Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card

My book sideblog

[kurhanchyk]

the most annoying people are people who don't understand storytelling. they be like "oooo how convenient that this thing happened to the main character in the very beginning". yeah no shit. that's why the story begins here

[cryptotheism]

People talk about Lolita like Humbert Humbert is a conflicted and dichotomous character and then you read the actual book and he's like "I love lying to people for fun and getting lost in flights of wild imagination and making things up and telling falsehoods. Also I look like a bunch of movie stars and every woman in the stories I tell thinks I'm darkly handsome."

[cryptotheism]

HH: "I was in a mental institutions for reasons that are suspiciously never discussed where my favorite thing to do was lie to the psychologists."

Readers: "I think he might be lying about being in love with a child but it's impossible to know for sure."

[cryptotheism]

The edition I'm reading had a little introduction like "is Humbert Humbert a poet in love? Or a dangerous pervert? Perhaps...he is both." 🤔🤔🤔

And then you turn the page to the forward and it's like "Hi. It's me. Vladimir Nabokov, speaking as a diagetic psychologist. Humbert Humbert is a consumate monster. Don't trust anything he says."

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

this was like genuinely years ago On Here which is like 70 years in normal people time but I have never ever ever ever stopped thinking about when there was a post on my dash that just said something to the effect of "when's the last time you read a book by a Black woman?" and the notes were just. absolutely festering with people old enough to be on god's green internet openly admitting that they genuinely weren't sure if they had read a book by a Black women literally ever in their entire lives. and I think about that just constantly because it really is evident in the greater tumblrina culture.

[yehoria-offical]

usually they don't write the race of the author next to their name on the book. or gender for that matter. and even if they did, i wouldn't read any of those, since i already don't read the name. i genuinely have no idea who any of the people who wrote the books i read are. i like what they did. with the books. but i don't know what their names are.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

that's really cool, definitely something to be proud of

[kyotoagnes]

Reading the comments has me vaguely puzzled. I really wasn’t aware that one could only get a good grade as a decent person and reader by compiling a list of every gender and race and systematically checking the box as you go down the list. Forget what you like, forget your comfort reads you must make sure you have fulfilled the list. Telling people that if they’re not fulfilling an expansive enough list they aren’t good readers or decent people is a sure fire way to make them stop reading.

Also since I know I’m going to hear a screech of racist my favorite current books are The Pillowbook of Sei Shonagon and Fatima Mernessi’s Dreams of Trespass am I getting a good enough grade?

[excellentblurrecognition]

"forget what you like, forget your comfort reads"

if you have to forget everything you like and find comforting in order to read a book by a Black woman, that is evidence of systemic racism. the idea that Black women don't write books in your preferred genres is evidence of systemic racism. The idea that a book written by a Black woman will be fundamentally uncomfortable is evidence of systemic racism.

"could only get a good grade as a decent person and reader by compiling a list of every gender and race and systematically checking the box as you go down the list"

first, it's not about grades. that is something you've added into this. which tells me that you personally grade your own morality by the books you read. if you have to go down and make a list for yourself in order to avoid exclusively reading white men, that is evidence of systemic racism. the fact that you are so defensive about this instead of realizing you're missing out on a lot of good authors and just picking up a book in your preferred genre by a Black woman is evidence of systemic racism.

am i getting a good enough grade?

no. what you wrote was incredibly racist. you are getting high marks in defensive racism (WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO READ BLACK WOMEN????? WHY????? WHY????? WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS TO ME???? I'M A GOOD READER LOOK AT THE OTHER MARGINALIZED IDENTITIES I READ!! I DON'T NEED ANY MORE!! IM A GOOD WHITE PEOPLE ALREADY!! TELL ME I'M GOOD!! ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I'M GOOD!!!!)

it's fully an option to go "oh! i don't read a lot of Black women and I never noticed. there's a lot of good fiction i haven't touched! yipeeeee more books for meeeeee!" getting so bogged down and self involved that you feel the need to announce to the world that you Do Not Need to read Black Women Authors to be a good person is a sign that you are not reckoning with the systemic racism in play and the way it has impacted the authors you're exposed to, you are instead trying to prove to yourself and others that you are pure and have cleansed yourself of systemic racism and have a Good And Legitimate Reason to Not Read Black Women. which you don't. there isn't one. there are a lot of Black women authors and a lot of books. if you haven't found any you like, that is evidence of systemic racism.

