go * with * the * fLow

Bookworm-ing, Overthinking, Fangirling and Existential-crisis-ing "blogger" who doesn't know how much she'll continue to blog.

[mattlewis-deactivated20160818]

Harry Potter illustrated books by Jim Kay

[cgtnofficial]

‘Most beautiful bookstore’ starts trial operation in Hangzhou Dubbed the “most beautiful bookstore” in China due to its stylized interior decoration, the Zhongshuge Bookstore put its new branch in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou into trial operation on Saturday—the World Book Day. The chain brand has opened three stores so far, with the other two in the Chinese economic hub of Shanghai. However, it remains unclear whether the new store will be able to draw in a lot of business, given that people nowadays tend to read more on mobile devices. Recent data from the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication show that Chinese people read 4.58 print books on average last year, with a significant rise seen in mobile reading. The figure, however, is quite low compared to other countries, with France being 12, South Korea 11, Japan nine, and the US about seven, according to a Xinhua report last year. (With inputs from Xinhua News Agency)

[myfairgolightly]

[guardian]

It’s genuinely difficult to perceive the ways you’re privileged – let alone all the “negative preconditions” of your success, like not being born in a war zone, or before antibiotics, and so forth. We rarely realize it, but each of us is a walking testament to all the things that might have stopped us, yet didn’t.

Oliver Burkeman, on why if you don’t think you’re lucky, you should think again (via guardian)

[lila-jelly]

my forever faves, Ron & Hermione <3 

the rest of my sparknotes slideshow! 

[lila-jelly]

bill weasley and fleur! aka the most intimidatingly attractive couple you’ll ever meet. 

see my second slideshow on sparklife! 

[lila-jelly]

in honor of the recent casting news for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, i thought I would draw my girl Hermione! 

ref | time lapse video

[lila-jelly]

it always takes me by surprise when i remember that luna lovegood was written to have dirty blonde hair

[lila-jelly]

anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve

here’s my half of an art trade with the lovely @coriarts​! i don’t draw ginny enough. based on this photo of luca hollestelle :) 

[lila-jelly]

and now, a moment of silence for james and lily potter on the 34th anniversary of their sacrifice. rest in peace <3 

the rest of my spark life harry potter illustrations!

[vellaipookal]

OMFG YES! HE’S FUDGING BACK! JUST SOMEONE KILL ME. OMFG. WHERE ARE ALL MY FREAKING OUT GIFS WHEN I NEED THEM?

[bellemrdch]

[pottinglilies-deactivated202202]

Friends? Hah, like that was ever going to last.

[baawri]

[vellaipookal]

Fair and Lovely

Is it not possible to ban these ads and the product itself? I just saw this terrible ad by Fair and Lovely where this father brings his daughter a potential husband's information (he's 6'2", doctor blah blah) and he wants her to get married ASAP. Apparently she was thinking of getting a job and goes to her friend (Yami Gautham, btw. Celebrities who endorse these ads without taking political stances are just the worst, in my opinion) for advice. Instead of telling her something constructive and encouraging because she's doubtful about herself, the friend gives her fucking Fair and Lovely. She uses it and because of her "fair" complexion, gains the confidence to tell her dad she wants to work and that she'll be successful at it to match the potential hubby. The kind of ideas that this sort of an advertisement endorses is just appalling. Young girls who see advertisements like this would think this is the kind of beauty you have to aspire to. That being fair automatically makes you confident about your professional capabilities. That you are match for a man not with just your professional capabilities but only with the confidence you acquire by whitening your face. So are they telling us that the only solution for lesser-than-fair girls to feel fucking good about themselves (in relation to a man, that too) is by whitening your face? Frankly, the beauty standards it propagates is so disgusting and I really really despise using skin colour as a metric of anything.

[sondby]

I am back in good old Bombay and as I walk into my living room, duty-free bags in hand, the baby leaps into my arms. She has been learning to swim lately. I look at her closely and say, ‘You have such a nice tan darling, what a lovely golden brown, your brother always turns a peeling lobster red!’ She chirps, ‘I don’t want to be brown, I want to be white!’ Startled and wondering where she picked this up in the few days I have been away, I start muttering, ‘Colour doesn’t matter! We should be happy if we are pink, brown, beige, white, black, whatever!’ Till I see a glazed look of incomprehension in her eyes and I say, ‘You know what colour I want to be? Green! Like broccoli!’ And when she giggles and says that she wants to be green too, my battle for the day is won. But I have to be prepared, because this may come up again, as things seep into her subconscious — from the dolls in the toy store and the Snow White and Cinderella books to stuff overheard on playgrounds and seen on television. And sure enough, as she is cuddled next to her father, building Lego castles while he watches his beloved cricket, the screen is flooded with fairness cream advertisements that show people dabbing their faces with lotions and potions, clearly unable to get over the hangover of being the conquered little brown civilization. This constant obsession about attaining a ghostly pallor and observing our behemothic interest in the Duke’s every move and the Duchess’s every outfit makes me think that the British may have been forced out of our country a long time ago but perhaps they still haven’t been entirely forced out of our heads.

Twinkle Khanna for Times Of India in light of Williams and Kate visiting India.  (via thebittervirgo)

[tastefullyoffensive]

by Jake Likes Onions

[vellaipookal]

Utterly enchanting.