#bookclub thoughts

[dustjacketmusings]

Bookclub thoughts: two for one

Cold-Hearted Rake and Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas

I wasn't going to do a bookclub thoughts for Cold-Hearted Rake (CHR because I'm lazy) because I just enjoyed it and had nothing much to say. I have a lot to say about Marrying Winterborne (MW) though, and these books are almost impossible to separate. Which is my first major criticism, I don't think these books are fully enjoyable by themselves. CHR spends a lot of time in the second half setting up Helen and Winterborne, at the expense of the main pairing, and Winterborne is such an ass in the start of MW so i dont know how he's likeable without the previous book.

The family dynamic is easily the best part of both books, with the romance complexity suffering by comparison. I didn't mind this in CHR because setting up the family dynamic was so core to Devon and Kathleen's personal arcs, whereas Helen has an arc outside of her family dynamic.

As I said previously, I enjoyed CHR immensely. They are both such angry bitches who fight over nothing 😂. It truly is an excellent rivals to lovers. But I also appreciated that it takes place at a family home, with no balls or socialization. This is a side of historicals that I see less and it was interesting. Kleypas also flexes her researching chops with all of the widow details and mourning requirements. It kept the plot from being repetitive by introducing something new. In this sense, Devon starting an affair with his cousins widow was a different relationship dynamic. They get married eventually, but it's nice that Kathleen was in a position where she could have an affair without risking her livelihood.

And I do think that the various aspects of female independence were important for my enjoyment or dislike of either book. Kleypas takes a fairly unflinching view of the ways historical society was harsh on women, but she doesn't always make efforts to combat it. Or care to. It's a very different book to identify the double standards between men and women and have the FMC demand her due, as a modern woman might. There are people writing those books but Kleypas doesn't. She does keep her FMC's in character for the time, which I usually appreciate, but sometimes puts them at the mercy of the patriarcy, which I don't appreciate.

CHR focused extensively on the ways Kathleen was bound by the rules of widowhood; she would be forced to mourn a man she'd been married to for three days, she lost portions of her property to the estate, and her fortune now rested in the hands of the unknown cousin. For all that she might be allowed a discreet affair, she lost more than she gained. And Devon, for his part, acknowledged this and was as kind as he could be given the situation. Specifically, he couldn't give her back her horse since the estate had no money and it wasn't done, but he deferred to Kathleen on his training prior to sale.

By comparison, MW highlights the vulnerability of young women in society and then has it be a test of affection. Helen approaches Winterborne privately, which risks her reputation, and then agrees to sleep with him, which ruins her reputation without question. I'll give this scene credit in that it's a bold inciting incident, but it puts a bad taste in my mouth. Kleypas makes it clear that Helen is at a disadvantage just existing in the same room as Winterborne, yet he still demands she sleep with him "so that she could never leave". And she agrees, making a leap of faith because she trusts him (or is too naive to be suspicious) and it pays off. I don't dislike romance characters making grand gestures or trusting their partners, but it's disappointing that Kleypas has her heroines do it in a more detrimental way than she ever makes her men. It's true, Helen can't ever leave winterborne now, but it's fine because romance. This isn't fundamentally the same as winterborne's grand gesture of writing Helen into his will, because he isn't actually at risk for this, it's just his empire.

AND ALSO. THE WILL THING NEVER COMES UP AGAIN. After the indecent proposal, Winterborne realizes he's put Helen unnecessarily at risk (no shit?), and decides to write her as his sole benefactor immediately. It's a boss move, I'm not gonna lie, but it made the previous scene even more confusing. At one point Winterborne goes "I have no idea why I insisted we bed" and I'm like dude I super don't know either. It's almost like kleypas wanted the initial scene to be exciting and then literally bashed him over the head so the reader would like him again. And then he never tells her that she has the best life insurance policy on the planet, which ruins the gesture.

