#happy to talk about any of the books

[pinkoptics]

[buff-muffin]

I always personally thought that Sabo was a child that was actually rather academically gifted, he had a thirst for knowledge and was a genius at retaining information. The problem was he was never allowed to explore topics of his own interest, so when he ran away and started living on his own he started reading any and all books on whatever topic he could find in the Grey Terminal. And when he, Ace and Luffy teamed up they would steal from bookstores. (idk I feel like Goa wouldn't have libraries. I mean free knowledge?? in GOA??? nahh)

Of course this was a lot of books on sailing, making boats, wilderness survival in the Grandline and the sorts of things they would need to know as pirates. But he would also try snag books Ace and Luffy would love.

Getting Luffy to actually read a book willingly was impossible but Luffy being a bug boy, would point to every bug he finds and looked at Sabo like "WHATS THAT ONE!?" And Sabo having stolen a huge book of East Blue bugs will flip through and read to Luffy facts about the bug. and its the most excited they have ever seen him about a book. When Sabo got all his memories back he became a walking bug encyclopaedia. I think Ace would be against reading no matter how hard Sabo tried to pitch the stories to him. But Once Sabo was gone and there was a pile of books left in the treehouse to rot, he picked them up as a way of staying connected to his brother.

I think Ace would read a lot of fiction books but keep it rather secret, reading in the evening when Luffy already fell asleep. He wasn't at all very fast at reading at first having to sound out words like he was six, but as he finished one book, a favourite of Sabo's, he read another and another. He got better at spelling, grammar even his handwriting got a little neater. He grew out of fiction when he got older. but leaving reality for a moment to be someone else was something he really savoured when he was a teen. This also ended up saving him as a commander considering all the paperwork he would have to do and thank god his handwriting was at least legible.

[nerdrooikat]

drabbles about the deer imagery in The Secret History (specifically in relation 2 Camilla) because her becoming a deer/believing that she did stuck in my mind (although this post will mostly take Camilla and the other's recollection of events to be as they recount it – if i examine it in it's effect as an incorrect account, that would be in a separate post)

Obviously there's, on a meta level, an irony to it – Camilla and Charles are named to make fun of the Princess Diana scandal that was happening at the time, and so ironically Camilla transforms into an animal sacred to Diana.

There's also a parallel that I think could be interesting to make between Camilla and Taygete, who for anyone unfamiliar, was turned into a deer by Artemis to protect her from Zeus' sexual advances. Although I think that what happened in the Bacchae was concensual sexually, I think it could possible be indicative in Camilla's narrative role as the "wanted"/"desired" one within the greek class – by Charles, Henry, Richard (although he wasnt there) and even Francis, although he wants to be her more so than actually wanting her.

Additionally, outside of how it actually functions within the story, her transformation into a creature associated so closely with innocence, especially in relation to Diana/Artemis' virginity, might perhaps be tied to Richards view of her as this "pure" and "virginal" person – obviously we know this is far from the truth, and he himself learns this later, but I think it definitely ties into this flawed angelic idea of her he so covets.

I think this interpretation ties into the myth of Actaeon (in terms of "deer transformation myths") although its very interesting to me that they different at key points – Camilla, the "virginual" character, is the one transformed, rather than the sexual transgressor (Charles) or the one who introduces miasma (Henry). But, like Actaeon, she is pursued and hunted – which, another key point – Actaeon is pursued and killed by his own hunting dogs, and Charles returns from the ritual with a bite mark, perhaps tying him into the myth thurther?

[lichqueenlibrarian]

I only started my ST TOS reading journey. What would you absolutely recommend from the ST TOS novels you’ve read so far?

I would say Diane Duane’s The Wounded Sky and Spock’s World are my two favourites, of all the books I’ve read so far. They have such a fun Enterprise, I love how real and loved the universe felt, and literally the cutest Jim Kirk I’ve ever read. Also some fun Amanda and Sarek moments in Spock’s World (there’s nothing little about my husband…)

My Enemy, My Ally & the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane (and Peter Morwood for the second book!) are a lot of fun. The first book has my beloved Ensign Naraht, everyone gets into Shenanigans, and there are some really scary Vulcans. The second book has McCoy in the midst of some tomfoolery, and the series as a whole has a lot of fantastic world building.

