#isn't it time yet to read a book?

[katnisshawkeye]

#SalTo2024 Vita immaginaria

È stato annunciato che la trentaseiesima edizione del Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino avrà il tema "Vita immaginaria".

Abbiamo anche quest'anno protagonista l'immaginazione, che d'altronde accompagna l'essere umano fin da quando è piccolo.

Il manifesto della XXXVI edizione è stato realizzato da Sara Colaone, illustratrice e fumettista, per numerose case editrici e riviste di fama anche internazionale. Vuole essere un omaggio alla vita immaginaria in tutte le sue forme, e in modo particolare a quella descritta da Natalia Ginzburg, scrittrice e drammaturga italiana della letteratura novecentesca. Al centro vi è il racconto di mondi sempre nuovi in maniera malinconica, fiduciosa e creativa, facendoli incontrare e con la speranza che qualcuno di essi possa essere reale. Ma è anche un ricordo a Maria Giacobbe, scrittrice e saggista, a proposito di mondi intrecciati e possibili.

A proposito dell'illustrazione, realizzata per mezzo di tecniche tradizionali e digitali, Sara Colaone scrive:

È un’illustrazione che vuole essere gioiosa e vitale, e che richiama una possibilità che tutti, anche nei tempi più difficili, abbiamo: coltivare vite possibili, provare ad attuarle, comunque continuare a nutrirle almeno nell’immaginazione, con le letture, con le relazioni, con l’amore ed essere almeno in questo “sfrenati”.

Il Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino, ancora una volta, guarda al futuro senza dimenticare il passato, perché occorre ricordare che quello che siamo è anche quello che si è vissuto, nelle gioie e nelle difficoltà, nei sogni e in ciò che è stato realizzato.

[egophiliac]

OMG EGO HAVE YOU SEEN THE BOOK 7 CATER CARD YET

80s britpunk Cater is such an incredible direction to take. his Sid Vicious jacket! his little british police cap! I wouldn't have anticipated that going full-on Sex Pistols would be his alternate self but it is SO fitting actually. 😭

(also th-the crown symbol?! the gavel?! is housewarden Cater real because I will TRANSCEND --)

[voidwalkerart]

Decided to dust off my old art blog with a rough doodle of everyone's favorite gambler.

[writeouswriter]

Girl, help, the book authors are trying too hard to be "hip" with the fleeting "teen lingo" and trends again, immediately dating their works before they're even released

[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.

[hongluboobs]

book reader i have a copy of dream of the red chamber (volume 1) that ive been trying to get through for over a year how do i motivate myself to finish it

I'm recently coming out of a half a year ish period of not reading very much so trust me when I say the lack of motivation comes for us all. I think I have some tips for how to motivate reading in general+ some for DOTRC specifically :)

(Real quick, I assume because you mentioned a volume 1 you're talking about the Hawkes-David translation published by Penguin in five volumes under the name 'The Story of The Stone'. This is the translation I read through, and it's the one I see recommended most to english speakers looking for an enjoyable reading experience, so to any other prospective readers of this novel I HIGHLY recommend reading this translation as opposed to any other ones. I don't know if I need to say this or if it's well-known to seek out that version, but because Hong Lu's canto is coming up I want to make sure anyone interested in reading through the source material can have the best experience possible with it👍)

It's important to remember that reading is a hobby, and the best way to keep going with it is to make it a habit. Unfortunately, this means forcing yourself to read sometimes, but it comes easier the more you do it. The trick is: it doesn't have to be a lot of reading.

The hard part for me is really just picking up the book and starting to read. Normally with books I like to set a goal of a chapter or so per day, but because this book has longer chapters that wasn't always feasible for me, especially if I had stuff to do. But once I had the book in my hands and started reading I would usually go above my goal I had set :)

Last year a lot of my DOTRC reading was done while I was waiting in line for things, getting/eating food, waiting on the bus, or killing time between classes/during boring lectures (I don't know if I'd advise that last one). This is moreso once you get in the rhythm of things, though.

Another tip is sometimes the format is the thing to stop me. I don't know if you're reading from a physical book or an ipad/kindle/etc or a computer or what, but sometimes I read better on my laptop than other things because it's Always Around. Sometimes I don't feel like grabbing a book or I don't have it with me, but my laptop's already open and I'm bored so maybe I'll do a little bit of reading instead of scrolling social medias. Lately, i've been jumping between my laptop and kindle for reading (laptop for convenience, kindle for portability and reading before bed at night) but I've gone between physical books and digital devices before. (If you want the epub versions of dotrc, I'd be willing to share them as well. The only difficulty is page numbers change between reading formats so I can only really switch at the start of chapters or if I skim to where I last was.