Helen purposefully ruining her respectability is a theme of the book, I'll give Kleypas that much. For as much as I don't like the initial scene, it rounds out her arc very nicely... but not in a way that makes their romance look good. She starts out by deciding she wants to marry winterborne for honestly very flimsy reasons. She's never met another man, she just thinks marrying him will be exciting and fulfilling. There are a few points early on where Helen notes how strongly she feels for him that distinctly reads like a teenagers first crush. I don't find their relationship very compelling in the first half because it mostly reads as two characters in love with love but not each other. They have bonding moments and real connection they just act super infatuated rather than recall any moments of depth. All of this makes Helen seem way younger than she needs to be. And then the actual book plot kicks off and Winterborne is at most an accessory for Helen throwing away her reputation because it's the right thing to do. She truly grows by the end of this book but I don't feel like they grow romantically.

Winterborne, by contrast, gets no arc. After hitting his head and deciding his will, he mostly exists to provide Helen with gifts and dick her down. He hates this one guy, of course, but it's just there for helens plot and not something he needs. The biggest growth for him is that he's no longer dreaming of the blue blooded babies Helen will give him (ew) which he only thinks about for a second when he's being an asshole. In fact, that whole plot point is pretty much dropped only to come back in his big speech. There's set up in CHR that he wants upward mobility and his engagement to Helen, but he spends no other time wooing aristocrats, and almost all of his screen time is championing equal rights for workers, donating to charity, and rescuing orphans. Dude clearly does not care what the aristocracy think of him so it loses impact.

I will say that premarital sex is handled differently between the books and its odd. CHR utilizes the pull out method and a no strings attached affair to establish spice in a historical setting. It works well enough, until Kathleen rides Devon and he climaxes inside her. And doesn't blame her for it (ha ha bridgerton). The threat of a baby from this one event is enough for them to eventually get married. Meanwhile, MW thinks about babies... sometimes. It's a bit of a dropped ball in a book about illegitimacy, not gonna lie. There is the initial sex, and Winterborne thinks of Helen possibly becoming pregnant from that when he does the will thing. Helen, meanwhile, wants to wait to get married until she's out of mourning, and when confronted with possible children adopts a "we'll cross that bridge if we get to it". Considering they continue to use no birth control, the "if" feels more like a "when" that never gets addressed. Not even when Helen decides to leave on her own. She just never thinks about her possible pregnancy, even when it's referenced as a way she might trap Winterborne into marriage. It was an odd missing plot point in a book that's kind of full of them.

For all of my bitching, MW has an excellent final speech. It's something sorely missing from CHR, but alas. Can't have everything

Edit: CW the word g*psy is used once in MW. It's probably period accurate but serves no purpose

#booklr #bookclub thoughts #lisa kleypas

[revenantghost]

Sometimes I think about how Nightow said something like (and I'm paraphrasing here) Vash only stays "Vash the Stampede" at the end of Trimax and continues to play that role simply because he doesn't know what to do

#Trigun #Trimax #Trimax Spoilers #TrigunBookclub #This man has no fucking idea how to live or how to want to live #Which #Such a fucking big mood my dude #I probably won't be able to finish reading bookclub #But that last chapter makes me SO sad man #I was hoping this reread would reframe it #So many folks that I've shared theories and thoughts with have the opposite view I had at the end of my first reading #But alas #I probably won't have the time #So it shall stay sad in my head #Btw I do NOT have this article source on hand #But I think it's the same one I mentioned on the post I reblogged a bit ago #Hence me chewing on it #Pls correct me if I'm not remembering the gist right

[smieska]

I'm just really excited and happy our boy has been found

#dracula daily #re dracula #jonathan harker #never wouldve thought signing onto this bookclub last year that i would fall so hard for this character #but here we are

[annaofaza]

Why does Vash keep smiling?

I love how Milly and Wolfwood are getting a clearer picture of Vash, particularly with his vulnerability. In both scenes, Vash has been through traumatic events; his home was invaded, and a great deal of the people he loved were killed, then Meryl gets captured, Vash recalls July, and the townsfolk (at least the adults) turn on Vash and drive him out based on his reputation (and his wing saving Meryl from a bullet, a monstrous image that does heroic action, which is a whole other post). We with Meryl, Milly, and Wolfwood have seen the Humanoid Typhoon, the sixty-billion double dollar bounty, the Stampede stripped away to Vash. Vash, who has every reason to cry, storm, and beat his fists on the ground. Vash, who keeps on smiling.

Wolfwood and Milly ask: Why?

They conclude this: The world is ugly, but Vash makes a choice and tries to say, It doesn't have to be.

