smugglers who dabble in some minor piracy to make ends meet

the only thing their ratty old, cramped ship has got going for it, is its stealth; so they sneakily poach goods off of big transport ships. when all goes well, they're long gone before the stolen goods (and optional knocked out security) are discovered <3

they're a ragtag bunch, but they're good at what they do

one day, based on a tip from the notorious information broker Kim Hongjoong, the 99ers steal a very specific crate from a very specific corporate science vessel 👀

they don't know what's in it, but they do know Hongjoong will pay good money for it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

so, um, so they're a little surprised when their stolen goods wake up and try to steal their ship 😬

...that's you. you're the stolen goods.

you're also a highly illegal science experiment, who escaped the clutches of famed nanobiotech developer / your ex-lover -> Park Seonghwa 😬

the 99ers quickly realise they're caught up in something way bigger than they're equipped to deal with; Seonghwa will want you back, but you and them also realise there's smth super shady going on with Hongjoong's interest with you

the fic is extremely slow burn

it's a shaky alliance between you and the 99ers

and at the start they only protect you in the hopes it'll get them out of this mess alive. they'd use you as leverage against either hongjoong or seonghwa in a heartbeat if they thought it'd help them

but as you survive dangers together, are forced to work as a team, (and live in extremely close quarters w/ off the charts sexual tension), things slowly start to shift

so when they finally have the perfect opportunity to throw you under the bus and make it out with their skin intact... they can't

and they risk everything to save you 🥺

(PS: Jongho is a hired gun who works for Seonghwa and makes the crew's life real damn difficult ♡ beloved monster of capitalism ♡ ♡ ♡ )

i don't have a snippet that i'm happy enough w/ to share, but i thought maybe i could share this outline of an early conversation between reader and the 99ers (minus mingi, who is busy fixing the damage reader did to their ship oop). it should give a pretty good idea of what the dynamics are like on this ragtag crew lol

(pls ignore the weird capitalization / grammar rip, my writing process works for me but that doesn't mean it's not a hecken mess ^^;;)

WIP TAG GAME

You: WHO IS IN CHARGE? WHO IS THE CAPTAIN AROUND HERE?

Yunho answers NO ONE simultaneously to Yeosang saying I AM.

It’s not arrogance or ego; Yeosang is genuinely confused. Isn’t he the captain? Didn’t they vote on it?

Yunho: YES AND EVERYONE VOTED FOR THEMSELVES.

I DIDN’T, San pipes up. I VOTED YEOSANG.

Yeosang, puffing up his chest: SEE?

Yunho: YEOSANG, WHO DID YOU VOTE FOR?

Thinks for a moment, then deflates. …AH. I VOTED SAN.

San beams at that, AW, and puts a hand on the back of Yeosang’s neck, gently squeezing. THANK YOU.

Yunho, staying calm but at his limit. OKAY, FINE, SO NOT EVERYONE VOTED FOR THEMSELVES, BUT WE STILL GOT NOTHING OUT OF IT. WE DON’T HAVE A CAPTAIN.

Yeosang still stares in silent disbelief, as though his entire world-view just got shaken to the core. Again; it’s not ego, it’s pure confusion.

Wooyoung flicks an annoyed finger at San’s forehead. WHY DIDN’T YOU VOTE FOR ME?

Immediate belligerence. BECAUSE YOU’RE BOSSY ENOUGH WITHOUT BEING IN CHARGE.

Yunho groans in despair — and though they might not have a formally elected captain, you’re pretty sure you have identified the guy who is, in all the ways that matter, their leader. (Or at least trying to be.)

[rathockey]

i want to scream "I love you" from the top of my lungs, but I'm afraid that someone else will hear me

“But that wasn’t even the weirdest part of the night. I got this bizarre phone call at like, eleven.” Buck froze, plate suspended a few inches above the mat. He felt his heart beat in his ears. “No caller-id, and when I answered it was just some garbled words and then they hung up. Couldn’t even tell what they were saying.” Buck exhaled, finally setting the plate down and forcing his body to continue moving.

“Might have been a wrong number. Or an accidental call.” Bobby said, thankfully the voice of reason. Not that either of them had any reason to suspect it was Buck. Eddie didn’t even hear what he said.

