#No! i want to read priory of the orange tree!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

hm. im not very big on new years resolutions, they're too much pressure. but... perhaps i can handle new years Desires

this year i want to complete a lil comic, fan-based or otherwise. i'd like to also complete some sort of storyboard/animatic thing. i want to develop a coloring style that i can be proud of. i want to get to a point with my dragons where they can have a coherent story & world to live in. i want to think of so many fun, trivial facts about my characters. i want to post more about them. i want to write and post an original thing, be it 1k words or 10k. i want to finish the rough draft of a book i outlined. i want to be kinder to myself. i want to create more gift art for others. i want to put more effort & care & love into my art. i want to force myself into the world and figure out how to live. i want to make an irl friend. try a new craft - scrapbooking, maybe, or making an enamel pin. i want to finish that last commission and make a new sheet for more. i want to be freer with myself. i want to finish at least three fics. i want to go whale watching again. i want to improve my art, especially in the matter of drawing people. i want to bake something tasty and share it with the neighbors. i want to be content with existing. i want to have more good things in life to list on bad days. i want to build a birdhouse.

#i also... want to buy sort & jar more clay sprinkles #and unpack everything in my room #last place i lived in for three years had boxes from that move that i never opened #not this time... this time Everything will find a place... #maybe ill try poetry! maybe ill volunteer on a tallship again! #maybe ill change my hair! spice up my style! leash train my cat! #i want to improve my writing as well #and read more books! even if im just rereading! #No! i want to read priory of the orange tree! #absolutely unprompted #the last few years ive just... had very little hopes or desires #it was just one month after the next with the knowledge that id do nothing the next year too #not this year please. not this year.... #i want to Try. i want to live. please? please #the beginning of this year is gonna be tough and my life's stability is being threatened #but! i will hold on hope with bloody teeth. im gonna make it this time. i want to change for the better #and i will. thats my only resolution. the others are maybes and what ifs #but i Am going to change. i want to be in the world and so i shall be. i want to be a person and so i will make it happen #clinging to that this year. im worth it! this time i really am worth it.

[may12324]

Sabran and the White Wyrm - from The Priory of the Orange Tree.

#the priory of the orange tree #tpotot #queen sabran #samantha shannon #sabran #just pretend this dragon is this small #in the book it is so much bigger #but i wanted to draw them like this #so bleh #my art #if you have read the book then maybe this means sometghing else #if you havent read the book then dont worry amd ignore that tag #i just remember they have the same colour eyes #when you find out that the witch of the woods is *redacted* #that was ny thought process here #so maybe i am lying about this woman with the green eyes #but WHICH woman with the green eyes? 👀

[augustraine]

Does anyone have good wlw book recs?? Specifically with one of them at least being masc? I'm so sick of going on tiktok looking for books where it's just two fem white women. 😭 I want more then the same 5 books yk??

#lesbians #lesbian #wlw #books #like i already have #one last stop #the priory of the orange tree #Cinderella is dead #the henna wars #last night at the telegraph club #jasmin throne #I JUST WANT TO READ ABOUT MASC WOMEN PLEASE. #and also sex #queer stuff #queer #sapphic #two women yk

[hydrogenandhelium]

Laying around reading priory of the orange tree today. Really loving it so far.

I tried to cook Thai (Tom yum, Tod mun pla, yum woon Sen) last night and didn’t even get the soup finished before my energy tanked and I had to put it all away, so now I’m waiting for my soup to warm up so I can finish it. Thinking about having more coffee just in case. Fake energy is still energy right??

Autoimmune diseases suck ☹️

#i just wanted to complain #autoimmune disease sucks #i can share my recipes if you want #thai food #priory of the orange tree #reading #fantasy books

[bookwyrminspiration]

being introduced to a gloreth and a glorian shieldheart so close together is really tripping me up dude

#nimona #the priory of the orange tree #im reading and every time they mention glorian I’m like…go back to the shadows from whence you came?? #it keeps taking me out of the moment #because i keep thinking of nimona #i can’t take it as seriously #i am still trying it’s just #it sounds exactly like a nimona name!! #Damn time wise I just had to consume these two medias so close together huh #universe wanted me to suffer from confusion huh

[drastrochris]

Finally started reading A Day of Fallen Night, and I may have just spent twenty minutes doing a thorough inspection and comparison of the maps in it and in Priory of the Orange Tree. I also feel like I should have re-read Priory entirely before starting Day, with a notebook so I can record everyone's names and relationships. There are flashes of "I know that name" but I don't remember what they did in Priory.

#priory of the orange tree #a day of fallen night #I'm also regretting buying ebook versions #stupid app won't let me zoom to the level I want #now to convince myself to read both of them again once I finish Day

[cloudbooks]

I understand why this isn’t the case, but I wish more books had fandoms the way TV shows and movies do. I’d love to be able to finish a book and then search it up on Tumblr and look at memes about it.