I also find it interesting—given their characters—that Wolfwood seems to gain a sense of peace, almost soft satisfaction, in his realization, while Milly is distraught and takes a more pessimistic view. Wolfwood sees Vash's smile as a choice, and Milly does, too, but directly as a mask. Milly sees the pain, and Wolfwood, the resilience.

But Vash himself weighs in: he has to, even if he can't remember why. He's not smiling for joy, for hope, for tomorrow; he's living to keep Rem alive and eventually stop Knives.

For Vash, it's not exactly a full and conscious choice. Like most things in his life, it's what he's been forced to bear, and he has to keep going.

#trigunbookclub #trigun maximum #trigun #trigun bookclub #my post #is it autonomy? a coping mechanism? a sense of control and purpose? a leaning post? it's everything #the people who love vash seeing the shattering behind the smile 😭 #they both know by now vash is no fool; he's actually very deliberate in his actions #it's silly but i thought of spiderman #no matter how hard life is no matter what it throws spiderman always gets back up #is it because he has to? is it his core? is it a curse he's supposed to bear?

[onigiriforears]

Where to begin when reading native novels to work on reading comprehension?

So, you've made it to the point where you'd like to branch out and read some novels and children's books in Japanese? Then you've come to the right place! Let's talk about three helpful publishers (Kodansha, Kadokawa, and Shueisha) that can make reading native materials less daunting!

The Kodansha Aoitori Bunko Books (青い鳥文庫) were created and published by Kodansha with elementary schoolers in mind, so almost all kanji has furigana on it. The text is larger and there's normally a bit more spacing in between it (like our children's chapter books in English). Just like other children's chapter books, there are occasional photos included. Aoitori Readers include both original series as well as some translations of international literature (i.e., Little Women, Murder on the Orient Express, Sherlock Holmes, etc.). There are also some adaptations of other series はたらく細胞 (Cells at Work) Those books have blue around the cover.

The Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko Readers (角川つばさ文庫) operate on the same concept, except the series are normally on a more advanced level. With this in mind, they may use more advanced grammar than the Aoitori series. There are original series, but sometimes books/series for a higher comprehension levels will be adapted into Tsubasa Bunko Readers. This includes popular Japanese novels and series as well as international classics (i.e., Chronicles of Narnia, Pippi Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables, etc.). For adaptations of Japanese novels and series, there will be the "regular" version of the novel and then the Tsubasa Bunko version bc it's the same kanji, same grammar, same words. It'll also supply the furigana for those kanjis and might give little annotations or some photos here and there. For example, the award-winning novel 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 (The Night is Short, Walk on Girl) by 森見 登美彦 (Morimi Tomihiko) has both the "regular" publication and the Tsubasa Bunko version. Tsubasa Bunko Readers have green around the cover. Click on the links to get a preview of each version to compare and contrast.

The Shueisha Mirai Bunko Books also operates the same. There are adaptations of manga series (like Kaguya-sama: Love is War and Demon Slayer) as well as original series. Mirai Bunko Readers have orange around the cover.

If you're worried about attempting to read any of these on your own, come suggest some of them for us to read together at the Seitokai Bookclub! (And even if it doesn't get selected immediately, someone might be interested in being a reading buddy with you :D).

Happy reading!

#onigiri thoughts #aoitori readers #tsubasa bunko readers #seitokai bookclub #japanese #japanese reading comprehension #mine #mirai readers #reading resources #looktoki #jpnstudynet #jlpt #japanese reading #jlpt n1 #jlpt n3 #jlpt n2 #jlpt n4 #jlpt n5 #vocab #jlpt grammar #jlpt reading #jlpt studying #nihongo #learn japanese #kodansha #kadokawa #shueisha

[makima-s-most-smile]

Trigun Maximum 10.5

Afterthoughts I had. About Vash, Wolfwood and human connections, point of views and how it affects me as a reader. Mostly babble.

