bookish freedom

hi there my name is kay and i really like books my writing side blog: @misguidedghostie

[bookishfreedom]

2013 —> 2025

after all these years, I’ve decided to recreate my profile pic. the original was actually a picture I did for a class in middle school (!!!!) and here we are, twelve years later. so much has changed, but my love for books has only grown ❤️

the original photo will always have a special place in my heart, so wanted to give it a place in a post.

[andreai04]

“Tell me, what is the purpose of victory if it destroys us?”

The key to learning, to power, to having the final say in everything, is observation. By all means, be a storm inside, but save your movement and wind till you know your purpose.

“It is said that a life is made great by sorrow and joy.”

[cityfawns]

I wish I could earn a living from taking photos of bookshops

[somerabbitholes]

my second ben lerner book — charming, self-affacing without being insincere, with traces of what eventually became the hatred of poetry, committed to poetry without being able to define it, drifting but not aimlessly, and so, so funny

[off-the-beaten-timeline]

Hanging out with my favorite ginger, reading about my favorite SecUnit.

[godzilla-reads]

Bookish ABC’s (Post a Picture According to the Letters)

A- Author You Hate

B- Best Cover

C-Correspondence

D- Dust Jacket

E- Endpapers

F- Favorite Book of the Moment

G- Generous Gift

H- Horror Favorite

I- Independently Published

J- Journey

K- Killers

L- Lament

M- Mystery Favorite

N- New To You

O- Overpriced

P- Possibly Your Favorite Ever

Q- Quietly Amazing

R- Researched Well

S- Stupidly Beautiful

T- Terrible Time

U-Underrated Myth/Folktale

V- Very Disturbing

W- What Would You Recommend To Me?

X- Xanthic Cover

Y- You Seriously Like This?

Z- Zero Fucks Given About This Classic

[macrolit]

[gazpachoandbooks]

Sometimes I think about Finnick trying to befriend Katniss before the Quell and I lose my shit

The other rebels are like you need to subtly let her know you're on her side, so you go bet and turn your charm up to 11. Which would have maybe worked on anyone else but this is Katniss Everdeen we're talking about.

So now you're stuck doing increasingly ridiculous social gymnastics every time she's around and still by the time the night before the Games arrives the only thing she's convinced of about you is that you are going to try to fucking murder her

So you freak out, seek out Haymitch and basically go "hey what the fuck is wrong with your kid". And Haymitch just stares ahead for a second, nods, takes off his bracelet, says "wear this" and leaves. You fucking hate district 12

So you go okay. Breathing exercises. This is fine. Guess I'll have to save her life during the Games or sth maybe that'll do the trick. And when you see the Arena you cheer up for a sec bc you definitely have the advantage here she'll have to trust you right?

Wrong. She can fucking swim. SHE CAN FUCKING SWIM.

So now you're in the Cornucopia with no cards up your sleeve, no time left, and arguably the other deadliest tribute in that Arena pointing at you with a bow, and so you go "you know what, fuck it, I'm going to die anyways" and you show her the bracelet

AND IT FUCKING WORKS

Bear in mind Finnick had no first-hand experience on Katniss and Haymitch's bitch-to-bitch telepathy this was his first contact with it

Just saying lucky for the Rebellion this was Finnick and not me if I was in his place I would have killed her there and then just out of principle

[the-book-ferret]

The scream I screamed when this beautiful box showed up on my doorstep. I'm so excited to step back into the Raven Cycle with the second book in the graphic novel series, The Dream Thieves, on shelves August 4, 2026!

[vesperalities]

Transcribing my notes from a workshop I did last week titled Snapshot Literature: memory, self-fiction, and pictures inside the household drawer.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2026: May Wrap-Up.

Ha!!! I finally read More Fiction!! It's only taken me *checks egg timer* three (3) months,

Anyway! This was the Month of Bot, and also the Month of Read As Many Of My AAPI Authors As Possible, and I finished three (3) tricky scenes of my revision project (with a jumpstart on a fourth!) and wrote some sanity-saving side quest material! Good birthday month, I think :)

Reviews linked!:

THE MURDERBOT DIARIES + PLATFORM DECAY ★★★★★ Best beloved series! I was delighted that PLATFORM DECAY narrowed the scope back down from A Planet to a micro-subset of #MyHumans. I cackled. A Lot. Liked this one more than SYSTEM COLLAPSE (not as much as NETWORK EFFECT)(NE is my Very Favorite).

THE LANGUAGE OF LIARS ★★★★ Loved Huang's first novella enough to preorder subsequent releases, started here because aliens and language and translation and spies. Very good. If you liked the idea of Kuang's BABEL but thought the treatment was lackluster, try this instead. (If you enjoyed BABEL, as I did, definitely try this!)

