Haunting the Library

Main blog | Any Pronouns | Books, Recommendations + Resources

[phantom-in-the-library]

Welcome!

📖 Hi, you can call me Phantom. This is my books blog where I will be posting book recommendations and resources for anything reading related.

📖If you are interested in writing resources, check out my other blog @lettherebewrit3 where I post all resources relating to writing.

📖My main blog is @phantom-does-a-thing.

📖Currently reading: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

📖Tags I use: #Phantom whispers -> original posts #recommendations -> Book recommendations, these may be separated by genre or other related identifiers #resources -> Any reading resources #misc -> anything miscellaneous that I don't know how to otherwise tag #reading habits -> anything about reading itself and the art of reading #queue -> my queue tag that may or may not be used, I'm really bad at using the queue

This isn't a new blog but I wanted to update it, so let me know if you have any questions, my ask box is always open.

Last updated: 5/8/26

[the---hermit]

"is it better to read non fiction or novels?" No. It is better to read than not to read full stop. That is the only argument. Let's not create yet another fake scale of who is a better reader. I am so fucking tired of this kind of discourse. If you only read graphic novels you are still reading and that is better than not reading. If you only read middle grade books despite being in your 30s you are still reading and that is better than no reading. If you read one single book a year it is still good because you are reading. And that makes you a reader.

[the---hermit]

I have seen it in the tags and I feel like I should also add this, yes audiobooks count as reading, they are real books and if you can only read thanks to audiobooks you are no less of a reader, whether you read audiobooks due to dyslexia, blindness or any other reason and that can also just be I like to have a nice voice reading the book to me, you are reading and that is good. And yes, reading fanfiction counts as reading, reading, rereading books counts as reading, reading graphic novels and comics counts as reading. As long as you are reading even just a little bit that is better than no reading. If you spent 10 years not reading and then you pick a book back up and read one book in a year you are a reader and you made such a great decision picking that book up even if it is just a short novella, or the most lightheaded fiction book ever. I do not care what you read how you read or how much you read, if you get a bit of reading done you are doing a great thing for yourself and you are a reader.

[kvothes]

a good thread

[the-prairies-calling-out]

"Why do you buy books when the library is right there?"

Because publishing houses will not continue printing paper books if libraries are their only customers.

Also, I like being able to read at my leisure and generally have books at hand.

[its-the-blob]

#public libraries are good because they let people access books they might never otherwise read#private book ownership is good because it's Yours#physical books are good because they last a long time and again it's Yours#ebooks are good because you can fit a whole library into the physical space of a single book and they're cheaper to produce#audiobooks are good because they're accessible to people with eyesight or visual reading issues and leave your hands free#in conclusion: all books are good and people should enjoy them however and whenever they can#(lest it be misunderstood I agree with you completely OP I just also really like books in general and it got away from me)

YES. all books. every kind

[thisqueerlove]

Queer Books by Asian and Pacific Islander Authors 🏳‍🌈📚

Happy AAPI Month!

I didn’t have as much time to this put one together as I decided to do it pretty last minute but I hope someone will still find a book they’ll enjoy!

Read and support Asian authors and creators all year round.

Fantasy: 🏳‍🌈🔮

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang

Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang

Tell Me How It Ends by Quinton Li

Muneera and the Moon by Sonia Sulaiman

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Siren Queen by by Nghi Vo

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Mooncakes by Wendy Xu

Guardian: Zhen Hun by Priest

A Coffee Shop In an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Jade City by Fonda Lee

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera.

Sci-Fi:🏳‍🌈👽

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

The L.O.V.E Club by Lio Min

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon He Lee

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

Hammajang Luck by Makena Yamamoto

In The Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Le

Horror:🏳‍🌈☠️

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tan

They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tan

Chlorine by Jade Song

The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan

Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai

Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

How We End by L.M. Juniper

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

The Devourers by Indra Das

The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim

A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui

The Dark Becomes Her by Judy I. Lin

Dawn’s Cozy Horror Corner by Dawn Chen

Night of the Living Queers by Shelly Page & Alex Brown

Romance:🏳‍🌈❤

Love Points to You by Alice Lin

Love In Focus by Lyla Lee

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

Love Makes Mochi by Stefany Valentine

Cafe Con Lychee by Emery Lee

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen

Like Water Catching Fire by EM Lindsey

When Tara met Farah by Farah Pammi

It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sugiura

The Other Man by Farhad J Dadyburjor

You've Found Oliver by Dustin Thao

When Haru Was Here by Dustin Thao

All the Right Notes by Dominic Lim

Single Player by Tara Tai

Contemporary:🏳‍🌈📖

The Perfect Match by Adiba Jaigirdar

Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min

The Skin and It's Girl by Sarah Cypher

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

Guapa by Saleem Haddad

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

This Feat of a Life by Holden So & Cynthia So

Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao

Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Every Drop is a Man’s Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly

