#this book is still on my TBR

[mrspasser]

'The obvious conclusion,' writes military expert Dave Grossman, 'is that most soldiers were not trying to kill the enemy.'

"Some twelve thousand muskets were double-loaded, and half of those more than triple. One rifle even had twenty-three balls in the barrel — which is absurd. These soldiers had been thoroughly drilled by their officers. Muskets, they all knew, were designed to discharge one ball at a time. So what were they doing? Only much later did historians figure it out: loading a gun is the perfect excuse not to shoot it. And if it happened to be loaded already, well, you just loaded it again. And again.

— Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

[idontmindifuforgetme]

About to deep clean & rearrange my bookcase …… I am about to be a girl reborn

[ofliterarynature]

September-December reads from my physical tbr -

And that's a wrap! In 2024 I challenged myself to read 3 unread books from my shelves each month - my definition of "read" got a little loose by the end, but by my count I ended the year having finished 46 books, officially dnf-ing 11, and unhauling another 50+ books, so I'd call it a success.

My tbr shelf is now a great deal shorter, so stick around to see what my challenge(s) are for 2025!

[smartspo]

I visited a friend in Norway last week, and brought some souvenirs back 📖☕️ I'm continuing my tradition of getting a book written by an author of the country I'm visiting, so I decided to pick this one!

[divorceblogger]

I get the impression that I’ve become such a movie guy lately (160 movies logged this year…. 🚬) because I tend to have a harder time discovering and collating good books for my tbr. letterboxd offers many interesting lists and the ratings generally tend to correlate with the objective merit of a movie so I think I also find movies pertaining to specific genres and themes very easily? anyway how do all of you discover good books ❤️

[bigdreamsandwildthings]

Bought a few books in the last little while but to be fair to me, it’s my birthday month and I had coupons 🙊

[read-alert]

Every month I go "Wow, I really bit off more than I can chew with this TBR; I'll make a smaller one next month," and every month I proceed to make a way too big TBR

[aaronstveit]

read in 2025!

it's that time again! i've been doing reading threads here since 2022, and i always enjoy them. as always, you can find me on goodreads and the storygraph.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie* (★★★★★)

Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems by Mary Oliver (★★★★★)

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (★★★★☆)

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (★★★☆☆)

The Examiner by Janice Hallett (★★★★☆)

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden (★★★★★)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister (★★★☆☆)

Beartown by Fredrick Backman (★★★★★)

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad (★★★★★)

Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch** (★★★★☆)

Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones (★★★★☆)

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (★★★★★)

*An asterisk denotes a reread. **Two asterisks denote an ARC.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Daisy Chaining; Or, Connecting the TBR!

Does anybody besides me like to find Connections between Seemingly/Largely Unrelated Books and use those connections to plot a route through the old TBR?? I don't know about you, but I have a LOT of books I want to read, and sometimes I get Whelmed™ by my choices. So I'll either pick a small stack and make that a particular month's micro-TBR (good if I have specific Goals!), OR I'll start with something I really want to read, and I'll daisy chain from there.

For example: I'd been waiting for TRANSLATION STATE to release in paperback since the hardback was announced (because Translators, my beloveds). So I annihilated that in a couple days (it was very good, all right??), and then I had to figure out where to go next despite cruising on the Translators High.

Because the Translators' fucked up body horror (which I mean mostly affectionately, but I'm side eyeing the matching pretty hard) was at times....goopy...I thought a book about a shapeshifter whose default form is an amorphous lump would be good next, which got me to SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN (which I also enjoyed!! shout-out to @asexualbookbird for gifting it to meee!!).

Since NEST is Monsters in a Fantasy Forest with a side of Politics and Power, my next read is THE BUTCHER OF THE FOREST (because it's also...wait for it...Monsters in a Fantasy Forest with a side of Politics and Power). And after that, I'll come OUT of the forest with AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS, which promises to be weird and vaguely monstrous but with a literary bent (I put it on one of my writing TBR lists, and my general "read this by the end of 2024" list).

So, yeah! That's how you daisy chain to get from SF to fantasy/horror to fantasy to weird Lit Fic in the span of four (4) books, while maintaining something like a continuity. By the end of the year, my Books Read shelf looks a little chaotic, but there generally really is a rhyme AND a reason about it!