Trigun Ultimate: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Trigun Maximum: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4

Wolfwood has been our point of reference for some time. While the story is about Vash and his struggles, it is Wolfwood's (and Meryl's) reactions that make us not only understand how out of place Vash' behaviour is, but it is their reaction that makes us want to understand Vash. We share their struggles and not Vash’. While Vash is the protagonist, without Wolfwood we would have so much less reason to try and empathise with Vash. Wolfwood’s struggle with Vash pulls Vash down from the position of a higher being to someone, whose intentions we can scrutinise and dissect, someone we can see flaws in and we can critisise. Wolfwood's struggle with and around Vash makes Vash at least humanoid, if not human. We do not get much insight into Vash’ thoughts and are pushed away from any real talk like Wolfwood and Meryl are. We are shown the flashbacks and they give us an understanding how Vash’ ideals came to be, they give us a reason. But we are never really in Vash’ shoes. We see him from the outside, how he persists holding up his ideals to his own detriment. And through Wolfwood and Meryl we feel for Vash and are hurt by his self destruction. And we are helpless like them, because Vash does not change. He does not listen, does not even try, because he stubbornly holds onto his ideals without really understanding them.

Especially the struggle of Vash' pacifism (which is none by the meaning of the word) and Wolfwood's seemingly ease in killing is an interesting one. We constantly see Wolfwood struggle with Vash’ behaviour in the story, we see him reflect, we see him argue and give reasons for his own behaviour. We see Wolfwood persist to try and bring this struggle to rest, not only due to his own guilt, but because he wants Vash to take care of himself, he is hurt by Vash getting hurt. (Ironically, it is only at the end, when Wolfwood temporarily seems to take over the protagonist role that we get flashbacks and the foundation of Wolfwood’s reasons and ideals.) But we do not get much back from Vash in that struggle. Vash is not shown in a way that we really understand him. We get the little talk in Home, but not much more. And I understand why that talk leaves Wolfwood frustrated.

Same with what people mean to Vash. We get information like: Vash knows every face and name in Home. But those always read for me as so robotic. That is not a connection to people that Vash has there. Brad is a perfect example for this. Vash recognises Brad, but Brad has a completely different picture of Vash in his mind. Why? Because he has seen him last (and most likely for a short time) when he was 5 and now he is 17 years old. That is a whole lifetime! The older people of Home accept that, they care for Vash, but they surely had a similar struggle like Brad. A want for a connection, a relationship, has been constantly been put at bay and become one akin to a shepherd to his sheeps. And the older people had to come to accept this, that they will not get more, that Vash will always push them away and they can only wait and hope. It is not a relationship between equals.

Moving on with Vash’ relationship to Meryl. Like with Home, he is constantly evading her and fleeing from her. Even her learning about his past does not come with his consent. Not with hers, either, really, but at least she had the want to know more about his past. And worse, after that traumatic experience, he rejects her care for him and that stops any real talk about it, something that would help HER to process things.

Wolfwood did not stay with Vash fully out of his own will in the beginning. He had to join Vash due to Knives. But Wolfwood came to understand Vash deeply. An ironic twist, because Wolfwood came to his understanding of Vash in the same way Vash comes to understanding of others. By observation and drawing his own conclusions. They never really talk about that stuff. They state it and that’s it. It is no real talk or opening up. And that’s for the worse. That way, neither of them gains a complete understanding of the other, just “just enough”. Wolfwood doesn’t know about Rem (he asked), Vash does not know about Wolfwood’s upbringing. And that’s why their first real argument due to Rai-Dei’s death always sticks out to me. Vash gets so much about Wolfwood, he gets the kind soul behind Wolfwood’s cold mannerisms and his ability to kill without hesitation, but he never does the next step in trying to find out why. And I have no doubts that this stalled not only their budding relationship, but also played a big part why Wolfwood did not shed his protector-behaviour towards Vash and asked for help.

Lastly, the change in Vol.10. There is a change in Vash and a massive one. Vash finally realises the importance of Wolfwood in his life and rushes after him. Vash changes from the followed to the follower. And we finally get an insight to what Vash feels towards Wolfwood and that is such a big change in Vash’ presentation towards us readers. From then on we get less and less insights into Wolfwood and are put in Vash’ shoes. We are the observers. We are with Vash. Wolfwood is the one who gets observed. We do not get any insights into Wolfwood's head when he dies. That’s why his scream and tears have so many different interpretations. We only get Vash’ thoughts. They completely switched places. For two volumes, Wolfwood has been our protagonist, but he has been Vash’, too. This experience has changed Vash, towards the world and towards us, too. We are back to not getting real insight into Vash when Livio and he eat. But we know of the change that has happened.