Something that saved me while reading DOTRC specifically (as well as other sinner books) was having a place I could discuss/"liveblog" the book. These books can get LONG and the reading experience varies from "really interesting and compelling" to "oh my godddd I do not need 20 pages of Outdated Whale Facts right now". (no offense to Moby Dick. I'm only slandering that one because I read the whole thing and in spite of enjoying it I understand why there are SO many abridged versions around.) It's kind of just the classic lit experience to deal with these types of things, but it's a lot more tolerable to me if you can talk to other people about it.

When I read DOTRC I didn't have anyone else reading with me, but just having a place to tell people about all the things that happen in this book helped me to keep track of events and characters. It also motivated me to keep reading so I could tell The People what happened next. Having someone else read with me would probably have helped as well, but it's hard to sell people on reading a 5-volume behemoth of a novel with so much stuff in it it has it's own field of study dedicated to it.

You can really yap anywhere. I have a channel in my Limbus Discord dedicated to the books so I don't drive everyone insane with my rambling and it seems to have helped some of my friends get through some of the other books as well so I think this method is a pretty solid success? You could also pretty easily do it just in someone's DMs if they're already familiar with the book (this has the bonus of them potentially being able to clarify things for you and help you get a deeper understanding of the book) or even yapping on a tumblr sideblog or empty notes doc or something.

So TL;DR:

Picking up the book is the hardest part. Reading a little is better than not reading at all.

Subjecting your friends to this book will make it easier to keep going :)

Also: for Dream of the Red Chamber specifically: the book starts slow. I don't know how far in you are, but so many people drop it early. I started reading it during a 12-ish hour car ride and that might've been the play because i can see people getting bored during the first few chapters. It definitely picks up though, so trust me when I say it gets a lot easier to read as you keep going. Chapter 5 is an incredibly interesting chapter, and from there I find things pick up and start going faster. (It helps that chapter 5 is pretty relevant for the direction I think Limbus is going to take canto 8 in!) The later volumes were able to go by a lot faster for me than the earlier ones as well.

This is a long ass book, but it's gonna be a while before Hong Lu's canto drops and we get to Witness that Surrender. Or Surrender that Witness. I'm not actually sure. But regardless, you've got plenty of time to get through it, even if you're a slower reader or don't have much time to dedicate to reading. Steady progress is the name of the game for stuff like this.

Worst case, you've killed a bunch of time during the wait for Hong Lu's canto (because oh boy, I have a feeling this one's gonna be a wait) and you are able to gain a better appreciation for canto 8 by understanding some of the nicher bits of how it adapts stuff from the source.

Best case, you really enjoy reading it and end up like a bunch of the Hong Lu fans I know who were permanently changed by reading this book and started reading scholarly analysis of it for fun (or start seeking out every adaptation of it you can find, or read the book 5 times over... I am coming to realize this book does something to people.)

This book is legitimately incredibly good, even outside the context of me reading it because I was very invested in that beautiful cyan freak from a game I like. I might not have been able to get through it without Limbus providing me the push to keep going on days where I really didn't want to read, but it's a legitimate interest of mine now I will seek out information on regardless of its connection to Limbus! Trust me when I say it's worth getting through even if it feels hard or tedious.

(and if it helps- a solid amount of the stuff I feel is most likely to be Limbus relevant happens near the end of the book. There's so much in this book so things that could be relevant are scattered throughout almost all of it, but I've been picking up so many end of the book vibes from stuff we've seen lately. so you've got to get there!!)

[featherymainffins]

Trying to remember where I first encountered humanity as a horror to see if this has a root the same way you can trace literally all of my thirst for fictional characters back to WITCH, but ngl I genuinely cannot remember anything like that.

[emblazonet]

Oh my GOD I would have LOVED Dragonsong as a kid. Why didn't I read it back then???? Why???

Oh my god her hand got infected. POOR THING.

[butchriptide]

genuinely really frustrating that people will like. choose to accept the age mistake made in assassin as canon for deathbringer when it actively contradicts older material. like. sorry idk if this is me being unfair here but genuinely like. why would you think it's intentional when deathbringer is described in main series as maybe a year or two older than glory at most, and can canonically not be any older than 9 due to stated timeline facts in the main series.

like. I get not liking glorybringer, i really do. no ship is for everyone. hell, even if assassin specifically makes you feel weird about it, so be it, to each their own. i can undertsnad that too. and yes, the glorybringer fans who think the age gap are canon are also in the wrong. they're being really gross, i don't think it's necessary to disclaim that, that feels given, but like... that only comes to my point still of like, i really don't understand taking a spin-off as canon over the main series. i don't really understand prioritizing later content as canon as opposed to the main work over spin-off as canon. why should a spin-off take jurisdiction just cuz it's newer? i feel like the older the canon is, the more likely it is the newer stuff will make mistakes. to me, in the case of a contradiction, the main series should be taken to? a spin-off is meant to supplement the main series, so shouldn't it only supplement canon that doesn't contradict?