Oh.

Eddie didn’t even hear what he said. The lightness in his chest dissipated slightly. He felt tight, not as at ease as he’d felt waking up this morning. Did it even really count if Eddie didn’t hear the words? Was it better or worse that he hadn’t?

or: Buck drunk calls Eddie to confess his love anonymously. Eddie doesn't hear it. Buck struggles with his feelings.

read on ao3

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Laena Velaryon survived?

I'm addicted to bullet pointing my answers so let's goooo-

There's a few spots that Laena living really impacts the plot and the Dance overall:

Laenor potentially lives - if Qarl was in fact paid to kill Laenor by one of the blacks, the reasoning for this no longer makes sense because daemon and rhaenyra can't marry if laena is still alive. if qarl was genuinely just pissed laenor may have been cheating on him, or it was someone else that paid qarl, well, he's fucked i guess. but odds seem better!

Vhagar is still on tb's side - not only does she have the biggest and oldest dragon not chomping on her kids, but by the time Viserys dies, Rhaenyra has all but one (1) of the mature dragons on her side. that's HUGE. even otto, imo, is not stupid enough to decide to up against caraxes, meleys, syrax, vhagar, AND potentially even seasmoke, not to mention arrax and vermax. against what? ONLY sunfyre and dreamfyre? are they sending helaena out into the riverlands??

Aemond is defanged - outside of otto himself, aemond is the most war mongering, bloodthirsty on that side. it's not just killing luke, it's the mini genocide in the riverlands, it's taking out caraxes & meleys, it's his fascination with some superman v batman bullshit he wants to have with daemon, on and on. If Vhagar can't be claimed by him, he is only as capable as the army he is leading, and there's no dragons to worry about roaming Westeros except Tessarion, and Daeron can't really cover the Riverlands when he's so occupied in the Reach. Even if the war gets set off at the exact same time, getting rid of Vhagar/Aemond eliminates an entire front of the war.

Butterfly Effecting Away Aegon and Vis the Youngers - Daemon can't set Laena aside (they have clearly consummated), and they risk a complete rebellion by the faith if they do some bigamy stuff, and even if Daemon is stupid enough to pull that, Corlys and Rhaenys will kick his fucking ASS if he is married to Rhaenyra and Laena at the same time. Never mind someone paying Qarl to kill Laenor, Rhaenys won't even bother lighting Daemon on fire, she's just going to throttle him with her bare hands. This means that either Rhaenyra remarries who she wants as a political match (not a bad decision to make) or she simply remains unmarried (also, imo, not a bad decision to make since she's doubling down on the Velaryon boys being legitimate). In which case - if she has Daemon's kids, they will be publicly acclaimed as bastards OR they will be Laenor's legally, the same as Jace, Luke, and Joff.

There are some things I think might still happen - I think there's a chance Aemond makes a play for Vermithor if he can't have Vhagar, maybe Silverwing, but that's so much riskier because he'd have to travel alone as a child/teenager to Dragonstone, which is the seat of a political enemy, find where Vermithor has made his nest, get there safely, and then claim him without losing a limb. There's a lot of ifs there, vs Vhagar who was already hanging out nearby because of the funeral and very recently losing Laena. Laenor living is best case scenario for Rhaenyra because she keeps that cover for her sons - it's really hard to Vaemond, Alicent, or Otto to press on the Velaryon boys being illegitimate if Laenor is standing right there swearing they are his and fighting for their rights! But even if Laenor dies, Laena is not just going away - she's Rhaenys' last living child, she's Rhaenyra's girlfriend dear friend, she's the rider of Vhagar. Daemon cannot - and would not, in my opinion - just cast her aside the way he tries with Rhea Royce (and notable that his attempt to cast Rhea aside failed). Rhaenyra being single or politically married off would help her a lot just from a propaganda standpoint but she likely has more allies/has alienated less allies by the time Viserys dies.