And the burial. We don’t get to see the burial, because even though we share Vash’ pov, that is too private to share.

#trigunbookclub #trigun bookclub #Trigun Maximum 10.5 #why can't I stop thinking about this #ahhhhhhhhhh #help me #I hope my thoughts are somewhat coherent #trigun

[drmartenphd]

Yellowjackets characters and whether or not they’re a Swiftie, based on nothing but vibes 

SHAUNA ✅

IS indeed, a Swiftie. As both a teen and adult, her favorite album is Reputation - specifically End Game. (But as a teen, her most-listened to song was You Belong With Me) 

JACKIE ❌

NOT a Swiftie, ALTHOUGH she was obsessed with fearless when she was 9.  

MISTY ✅

Our Queen herSELF, Misty is OBVIOUSLY a lifelong Swiftie. Her favorite album is Lover, but her fav songs are ME! (teen) and Karma (adult). She is also a devoted and adamant Gaylor. 

TEENAGE TAI ✅

IS a Swiftie, but she keeps it very much on the DL, and really only listens to RED.

ADULT TAI ❌

NOT a Swiftie. Her music is too painful to listen to after everything with Van. Plus -- does this woman looks like she has time to listen to music? Being a Swiftie is a full time job, and our Tai is too busy running for office and building secret rooms in her house to discuss Taylor’s met gala looks 

NAT ✅

IS a Swiftie, but she’ll take that to her grave. She likes to listen to Evermore and cry.

LAURA LEE ✅

lol as if this is even a question. Laura Lee IS an OG swiftie but only listens to the clean versions of all Taylor’s albums, and always skips False God. Her favorite album is Debut. 

LOTTIE ❌

our antler princess can’t stand blondie’s music (so is technically NOT a swiftie), but game recognizes game, and Lottie admires her greatly as a fellow cult leader 

VAN ✅

Van IS an out and proud swiftie. Her favorite album is Folklore and her favorite song is Betty. 

JEFF ✅

Jeff IS a swiftie, but the only song he knows is You Belong with Me (because of Shauna. he thought it was about him but really she listened to it thinking of Jackie, oops) 

SIMONE ✅

Simone IS a swiftie, much to Tai’s chagrin. Her favorite album is Fearless. 

COACH BEN  ✅

Although he told Misty he isn’t, Coach Ben IS a taylor stan. His favorite album is 1989, because he’s a man with goddamn taste. He and his boyfriend have tickets to the eras tour.

TRAVIS  ✅

Travis IS a swiftie and will defend the songwriting in Midnights until he’s blue in the face 

ADAM ❌

as john mayer’s biological son, Adam is NOT a swiftie, but always finds himself enjoying Taylor’s music whenever someone else plays it. 

JESSICA ❌

NOT a swiftie and distrusts anyone who is

CALIGULA  ✅

IS a swiftie. 

#yellowjackets #taylor swift #have this thing i wasted an hour on #shauna #jackie #shauna x jackie #misty x nat #QUEEN MISTY #misty quigley #there's no bookclub #i will not elaborate #unless someone asks me to #because i actually did put thought into this

[duncanor]

I never noticed ‘til now that, in Vash introduction, he is suspected in the murder of “Count Revenant Vasquez“ AKA William Conrad.

hmm.. That probably was the manga first clue to Vash having an evil twin.. page one. okay, alright.

#trigun #trimax #vash #vash the stampede #trigun spoilers #kinda? #not tagging it as bookclub yet bc it has spoilers in it #just thought it was interesting

[thatoneandlonelyemo2005]

A quick head cannon of modern au for Newsies

Albert and Finch love to read books!

Albert is a big comic book fan and thanks to @emmedoesntdomath she suggested that Albert would be the type of guy to get that one specific comic that's worth a good chunk of money and I soul hardly agree with that

Finch gives me poetry vibes but more than often he can read anything (not me self projecting) he also vibes with Edgar Poe

They have these nights on every Friday where Albert and Finch just sit and read. It's like their date nights but not at the same time

Sometimes they'll sit together or other times they'll be on opposite sides of the room. They'll have candles going to make it smell like fall and sometimes soft music will be playing

Then one night Race comes in, he totally forgot about their nights and he had a really bad day and nothing is going right. So he walks in already telling Albert about his day but freezes to see Finch with a book of Irish love poems and Albert with his new addition of Spider-Man.

