Welcome to the Library

A virtual catalogue of the books I've read and my thoughts on them. Feel free to check them out!

[labyrinths-library]

Hello and Welcome to the Library!

Library Hours: 8am(ish)-8pm(ish) EST

Just some information from the library:

My name is Abby and I am the librarian of the labyrinth.

All of these books are books that I have read and my thoughts on them, we can disagree on them, but please do not come at me for them, but feel to discus them with me.

If I need to put a warning up about an author, please let me know. I find my books from a whole bunch of places, and because I spend so much time reading I have a tendency to not know much about current events. If we have a writer that's not great, please let me know so I can document accordingly. (This also lets me know what books I shouldn't buy new. Ex: RIP Neil Gaiman, he ain't dead, he's just dead to me.)

I'm interested in book recs. I'm a bit of a book dragon. I will also give you book recs if you give me your top three books.

This is a sideblog.

I'm going to "live blog" some of my reactions to books that I read, but I'll tag them and put the tag on here so you know what to block if you are so inclined.

If you're side-eyeing my "Books I need to finish" section, its because I went to school for writing and try to believe that I can learn from anything so I should at least finish the book to figure out why it made me want to stop reading so I don't do it in my own writing.

Current Read:

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying

Spoiler Tag: Dark Lord Davi Spoilers

Books I started and Need to Finish:

Beep

Lavinia

*That Book about words that I bought in Ptown*

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea

A Life Unplanned

Seaborne

[labyrinths-library]

Thank you to everyone who got me to 100 likes!

[carys-the-ninth]

2024 Reads in Review Asks

Faves of the year

Flops of the year

DNF With Prejudice: Book(s) you didn't finish on purpose

DNF With Regrets: Book(s) you didn't finish but want to get back to

Crowd Pleaser: Book you would recommend to almost anyone

Dead Dove Do Not Eat: Book you would recommend to a select audience with a mountain of caveats

Wasted Potential: Great premise and/or characters but fell down on execution

Blorbo Of The Year: Perhaps not your favorite of the year, but contains The Character

Compels Me Though: Okay, maybe not all of it made sense, but you had a great time anyway

Sleeper Hit: Not a book that you have to force into people's hands, but well-executed

Favorite non-fiction of the year

Favorite series of the year

Favorite standalone of the year

Most anticipated—did it live up to the hype?

Biggest disappointment?

Biggest surprise?

New author (either to you, or with a recent debut) you're hoping to read more of?

Favorite recent release you read this year

Favorite old(er) book you read this year

Did you re-read any books? Were they what you expected?

Best recommendation from a friend

Best book you found in the wild

Free space--talk about any book you read in 2024 not otherwise covered

Do you have any goals for your reading in 2025?

What's on the top of your list for 2025?

[flappy-dragon53]

Loved how “wouldn’t you like” started playing and Troy was immediately in music video mode. The dancing. The camera angles. The lighting. Man truly is Hermes

[labyrinths-library]

Library Update!

I ended up reading 114 books in 2024. I will update my November/December reads. I got sick and then the holidays happened. I will also be making a reference system so if you want to look at books from certain genres you can find them easier.

Some news for 2025:

The Greek Mythology section of the library is going to have a massive update. I have a bunch of Percy Jackson to finally read as well as some other books based on the greeks, so stay tuned and happy new year!

[apoemaday]

Tea

by Leila Chatti

Five times a day, I make tea. I do this because I like the warmth in my hands, like the feeling of self-directed kindness. I’m not used to it — warmth and kindness, both — so I create my own when I can. It’s easy. You just pour water into a kettle and turn the knob and listen for the scream. I do this five times a day. Sometimes, when I’m pleased, I let out a little sound. A poet noticed this and it made me feel I might one day properly be loved. Because no one is here to love me, I make tea for myself and leave the radio playing. I must remind myself I am here, and do so by noticing myself: my feet are cold inside my socks, they touch the ground, my stomach churns, my heart stutters, in my hands I hold a warmth I make. I come from a people who pray five times a day and make tea. I admire the way they do both. How they drop to the ground wherever they are. Drop pine nuts and mint sprigs in a glass. I think to care for the self is a kind of prayer. It is a gesture of devotion toward what is not always beloved or believed. I do not always believe in myself, or love myself, I am sure there are times I am bad or gone or lying. In another’s mouth, tea often means gossip, but sometimes means truth. Despite the trope, in my experience my people do not lie for pleasure, or when they should, even when it might be a gesture of kindness. But they are kind. If you were to visit, a woman would bring you a tray of tea. At any time of day. My people love tea so much it was once considered a sickness. Their colonizers tried, as with any joy, to snuff it out. They feared a love so strong one might sell or kill their other loves for leaves and sugar. Teaism sounds like a kind of faith I’d buy into, a god I wouldn’t fear. I think now I truly believe I wouldn’t kill anyone for love, not even myself — most days I can barely get out of bed. So I make tea. I stand at the window while I wait. My feet are cold and the radio plays its little sounds. I do the small thing I know how to do to care for myself. I am trying to notice joy, which means survive. I do this all day, and then the next.

[ashgunnywolf]

Honestly, with all the tradwife cooking trash circulating, it only makes me love B Dylan Hollis more for baking vintage recipes while being openly gay, making sexual jokes, and screaming at the ingredients. He's the antithesis of every soft-spoken cishet woman cooking for her husband and children. You don't have to be an idyllic cottagecore housewife to cook.

[bluenightcomedies]

⭐since nobody else did, i wanna point out that it's not just vintage recipes, most of what he does is depression-era cooking, which was made by poor people for poor people in a period of severe poverty, intended to be easy and cheap but still tasty and filling. so he's also a good source of recipes most ppl can afford and make :3

icebox pies are our personal fave!