HAIR ON FIRE ★★★★ Afghan women poets for this month's Poetry Quest installment! Very much poetry in exile; appreciated the introduction for context (other volumes in this series haven't had intros lol). Favorites were Mahbouba Ibrahmi, Mariam Meetra, and Nadia Anjuman.

THE WATER OUTLAWS ★★★½ I was daisychaining my Huangs, yes. Genderbent queer-friendly wuxia retelling of an old Chinese novel. Started kind of slow, picked way the heck up.

THE CHOSEN AND THE BEAUTIFUL ★★★★ Daisy(ahaha)chaining my retellings, too, apparently. Gatsby! Jordan Baker style! Immigrant! Queer! Fantasy! Vo nails the atmosphere and the vibe--the source material absolutely could have benefited from literal magic, yeah.

THE KILLING SPELL ★★★★ One of my bonus side quests this year is Try To Read New Things As They Enter My House Ish, and I've had this one on preorder for a while! More language magic! Hawaiian this time! Vaguely post-apoc. Was pleased by the bonus Russian.

PITCH CRAFT ★★★★★ Impulse grab at the library, AKA the best place to impulse grab things. Goode is hilarious and All Writers Are Just Like That™, I Guess. Was not expecting to cry at the end of a writing/business book, but here we are. (Books that make me cry get 5 stars almost automatically.)

THE HAUNTED BOOKSTORE ★★★½ Cute! Fun! Just enough heart crimes to keep me engaged! I don't usually read manga (so please don't take this as a qualified stamp of approval lol, I don't go here), but I liked these a lot. Perfect for writing project vibes, too :)

ANNA AKHMATOVA - 117/942 pages read. Made it through Evening! Scribbled a bunch of fragments in my notebook (short example: "Getting drunk on the sound of a voice/That resembles yours" (96) like ma'am please--). I do appreciate how massive the text in this book is, that makes it much less daunting.

I'm...about a month behind where I hoped to be for Revisions (I can't decide if it is Helpful or Maladaptive that I have month benchmarks flagged on my scene card whiteboard; I definitely finished "April" earlier last week), and I'm back to a Big Stretch Where Everything Needs To Be Rewritten lol. Also! Turns out! I gotta have my submission for critique put together and sent by the end of July, which. Does somewhat accelerate pieces of my timeline, yes. (Oops.) I have knitted so little this year, you have no idea. However! We persevere!! If you hear a writer howling in the distance, don't worry about it, they're just time-crunched and resenting the time-suck of the dayjob.

Under the Cut: How I Conceptualize ~*★Stars★*~

★ - This was Bad. I would actively recommend that you do NOT read this one, no redeeming qualities whatsoever, not worth the slog. Save Yourself, It's Too Late For Me. Book goes in the garbage (donate bin).

★★ - This was Not Good. I would not recommend it, but it wasn't a total waste or wash--something in here held my interest/kept my attention/sparked some joy. I will not be rereading this ever. Save Yourself (Or Join Me In Suffering, That Seems Like A Cool Bonding Activity).

★★★ - This was Good/Fine/Okay/Meh. I don't care about this enough to recommend it one way or another. Perfectly serviceable book, held my interest, I probably enjoyed myself (or at least didn't actively loathe the reading). I don't have especially strong feelings. You probably don't need to save yourself from this one--if it sounds like your jam, give it a shot! Just didn't resonate with me particularly powerfully. I probably won't reread this unless I'm after something in particular.

★★★½ - I liked this! I'll probably recommend it if I know it matches someone's vibes or specific requests, but I didn't commit to a star rating on Goodreads. More likely to reread, but not guaranteed.

★★★★ - I really enjoyed this!! I would recommend it (sometimes with caveats about content warnings or such--I like weird fucked up funny shit). Not a perfect book for me by any means, but Very Good. This is something I would reread! Join me!!

★★★★★ - I LOVED THE SHIT OUT OF THIS, IT REWIRED MY BRAIN, WILL RECOMMEND TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE AT THE SLIGHTEST PROVOCATION (content warning caveats still apply--see 4-star disclaimer). Excellent book, I'll reread it regularly, I'll buy copies for all my friends, I'll try to convince all of Booklr to read it, PLEASE join me!!

[a-ramblinrose]

JOMP BPC || June 13 || Representation Matters:

[readingtheunknown]

July’s book || Currently reading

It’s almost the end of July and the end of this book read. Have you read it?

[princessofbookaholics]

currently reading 🚢

[booksmyquerencia]

March 27 th , 2026

One day i’ll be able to live simply, to focus on photography, on reading, on writing, on creating beauty on a daily basis...away from this grinding culture.

[natreads]

Summer I love you

[kosmogrl]

am I unforgivable or is it just wednesday