Finch sits with his feet on the coffee table and Albert is leaning on him, they look at Race and Race looks back at them

He's already stuttering an apology but both of the two tell him it's alright. Albert then sets his latest addition down and comes over or give Race and hug because even he has his bad days.

Race goes to leave but Albert stops him asking if he would like to read with them. Race is just dumbfounded "Oh, I don't know Albert, it's your date night"

"Nonsense!" Albert then rushes back to their bookshelf and grab something he'll think Race will like. He comes back and hands Race "Zita The Spacegirl", "Reading always takes my mind off of things. So maybe it could help you!"

Finch laughs at Albert and pats the space next to him on his left and Race tries to leave again muttering some stupid and false excuse but Albert takes his hand and now he's on the couch. It's not like he couldn't read, it was just... hard for him. But he was gonna give it a try since he's here.

And oh boy did he love it.

How could this cute art style wrap around his mind, the story was amazing and the characters were something that Race didn't know he needed in his life.

So now every last Friday of every Month Race joins them. He goes through all of their graphic novels and now he even buys them to share with Albert. ( he now has his own space on the book shelf)

Albert also let's him read his comic books because he know he can trust Race and Finch has showed him Green Glass House and Race was already hooked on page one of this murder mystery.

Albert and Finch didn't mind that Race came bursting through the door that one day, they do enjoy the company and plus they still get their date nights so with another person added they all read together on every last Friday of the month.

#Alber really loves when it rains and Finch lets him open the windows somtimes #Finch and Albert somtimes read to each other #or share the plot #or really just talking about it #once they fell alseep and woke up to the sound of Finch's hardcover falling down by his feet #just thought i share #and i love this so much #i feel like albert would try to get everyone else to read #lowkey having bookclubs in a way #i could go on at this point but ill stop #albert dasilva #albert newsies #finch cortez #finch newsies #racetrack newsies #racetrack higgins #newsies #livesies #redfinch #newsies musical

[femmesandhoney]

#these are just the books i personally have on hand lol #bookclub in quotes bc format hasn't been decided but it will involve some form of sharing of thoughts on the book together #obviously lol #radical feminism #radfem #radfem bookclub

[dustjacketmusings]

✨️Bride✨️

It was good. It did scratch my itch for a fun paranormal romance and I've now checked Ali Hazelwood off my list.

First person present isn't my favorite POV type, but once i got into it i liked Misery a lot. I will say that Hazelwood writes in this very trendy, easy to read style that sometimes feels juvenile to me and lacks enough location descriptions. My personal preference is for writing thats a little, I guess, meatier - which is why I probably won't read her again. If you like her writing style, the book is fine.

The paranormal worldbuilding was great though. I love cringe so I'm willing to overlook the whole green /purple blood thing (kinda). It was an interesting deviation from common paranormal lore, so I was into it. Misery being named that was probably one of the best parts of the book, and I'm still mourning that her brother doesn't have a similarly edgy goth name. He deserves to be more cringe.

I did also really like that the chapter headers were from Lowe's POV. Unfortunately I also found those little snippets to be the hottest part of the book. I do think that Hazelwood's abrupt to the point writing style worked against her in romantic scenes because it ended up being a little too clinical. Especially when they belabored the consent and werewolf anatomy into the ground. There was a way to make that hot (having Lowe describe it would have been sexy) but a page and a half of Misery guessing how his cock works wasn't it. Which was fairly disappointing because the scene where they're fucking against a wall was really inventive but still somehow not as hot as it could be (needs more descriptions. And anticipation, maybe).

