Then I Was Inspired, Now I'm Sad and Tired @collegeburnoutsuperstar - Tumblr Blog

As a library worker, there’s something I want to say to you.

You do not have to apologize for the books you choose to read.

At all. To anyone. You owe nobody any explanations; you need no excuse or “good reason” to be reading the book.

You do not have to be ashamed for wanting to read “bad” books. You wanna read Twilight? We got Twilight. Need a banal, cookie-cutter-plot mystery or thriller? Those are always fun. Our regulars check them out by the towering stack. Ask Betty for recommendations; she’s read them all. 50 Shades of Oh Fucking No? We’ve got it, we even got it in large print. Have fun. Check out the rest of our porn too. Oh, and the sex manuals are a MUST if you want to “experiment” yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask; they’re here for a reason.

Want to read a book written by a huge asshole everyone hates and agree was a monster? Yeah, we have those. No, we don’t think you’re an asshole for wanting to know what was actually written in there, or judging things for yourself.

You are not too old for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Babysitter’s Club, or Captain Underpants. You are not too young for Sherlock Holmes. There’s nothing wrong with a boy reading The Princess Academy or Sweet Valley High. There’s nothing wrong with a girl being into The Hardy Boys or Artemis Fowl instead.

You do not have to pull the shame face and offer me an excuse when you check out your books. I don’t care if I got so angry at that book I threw it against a wall when I read it: you have the right to read it, and enjoy it if it’s enjoyable for you. THAT’S WHY THE LIBRARY HAS IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. If we only stocked pure, unproblematic literature everyone approved of, by authors of unquestionable virtue, we wouldn’t have any books at all. Or music. Or movies. It would be utterly fucking boring. And it certainly wouldn’t be a library.

vindesyn

JK Rowling, Britain's best-selling author and creator of teenage wizard Harry Potter, has donated 1 million pounds ($1.68 million) to the ca

The author JK Rowling has lent her support to the Better Together campaign, donating £1million to the group campaigning for Scotland to stay

To all that say that acquiring Legacy will not harm people and that poor JKR is just saying thing and it's her right..... She's comparing people wanting independance with nazis.

She litterally gives money to fight the independance, to promote the Tories (you know, the ones that are destroying NHS and every workers' rights in UK), to help TERF that attacks gay and trans rights (and also women rights because they're that stupid)....In summary, yes, she's hurting real people.

If you buy anything Potter, she will get money. It's not that hard to understand.

Oh and make yourself a favor, READ ANOTHER BOOK !

marvelsmostwanted

Sorry it’s just extremely funny to me that this man looks at this and thinks he’s oppressed

(Photo credit) (Tweet)

marvelsmostwanted

a-method-in-it

look i worked in publishing briefly and i am probably not allowed to say this because i'm sure i signed something in my hr paperwork that said so, but also: It is the biggest open secret in the industry that james patterson absolutely does NOT write his own books, he writes his ideas and some very detailed chapter-by-chapter outlines and then some other author, the ones who are credited in the books as co-authors, are the ones that actually write the words that you wind up reading on the page and like, okay i guess, but can you imagine having THAT as your career, so easy you don't even have to write your own books other authors hungry for a paycheck and some exposure write them for you after you come up with the idea, and still you think this fucking industry is biased against white men

moghedien

just so we're clear, shit talking of James Patterson over this comment wasn't just because he doesn't write his own books and yet is wildly successful

its also because he had a pretty successful imprint that published lots of first time authors (many of whom were women and/or POC) who published under their own names and not his, and then without warning it was turned into an imprint that solely published books that he "wrote" in collaboration with other people.

like not only is he a wildly successful white guy who thinks he is being discriminated against, he also screwed over tons of less successful POC and female writers and editors because he wasn't getting as much credit for their work as he wanted.

literally fuck James Patterson

ladylilith333

"And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."

Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

I watched a documentary about Vonnegut the other night, what a jolly chap he was....

tmblr-university

Tumblr University Spring Courses 2023

Dear Students,

You did it! You finished your fall semester with the required reading of Dracule Daily. This accomplishment must have you all excited, and possibly sad to be saying goodbye to Our Good Friend Jonathon Harker :).

