#i have a goodreads page

[probablyasocialecologist]

Currently reading

#currently reading #'half-earth socialism' was good but should have been longer #somebody on goodreads said 'i want to read the 800 page academic version' and I agree

[madamescarlette]

me watching Snow take the credit again and again for something that has nothing to do with him and yet he will somehow make it sound like he planned it all out from the start with only the BEST of intentions and meticulously considered insight: hm hm getting a whole lotta Guy On a Horse vibes from this whole thing ladies I must confess I am!!

#YOU'LL BE LONELY. IN YOUR FIFTIES #thg #(sorry to my goodreads pals who have already heard this joke) #i was shotgunning tbosas so my sibs could watch it and like. what a book what a time #also i opened up the gr page to gush as usual but was agog aghast at all the 1-2 star reviews #I'm like. it's a tragedy babes. doomed from the start. #what exactly were you expecting??? #lucy grey is EVERYTHING though. everything to me. #every bit of him being like I've made her a person!!!! me!!!! i was cackling in my sleeve truly the 18 year old in him came out

[a-ramblinrose]

“It may be laid down as a general rule that if a man begins to sing, no one will take any notice of his song except his fellow human beings. This is true even if his song is surpassingly beautiful. Other men may be in raptures at his skill, but the rest of creation is, by and large, unmoved. Perhaps a cat or a dog may look at him; his horse, if it is an exceptionally intelligent beast, may pause in cropping the grass, but that is the extent of it. But when the fairy sang, the whole world listened to him. Stephen felt clouds pause in their passing; he felt sleeping hills shift and murmur; he felt cold mists dance. He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. In the fairy's song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself.”

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

#quote #Susanna Clarke #Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell #Current Reading #Current Reading Quotes #Not Out of Void But Out of Chaos #every time I pick this book up I get sucked in and never remember to pull quotes #honestly at this point I might scan the goodreads quote page #just so I have something to post! #if any quotes go up in random order after this you can guess why

[mirrortouchedsea]

Day 7

Niki turned off his alarm and looked at his phone, only to discover that Cinnamon and ES would be closed for the day due to the snow storm. He rubbed his eyes and glanced out the window of the bedroom and sure enough, snow was coming down in full force. Nobody would want to be out in that weather. At least he could get a few extra hours of--

His stomach started growling. Nevermind, he had to get up and make breakfast. Rinne tried to hold Niki hostage but eventually relented and fell back asleep. Rinne’s face was soft in the morning light, easily one of Niki’s favorite sights in the morning. Even if Rinne would inevitably come to ruin his day at work or gamble their money away at the pachinko parlor, he would always come back to him. 

Niki indulged himself a bit and kissed Rinne’s forehead before going to make breakfast. He could do something more complicated today since he didn’t have work, and he’d probably make some of Rinne’s omurice for him. That was another thing that was cute about the older man snoring in the other room; he and his brother loved omurice and if given the chance would eat nothing but that. 

Thirty minutes later and Niki was about ready to finally sit down and eat (not that he hadn’t been sneaking bites since he started) when Rinne finally dragged himself out of their bedroom. Niki greeted him and pointed to the omurice on the counter, which Rinne grabbed and sat opposite him before digging into it. His feet found Niki’s under the table and Rinne locked their ankles together. 

“No work today Rinne-kun?” 

“Nah, seems like ES closed everything down cuz of the storm. I’ll just have to terrorize you all day~” 

Niki rolled his eyes. “Can’t wait.” 

They continued to talk as they ate, the dishes starting to pile up as Rinne took what he could hold to the sink and began washing them. He was humming one of their new songs as he soaped up the sponge and started scrubbing. Niki brought the rest of the dishes to the counter and started rinsing the dishes as Rinne washed them. 

The rest of the day was spent in a comfortable domesticity that Niki wished they could have forever. Without anyone else around, Rinne didn’t put up his persona and was much tolerable to be around, and it was the side of him that Niki loved the most. He loved their lazy afternoons spent on the couch in each other’s arms watching bad reality tv reruns, their silly conversations and shared kisses (not on the lips, that was something Rinne still insisted on, but everywhere else was fair game). 

If only they got snowed in more often. 

