A Book Blog

Shelves and Shelves books

[jonismitchell-deactivated202410]

The suicidal murder of the double is also underscored by a sense of the liebestod, or love-death, a marriage between the ego and its shadow-self though mutual obliteration. — Kier-La Janisse

[macrolit]

from ml.books

[firewordsparkler]

new video! Katrina and I have begun a banned books club where we read books that are currently being challenged across the country. Give the video a watch and I hope you join in!

https://youtu.be/ikZyp_Rvf04

[la-laborista-republiko]

[cryptiboy]

what if public libraries were open late every night so that:

- children and teens who cant get home until a later time have a safe, warm, well lit, populated area to socialize, charge devices, rest, etc

- children and teens have a safe place to go to stay away from danger

- people who have jobs that take up most of the day would still have time ANY DAY OF THE WEEK to go use the libraries facilities (printing, computers, etc)

[raptorkin]

This is exactly what public libraries are trying to achieve - public libraries as a third place is a whole thing - it’s just that the funding isn’t there (yet).

[captaindibbzy]

Libraries need and deserve so much funding

[entamewitchlulu]

I’m going to apologize if this post comes off as sounding very aggressive, but having just been through one of the most stressful experiences of my entire career in libraries: 

if you want this, you need to be at your local community government meetings. you need to be talking to your representatives.  you need to be out there Lobbying.

Just a few weeks ago, my library, me, my coworkers, we had to write letters, send emails, make phone calls, speak at council meetings, just to beg our aldermen to give us our usual funding. Which they didn’t even give to us last year.  Losing last year’s funding forced us to cut staff, hours, and all of our databases.  If we’d lost this year’s funding? two positions would have been gone and we would have likely had to close on Saturdays.  On Saturdays.  The day of the week most of y’all working M-F jobs actually have time to go to the fucking library.

And do you want to know how much money we were asking? We were asking for an increase of approximately 13 cents a person.

13.

Fucking.

Cents.

ACROSS AN ENTIRE YEAR.

No one seems to understand how libraries are funded.  It’s not just Free Stuff.  It’s your tax dollars being paid back into your community.  It’s crowdfunding.  The highest cost anyone in my community pays for the library a year is approximately $250.  Divide that up.  That’s just $4 a week.  That’s less than a coffee.  It’s the equivalent of purchasing about 10 hardcover books a year.  For that price, you could have access to every book that has ever been written, a place to go that’s not a bar, programs for kids, teens, and adults, educated staff that can help you find the answers to your questions, and so much more.

You want these late-night libraries?  You want all this stuff?  Start fighting for it.  Start showing up.  Start making phone calls.  It’s not going to come out of thin air.  Start fighting to erase the idea that taxes = evil.  Start fighting to spread the understanding that taxes are what help us build a better society.

Make sure the people who represent you know that you want this.  That this is where you want your tax dollars to go.  That this is what you want them to support.  That you are willing to see your tax bill go up a few more dollars for this.

Because otherwise?  None of this is going to happen.  Libraries are going to keep cutting their opening hours.  Keep cutting staff.  Keep cutting programs and databases and collections.

We NEED your support, and we need more than just a post on Tumblr.  We need to see people show up and speak out. 

[birdblogwhichisforbirds-deactiv]

Two more weeks of gender!

[officialskylerwhitestan-deactiv]

[howtomusicmajor]

How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!

[allydsgn]

WOAH THIS SOUNDS HELPFUL. I’M GOING TO TRY THIS IMMEDIATELY. Also, I made a chart for myself, but if anyone else wants it for reference (or if this is wrong and I misread you can tell me) here it is:

[twiceroyaldove]

i keep forgetting where to find this but it’s so helpful

[lilyromano-blog]

A Wonderful Collection of Fairy Books.

Folio Society/ London

[universitybookstore]

Made us laugh. (Ganked from LibraryWorlds.)

[rapha-reads]

Mood : Elizabeth wandering around Pemberley and slowly falling in love with its owner because a man who has so many beautiful pieces of arts and is so loved by his people can’t be that bad, can he? Oh god, he’s a wonderful man, what have I done.

[escapismroom]

today I was wearing my “yes homo” shirt and some lady told me “you’re going to hell” and I replied with “with you existing, I’m already there” and I s2fg she made this exact face

[socialexecution]

IM LAUGHING

[joanatheskammer]

[opheils-blog]

what they meant

[universitybookstore]

A recommendtion for Women’s History Month, from Hachette and Olympic Medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad, Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream. Inspiring.