Now, I think it's likely there's still a small war - Otto is in the capital and Rhaenyra is on dragonstone, so Otto will still attempt to take the capital but once she retakes it? With a war that is much less bloody, with her oldest sons likely still alive, without the loss of baby Visenya, she's not only mentally in a much better place, but politically as well. Hell, if she stays unmarried until she takes the throne, then dangles being Prince Consort in front of some lord's face, promising him that their children will marry Jace and Baela's child to sit the Iron Throne? Does Rhaenys even lose at Rook's Rest if she's only going up against Sunfyre, or going up against Sunfyre and Vermithor? I think in that case, Rhaenys & Meleys' experience and maturity trumps Aegon and Aemond's anger.

Anyways, I think Rhaenyra is just objectively better off with Laena around. Laena has a bit of reputation in fandom of being kind of useless narratively but the truth is, she has to die in order for Rhaenyra to lose so soundly. Laena is integral to Rhaenyra keeping her shit together because they are so close and because of Vhagar. If Rhaenyra keeps Laena as an ally, the war looks much different. Probably there's still a war, but I think it stays "a war of words and wings" for longer, and remains more or less bloodless. More similar to the third blackfyre rebellion, where the fighting isn't particularly bad and mostly localized, than the mess it winds up being.

[fionnaskyborn]

People like this have made me terrified that I am mischaracterizing my favorite character by playing into his strengths and emphasizing them so much... That I'm making things "too anime", "too over-the-top", and by doing that straying away from the groundedness that made the character compelling in the first place... But I think it's better to be a fan who loves someone so much they're willing to step into goofy over-the-top showcases of strength and morals out of love than being a fake fan who only ever rags on what they proclaim is so dear to them. I dunno. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that. I'm hella insecure when it comes to my own writing, especially with this guy because I want to do him as much justice as I possibly can as a writer. But I have to convince myself that it's not too much.

[separatist-apologist]

Can I ask, in your opinion and as a receiver of the occasional hate message, how toxic is the acotar fandom? Bc I’ve written a real belter of a Tamlin fic, a real humdinger, a certified banger if you will. The only thing holding me back from publishing is if I’m going to get a bunch of teenagers shouting at me on the internet about their opinions 🥲

Tragically it's not teenagers you need to worry about but women over the age of 30 who peaked in high school and never learned to mind their own business.

I can't tell you if you're going to get hate or not- but I will say that not doing something because a small group of adult weirdos think its their job to police the fandom is a bad reason not to do something you're proud of.

So what if someone sends you anonymous hate? I mean this genuinely- what kind of person does that, you know? A coward. Definitely someone who lacks real life connection with people but also lacks the self-awareness to realize they're the problem.

I think that all fandom has its toxic elements and genuinely just blocking people + carving out a niche of friends within your little subsection of fandom makes all the difference. I know plenty of people write Tamlin fic and seem to do just fine (though I don't know what's happening in their comment sections to be fair).

[hanakihan]

WAIT HELLO WHAT AUTHOR PUBLISHED FULL EDSALI FIC ON PIXIV???

BLOODBORNE-ESQUE VIENNA CLAD IN ETERNAL NIGHT WITH BONFIRE MECHANICS??? FOREIGNER JOSEPH II??? ABRAHAM VAN HELSING AS AN ASSASSIN CLASS SERVANT WHOSE NP COMPLETELY YEETS HIM OUT OF EXISTENCE AT COST OF BERSERKER LIKE RAMPAGE (BUT MAN IS ALSO REALLY SWEET)??? DANTES AND VAN HELSING CAMARADERIE??? MASTER TAKING AVENGERS WITH THEM ON THIS SINGULARITY SO HESSIAN LOBO AND JALTER BADASSERY??? SALIERI LIVING IN LOTUS EATER MACHINE WITH FEELING OF WRONGNESS AND BEING SUSPICIOUS OF JOSEPH’S TOO NICE ATTITUDE??? JOSEPH BEING SO OBSESSED HE CONSTANTLY KILLS SALIERI INTIL HE GETS HIM ‘RIGHT’??? DANTES DYING CONSTANTLY AND EVERY TIME HE’S BACK AT BONFIRE BEING LIKE ‘WELL FUCK LET’S TRY AGAIN’??? ‘THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF ETERNAL OPERA - VIENNA’???