The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah made me die a little because I do love Sarek and Spock’s relationship, and it does some really cute stuff with the family dynamics. There’s a second book called The IDIC Epidemic. I liked both books, though The Vulcan Academy Murders was my favourite.

The Pandora Principle by Carolyn Clowes has Spock basically being the most awkward but excellent teacher/guardian to Saavik, they are so damn cute.

Vonda McIntyre’s The Entropy Effect was also a lot of fun- Spock has to try and avert a disaster in the timeline, and just has a Bad Time.

Yesterday’s Son and Time for Yesterday by A.C Crispin are about what would happen if Spock had a child by Zarabeth in the past, and they do jab you right in the emotions. Everyone’s a bit older in these ones (pre Wrath of Khan, I think).

I know a big fuss is made over Killing Time, The Fate of the Phoenix, and The Price of the Phoenix for how they’ve portrayed Kirk and Spock’s relationship, and they’re certainly fun books but I don’t know that they’re ones that I would choose to revisit too frequently? Diane Duane’s books have a chokehold on me, I’ll be honest- I keep going back to my favourite parts, and my copy of My Enemy My Ally has a billion sticky tabs in it to remind me of things I thought were neat.

It was actually surprisingly difficult to come up with a list of suggestions! I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten something, lol. Thank you for the ask I enjoyed working on my answer!!

[baldandgay]

It's very unfair that I can't have other party members romance each other In my main game where my Tav is in a romance with Karlach I should legally be allowed to have Gale and Astarion and Shadowheart and Lae'zel romance each other like why? let me do it damn it

[murphysiblings]

i hate how even like , some self proclaimed leftists online seem to also buy into this fearmongering conversative idea that society is deterioating & that younger ppl are all stupid & Woke . i could post something on here that was like "i told a teen to read a book... but they just said they want the FACEBOOK instead!!!" & thered be someone with an oil painting icon reblogging it like "#holy shit we are doomed as a society #we are regressing"

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

if we are adapting mediocre musicals for the screen now is it too much to ask for legally blonde the musical the movie. is it too much to ask that this happen and also is not directed by john m chu

[haughttopics]

finally watched happiest season and i totally understand why people hated the ending.

except for Jane. she deserves the world.

[sundayin96]

i remember when i was in second grade we had a computer lab assignment to answer a bunch of questions about ourselves on a word document and it asked our favorite band and i put fleetwood mac and my teacher was the only person that even knew who they were and a bunch of the other kids were like why do you like “old people music” and i used to be so embarassed about it and now i’m like actually why don’t you like “old people music” 😒 losers

[kbookblurbs]

The Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn Era 1, #3)

5/5 - Satisfying conclusion, excellent discussions about faith, intensely vivid world-building

Spoilers below!!

This book deserves high praise for its commitment to the plotline alone. Many books (and tv series) that I've read(/watched) find themselves unwilling to commit to the ending that they've set themselves up for. As heartbreaking as it is, sometimes the events set in motion have to result in major character death and despair. Anything else would be unsatisfying.

I can still remember how I felt the first time I read HoA and even knowing the ending, you still feel this sense of dread. How can the characters survive this? How can you fight the end of the world? And yet because I was so used to seeing most of the main characters survive, I remained convinced until the end that Vin and Elend would make it, which makes their deaths all the more heartbreaking. The imagery of Sazed piecing their bodies back together and laying them in a bed of flowers makes me tear up every time.

On the topic of Sazed, I think the bait and switch of Vin or maybe even Elend as the Hero, only to have Sazed fulfill that role is a really earned and satisfying conclusion. It feels good to see that only Sazed could save the world and bring everything back to what it should have been because he's a scholar. Conflict and death couldn't resolve everything in the end.