[fandomshatewomen]

8 Fiction Books with Non-Binary Characters

Can you believe we haven’t talked about books with non-binary characters yet? Here are eight great ones, mostly written by non-binary auth

[astreiants-archive]

book recs featuring bisexual protagonists?

!!!!!!!!!! OKAY here we go

my name is n by robert karjel [m]

the young elites by marie lu [m]

the gods of gotham by lyndsay faye [m]

nightrunner by lynn flewelling [m]

the lynburn legacy by sarah rees brennan [f]

whatever by sj goslee [m]

six of crows by leigh bardugo [m]

the coldest girl in coldtown by holly black [f, m]

3 by hannah moskowitz [f]

shades of magic by ve schwab [m]

we are okay by nina lacour [f]

black wolves by kate elliott [f]

in other lands by sarah rees brennan [m]

santa olivia by jacqueline carey [f]

engelsfors trilogy by sara b elfgren and mats strandberg [f]

cut and run by abigail roux [m]

far from you by tess sharpe [f]

chase the sun by nyrae dawn and christina lee [m]

storm season by pene henson [f]

a taste of honey by kai ashante wilson [m]

swordspoint by ellen kushner [m]

coffee boy by austin chant [m]

fast connection by megan erickson and santino hassell [m]

have you seen me by katherine scott nelson [m, f]

history is all you left me by adam silvera [m]

trials of apollo by rick riordan [m]

machineries of empire by yoon ha lee [m]

timekeeper by tara sim [m]

future leaders of nowhere by emily o'beirne [f]

ask me how i got here by christine heppermann [f]

the summer prince by alaya dawn johnson [m]

if you follow me by malena watrous [f]

kiss the morning star by elissa janine hoole [f]

scoring chances by avon gale [m]

maze cheat by br collins [f]

out of focus by megan erickson [m]

a hundred thousand words by nyrae dawn [m]

run by kody keplinger [f]

how to make a wish by ashley herring blake [f]

the girl at midnight by melissa grey [m]

fans of the impossible life by kate scelsa [m]

been here all along by sandy hall [m]

adaptation by malinda lo [f]

[finehoney]

im so ready to be in a relationship so whenever the universe is ready hmu with a keeper

[finehoney]

i posted this yesterday then today this cute boy held my hand and now he is sending me memes

[librarydvd]

Reblog for love

[maobeedong]

i reblogged this yesterday and my crush kissed me today

[billbenbev-deactivated20200214]

Reblogging for love

[solflowah]

[cats-and-cardigans]

Fiction:

A Life Apart, by Neel Mukherjee

Babyji by Abha Dawesar

Blue Boy, by Rakesh Satyal

The Boy and the Bindi, by Vivek Shraya

Cinnamon Gardens, by Shyam Selvadurai

Funny Boy, by Shyam Selvadurai

My Magical Palace, by Kunal Mukherjee

Ode to Lata, Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla

The Paths of Marriage, by Mala Kumar

The Pregnant King, by Devdutt Pattanaik

Quarantine, by Rahul Mehta

She of the Mountains, by Vivek Shraya

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, by Shyam Selvadurai

The Two Krishnas, by Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla

The World Unseen, by Shamim Sarif

Non-Fiction & Anthologies:

AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories from India, by Amartya Sen and various authors

Because I Have A Voice: Queer Politics in India, edited by Arvind Narrain and Gautam Bhan

Dirty River, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love, and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India, by Parmesh Shahani

Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures, by Gayatri Gopinath

The Invisibles, by Zia Jaffrey

A Lotus of Another Color, by Rakesh Ratti

Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West by Ruth Vanita

Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged India, by Maya Sharma

Made in India: Decolonializations, Queer Sexualities, Trans/National Projects, by Suparna Bhaskaran

Me Hijra, Me Laxmi, by Laxminarayan Tripathi

Neither Man Nor Woman, Serena Nanda

Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India, by Giti Thadani

Same-Sex Love in India, edited by Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwal

Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia, by Sanjay Srivastava

Sex Longing and Not Belonging: A Gay Muslim’s Quest for Love and Meaning, by Badruddin Khan

Shikhandi and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You, by Devdutt Pattanaik

Queer Activism in India: A Story in the Anthropology of Ethics, by Naisargi Dave

Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society, by Ruth Vanita

With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India, by Gaytri Reddy