We are offering an exciting more expanded option for courses this spring. The focus will be on classic literature. There is no limit on class enrollment. Please look through the catalogue and select courses you will enjoy and we will see you in the spring!

**Also we're looking for professors!**

**Note: Whale Weekly has already started but it is not too late to enroll and catch up! **

Whale Weekly - moby dick || real time

starting december 2022, continuing for 3 years

Frankenstein Weekly - frankenstein || wednesdays and sundays

begins february 1, 2023

Letters from Watson - sherlock holmes

begins january 1, 2023

Pride and Prejudice Weekly - || mondays and fridays

march 10, 2023 - october 6, 2023

Musketeers Daily - the three musketeers

begins march 14, 2023

Divine Comedy Weekly - dante's divine comedy || begins on good friday, then updates tuesdays and thursdays

april 7, 2023 - march 5, 2024

Les Mis Letters - les misérables || daily

january 1, 2023 - december 31, 2023

grainelevator

“Books are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“E-books are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Audiobooks are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Video games are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Subscriptions to magazines/newspapers are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

For real, get a library card for your local public library and you will have almost unlimited access to all kinds of media for free. Libraries also often have many different kinds of classes you can take, often for free or very cheap. Oh, and don’t forget the computers and internet access you can also use for free.

In conclusion, yet a library card.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY!!!

lick-anthonys-heart

Don’t forget movies, internet, zoo tickets, etc. we also have fun kits for old people.

headspace-hotel

At my library you can even check out musical instruments.

bitchesgetriches

The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There

one-time-i-dreamt

I got kicked out of an orgy because I wouldn’t stop listing fun facts about marine life.

one-time-i-dreamt

vitariesocks

the dehumanization of high-risk people at almost year 3 of the pandemic is so enormously scary and painful.

“high risk people will protect themselves” how? did you think about that? are we able to go grocery shopping? are we able to see loved ones? are we able to access lifesaving medical appointments? no! you refuse to protect us!

“I think you’re taking covid too seriously” I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I’m a human, too, and I don’t want to die! Look at me — I’m a human!

chaoskirin

To reiterate: Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon and other such books, blocked me on Twitter for calling him out about his AI-generated cover.

Tor has admitted he approved this cover and they have been consulting him every step of the way. He is complicit.

It’s honestly so fucking frustrating that this is going to go forward. That the cover to Fractal Noise is gonna be published with AI art that has ripped off other artists. And neither the author nor the publisher give one flying fuck about it.

I don’t think a lot of people really understand what this means. Book cover art is already nearly universally shitty. You go look at fantasy art covers, and they’re all photomanipulations, generally a single girl on the cover doing magic or looking into the distance. There’s no variety. But at least people get paid for them.

With AI art, artists don’t get paid. You know who does? The people who made the dataset. The people who sold the “cover.” Even though it took less than 20 minutes to make.

If this isn’t infuriating you, I don’t know what the hell else to say. Machine learning is coming for everyone’s jobs, and corporate wallets don’t care if it’s safe or not. Certain areas are already experimenting with AI Amazon deliveries, and it’s been hinted that long-haul trucking is next.

This is unacceptable. PLEASE. I’m not going to guilt you into sharing this, but it is CRITICAL that we take a stand now and STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING. If you follow me, I am asking you as a friend to share this, and to find it in your heart to put pressure on people who publish AI art without paying artists.

Tor could change the cover. They’re not, because they’re using Fractal Noise as a test run to see if they can get away with it. Don’t let them. I don’t care how much you like Paolini’s work (although I think Eragon was a boring slog, so I had no qualms about calling him out), you HAVE to do your best to make this stop.

thatdisasterauthor

So, fun fact, the US copyright office has specifically stated that AI art cannot be copyrighted. (Source: https://www.cbr.com/ai-comic-deemed-ineligible-copyright-protection/)

Which means that cover cannot be copyrighted.

