its-ashleyreads

[its-ashleyreads]

"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.

It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).

Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.

One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.

*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.

#libraries #libby

[its-ashleyreads]

Source/Artist

#art #bunnies #bedtime core

[its-ashleyreads]

this “stephen king” guy is out here writing scary books that frighten people and we’re just letting him????????

and who made him king of the stephens anyways????

#stephen king #funny

[its-ashleyreads]

There is an old belief in Serbian villages and small towns that certain pumpkins (and watermelons), when left outside during a full moon, will turn in to a vampire.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

☆Patreon ☆ Commission info ☆ Buy me coffee ☆ Twitter ☆ Instagram☆

#halloween #comics

[its-ashleyreads]

Reposting this tweet from Abdalhadi Alijla عبد الهادي العجلة (@alijla2021):

"Via Scott Long. For those interested, I've uploaded my entire library of books on Palestine/Israel to the cloud, in digital form (mostly pdf and epub) so you can access them. It's a little over 1700 books, a lot of them good and important, some of them historical or political curiosities. Nearly all are in English, I'm afraid. You can download any that interest you individually, or the whole library (about 13 GB). And feel free to share this."

Link to the drive

#palestine #resources #downloads

[its-ashleyreads]

#cats #books

[its-ashleyreads]

I think kafka’s diaries are the strongest evidence that journaling is not necessarily good for your mental health

#funny #franz kafka

[its-ashleyreads]

sleepy girls club™

#reblogging this from my cozy bed after waking up waaaay to early just felt right #art

[its-ashleyreads]

I never want to hear conservatives go on about repressive censorship in China, North Korea, and Iran ever again

#libraries #censorship

[its-ashleyreads]

I love the library

#I've been doing this a lot recently #my therapist is within 2 minutes walking from the library so I usually go afterwards to borrow books #but that all started because I needed to go shopping for groceries after a session once but I had been crying and my eyes were red #I was able to just sit in the library on my phone until I looked passable enough so no one would ask me what was wrong #and it was so so so nice #having those third spaces where you can just EXIST in public is so so healing you have no idea until you try it #libraries

[its-ashleyreads]

“You don’t know anyone at the party, so you don’t want to go. You don’t like cottage cheese, so you haven’t eaten it in years. This is your choice, of course, but don’t kid yourself: it’s also the flinch. Your personality is not set in stone. You may think a morning coffee is the most enjoyable thing in the world, but it’s really just a habit. Thirty days without it, and you would be fine. You think you have a soul mate, but in fact you could have had any number of spouses. You would have evolved differently, but been just as happy. You can change what you want about yourself at any time. You see yourself as someone who can’t write or play an instrument, who gives in to temptation or makes bad decisions, but that’s really not you. It’s not ingrained. It’s not your personality. Your personality is something else, something deeper than just preferences, and these details on the surface, you can change anytime you like. If it is useful to do so, you must abandon your identity and start again. Sometimes, it’s the only way.”

— Julien Smith, The Flinch (via wnq-anonymous)

#the flinch #julien smith #quote #favourites

[its-ashleyreads]

#at my rich school where all the kids were buying those fancy books that had crafts in them and i was counting nickles for a ruler #funny

[its-ashleyreads]

Anyways, my increasingly unpopular take in this day and age is that no one is entitled to know anything about an author’s personal life. They put their stories out there for you to judge, they didn’t put *themselves* out there. And expecting queer people to out themselves before you decide whether or not they deserve harassment is just fucking heinous.

#authors

[its-ashleyreads]

Happy Birthday Percy Jackson ♡

#in love with this art #percabeth #percy jackson #fan art #pjo

[its-ashleyreads]

I think one of the worst things a story can be is unproblematic.

Nothing makes a story more unreadable than being able to see the author squirm apologetically for the story they actually want to write—wringing their hands and imploring the reader please, please don’t be mad, I know it’s ideologically questionable but I need you to not be mad at me!

For example: a Good King™️. It’s one thing for a story to present a fictional monarchy and ask me to root for it. It’s another thing for a story to say, hey, I know what you’re thinking—but don’t worry! I can justify this premise! I have introduced a lot of convoluted self-aware political justifications for why my king is good and likable without actually asking any risky ideological questions! These characters aren’t actually problematic! Don’t be mad at me!

Commit to the bit. Apologetic, defensive writing designed to bypass obvious criticisms often winds up offending me far more than stories that are just kind of surface-level problematic. If I’m gonna be a hater you cannot stop me; the more you insist that a character is actually a good oil tycoon because of all these exceptional situations and beyond my reproach, the more I resent you and hate your stupid book.

#no fr #this is something I notice a lot in romance/dark romance specifically #like if you want to show how unproblematic YOU as a person actually are then just add an authors note telling me that #don't ruin your story by trying to make me not mad at you (it's just gonna make me mad at you) #it makes me as the reader feel like you think I'm an idiot and can't see that a romantic lead threatening to kill other men is actually bad #authors #reading

[its-ashleyreads]

#funny #charles bukowski

[its-ashleyreads]

honestly kinda unfortunate that the only spooky library aesthetic is the victorian fancy bookshelves dark academia one bcos like. ok here's some library stories.

while i was at the university the library was undergoing a major refurbishment so for a little while the print journals were being stored temporarily down in the basement.

basically nobody ever consulted the print journals bcos 99% of stuff undergrads would be looking up is online these days so every time i went down there it was dead fucking silent & empty. you had to walk through what felt like several miles of empty basement to reach the collection, which was in a room w a photocopier shoved in the corner and a bunch of these:

u turn the handles to move these around (saves space) and every time you had to go and check the aisles first on the offchance that someone was in there so they wouldn't get u know. Compacted.

many years ago i did a week's work experience with the National Library of Scotland. here it is:

but that's just the tip of the iceberg. it keeps going down the side of the bridge, like so:

i got a tour of the stacks while i was there. it's floor after floor of this:

the bookshelves are made of metal & i was treated to the 'fun fact' that the shelves are, bizarrely, load bearing. for this reason they have to be constantly vigilant about fire hazards because even a relatively small fire could cause a bookcase to buckle from the heat, which in turn could cause the whole building to collapse in on itself like a house of cards.

this has haunted me ever since!! thank you.

#libraries