The journal entries should have tipped me off, honestly. The first time, I thought that maybe Elend or Vin was writing them later on, old and able to look back on these times with more of a curious eye, or maybe that Sazed and the pair were creating it together. But now, reading this for the second time, the hints of Sazed were there the whole time. He's got such a distinctive voice and way of looking at the world.

From a pulled-back perspective, Sanderson is really good at writing the end of the world. I felt similarly reading the Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (which everyone should read!) and that same sort of sadness and hopelessness bleeds through the page here. However, just like in Butler's work, there's this pervading sense of hope. It's desperate and crazy at times, but it's still there. And that's one of the things I really like about Sanderson's novels. He seems to really believe in the potential for people to be good and hopeful and trusting in one another, which I vastly prefer over the "all humans are evil" schtick that a lot of other authors have going (GRRM).

[sluttyten]

personal rant

[queenlucythevaliant]

'Yes, that old oak with which I saw eye to eye was here in this forest,' thought Prince Andrei. 'But whereabouts?' he wondered again, looking at the left side of the road and, without realizing, without recognizing it, admiring the very oak he sought. The old oak, quite transfigured, spread out a canopy of dark, sappy green, and seemed to swoon and sway in the rays of the evening sun. There was nothing to be seen now of knotted fingers and scars, of old doubts and sorrows. Through the rough, century-old bark, even where there were no twigs, leaves had sprouted, so juicy, so young that it was hard to believe that aged veteran had borne them.

'Yes, it is the same oak,' thought Prince Andrei, and all at once he was seized by an irrational, spring-like feeling of joy and renewal. All the best moments of his life of a sudden rose to his memory. Austerlitz, with that lofty sky, the reproachful look on his dead wife's face, Pierre at the ferry, that girl thrilled by the beauty of the night, and that night itself and the moon and ... everything suddenly crowded back into his mind.

'No, life is not over at thirty-one,' Prince Andrei decided all at once, finally and irrevocably. 'It is not enough for me to know what I have in me- everyone else must know it too: Pierre, and that young girl who wanted to fly away into the sky; all of them must learn to know me, in order that my life may not be lived for myself alone.

From War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

[angy-grrr]

There is gonna be more than that coming from the poll, but whatever it is vote Kacchan/Deku for best hero. Idc who wins i just need them to be together again

if they just announced it today without saying anything before, I would probably immediately do it.

Right now im just bitter because of the hype -I thought it would at least slightly relate to the actual story (adaptations of other stories, extra content for the volume which once again may I remind everyone is extremely short, almost half what a manga volume usually looks which is a huge problem).

This disappointed me extremely, as its not even related to any content from the manga beyond the characters it uses. I get that many ppl will work on this, and that artist will get excited over being able to get the spotlight, some will be able to ask specific questions, and a character will get a statue and a movie.

Still extremely disappointed because of the "special project will be announced on the 5th *wink wink*".

I can't feel excitement over it as, in my mind, I lost something that felt better -more content related to the story. So at best this would be "oh cool I can try it", a feeling pretty similar to the other announcements -not my favorite thing in the world, but I wont reject it and try to see what comes out of it.

This isnt at best to me right now

[rangercorpstherapy]

I don't actually want the series/movie to happen because it feels like it will just be another dissapointment (think pjo). If they make anything, I'd prefer it to be animated (because let's be honest, I don't think you can pull off people dissapearing and slinking around without looking foolish and bad, when using actual people)

x

[its-tortle]