Which means everyone else can do whatever the fuck they want to and with that cover.

whitepeopletwitter

actualmythicalcreature

I taught my kid that swear words (important note: this does not include derogatory names for groups of people) are just words that can carry a social consequence. When you are a child, this consequence isn’t on you, as much as it is on your parents, who are responsible for you. As such, parents usually just ask their kids not to swear. Instead of that, I told him to ask me before he swore so I could explain the potential social consequences and we could make the decision together. So far, he’s asked a handful of times if he could swear at Trump while we watched the news. I found this perfectly acceptable, so he got to say “Ｆｕｃｋ trump”. Once when he dislocated his knee, he asked to swear - I said yea, he yelled “HOLY SHIT OUCH” and I asked if it made him feel better, he said it did. Once in traffic someone almost hit us and he asked to swear, I said yes - he said “That guy is an ASSHOLE” and I was like, yeah. 100% he was. He’s never asked to swear at a time that I felt was inappropriate. I have 0 regrets about this parenting decision.

somerabbitholes

end of the year book asks

How many books did you read this year?

Did you have any reading goals? if yes, did you complete them?

What was the first book you read this year?

What was/will be the last book you read this year?

The longest book you read this year

The shortest book you read this year

The oldest book you read this year

The newest release of the year

A book that was better than you expected it to be

A book that didn’t live up to your expectations

A book that was most out of your comfort zone

What was the most unexpected book you read this year?

The funniest book you read this year

A book that made you cry

What was the book you were most excited about before you started reading it?

A book you already want to reread

Top five books of the year

Least favourite books of the year

Best non-fiction book(s) you read this year

Best fiction you read this year

Best book you read for uni/college/school

Worst book you read for uni/college/school

The book with the prettiest cover

The book with the best title

Did you discover any new authors?

What was your top genre for the year?

Did you discover any new genres?

Did you start any new series?

Did you finish any series?

Did you reread anything?

Did you read any translations?

Were there any books you planned on reading but didn’t end up reading/finishing?

Did you DNF anything?

What’s a book you’ve recommended the most this year?

Did you use your library?

How many books did you buy?

Are there any books you want to finish before the year is over?

Releases you’re looking forward to next year

Five books you absolutely want to read next year?

Do you have any reading goals for next year?

lady-of-the-upside-down

I can’t get over this edit lmaooooo

verymaudlin

alternative clothing stores that aren’t dollskill or kill star (PLUS SIZE FRIENDLY)

Trash Queen (great plus size clothes AND cool accessories)

Sourpuss Clothes (great plus size dresses)

Rebels Market (not super plus size friendly, but do have sizes up to 2XL, great accessories and shoes though)

Tragic Beautiful (sizes up to 4XL, beware some Killstar stuff is sold on there)

Unique Vintage (many many plus size options, perfect for 50s inspired goth/punk looks)

Unif Clothing (not super plus size friendly but they do have L and XL, great shoes and accessories though)

Angry Young and Poor (punk-ish clothes, good plus size options)

Yesstyle (terrible/nonexistent plus size options but amazing Korean/Japanese beauty products and amazing lolita wigs)

BlackMeoww (clothes up to 3XL, great accessories)

Punk Rave (plus size options vary)

Disturbia (British company with sizes going up to American size 16, i think?)

Berserk (Australian company. decent plus size options, as well as accessories and beauty products)

Creepy Co (horror/creepy themed shirts and buttons with a good diversity of sizes)

Kreepsville 666 (sizes usually go up to 3X, and great accessories)

Gloomth (incredible gothic/lolita/weirdgirl fashion that runs up to 5XL, but I bet you can ask Taeden (owner) to custom make to your sizes. I have 3 gloomth dresses that I wear ALL THE TIME. totally worth their price.)

Kinky Angel (yes this is intended to be ~sexy kinky clothes~ but we all know that aesthetic intersects with alt/goth aesthetic a LOT. sizes go up to 4X)

Devil Inspired (the clothes aren’t plus size friendly but the accessories and shoes are so delicious it’s worth a look)

Atomic Cherry (good plus size options!)