[acotars]

books read in 2024

⋆ ⭒˚.⋆ january ⋆.˚⭒ ⋆

one dark window (the shepherd king #1) by rachel gillig

the murder on the links (hercule poirot #2) by agatha christie

pageboy by elliot page

house of sky and breath (crescent city #2) by sarah j. maas

rogue protocol (the murderbot diaries #3) by martha wells

cult classic by sloane crosley

malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid

the beauty of your face by sahar mustafah

exit strategy (the murderbot diaries #4) by martha wells

animal farm by george orwell

everyone in this room will someday be dead by emily austin

carrie soto is back by taylor jenkins reid

a court this cruel & lovely (kingdom of lies #1) by stacia stark

the rules do not apply by ariel levy

poirot investigates (hercule poirot #3) by agatha christie

yellowface by rebecca f kuang

every heart a doorway (wayward children #1) by seanan mcguire

house of flame and shadow (crescent city #3) by sarah j. maas

read: 18

* · ✦ · * february * · ✦ · *

beautyland by marie-helene bertino

bride by ali hazelwood

network effect (the murderbot diaries #5) by martha wells

fugitive telemetry (the murderbot diaries #6) by martha wells

faebound (faebound #1) by saara el-arifi

the raven boys (the raven cycle #1) by maggie stiefvater **

read: 6

.✦.· *. march .*· .✦.

interesting facts about space by emily austin

penance by eliza clark

the book that no one wanted to read by richard ayoade

pride and prejudice by jane austen

unlikeable female characters: the women pop culture wants you to hate by anna bogutskaya

the shame by makenna goodman

greta & valdin by rebecca k. reilly

read: 7

✷ · ✶ · ✧ april ✧ · ✶ · ✷

this spells love by kate robb

out on a limb by hannah bonam-young

gwen & art are not in love by lex croucher

a lady's guide to scandal by sophie irwin

the friendship study by ruby barrett

the boyfriend candidate by ashley winstead

the pumpkin spice cafe by laurie gilmore

business or pleasure by rachel lynn solomon

how to end a love story by yulin kuang

this could be us (skyland #2) by kennedy ryan

the honeymoon crashers (the unhoneymooners #1.5) by christina lauren

we could have been friends, my father and i by raja shehadeh

how to stop time by matt haig

how to fake it in hollywood by ava wilder

with love from cold world by alicia thompson

funny story by emily henry

love radio by ebony ladelle

old flames and new fortunes by sarah hogle

just for the summer by abby jimenez

don't want you like a best friend by emma r. alban

love interest by clare gilmore

the exception to the rule (the improbable meet-cute #1) by christina lauren

worst wingman ever (the improbable meet-cute #2) by abby jimenez

with any luck (the improbable meet-cute #5) by ashley poston

last call at the local by sara grunder ruiz

happily never after by lynn painter

the ex talk by rachel lynn solomon

i kissed shara wheeler by casey mcquiston

the love wager by lynn painter

morning glory milking farm by c.m. nacosta

will they or won't they by ava wilder

read: 31

.　° * ☆ may ☆ * °　.

when the sky fell on splendor by emily henry

on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

blizzard by marie vingtras

bright young women by jessica knoll

the age of magical overthinking: notes on modern irrationality by amanda montell

the flatshare by beth o'leary **

read: 6

⋆ ˚.⋆ june ⋆.˚ ⋆

not in love by ali hazelwood

the way of kings (the stormlight archive #1) by brandon sanderson

words of radiance (the stormlight archive #2) by brandon sanderson

read: 3

. · ☆ . july . ☆ · .

edgedancer (the stormlight archive #2.5) by brandon sanderson

blue iris: poems and essays by mary oliver

woman, eating by claire kohda

oathbringer (the stormlight archive #3) by brandon sanderson

a novel love story by ashley poston

chlorine by jade song

how to read now by elain castillo

please stop trying to leave me by alana saab

beautifully broken life by catherine cowles

the god of the woods by liz moore

edgedancer (the stormlight archive #3.5) by brandon sanderson

the dead and the dark by courtney gould

a most agreeable murder by julia seales

the murder of roger ackroyd (hercule poirot #4) by agatha christie

read: 14

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁august ݁. ⊹ ₊ ݁.