The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya

Baby Drag Queen by C.A. Tanaka

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabrina Khan

I'll Be The One by Lyla Lee

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

Historical:🏳‍🌈📜

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lại

A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar

The Chosen and The Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Last Night At The Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

Where There’s Room For Us by Hayley Kiyoko

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong

The Gardens of Yes and No by Kae So Bu

The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Queer Books for AAPI Heritage Month

[andhumanslovedstories]

I truly enjoy how much Animorphs is like “here are our young heroes, each with a distinctive trope to fill in the group!” And then it makes you watch how the pressure of each person’s role grinds them to dust. And also they have homework.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#IM SORRY THEY DO HOME FUCKING WORK IN ANIMORPHS??????

Yeah they're students. If they don't keep their grades up or if they miss too many classes (or miss classes at suspicious times) then they risk drawing the attention of the faculty and/or their parents, some of whom are the enemy and some of whom can just make future espionage a whole lot harder. There are multiple missions where they're like "okay, this is incredibly time sensitive but it'll take a full day or longer so it has to wait for the weekend and we'll have to all lie to our parents about sleeping over at each others' houses. It's gonna have to be done at the last minute because we've gotta go to class. Also, remember to get that English paper finished, we can NOT afford to have you grounded right now."

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

They also get disembowelled and/or eaten a lot

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#animorphs#its actually devastating i bever got into these#they wouldve been a million times more up my alley wtf was i reading harry potter for

It's not too late. You can still read them.

[cheerfulomelette]

These have been out of print for an age, and the authors have given their blessings to share the PDFs. Here's everything, including companion/side books and the non-canon Alternamorphs books, in reading order:

Animorphs PDFs : K. A. Applegate : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

All of the Animorphs books by K. A. Applegate, as well as the other books set in that universe. I got them here. I am not the one who collec

[phantom-in-the-library]

Here’s my most recent book haul (by haul I mean books that I’ve actually purchased separately within the last month).

I’ve already read the book of eels at the library but I loved it so much I had to get a copy to keep. The Superman one I got for like two dollars at a comic convention and I’ve been seeing good things about project Hail Mary so I wanted to give it a try.

[phantom-in-the-library]

I will believe anyone when they say a book is good, however you have to be some special incredibly trustworthy and close companion for me to believe you when you say a book is bad, especially a classic, if you hate on a classic book in my presence I will believe absolutely nothing of what you say.

[calmdowngorgeous]

Destroy the myth that libraries are no longer relevant. If you use your library, please reblog.

[reave-and-rowdy]

I get more books than I can possibly read many many times a month I have a problem

[sounddesignerjeans-deactivated2]

I wish kinky sex ed wasn't so stigmatized even among left-leaning "sex positive" circles. Everyone's all "uwu I'm a sub I'll do anything you ask" okay mommy wants you to read The New Bottoming Book so you learn how to sub without hurting yourself since your sex ed up to this point is porn and your ex boyfriend Jared who liked to choke you incorrectly

[sounddesignerjeans-deactivated2]

I’m so glad you asked! Let me list off what I’ve got for you:

Books I personally recommend:

- The New Topping Book and The New Bottoming Book, by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy

If you’re having kinky sex at all, you need to read at least one of these two books. Point blank. They’ll teach you the very basics of negotiating properly (which is critical!), and help you identify what you are and aren’t into.

- Mindfucking Mindfully, by Sir Ezra Where this book really shines isn’t actually in helping you “mindfuck” people, it’s in taking a close look at how to do so ethically. It’s a great answer to the question “how do I get someone to consent to something and still surprise and shock them with it?”

- Real Service by Raven Kaldera and Joshua Tenpenny This is a slightly niche pick but there simply isn’t a better book on the subject. It’s written from a 24/7 M/s perspective, which is not what I do, but the book itself is an indispensable guide to giving and receiving service. The phrase “if the Master doesn’t want it, it isn’t service” will be burned into my psyche for quite some time. I love this book a lot. Maybe my favorite out of all of these.

- Enough To Make You Blush: Exploring Erotic Humiliation, by Princess Kali This one’s high on my reading list; I’ve heard it recommended by a number of people whose opinions on these things I trust.

- Pretty Much Anything Midori Has Ever Done Midori is a great resource for this stuff - I haven’t personally read much of her work, but she’s a well known sex educator and great at what she does. She’s known for bondage, but has a lot of range beyond that.

- This Negotiations Worksheet from Bex Talks Sex This is what I default to using a lot of the time for negotiations. Forget BDSMtest, you don’t need that, it’s no good. Just look through this worksheet’s wordbank with your partner. Big fan especially of the “how do you want to feel?” section.