[parkchanwoohoo]

"Really op, how many books by Black people do I have to read before I'm considered a good person 🙄" Actually you will not be forgiven until you commit the ritual act of 腹切り at your local Barnes and Noble on February 1st

[7dmom]

All twelve sacred beasts will defend me from economic uncertainty

[tedlyanderson]

[tlirsgender]

The thing about harry potter is that it's Not a matter of ~ problematic media ~ it's a "the creator is directly funneling shit tons of money into the Kill All Trannies Foundation". This is our anita bryant. Can you grow a fucking spine and morals and stuff? If we were in the 70s some of you would be talking about how orange juice is your safe food or something. She's the actual devil I think that's more important here

[tlirsgender]

Like your wizard books fucking suck anyway we've pretty thoroughly torn them apart at this point but all of that is still besides the point that she is The Devil. Even if they were good you still shouldn't be giving this woman your money & you should be embarrassed to associate yourself with her work. Come on. Can the millennial nostalgia industrial complex crash and burn yet I'm sick of y'all

[lasarusbird]

Carmilla's Mother: "It's been months I wonder if Mircalla has turned that girl by now"

Carmilla:

[ohcorny]

to summarize: you have the moral backbone of a flatworm if your response every time harry potter comes up is to make it about your inability to give up a book

[fluorescentbrains]

seeing straight men be disgusted by booktok smut recommenders has actually radicalized me to the side of booktok smut recommenders. girls your taste may be atrocious but i will never disparage you for exposing mainstream discourse to the concept of soaking through your underwear. spent my whole life listening to men talk about penises it’s about time they get jumpscared by women talking about pussy in crude detail on social media. go forth and goon my warriors

[insomniac-arrest]

I work at a bookstore and hearing one of my male coworkers call smutty romantasy "the downfall of society" because it's "literally just porn" radicalized me

Men have an entire industry. Entire industries dedicated to their sexualities. Let women have fantasy sex. there's not even a camera crew involved.

[furiousfurious]

Left this in the notes

[insomniac-arrest]

😂

[goodattellinglies]

[aroaessidhe]

browsing isle in the silver sea reviews and every single critique is "the setting was confusing I couldn't tell what time period it was supposed to be :/"

i wonder if, in a book set in a britain encased in magic forcing people to relive stories from the past, erasing memory of the rest of the world and other cultures, by an immortal unchanging ruler, with extremely blatant themes about how holding onto that colonial past is stifling and destroying people and that change and diversity is good actually, that maybe an intentionally anachronistic setting that's modern(ish) in some ways and medieval in others might be intentional. idk.

[otakusapien]

Got a haul today. @jordanlhawk was kind enough to sign them all. The pin coincidentally matched my floral skulls shirt and I absolutely love it

[deathbyvalentine]

In the book, Carrie was fat. That never made it into the movie because How could we possibly root for the fat girl? Nobody thinks the fat girl deserves to go nuts To get revenge, to let it all out Despite the fact she might be the sole person in the world that has earned it.

You can't hide fat under blusher. You can't hide it in a new dress. You can't straighten your hair and get away with it. What I'm saying is Carrie White Would always look like Carrie White and carries that in her hips, her thighs.

Do it for us all, Carrie girl Burn the whole damn place to the ground.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Hi batman,

Your post about black women authors made me realize that I should read more books by black authors. Do you have any recommendations for science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction written by black women? Especially if it’s queer. Thanks!

with all the love in my heart. google is free.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

it's come to my attention that some people find this answer upsetting and unsatisfactory, so I'd like to amend my previous statement:

browsing in a bookstore or library, or on the websites of such fine establishments, is also free. the bookstore does stop being free if you decide you want to take home ant of the books that caught your eye, which is the unfortunate but necessary cost of keeping the lights on at local bookstores.

equally free are all of the sources I listed here (remember, kids: only suckers pay to read the NYT), and so is finding recommendations from literally any bookish content creator on the platform(s)of your choice (particularly Black creators and other creators of color).

have fun out there!

