Converses and Cardigans

I used to blog for the website bloggingforbooks.com. On this tumblr, I have my reviews on books that I read for the website, library books and books from my own personal stacks. I also post things about being a librarian.  My name is Melissa. I am a bibliophile and I live in books

[the-poets-might-disagree]

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET FILMOGRAPHY (does not include TV series, shorts or ads)

[queenrojpag]

Kaz, if not Saints, what do you believe in? Myself. And you. And Jesper. My Crows.

[the-librarian-geek]

“Because that’s the thing about depression. When I feel it deeply, I don’t want to let it go. It becomes a comfort. I want to cloak myself under its heavy weight and breathe it into my lungs. I want to nurture it, grow it, cultivate it. It’s mine. I want to check out with it, drift asleep wrapped in its arms and not wake up for a long, long time.”

— Stephanie Perkins, Lola and the boy next door

[the-librarian-geek]

Usually we don’t really like when people are writing in the library books but it’s kinda sweet that they liked the book you know. The scribbles in pencil read “This is the most beautiful book I’ve read in my entire life. - 5 May 2018.”

[conversesandcardigans]

Now I’m going to have to read this book.

[the-librarian-geek]

Me: have three books ongoing already

Me: find a fourth book at the library, “oh”

Me: still looking at more books to read

Me: wonder why I don’t have time

[conversesandcardigans]

Sometimes my job is an absolute dumpster fire and sometimes, it has golden moments.  Isn’t that life in a nutshell though?  One of my teen patrons who is on the spectrum can come across to most people who encounter him as too much, too loud, obnoxious and so on.  However, most people in our community don’t understand that he isn’t trying to be.  The way he expresses himself doesn’t fit most people’s conventional standards and so people tend to steer away from him.  Since I took up the mantle of youth services librarian over a year ago, I’ve made an effort to connect more with the kids and teens in our community.  I’m a HUGE nerd and I just did my first Summer Reading Challenge last summer while nearly 9 months pregnant with my first child.  Let me tell you...it wasn’t easy.

Two days ago (we’ll call this patron E) E came in with 6 packs of Pokemon Cards.  We are always talking about Pokemon or what song he’s singing along to or The Masked Singer which he’s obsessed with.  He came in, walked over to me and showed me the packs.  Then he gave me three and insisted I open three packs with him so I did. He showed me a card trick he learned on Youtube, something that people do with Pokemon cards when they open a pack.  Then he gave me one of his holographic Dragonites because he had an extra.  He set it on my desk on my phone and it’s still on my desk because I’ve yet to take it home.  It seems stupid and small, but it means a lot to me to be able to have connected so much with my teen/kid community that they look forward to coming here just to see me, talk to me about the latest thing they’re interested in or like one of my 7 year old patrons, run in with his mom, shout “Ms. Melissa!” with a huge smile on his face and give me a huge hug.  This makes what I do worth it, especially on hard days.  I’m gonna miss this when I move, so I’m trying to make a difference and soak it all in while I can.

[missimidnite]

The patterns I'm beginning to see in YA fantasy are the blondes with blue eyes who sleep with everyone and are reckless or the girls who have been abused in some capacity and are meek and reserved. Occasionally, I see the girl who has been through hell and is reckless because she doesn't care about dying anymore. When I think of this, I think of Celaena Sardothien. I still love that series. I love her character and her development. It would just be really nice to see YA books that don't always center around romance. I want the main character to pick themselves for once and for healthy reasons, not because of a generic x, y, z reason. The only book I've seen do that so far is the Eyes Like Stars series. I may need to reread the series to be 100% sure. I don't know, I guess what I'm saying is, please try and present more than one or two ways of traditionally doing things. Not everyone is in love and that's okay. It can be okay to choose yourself and choose not to be with someone else. There is a big normalized thing that I see, even in everyday life where, people expect that they're gonna be 100% happy once they find true love. It's okay to want it. It's okay to want someone else. However, it's important to remember that you are in charge of your happiness and love doesn't always fix that. Along with that, you can still have an interesting plot and story without there being romance involved. It's beyond frustrating to see it every single time. I've gone to bookstores and picked up random novels in the YA/Teen section to begin reading the back of the book. It starts out super interesting, giving a little background and then it jumps to when the main character (usually a girl) meets dark, mysterious (insert some random guys name here) who is going to help her somehow achieve her goal by mainly falling in love with her or coming around to eventually understand that she's the most important thing in his life and vice versa. Please. Just. Stop.

[conversesandcardigans]

I'm thinking of doing an experiment and going to the library to take pictures of the back of all of these books just to prove what I'm talking about. I don't think enough people realize or see it.

[the-librarian-geek]

you know like when you’re opening a book and starts to read the very first page and you know, you know you’re gonna like this one so hard only by reading that first page - that’s magical

[matchbox-muse]

looking for more bookblrs to follow!

like or reblog if you are an active bookblr!

[stephaniecheryl]

I love it when I’m reading a book and I’m not just (super) into it, I’m obsessed with it. Like, it’s all I can think about. It’s all I want to be doing. I’m tempted to read it everywhere and anywhere. While the car heats up, when I’m at a stoplight, during meals, breaks at work, literally any chance I get.

[whats-life-without-booksx]

The fall is coming and summer is ending, how many books did you read this summer? Did you like them? Which ones would you recommend to me? Do you prefer summer or fall to read? I want to know!

[conversesandcardigans]

I think I've read about 11 this summer.

[evilienne]

Nehemia Ytger - Crown Princess of Eyllwe

[thesesummersonspoet]

READER PROBLEMS:

your tbr pile is bigger than you

trying to carry 17 books at once 

loving a book no one else has read so there’s no fandom

going on a two hour car journey so you pack 10 books 

“just in case”

[yrningdohwa]

the main thing I love about us bookworms is that we all have that one series or that one book (or multiple) that means the world to us, and we can always feel at home talking/thinking/rereading those books.

[the-knights-who-say-book]

Things I want in more books

illustrations on the inside pages. you know how you open The Wrath and the Dawn and there’s the beautiful picture of Shahrzad? MORE OF THOSE

i want this to be a normal thing in hardcovers

go big or go home. have a full page illustration of the opening scene

wouldn’t that be awesome

for heaven’s sake make sure there’s a blurb on the paperbacks. because sometimes there’s just quotes from reviews and other authors and that’s ridiculous

less describing female characters in terms of their attractiveness. if you don’t introduce every male character like that don’t do it for the girls. this pisses me off.

more books without romance

make it easier to get signed books! not everyone can get to book signings. please i’m jealous

more books where the spines do pretty things like make a rainbow or a picture or a face or just somehow go together really nicely

in the same vein, more authors whose books match. you know how all rainbow rowell books are like pastel-ish and look hand drawn? like the books themselves don’t match but the author has a general aesthetic

i thought i had more of these i’m gonna have to add to this

[conversesandcardigans]

Fucking thank you!!!!

[books-read-in-nooks]

Half of my books: “Ugh, she always opens us, gets distracted and then puts us down.”

The other half of my books:

[books-and-cookies]

therapist: and what do we do when we feel like this

me: reread the same fucking book for the 34326th time, while ignoring my 400 books long TBR

therapist: no