In Control Clothing (plus size kawaii clothes)

NastyGem (no clothes but reasonably priced alt accessories)

Also Threadless has good dark tees!

Also Etsy has amazing alt-clothing vendors that do custom sizes and cater to plus size people!

Also let me know if you’ve heard bad things about any of these websites, I will reblog with corrections! Feel free to add any you know of as well!

verymaudlin

Hey I’m going to drop the names of some alt and plus size friendly Etsy shops:

missOctopie (cute spooky kawaii clothes that go up to 3XL ((which means something different in every store so you just have to check)))

Later Operator not clothes but really fun jewelry

Nemons cool dark tees that go up to 2XL in unisex which is 52″ in chest, 46″ in waist.

Gobbolino again not clothes but they’re worth putting on there for their truly outlandish accessories.

KawaiiDressShop which has tons of cute lolita-esque dresses that go up to 5XL

Narcissique Couture does custom sizing on all their clothes

InkedStaind cool goth dresses that go up to 4XL

SophieandHerStore really decadent cool goth accessories like elizabethan standing collars

VrolokClothing a neat goth store that goes up to 3XL in its sizing

I can also do a whole thread on decent plus size/custom lingerie options on Etsy, if anyone’s interested.

coolcurrybooks-deactivated20230

Fantasy books written by women are often assumed to be young adult, even when those books are written for adults, marketed to adults, and published by adult SFF imprints. And this happens even more frequently to women of color.

This topic’s an ongoing conversation on book Twitter, and I thought it might be worth sharing with Tumblr. And by “ongoing,” I mean that people have been talking about this for years. Last year, there was a big blow up when the author R.F. Kuang said publicly that her book The Poppy War isn’t young adult and that she wished people would stop calling it such. If you’ve read The Poppy War, then you’ll know it’s grimdark fantasy along lines of Game of Thrones… and yet people constantly refer to The Poppy War as young adult – which is one of its popular shelves on Goodreads. To be fair, more people have shelved it as “adult,” but why is anyone shelving it as “young adult” in the first place? Game of Thrones is not at all treated this way…

Rebecca Roanhorse’s book Trail of Lightning, an urban fantasy with a Dinétah (Navajo) protagonist has “young adult” as its fifth most popular Goodreads shelf. The novel is adult and published by Saga, an adult SFF imprint.

S.A. Chakraborty’s adult fantasy novel City of Brass has “young adult” as its fourth most popular Goodreads shelf.

Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, an adult fantasy in a world based on Mughal India, has about equal numbers of people shelving it as “adult” or “young adult.”

Book Riot wrote an article on this, although they didn’t address how the problem intersects with race. I also did a Twitter thread a while back where I cited these examples and some more as well.

The topic of diversity in adult SFF is important to me, partly because we need to stop mislabeling the women of color who write it, and also because there’s a lot there that isn’t acknowledged! Besides, sometimes it’s good to see that your stories don’t just end the moment you leave high school and that adults can still have vibrant and interesting futures worth reading about. I feel like this is especially important with queer rep, for a number of reasons.

Other books and authors in the tweets I screenshot include:

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

A Ruin of Shadows by L.D. Lewis

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Day Before by Liana Brooks

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell

Shri, a book blogger at Sun and Chai

Vanessa, a writer and blogger at The Wolf and Books

TLDR: Women who write adult fantasy, especially women of color, are presumed to be writing young adult, which is problematic in that it internalizes diversity, dismisses the need and presence of diversity in adult fantasy, and plays into sexist assumptions of women writers.

howlsmovinglibrary

Never forget the amount of hate R.F. Kuang got for explicitly stating that The Poppy War, one of the most triggering books I’ve ever read, should never be shelved as YA. She did so out of extreme concern of the content getting into the wrong hands without warning.

And then two days later Jay Kristoff said the same thing about Nevernight…and nothing happened.

tarasimauthor

My top liked Goodreads review for THE CITY OF DUSK is someone stating the book is YA, not adult. I’ve seen similar statements (largely from white readers) citing the reason is because the main characters, who grew up together, joke and make fun of one another. Because the book–which is dark fantasy–dares to throw some humor around once in a while.