#shay writes #rinniki #january writing challenge #yay yippee actual sillies. and tomorrow there will be more sillies #one week down 3 more to go!!!!!! #i'm also doing storygraph's pages challenge to read at least one page a day and i'm keeping up with that tooooo #lots of reading and writing this month ehehe #i'm 40% of the way through rayuela normally (do not trust the numbers on there the normal way of reading it is only 350 pages) #so i'm hoping to be done with at least my first read of it by the end of the month at this rate #i have like 210 pages left to read but its getting easier to read. #also ig if you want to add me on goodreads/storygraph since i mentioned it i'm starswallowingsea on both

[july-19th-club]

i love posts about like books or tv or whatever where they're like "what if, at this point in the story, [better thing] instead of [problem the characters have to canonically solve]" like i just saw one that was like. what if instead of the system being broken (an issue many of the characters are not aware of/willfully ignore and which drives the action of both protagonists and antagonists for several installments) the system was better to begin with and had a place for everybody. this should've happened . girl what did you think the story was trying to say. critical thinkingggggggggggg

#this reader: 'wow this system is totally flawed. it shouldve been written to not be flawed' #the novel: 'this system is flawed. our protagonists must work to convince others of the flaw and then change it' #q #it sounds like im vagueing but im really not im just on goodreads clicking on page after page and rolling my eyes at everything i see #the book: many people believed it was ok to piss on the poor. Mayne Charickter felt that was unjust. fought battle to not piss on poor #the readers: oh my god it is SO not ok to piss on the poor. they should never have done that in this book

[libertyreads]

Just imagine me sitting here reading this book and twirling my hair.

#what the fuck is wrong with me #fourth wing #like Xaden is going to be my morally grey favorite in this book even if i have to rewrite the whole damn thing #my favoritism of Xaden over Dain says a lot about my personality #i don't know what it says but it says it. and loudly #booklr #books #bookstagram #bookish #book #goodreads #goodreads challenge #bookblr #Rebecca Yarros #I'm only 118 pages in #this has got to stop

[nicosraf]

I have to ask how you came up on the idea to write ABM? I just wanna know your thought process because I'm wildly intrigued. I'd love to know how you'd feel about a lesbian story between Lilith (Adam's first wife) and Eve which is what my story is about.

Hello! So usually I'm pretty secretive about all the stuff behind Angels Before Man and why it's like That, but I recently saw a tweet that wrongly assumed the motivations behind the book, and it upset me a bit, so I should probably finally go into detail about ABM's deal. Sorry if this answer is way too long.

1. Personal reasons: in 2016, I came out to my parents during a very rough period for my mental illness. It went very bad, and I ended up going to a therapist for a few month for, well, conversion therapy. This involved using a lot of Christian manipulation tactics ("God would not make you this way") and EMDR techniques that have done quite a bit of psychological damage to me. In 2021, while working with a new therapist, I had a "died and met God" nightmare, then developed an unhealthy obsession with the Bible as I processed what happened during conversion therapy. Another thing I need to mention is that my family are immigrants from an epicenter of the Mexican drug war, which exposed me to a lot of violence very young, and traumatized me in its own right; how I think about the violence we perpetuate on the people we love is something I just really wanted to write about, also. All this to say that ABM is just a convoluted allegory for trauma.

2. Theological reasons: during my obsession, I read the Bible in its entirety a couple times, and I developed a lot of questions about it, especially regarding angels and this Lucifer guy:

Why did Lucifer/Satan become evil? Ezekiel 28 is usually the passage people refer to that explains it (others argue this section isn't about Lucifer/Satan but let's assume for the sake of argument that it is). What's interesting about this section is the emphasis on the cherub's "blamelessness" (innocence! Lucifer's young innocence isn't talked about enough!!) and his beauty. I'm fact, his corruption is entirely linked to his beauty.

But what does beauty mean? To God? What is beauty before humanity? What is the purpose of it? How can you become corrupted by beauty? (For this, I looked at Ezekiel 16, where Jerusalem is corrupted by her beauty; this inspired quite a bit of the story of ABM as a whole, particularly regarding God's wrath)

What are angels for? What do they do? I asked a couple friends this and usually they answered that it was fighting demons and protecting humans, but there was a time before demons and before humans. (There was an "angels before man" if you will haha). This seemed to stump everyone I asked. Did they just worship? All the time???

