A Bookish Butterfly

[abookishbutterfly]

Hello, friends!

I’ve done a thing.

After looking at numerous reading challenges, trying to decide on one I liked, I concluded that I should just make my own.

I’d like to invite you to join me on it!

I’m not especially good with prompt specific challenges, as a mood reader, and I abandoned one with 52 prompts after completing over half of it back in 2019! But I think I understand the mistake I made back then. I planned all of the reads ahead of time and feeling locked into them completely drained me of the joy of reading.

Within the last year, I’ve played along with BookishFirst’s monthly bingo boards and I’ve come to realize that I can do these challenges as long as I don’t put too much pressure on myself and I don’t plan it out, just letting things land where they may.

I wanted something that both diversified my reading and helped me get to some of my older TBR books. I kept the list at 25 with the hope that no one, including myself, will feel drained by it. I also tried to get a variety on there, but did include some of my preferences (like literary thrillers and books with social commentary!).

I hope that you will play along with me. Feel free to take a screenshot so you can save the prompts. I will try to do a check in every so often, but remember this: The challenge should be fun! If you’re not enjoying it, quit! No judgment here! And if you cannot complete all of the prompts, that’s completely fine, too! Because my biggest goal is to read what I love, and I hope that you’re inundated with books you adore in 2024, too!

[caats]

My cat when he is alone at home ♡

[abookishbutterfly]

👻 Most Anticipated October Book Releases 👻

[cheruib]

life is so good when ur reading a book and taking it w u everywhere like your little child

[abookishbutterfly]

To all the books I own but haven’t read yet: Una Mannion came out with a new book today so you will all be ignored.

Let’s face it. I was going to ignore most of you anyway.

[abookishbutterfly]

Why is this me? 😂😭

[abookishbutterfly]

My own thoughts on this hot take:

I’m all for building community through shared vulnerability, but I feel it honestly depends on how it’s done.

There are some people who share their story in a way that makes me feel less alone.

There are others who come across as if they are communicating, “You think that’s bad? Well…” Sometimes they actually straight out say that or something similar. Other times it is clearly conveyed.

On the other end of things, I do worry about how I’ll come across, but I also find that if I simply respond in an understanding way without sharing how I relate, I too often become the person they dump everything on without comprehending that I, too, have pain. It becomes such a complicated thing to navigate.

I firmly believe we should be able to bond over shared sorrows and traumas. It can all be despairingly lonely when we don’t. But we also have to be cautious with the ones we share these things with. There are plenty of one uppers, as well as those who hastily invalidate. We cannot build a community with such flimsy walls, but I do think our experiences can help us differentiate between our true friends and the imposters.

I do have friends who have, in fact, shared with me as I’ve shared with them. I hope that our bonds are impenetrable, as the support and connection I’ve found through them means the world to me.

[abookishbutterfly]

[abookishbutterfly]

[wild-words-and-wounds]

Scapegoat

Somewhere down in history

you were chosen to be

strung up like a piñata,

beaten for your sweetness

by a team of greedy thrashers

who found joy

in emptying you out.

There is always a leader

who hits harder than the rest

and the others wear their blindfolds,

swinging wildly without thinking.

Suddenly, you’re split open,

contents spilling onto the floor,

and they are reaching out

to consume those pieces.

Oh, but don’t you see it?

They want what you have.

They tear through

your bright colors.

They batter you

until you’re broken.

No one dares to question it.

This is the way

it’s always been.

You are different than

the rest of them.

This does not mean

that you were meant

to be broken

even when the volume

of the crowd agrees

you should be.

You are not

an inanimate object.

Though unsteady,

you can back away.

The masses may unite in hate,

but that doesn’t mean

they’re right.

You have never been

detestable.

It’s all you’re made of

that they despise.

It’s everything they can’t be

that they aim

to destroy.

And look at you,

dear scapegoat,

you will never fit those spaces.

You will always think beyond

the lies they teach

each other.

Look at you

still trying

while your battered body

screams, “it’s over.”

You hold tight

to everything

they hungrily dig

their claws into.

They’ll never think

for themselves.

They’ll never be

that vulnerable.

And look at you,

dear scapegoat,

you will never be like them.

~Cynthia~

Written by me. All rights belong to me.

[only-cat-memes]

Your daily dose of cat memes

[abookishbutterfly]

[abookishbutterfly]

[abookishbutterfly]

Anne Frank would have been 94 today.

[abookishbutterfly]

[wild-words-and-wounds]

[sunlight-and-shadow-journal]

Wall (May 2023)