This book has pissed off a lot of people and I’m not really sure why. Because of its diversity? Because it’s written by a QPOC woman? Because it isn’t GoT? Who’s to say anymore.

funnytwittertweets

prokopetz

A brief summary of how user engagement is tracked on Tumblr, for the newcomer:

When you like or reblog a post, that counts as user engagement for the person you liked or reblogged from, and shows up in their notifications.

If the person you liked or reblogged a post from wasn’t the original poster (i.e., you’re liking or reblogging a reblog), it also counts as user engagement for the original poster, and shows up in their notifications as well.

This means that user engagement from your likes and reblogs can potential accrue to two different people, the original poster and the person you liked or reblogged from.

Consequently, you cannot “steal” user engagement from someone by reblogging their post.

This is one of the very few areas where Tumblr is actually functions more reasonably than other social media platforms.

Note that this is only true if you use Tumblr’s built-in reblogging function. If you save someone else’s content to your local device and append it to a new post, you effectively become the original poster from that point on.

This means that on Tumblr, “reblogging” and “reposting” are two different things; if you see someone complaining about “reposting”, this is not the same as reblogging.

Commenting when reblogging does not affect any of this – unlike, say, Twitter, where quote-retweeting causes user engagement to accrue to the quote-retweet and not to the original tweet – and you can and should do so freely.

However, every Tumblr user can see who exactly you reblogged a post from, which functions as a soft disincentive against making inane comments; if you make a dumb comment on a reblog, people who see your reblog may “back up” one step in the reblog chain to reblog a version of the post without your comment.

Nobody understands tags, and there’s a fair amount of evidence that how tags work changes periodically and without warning.

Tags are a divine mystery.

prokopetz

(For those going “how is this not obvious”, it’s about prior expectations, bro. On many major social media platforms, using the built-in sharing tools does divert user engagement from the original post. For example, as noted above, quote-retweeting on Twitter causes likes to accrue to the quote-retweet instead of the original tweet. This is because Twitter is hostile to human life.)

eregyrn-falls

It’s really good for stuff like this to go around every once in a while! Strange as it may seem, people may in fact migrate here from Twitter or Instagram, where this stuff works differently and where there are different expectations of engagement.

DON’T FORGET - *most* Tumblr users DO NOT MIND if you engage with their OLD posts! (Apparently on Instagram they do? this baffles me.)

Many also don’t mind if you “spam” their notifications with a bunch of likes or reblogs in a row.

Tumblr has a rich culture of Very Old Posts continuing to make the reblog rounds, and people become fond of them.

Also, unlike Twitter, you can reblog the same post multiple times. Heck, you can reblog the same post every hour on the hour for days. (Please don’t.) But you do see a lot of “oh this came across my dash again, must reblog” with posts users are fond of. This is fine.

Tags ARE a divine mystery. People use the tags both for organization (inasmuch as this works, sometimes), and for added commentary. Commentary added to the tags will generally be seen by those who follow that person and see their reblog on their dash; but the OP and whoever they reblogged it from can also see the tags in the notifications.

So again – you can use the tags for commentary, and many people do. But people WILL see it. It just won’t “stick” with the post… necessarily. Tumblr also has a culture of people seeing some tags they think are relevant or clever, and reblogging a post with someone else’s tags included. So bear that in mind as well – something you put in the tags could get “pulled up” into a reblog chain by someone else, and this is generally seen as fine.

anistarrose

Adding on, due to current events: Tumblr both does and does not have an algorithm; in a way it’s “opt-out,” but most long-time users have opted out vehemently, and you’ll probably have a better experience if you do the same.

Go to Settings, then Dashboard, and turn off “Best Stuff First,” “Include stuff in your orbit,” and “Include Based On Your Likes.” This will get you a feed based only on people that you choose to follow, and this, arguably, is part of why Tumblr is the least hellish of many hellsites right now.

foxssleeplessness

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Then I Was Inspired, Now I'm Sad and Tired