Also... fight scenes are just not her thing. I liked how the whole thing wrapped up, but the villain monolog was a bit much

Probably still 4/5 because I think the book really did what it wanted to do

#ali please we know what a knot is #currently reading #booklr #bookclub thoughts #ali hazelwood #technically this is more of a book review but i feel too lazy to scrub out my negative thoughts

[revenantghost]

I think one of my most distinct memories from the first time I read Trimax vol. 10 (of which there aren't many because I was losing my mind), was that I knew the couch was coming, I just hadn't known when, but when Vash touched Wolfwood and made that expression? I knew we'd come to it. And I instantly started tearing up and thinking, "But I thought I had more time!" Which tbh is a really fitting way to start off the feeling of intense grief that vol. 10 inflicted upon me, because what is grief if not thinking you had more time and having it stolen from you

#TrigunBookclub #I have so many thoughts I haven't shared because I was a spoiler-free blog before bookclub #Trigun handles grief and trauma REALLY well and I both love it and hate it for that #This post is me procrastinating on reading #Btw

[polaroidcats]

I was tagged by the lovely @squintclover to share my 9 favourite books. This was SO hard, and I knew this is the kind of thing I will absolutely overthink so I just looked at my bookcase and picked the first 9 books that stood out to me:

I'm not going to tag anyone specific but if you want to do this tag you are now officially tagged! Please tag me in your posts so I can be nosy, I love these kinds of tags!! <3

#thank you for tagging me!! <3 #tag fun #book tag #about me #okay okay I feel the need to explain my choices lol here we go #first of all I tried choosing mostly english books bc I have some very obscure german/austrian faves but I thought its more fun this way #and I know this is quite non-fiction heavy but tbh I mostly read non fiction or childrens books (to my grandma) #because of my 1000 bookclubs that are all non-fiction and because I'm a nerd and because I just like to read fanfic when I want fiction #okay tag ramblings over im gonna post this now and stop rethnking my choices lol

[nostalgic-bee]

My unpopular TOH opinion is I actually like the Azura B plot in ASIAS

#deleting in the morning #delete later #I just want to get this out #idk I like that it’s just them going on a low stakes adventure #sure maybe the plot line isn’t necessary in the long run but eh who cares? #idc that it didn’t tie into the larger plot I just thought it was fun and sweet #ALSO I LOVE IT BC IN AITE AMITY SAYS THEY CAN HAVE THE BOOKCLUB AS LONG AS ITS A SECRET- #and then in asias they are making it a school club and trying to get people to join #it’s just another small detail that highlights her growth I love it so much #idk I don’t think it deserves the hate it gets you don’t have to like it but I personally find it cute #though I do think tibbles completely messed up his own scam by marketing the book as a fantasy novel written by a witch #if he’d marketed it as a fantasy book written by a human it would’ve worked probably

[vanillabnuy]

#a good girls guide to murder #bookstore #book #reading books #book quotes #books #book aesthetic #book nerd #book blog #book photography #book review #book talk #book thoughts #bookblr #bookclub #books & libraries #bookstagram #booklr #booktok #books and libraries #bookaddict #bookaholic

[orcelito]

waaaaaaaaaaaa

im feeling a bit inspired again. and ive continued my reread of trigun Including the compilation documents i decided to make for the things im interested in

"assorted details" being little tidbits i decide to keep. my ITNL compilation doc & my active chapter doc.

"manga locations" is a big one. i want to puzzle out where things actually are in relation to one another, so im taking notes anytime a location is mentioned

"manga times" anytime a definite time is mentioned, it goes in there.

"planning" is for ITNL lol, it's detailing all my gung-ho guns things

"plant powers" is another big one. trying to compile proof for everything plants (and more importantly for my purposes, Vash) can do. here is the current list of sections (as of the end of chapter 9), though it is going to be updated as i go along

AND THEN "vash psyche". me compiling bits of proof for Vash's mind state, mostly in relation to his lack of self-worth & other such problems. i want to eventually do a proper analysis of it throughout the manga, so. compilation doc it is.

#speculation nation #i havent thought about trigun analysis in... a bit. #you guys can probably understand why if you know the shit ive been dealing with lol #writing is still my primary focus But i also do quite enjoy figuring this stuff out #and these analysis things really lend to my writing too. makes it feel more Grounded i think. #i really wanna have the locations and powers done solid. i will definitely be reporting my findings. #GAH the bookclub is so much further ahead than me now. im still on the first volume lsdkjfsdklfj #when i started this all out they were on the first volume too... sad. #well. if i end up in a state of 'i dont know what to do...' bc my brain doesnt wanna write #i can turn to this! these r things i definitely wanna get done. in time...