[mousedetective]

@strangedreamings

[strangedreamings]

He once said he beats the ingredients with just a utensil instead of a mixer because he knows not everyone can afford one.

[helpmeimblorboing]

The eight stages of writing :

- this is awesome

- this is slightly less awesome

- this is shit

- I’m shit

-oh god oh fuck what the hell am I doing

-wait this might not be that bad actually

- How the fuck is this working

-This is awesome

[mmmm-books]

Can’t believe Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in the 2000s

And in 2015 Emily Brontë released literary clsssic Wuthering Heights

Thank God someone paved the way for them…

[nitrosplicer]

if you think jk was the first woman author, you don’t actually care about women authors.

[syrupie]

Mary Shelley didnt fuck on her parents graves for this level of disrespect

[adrianainthesnow]

Murasaki Shikibu didn’t invent the novel for this.

[steakplissken]

Christine de Pizan did not sit down at her desk and write The Book of the City of Ladies, advocating for women’s education and finding value in women of all social classes and backgrounds, in 1405 for this.

[ailorian]

🎶SHAHARIZADE HAD A THOUSAND TALES🎶

[captainlordauditor]

This……….isn’t even true in 20th century fantasy or childrens books? Pierce, Lackey, Applegate, McCaffrey, Bradley, Butler, whomst?

[amuseoffyre]

Casual reminder that

a woman was the first known author/poet in 2300BC - Enheduanna

the first novel in recorded history was written by a woman in 1010AD - Murasaki Shikibu

the earliest example of science fiction was written by a woman in 1666 - Margaret Cavendish

horror science fiction was popularised by a teenage girl in 1818 - Mary Shelley

a Scotswoman expanded childrens’ stories from moralising tales into anarchic adventures in the mid 1800s, well before it became popular in the early 20th century - Catherine Sinclair

the masked/costumed hero archetype that inspired Batman and Zorro was created by a woman in 1905 - Baroness Emma Orczy

And while she is problematic as all get out, we all know who is to blame for popularising Boarding School fiction (which is a huge inspiration of She Who Must Not Be Named) from the 1930s onwards - Enid Blyton

[khadij-al-kubra]

And do I even need to mention what a badass pioneer Ursula Le Guin was for women author in the fantasy/sci-fi genre?

[impatentpending]

Not to mention Agatha Christie is literally second only to Shakespeare in terms of works sold – 4 billion compared to JKR’s paltry 500 million 

[20xbetterthanu]

Mary Shelly did what

[pineappletheatrekid]

Mary.Shelly.Lost.Her.Virginity.On.Her.Parent’s.Grave.

[draculasstrawhat]

Mary Shelley lost her virginity on her mother’s grave. Her father was still very much alive.

[wuzetianadmirer]

She did what now?

[greatmountainfloofsquatch]

We have female authors who published before Rowling here on Tumblr. @dduane, for example! I read her Star Trek novels from the 80s and 90s as a kid/teen.

[sgtpepperoni94]

Octavia E. Butler wrote probably the most accurate dystopian novel in the form of Parable of the Sower.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I was a book nerd 90s kid who lived in the fantasy/scifi sections of the library and off the top of my head I can think of three male authors I was reading. The child and teens fantasy/scifi author list before Rowling took off was overwhelmingly female.

[mirigold-mayflowers]

Let’s not forget Frances Hodgson Burnett who wrote The Secret Garden!

Louisa May Alcott, who wrote Little Women!

Dianna Wynne Jones, who wrote Howls Moving Castle!

Or, who I grew up on, L. M. Montgomery, who wrote Emily of New Moon, Anne of Green Gables and the Blue Castle, to name a few!

[yikesicle]

reblog for lit asks and messages

[purplezeldana]

Readers, make sure you have all your favourite Ao3 fics downloaded.

Writers, make sure you have copies of all the fics you have posted on Ao3.

I don’t want to be alarming, but things could get really bad really fast. OTW shared this today on Twitter, and I'm a bit worried about it 😅

Ao3 is a non-profit organisation. If they have to start paying taxes, I have no idea what will happen.

Edit: I didn’t expect my post to go viral 🤯

I saw OTW's tweet and shared it here to warn my 25 followers (who are fic writers & readers) about it. I thought people from the US already knew this was happening, as the bill was been voted the day I made my post.

I'm not from the US, and I'm glad people are explaining the problem and how it will affect all non-profits in the quotes. I had no idea what the bill really entailed.

[caats]

[balrogballs]

If you think your Tolkien brainrot is bad, please know that I have a large tattoo of extracts from a Wordsworth poem winding across my back and ribs with tree/leaf motifs.

It took around 4 sittings to complete, and each time the artist was telling me I must really love Wordsworth if I’m going to such pains, and you best believe that at no point in the process did I admit that it was not that I liked Wordsworth per se, and more that the poem reminded me so strongly of Celebrían, a character whose narrative presence consists of two footnotes and a shrug.

(in my defence, LOOK at these words and tell me you aren’t also screaming crying throwing up about Cel 😭)

[akarii-memes]

[gillisiart]

“And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air.” - LOTR: The Return of the King

Some book Eowyn x Faramir because they live rent free in my head

[labyrinths-library]

I've decided that 2025 will be my Greek Mythology year.

Rick Riordan

Katee Roberts

The weird Disney Hercules twisted tales books.

I'm hitting my Greek phase.

[maisiewilliams]

how about we do that thing where you give me a show/movie/fandom and I’ll tell you:

my favorite female character

my favorite male character

my favorite book/season/etc

my favorite episode (if its a tv show)

my favorite cast member

my favorite ship

a character I’d die defending

a character I just can’t sympathize with

a character I grew to love

my anti otp

and, knowing me, I’ll probably explain why