Why does the Bible compare angels' submission to God to a wife's submission to her husband? (Well, that's a least an interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:10). This is related to Jesus explicitly stating later that angels can't marry. Why not? It's especially weird, at this point, given the matrimonial relationship between Jesus and the Church, and God's own somewhat matrimonial relationship with Mary. So everyone can have a romantic/sexual/spousal union except the angels? Why can't angels love?

This isn't a question but it really strikes me that Michael's only line of dialogue in the entire Bible is in the book of Jude and just as a reference to a time when he allegedly argued with Satan and said "Lord rebuke you." Ah. Michael. That brings me to the last major question I'll mention.

What was Michael and Lucifer's relationship? Something really cute is that everyone I harassed with my questions seemed to have this idea that they were best friends, that they really loved each other once. There's no scriptural evidence for it, and we only ever see them fighting, but it just seems like it makes sense, doesn't it? Strong, golden-hearted Michael and the beautiful, doomed Lucifer...

And of course the duality of God as both jealous and loving fascinates me. Even more so I'm fascinated by the concept of a lonely God. Jealousy, to me, only makes sense when you're insecure about love. How could an all-knowing God be insecure about love then? Maybe because he loves different than you, and he'll never have anyone who can love him the way he understands love (no matter how much he wishes, because he's a lone god)

Somehow all these questions came together and formed a story while I was outlining.

3. Technical reasons: I've been wanting to write a full novel that didn't follow the 5-act structure for a while. I wanted to write a novel that had no source of tension for a majority of the narrative (the source of tension early in ABM is just from the reader; you know what's gonna happen, but the book doesn't allude to it until about Chapter 11, and even then it's vague). I wanted to write a book that's radically differently paced in the second half. And I wanted to be a bit experimental stylistically (inspired by the Latin American Boom authors). Angels Before Man gave me all the opportunities to do this, I'm afraid.

Ultimately, Angels Before Man is really weird!! I'm both very happy and very shocked that people have enjoyed and understood it. I'm incredibly grateful when someone lets me know that my little self-published gay Satan book has been healing or cathartic to them. That's all I can really ask for tbh! Again, sorry for such a long answer, but I'm riled up about my intentions being misrepresented.

And finally, Lilith x Eve sounds really interesting!!! I have a lot of thoughts on the double creation of the sexes in Genesis (so, so, so many). I'd be ecstatic to see your take on it <3333 :)

#again im sorry this is SO LONG ASHDKNDD #yall dont want to know what that tweet said about me #lord #anyway #thank you so much for the ask!! i really appreciate it #angels before man #forgot to mention the lines in Paradise Lost where John Milton says angels love to have gay sex #the queer aspect to angel/demon media is another rabbit hole that Morgan Dante left a fantastic anaylsis about on the ABM goodreads page #check that out for sure #on the trauma thing: sometimes i get some pretty rude comments on how people dont like the direction the book went #its very okay not to like my book but please dont be rude to me fr #ask! #mine #realizing now that i forgot to mention the story of Sodom as well #ill save that for another post skkskaks

[justabooklovingmetalhead]

how the FUCK do comic fans keep track of all of this. there's like one comic I want to read bc one graphic novelist I like is listed as an artist and now I've ended up in this wormhole and I can't tell what's part of the series bc its in 3 versions across 3 sites. Literally how do you guys do it fr

#comics #the comic is specifically Harley Quinn (2016-) Vol. 5: Hollywood or Die and its bc its listed on Ngozi Ukazu's g**dreads page #(yeah ik goodreads sucks but its more up to date than storygraph and author pages are more intuitive #so i use it to know abt upcoming releases and stuff thats not on storygraph) #and like. idk its probably not even that bad compared to dealing with some other comics. idk #i have so much admiration for you guys bc it takes serious talent to understand even one of these #much less multiple

[7carpileup]

my friends made me get goodreads so they could see what i was reading and they were like "no it's so good for recommendations". girl i don't think you realize that i get my recommendations from my good friends on tumblr dot com and they are all bangers

#won't link on here because it has my deadname #i do not like goodreads and do not see the point of basically having a social media page for my reading #that's what this blog is for anyway #rambles