like also, i get being frustrated it isn't fixed, but also. like. i obviously have not worked with a publisher before, but if I was writing for fucking scholastic books, no matter how well fucking beloved my series was, I don't know if I could risk being like "hey. can you pull my books from shelves and e-stores for me so that I can edit one line?" Like. I really don't think there's any reality in which I can make a corporation agree to that kind of thing, no matter what that one line may fuck up about my main story. like it's not even the only mistake she makes in the winglets. she calls deathbringer a rainwing in the flip book, but we're not hailing that as canon in retrospect, right? I don't know. I think it's unfair to presume that she's choosing not to fix it as opposed to it being an improbable to downright impossible thing to ask of a publisher. like yes tui is an incredibly successful author but i really don't know if we can presume she has that much actual sway on her publisher.

it's just really exhausting as a deathbringer enjoyer to feel like if I want to talk about and enjoy his character, and yes, that includes context given in the assassin winglet once you ignore the timeline error, i feel like I constantlyyy have to be saying "yes I think the timeline error is an error. no i don't think deathbringer is 13." like. every time i bring him up. i'm a riptide fan I'm used to it but also it's sooooo tiring to go into a character tag for a guy i like and be swamped with hatred for him and it's so much worse for deathbringer than riptide because in the deathbringer tag I have to deal with being actively accused of excusing gross shit for liking him instead of people just saying that my blorbo is boring.

[unbearable-lightness-of-ink]

k babes reblog and tell me about the books on your nightstand (or wherever you stack books by your bed if you don't have a nightstand) what are they why are they there etc

[c0rpsedemon]

oh yeah. the reason why i decided to reread tbhk (and thus it was able to hit me like a truck this time around) was actually not bc of mitsukou going canon but actually bc i maybe accidentally started a tbhk book club w my kids at work and wanted to check the contents of it justttt in case before i put the books in their hands

[lesamis]

Do you have any poems or POC poets you'd recommend that aren't Capital R romantic but very well could be ?

hi anon! sorry for a much longer and less helpful answer than you were likely hoping for: i think this is a pretty difficult question.

if we tried to list all the reasons we think of the romantics as a Movement, as a Moment of Literary History, we might just end up with a lot of cultural markers that are inseperable from, well, from them being white, and often english, and often male individuals who lived in the metropole of the world's most rapidly expanding empire. they wrote about liberty and about the sublime they saw in a gust of wind and about the darker depths of the human soul. i think they did this from a place of genuine curiosity and emotion, but also from a very deep-seated (and, i think, often subliminal) belief in their own superiority - as white men; as englishmen; as men. so it wouldn't be an entirely neutral thing for me to sort poets of colour into this tradition in an uncomplicated way, because it skirts close to erasing the facets of white supremacy that shaped romanticism as we think of it now. but they're important to acknowledge: romantic poetry would not be romantic poetry if it didn't frame the british countryside as the most civilized space in the world, or didn't argue in deeply paternalistic and racist terms for the abolition of slavery.

none of this is to say that there were no writers of colour then (of course there were!) or that there are no writers of colour now who consider romantic poetry an important reference for their own work (of course there are!). of the latter category there are probably an endless number, because british romantic poetry is so overblown in syllabi across the world thanks to colonialism. it's the first kind of poetry in english many of us run into. its influence gets everywhere, which makes it even harder to distill any recommendations for you because it's hard to say where a, like, standard Education Conducted In English ends and a Romantic Influence begins.

sorry for all of the above, anon, this question honestly disjointed me a bit. i'm sorry the answer is such a cop-out. the most recent poem by a poet of colour that made me think of the romantics is Morning Prayer With Rat King by kaveh akbar. it's incredible. i hope you'll like it a lot. whether there's actually romanticism in it or not is for smarter people than me to figure out.

[anotheruntitledsong]

i did like the hidden palace but (SPOILER if anyone hasn't read it?) i'm genuinely so annoyed at how Arbeely is handled like... I wish i could be sad but i'm just fucking irritated. I was overly invested in him and that's def why but i just feel like they did him dirty

[thebirdandhersong]

There's a lot that can be analysed in The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne about eugenics, actually

[phoebe-ofthe-cosmos]

instagram algorithm serving me so many reels lately of people reading sjm books and then complaining about the characters like "when you're trying to finish acosf but nesta keeps getting in the way" or "acotar5 is coming next 😁 but it's going to be about elain 😔" (side note NOT EVEN CONFIRMED!) why are you even reading the books if you hate the characters so much. do you guys know you don't have to read them?

[supercantaloupe]

finished my reread of project hail mary! wanted to finish it before i got on my train but that didn't happen, so now i have a near 500 page book in my house and nowhere to put it lol. just as good as i remembered it being, whatever it is that andy weir does with his writing absolutely clicks for me because i tore through that thing in about a day's time (a little more than, and slightly slower than i read it the first time lol, but i had things to do when i got back to town today!). it feels so great to read a book again that's so good i can absolutely eat through it