Books I can kind of recommend:

- The Ultimate Guide to Kink, edited by Tristan Taormino This book is weird. There’s a lot of good info for experienced players, but some of what’s written here skeeves me out. I think if I had a top that thought the way some of the tops in here think, they would not be topping me for long. But there’s some good techniques and so on to pick up that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I liked the distinction one of the authors makes between being sadistic in the sense of inflicting pain and being sadistic in the sense of doing something your sub doesn’t “enjoy.”

- The Ritual of Dominance and Submission, by David English Man, this book fucking sucks. The writing and editing are garbage, and the fear and protocol play described need way more careful negotiation than he ever lets on, let alone recommends. This is some 50 Shades bullshit. The only time I recommend this book is to tops like me who tend to be very affirming to their partners and need a guide on how to really scare them - when their partner consents and when you negotiate it, which this book sucks at teaching you. Really good content on fear, punishment, and protocol play, really terrible presentation of the topic though. Don’t read this if you don’t already know what you’re doing.

- Paradigms of Power, by Raven Kaldera I love this book. Great book. Very focused on 24/7 M/s play though, and, being an anthology, some chapters are better than others. If you can’t read something and pick out what is and isn’t for you, don’t bother. But some really great inspiration, and generally pretty well written. Big fan of the discussion of leather throughout the book.

Hope some of these are helpful for people ^-^ for the average person reading this I recommend New Bottoming/Topping, but they’re all important parts of my library and I’ve recommended all of them to friends at some point or another.

[sparklefartstheunicorn]

May I also suggest Hell on Wheels and Kneeling in Spirit by Raven Kaldera, d/s companion books that address kink with a disability. They're a should read for everyone, imo. You never know when you or a partner are going to have changes in your body that affect what you can physically do. Temporary illness/injury and even just age can affect your sex life.

[dogspouse]

I'd like to suggest Better Bondage for Every Body! It goes really in depth on anatomy, pain processing, self-tying, and has chapters specifically focusing on how to do rope bondage on/for someone who is disabled or has chronic pain, which was really important to me.

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image ID: Tumblr reply from asStraightAsAU-turn reading: Okay but do you have some books for education on that matter? Im highly interested to get Actually educated on these topics /End ID]

[jeansbookshelf-deactivated20250]

I got 60 out of 1000 😂

1000 Books You May Have Actually Read

Based on the number of ratings each book has on Goodreads. And if you haven't read them, maybe you can use for a literature bucket list.

[tinyasafirefly]

Anyone who says they’ve read all 1000 is a liar because one of them is a huge cookbook and no one is actively joy reading that.

[mbrainspaz]

with some of these it’s like “fuck, I did read that,” and with some it’s like “Oh fuck, I did read that.”

I got 99, but I counted a few that I had only mostly-read before deciding I didn’t like them and never finishing them.

[1000-life-hacks]

[archeologist-prophet]

Lovely to see we have spaces where you can gain access to so much literature!

[the-prairies-calling-out]

"Why do you buy books when the library is right there?"

Because publishing houses will not continue printing paper books if libraries are their only customers.

Also, I like being able to read at my leisure and generally have books at hand.

[its-the-blob]

#public libraries are good because they let people access books they might never otherwise read#private book ownership is good because it's Yours#physical books are good because they last a long time and again it's Yours#ebooks are good because you can fit a whole library into the physical space of a single book and they're cheaper to produce#audiobooks are good because they're accessible to people with eyesight or visual reading issues and leave your hands free#in conclusion: all books are good and people should enjoy them however and whenever they can#(lest it be misunderstood I agree with you completely OP I just also really like books in general and it got away from me)

YES. all books. every kind

[academic-vampire]

I am so thankful that books & reading exist

[booksinmythorax]

I'm already seeing advice from people in the US to purchase queer books and other banned or "controversial" books on paper as a way to combat the wave of government censorship that is coming. While this is a good idea (it is! absolutely!), it's not accessible to everyone, and truly, we're not going to be able to consumerism our way out of this one.

If you can buy the books, do. Whether you can buy the books or not, borrow them from your library.

Borrow the paper versions. Borrow the ebook or audiobook versions. Request the titles you want that your library doesn't have. The more a title circulates or is requested, the better librarians are going to be able to defend keeping it if and when it's ever challenged.

Use libraries like @queerliblib too. The more members they have, the better they'll be able to fundraise.

Your community resources depend on you using them. Borrow the books before they go away.

InB4: Piracy is not the solution here. We're trying to keep community resources available, not make sure individual people can read individual books. Different problems.

The books are still available. Borrowing them from your library and returning them on time and in good condition will help keep them that way.

[ijustkindalikebooks]

Sharing this cos I love this binding!

[http-tempted]