(Please click on the photo for better image quality! I edited it weirdly compared to usual and it looks good on my screen but ah. Less So, in tungledlandia.,.,)

[butchvamp]

struggling to read this month i think because i've been relying too much on the kindle app and then i just get distracted on my phone... i know i should pick up a physical book but i'm reading 2 ebooks and i refuse to abandon them. also not working a lot either which means i'm not getting as much audiobook time as usual lol

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

oughhhhh T_T i need to read . i need to read i need to readddddddddd

[variantoutcast]

9 books I plan to read in 2025!

I was tagged by @leofrith <3

Omeros by Derek Walcott

I technically started this in the last week of December '24 but I'm putting it here because I'm less than 20% through it =] so far I think I might be too unfamiliar with the Greek tragedies to "get it" but I'm pushing through nonetheless.

A poem in five books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events -- the tribal losses of the American Indian, the tragedy of African enslavement -- and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy

In Chernobyl, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy draws on recently opened archives to recreate these events in all their drama. A moment by moment account of the heroes, perpetrators and victims of a tragedy, Chernobyl is the first full account of a gripping, unforgettable Cold War story. 

Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera

The fascinating, untold story of how British intelligence secretly used homing pigeons as part of a clandestine espionage operation to gather information, communicate, and coordinate with members of the Resistance to defeat the Nazis in occupied Europe during World War II.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

The explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black, about two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own.

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney

Sabotage threatens to undermine the war effort, and the military calls in Rydra. Random attacks lay waste to warships, weapons factories, and munitions dumps, and all are tied together by strings of sound, broadcast over the radio before and after each accident. In that gibberish Rydra recognizes a coherent message, with all of the beauty, persuasive power, and order that only language possesses. To save humanity, she will master this strange tongue. But the more she learns, the more she is tempted to join the other side . . .

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M, a highly imaginative thriller about a young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father’s belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret—one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family’s dark history. What is the purpose of a map?

The Rover by Mel Odom

Edgewick Lamplighter (Wick to his friends) is a humble librarian in the isolated halls of Greydawn Moors until dreams of wanderlust and a bit of dereliction in his duties result in his being shanghaied to a far-off land.

New and Selected Poems Vol II by Mary Oliver

This graceful volume, designed to be paired with New and Selected Poems, Volume One, includes new poems on birds, toads, flowers, insects, bodies of water, and the extraordinary experience of the everyday in our lives. In the words of Alicia Ostriker, 'Mary Oliver moves by instinct, faith, and determination. She is among our finest poets, and still growing.' In both the older and new poems, Mary Oliver is a poet at the height of her control of image and language.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

I tag @sh5 @stormikins @aesnawan @woahpip @dykefagz and anybody else who wants to do it! Feel free to tag me!

[gothsuguru]

hi kairo :333 he loves you i love you i hope you’re doing well …. !!!! napping and eating tasty food and drinking lots of water and going on walks !!!!!!!

here is a treat and a drink that suguru made for u :33 ily always 🍵🍪

ARI MY ULTIMATE BELOVED HIIIIIIII BESTIEEEEEE :3 HOW ARE YOU MY LOVE HOW’RE YOU FEELING i hope you feel a bit more refreshed & rejuvenated bc you deserve it!!! AND HEHEHEHE am doing most of those things except the walking omg let me add daily walks back into my routine actually…….. will walk & get boba soon you just Opened my third eye rn <333

TY FOR THE TREAT & THE SUGU I’M CHOMPING ON THEM BOTH RARFJFJDJGHHARGSH (sounds of me eating) HERE’S SOME TREATS & A SUGU FOR YOU AS WELL HEHEHEHE 🍱🍡🍵 ILYSMMMMM 🙂‍↕️🫶🏼

[acourtofquestions]

Starting the Assassin’s Blade:

Fully aware that I am going to fall in love with Sam Cortland; enjoy the story & character arc so much that I forget I know the ending… 🚨And then be consequently utterly wrecked when he inevitably dies… yay🤦🏼‍♀️😅🖤☠️.

[henreyettah]

“There’s a kind of time travel in letters, isn’t there? I imagine you laughing at my small joke; I imagine you groaning; I imagine you throwing my words away. Do I have you still? Do I address empty air and the flies that will eat this carcass? You could leave me for five years, you could return never—and I have to write the rest of this not knowing.”

[nikoisme]

fighting the urge to reread the odyssey again btw.