tortle's 2024 reads

never let me go by kazuo ishiguro - ●●●●○

neverwhere by neil gaiman - ●●●●○

wann wird es wieder so wie es nie war? by joachim meyerhoff - ●●●●○

tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by gabrielle zavin - ●●●●●

as i lay dying by william faulkner - ●●○○○

you will get through this night by daniel howell - ●●●●○

the namesake by jhumpa lahiri - ●●●●○

a clockwork orange by anthony burgess - ●●●○○

(rr) little women by louisa may alcott - ●●●●○

a long way down by nick hornby - ●●●●●

white noise by don delillo - ●●●○○

the charm offensive by alison cochrun- ●●○○○

fair play by tove jansson- ●●●○○

my last innocent year by daisy alpert florin - ●●●●●

on beauty by zadie smith - ●●●●○

on se left you see se siegessäule by tilmann birr - ●●●○○

the pursuit of love by nancy mitford - ●●●○○

killers of a certain age by deanna rayborne - ●●●●○

little weirds by jenny slate - ●●●●●

free by lea ypi - ●●●●○

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by douglas adams - ●●●●○

der laden (teil 1) by erwin strirttmatter - ●●●○○

small things like these by claire keegan - ●●●○○

the vanishing half by brit bennet - ●●●●●

the joy luck club by amy tan - ●●●○○

the friend by sigrid nunez - ●●●●○

i'm sorry you feel that way by rebecca wait - ●●●●○

(rr) carry on by rainbow rowell - ●●●●○

pelican girls by julia mayle - ●●●●○

scherbentanz by chris kraus - ●●●○○

everything is illuminated by jonathan safran foer - ●●●●○

wayward son & any way the wind blows by rainbow rowell - ●●●●○

a good girl's guide to murder by holly jackson - ●●●●○

bitch by lucy cooke - ●●●○○

mirror, shoulder, signal by dorthe nors - ●●●●●

the heaven and earth grocery store by james mc bride - ●●●●○

boyfriend material by alexis hall - ●●●○○

kummer aller art by mariana leky - ●●●●○

sense and sensibility by jane austen - ●●●○○

good material by dolly alderton - ●●●●○

harlem shuffle by colson whitehead - ●●●○○

uprooted by naomi novak - ●●●●○

(rr) fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury - ●●●●○

die diplomatin by lucy fricke - ●●●○○

the silence of the girls by pat barker - ●●●●●

(rr) giovanni's room by james baldwin - ●●●●○

yellowface by rebecca f. kuang- ●●●●●

(rr) the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime by mark haddon - ●●●●○

how to be good by nick hornby - ●●●●○

(rr) swimming in the dark by tomasz jedrwoski - ●●●●○

my book ranking system, for insight:

●●●●● – loved loved loved this. it might have made me cry. i will be recommending this to everyone ●●●●○ – nice!! a good read. would reread and will be keeping it all pretty on my shelf ●●●○○ – t'was a book! maybe not quite my genre or not what i needed in that moment, but no ragrets. i got something out of it ●●○○○ – eh. didn’t really need to read this. it was kind of unoriginal and/or not my thing ●○○○○ – could not finish. who published this and why.

disclaimer: i am not the arbitor of taste. if i rated something high and you hate it, or i rated something low that you love, alright! the joy of reading is that every novel has a reader that appreciates it.

[rillabrooke]

3, 13, 22 :)

3. what were your top five books of the year?

in no particular order... • all creature great and small - james herriott • the hobbit (lotr #0) - j.r.r. tolkien • king lear - william shakespeare • the screaming staircase (lockwood & co. #1) - jonathan stroud • the fellowship of the ring (lotr #1) - j.r.r. tolkien *jazz hands*

13. what were your least favorite books of the year?

• the duke and i (bridgerton #1) - julia quinn i was trying to see what all the hype around the bridgerton books was about... bad idea :p listen, i've spent a fair share of time on wattpad. i've read the good, the bad, and the horrible. AND YET! i would argue that the duke and i is worse than the average wattpad historical romance. poorly written, poorly executed, and more of a comedy than a romance. • the words and music of paul simon - james bennighof bennighof just summarizes the lyrics and what happens musically in each song. i learned next to nothing new. the only thing i did learn was what the heck the one-trick pony movie is about, and i honestly didn't care that much lol

22. what's the longest book you read?

tress of the emerald sea by brandon sanderson clocks in at 486 pages! kinda shocking ngl cuz i flew through it—in 6 days, according to goodreads, which is crazy fast for me.

-

end-of-year book asks