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Do people normally know/pay attention the race and gender of authors before they start reading them? Like depending on how you are defining book (y/n on web novels, comics ect) I'd say that even after reading I only find out for maybe 80% probably less. And usually I find out after I've read something I like and decide to look them up to find more stuff not before?

I'm always so, so fascinated by people who pretend it's somehow unreasonable to know a single identifying detail about the authors they read, as if they're somehow incapable of noticing things as simple as, say, an author's name, or their photo/bio that is virtually always somewhere in the book, or picking up a damn context clue from the book itself.

you're going to earnestly sit there and tell me that you'd see a name like Kazuo Ishiguro and not have a single clue about this person's race? or that you're incapable of taking two seconds to read a bio to notice that an author like Akwaeke Emezi uses they/them pronouns? you can't look at something like Iron Widow, a book that's science fiction but draws heavily and blatantly from Chinese history and mythology, and make the educated guess that the author is of Chinese descent?

all of that is just. completely and utterly impossible to suss out without purposefully looking up the author?

[deadgodjess]

Well, you see, if they noticed these things, they might have to admit they have a complicated relationship with them, and then they might have to actually do something (like admit that they don't actually care to do the work to live up to the values they say they have to be seen as good)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

someone inevitably tries to pull this shit literally every time I make a post about reading diversely, and I will give anon credit for this—80% is a much better average than most, even accounting for the "probably less " I've seen people try to sincerely claim that they've never once in their life so much as known the gender of an author whose book they read, which is a genuinely bananas level of ignorance to willingly claim!

[deadgodjess]

It's a Bizarro virtue signal.

I had someone, a fucking friend, tell me he didn't like it when i called myself marginalized because I was "putting myself in a box". When I pointed out that I didn't put myself in that box, I was put in the box and now I was just acknowledging the box i was shoved in, he had to admit that it's just that he didn't like how the word and it's implications made him feel.

I think about that a lot whenever some new variation of the "i don't see color" bs pops up.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

oh the audacity 😭😭😭

the whole colorblindness thing really does necessitate people, whether it's your clown or this clown in my inbox or whoever, to sincerely defend the stance that not seeing information that's being placed directly in front of them is the superior, more reasonable stance and it makes me feel INSANE

[maidenmystic]

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

umm hi hello was anyone gonna tell me about these insane new covers for The Saint of Steel series by T Kingfisher? 😱

they're so gorgeous! they release July 8th in Australia, idk about the rest of the world, but I am so fling-flangin excited!!!!!

[aroaessidhe]

Aro books by authors of colour!

ARO WEEK 2023

DEATHLESS DIVIDE / historical zombie fantasy / aroace MC (dual pov, she’s a side character in book 1)

THE LAST SESSION / contemporary/dnd-fantasy graphic novel / one of the MCs is aro

SAL & GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE / contemporary sci-fi / aro probably-ace MC, mentioned briefly but he talks all the time how annoying it is when people assume he & gabi are dating

NOT YOUR BACKUP (sidekick squad #3) / YA superhero sci-fi / aroace-spec questioning MC

SO MANY BEGINNINGS / historical little women retelling / while it’s not super explicit, Jo is probably aroacespec, her ‘relationship’ reads as a QPR

KAIKEYI /  adult historical fantasy/retelling / aroace MC  

THE BRUISING OF QILWA / adult fantasy novella / MC is aroace

ELATSOE / contemporary fantasy/paranormal / aro-coded ace MC

COME DRINK WITH ME (TALES OF THE THREAD) / adult historical fantasy / short story series centred around platonic relationships from an aro perspective

see also:  It Sounds Like This, Summer Bird Blue, If It Makes You Happy, Take Me To Your Nerdy Leader

*as a note, some of these only briefly explore aromanticism, and/or explore the ace part of the aroace character more. If you want more details on how much things are explored, see my database!