[boyswanna-be-her]

very online old white people will see a person younger than them with two-tone hair and become more triggered than any US combat veteran

#i was just putting out a general comment condemning antisemitism in a nextdoor thread today #and some random dude named steve said 'and the same goes for communism' #no dude it doesn't this is a VERY different conversation #i said 'i disagree but i don't want to have a conversation about it' #and he replied 'you must not know much about communism then #my guy.......... #i responded with a few goodreads screencaps of the tens of thousands of pages of books i've read since 2016 about communism and its history #and said obviously i must not understand it and asked for some reading recommendations #but literally what about me condemning nazis made STEVE B want to try and one up me? #nothing i'm pretty sure #he saw someone who looked queer and had highlights and said NOT TODAY FAGGOT #anyway he responded to me within one minute of posting until i asked him for some reading recs #radio silence since then #i'm so sorry my faggooo hair triggered you sir

[bookpillows]

i wish there were more readily available english language sources of korean literature analysis and criticism. even the wiki page is sparse. i just never know what to make of korean fiction and i would better sense of what i'm reading if i could read a bit about movements/themes/styles popular there :(

#but i'm sure this will change in another 10 years #i thought of this because i periodically check translators pages #on goodreads to see if they have anything new coming out #and these translators of k lit i've basically hated everything they translated #on a basic level of comprehension i 'get' it #but idk how to analyze the text or interpret the style in any meaningful way #i really really love to understand what movements or trends are/were influencing writers past and present #but i really can't find much of anything #other than articles about how k lit is becoming popular :(

[toastsnaffler]

aight lets see if I can finish reading the martian before I get home I have ~3 hrs of trains + 150 pages to go this should be a breeze

#.diaries #and then I can give it back 2 my flatmate + we can rewatch the movie :^) AND I can start a new book im thinking maybe 3 body problem next #or I can finish one of the 3 billion other books I have on my currently reading goodreads page 🤭

[harmonicaorange]

i read acotar after avoiding it for 8 years because i assumed (and was correct) that the main characters would be dull. only to find out book 2 is STILL about feyre and tamlin !?! if i’d known multiple books were in feyre’s pov i wouldn’t have bought it

#so like 500 pages of feyre pov 😭 #but tamlin is so BORINGGGG #and everyone says book 2 is better but is it? cause i don’t give a fuck about him #all the side characters were so much more interesting than the main 2 #i really should have actually looked up the plots instead of just #going off stuff i’ve vaguely heard from years of being in book communities #natasha reads #mine #anti acotar #also. sjm is racist isn’t she #there are some lines where i literally paused and thought. why did she phrase it like that #AND who tf says ‘my bowels turned watery’ girl are you SHITTING? #over 1.5 million shelves on goodreads for a bitch with bubble gut 😭😭😭

[tyrannuspitch]

i've recently started reading a lot more than i have been for the past few years which is nice but i'm currently only finishing like 1 in 4 of the books i start, not because of lack of time or anything, just because it turns out i really dislike a lot of books. hmm :/

#like on one hand. it's meant to be fun. if it sucks hit the bricks etc #i could never be one of those goodreads ppl who starts every bad review like #'as a matter of honour i hardly EVER dnf books even if they pluck out my liver and nail me to a cross BUT-' #but on the other hand. WHEN am i going to work out what my actual taste is...... #i started reading fanfic a few years ago and that has kind of raised my tolerance for things i have doubts about #but i am wondering now if it just means i stick with the same bad books for 80 pages instead of putting them down within the first four #hmm. the trials of being a terminal hater

[dawnstarranger]

Just finished up this YA stand-alone and I’d call it a solid 3/5 stars for me. I liked the creative supernatural elements and the writing style was pretty immersive. It definitely reads like teen fiction (which isn’t a bad thing, I just haven’t been a teenager for many years now), and it does feature a bit of a love triangle situation which I typically don’t love.

#book review #and now back to our regular programming #I read the last like 50 pages on the way up to a nephews baseball game #hence taking a pic in the vehicular object #I don’t have an active goodreads account at the moment so y’all have to suffer my book reviews

[sabrinaacarpenters]

my most liked ‘review’ on goodreads being the one where i haven’t even read the book is so funny to me

#btw if you have goodreads lets be friends on there #i have mine linked in my about page and in my lit blog's bio