the bluest eye by toni morrison

more, please: on food, fat, bingeing, longing, and the lust for "enough" by emma specter

the ministry of time by kaliane bradley

system collapse (the murderbot diaries #7) by martha wells

emily wilde's encycolpedia of fairies (emily wilde #1) by heather fawcett

emily wilde's map of the other lands (emily wilde #2) by heather fawcett

catalina by karla cornejo villavicencio

roadside picnic by arkady strugatsky and boris strugatsky

read: 8

·.★ ° ·. ✶ september ✶ .· ° ★.·

the most by jessica anthony

rhythm of war (the stormlight archive #4) by brandon sanderson

we were the universe by kimberly king parsons

read: 3

.• ★ ₊ ݁. • october • . ݁₊ ★ •.

creation lake by rachel kushner

small rain by garth greenwell

spells for forgetting by adrienne young

normal people by sally rooney

there there by tommy orange

read: 5

.·　✶ november ✶　·.

:(

read: 0

· ⊹ * · december · * ⊹ ·

two can play by ali hazelwood

happy medium by sarah adler

read: 2

⋆ ˚. ⋆ ✶ reading goal: 103/100 ✶ ⋆ .˚ ⋆

add me on goodreads !

[bothzangetsus]

.

[aliteratepenguin]

I love the bitchiness of murderbot's exCUsE mE when it corrects itself to avoid offending humans' sensibilities around violence and death

[selineram3421]

See y'all next weekend.

[gifti3]

infinity nikki is the last gacha game i promise

[red-dyed-sarumane]

kamitsubaki trying to frame rime as the "responsible one" is so funny to me. thats a kid playing house. she couldnt keep the others in line for one moment and ran to haru about it. ill admit shes a little above what they portray coko as but like shes kind of on par with all the others. which is to say they all collectively have one responsibility brain cell and pass it back & forth

[worldofgoo]

figure 1. basically this means that I can read the majority of really common words but the less common they get the more lost I am

figure 2. this one means that I'm theoretically like a japanese 3rd grader in terms of my literacy

first off check out my japanese proficiency. i started august of last year, apparently, using a (paid) course called wanikani, which is focused on drilling kanji using radicals + mnemonics. it also uses a SRS system if you want to look into what that entails (basically the spacing of the reviews for a given item becomes longer and longer & in this case if you get it right after 3 months of not having seen it you don't have to study it anymore)

progress has slowed over time (I work fulltime now...) but I'm still sticking with it. Actually I might as well show off my timeline too (I love charts and graphs...)

The scale of it is janky because of statistics bullshit (I did a lot of levels very quickly, and the slow ones are taking a while to actually effect my median because. they're slow) but you can see where I switched from being obsessed to kind of overwhelmed, I try to take a month per level now which means it'll take me like 3 more years to finish the course (it ends at level 60).

Uhh, other information since I've been asked this, my history with studying Japanese has been

-trying to teach myself with duolingo + online textbooks + anime, this didn't really work but I learned kana

-two semesters (intensive) in college, gave me new vocabulary but I feel like the focus was grammar which I'm sure I'll appreciate if I ever learn to speak it

-wanikani, occasionally translating memes/tweets, reading articles on nhk news easy, uhhh watching/listening to shit in japanese (very limited usefulness on its own, animelon is very good if it has shows youre interested in on it)

-all of the things here besides Wanikani are super sporadic and I would not call any of it much of a routine. but I'm at the point in the course where you need to start applying the knowledge or it starts feeling kind of useless, so my current plan is to combine interests, so I'm now (VERY SLOWLY, hopefully at least weekly progress) watching films with japanese audio and subtitles

-in the future: when reading is less agonizing, I want to translate manga. I'd also like to practice speaking (I don't feel confident to even try right now), possibly with the Tandem app, or even a tutor if it's something I can afford and fit into a schedule eventually

-end goal is going to japan and not seeming like a dipshit in the process

[website-com]

why am i required to write a reflection on a paper my uni doesnt give me access to.

[ethereal-feline]

"Miraculous Vigilantes: Emotion" is up!

Summary: Fumikage Tokoyami knows he needs to control his emotions, lest they lead him astray. In these trying times, how much control he has will be put to the test.