#like the Dracula daily thing! #books #bookblr #reading #when I consume media I want to see what other people think of the media #maybe even look at some fanart 🥺 #I’ve seen some popular books with small fandoms #like Priory of the Orange Tree and Gideon the Ninth #but I just read Dawn by Octavia Butler and I’m like… where’s my content…. #I know that book came out in the 80s but still!!!!

[tragedykery]

I wonder when the position of spymaster in inys was created, since it doesn’t seem to exist yet in adofn. considering the circumstances with eller, though, I think it would make sense if glorian invented it, to make sure something like that could never happen again

#which would make it extra ironic that combe doesn’t realise crest’s betrayal because she’s a member of the dukes spiritual #elli rambles #adofn #the priory of the orange tree #adofn spoilers #a day of fallen night #a day of fallen night spoilers #roc #roots of chaos #the priory of the orange tree spoilers #<- the book’s been out for a few years but a few mutuals are reading it and I don’t want to spoil it for them fjgksjk #r #a #who would she make spymaster though… #one of the only people she trusts enough would be wulf #and he receives a title at some point in his life (see his bit in ‘the persons of the tale’ in priory) #so he could be an option maybe… #the question is whether he would do it tho #bc for the position of spymaster you’d need to be at court almost all of the time #and he doesn’t want to be in inys for his entire life #hmm…

[foldingfittedsheets]

Has anyone here read Priory of the Orange Tree? Will you please spoil it for me so I can read it with enjoyment? Does the hot guard get with the queen or does she just pine constantly while they have platonic/homoerotic baths? Literally stopped reading because I did not know it I’d get a payoff and it’s a chunky book to get through without the promise of a gay ship.

#the priory of the orange tree #reading #I’m one of those people who spoilers only heighten my enjoyment #literally do not want to pick it back up until I know #had the same thing in warrior nun where I demanded to know if a character was actually good because my mistrust of her was spoiling my it #ramblies

[alectology-archive]

hi im aware this is rlly random lol but like,,,i know you like priory and have you seen that were getting two more books in the world of priory after ADoFN?! apparently one WILL be a priory sequel so ahhhh

I kind of forgot that she mentioned that she’d like to write a priory sequel someday, ha, but I also do recall her mentioning that she had five solid ideas for instalments in priory’s world (including tpotot and adofn) so there’s that! she’s also said that she intends to finish the roots of chaos with three instalments where each book is set in a different generation so that she can explore more of the world and the history, so I’m not entirely certain the third book might be priory’s sequel in the sense that we want it to be - but there’s still the matter of the fourth and fifth books, so maybe someday!

#I think next people will probably want a sequel to adofn too and that’s sort of an inevitability but priory’s ending was more open-ended #even if it was mostly on a personal level rather than a worldbuilding level #she also mentioned something about wanting to explore the imanlances in the two major magic systems (forgive me I don’t recall the details #because I read the book in 2019) so the point when a particular magic system goes dormant seems further down the line than timeline that the #priory protagonists live in so I have to wonder… #asks #catxoyciel #the priory of the orange tree #*imbalances #*than the timeline #okay I digress but don’t worry about chatting with me about random stuff - I love talking to people here

[prans-micellar-water]

So I’m. I. I just finished Priory of the Orange Tree and. I did not think the ending was spectacular? Like it was fine, I just personally thought it was underwhelming

Because. Pretty much every character got exactly what they wanted at the beginning of the story? The only character whose expectations were subverted even a little was Niclays—he wanted to perform alchemy and return to Mentendon as a genius hero, and instead ✨he lost a limb for narrative purposes✨ (which I am completely in support of btw. That is a compliment and not a dig) before accepting that immortality is unattainable and processing Jannart’s death and mortality. Everyone else, though?

Sabran got to become a sovereign whose success does not hinge on her marriage or fertility, Ead completed her mission and returned to lead the Priory (a desire not explicitly stated but rather implied), Loth… well, Loth never really had any ambition except to return to Inys so he can hang out with Sabran and Ead and Margaret, which he achieves, and Tané is a Miduchi, which she’s desired since childhood.

Like?? What was the point of the novel? I read 800 pages and only ONE character’s desires and motivations changed? To be charitable, I guess Ead and Sabran both assume/return to their leadership roles to stabilize the world so they can later run off together guilt-free. But still, their priorities don’t really change—they still both put their duty before their personal happiness, which is good for the world but narratively boring, because they both spent the whole novel putting their duty before their personal happiness. It even felt like a step back for Ead, who struggled the entire book with defying the Priory to do right by Sabran, only to revert back to being mindful of her duty once again.

Loth never really had any ambitions except to return to his status quo—which is nice, I guess, I feel like I haven’t read about very many truly reluctant heroes—but like??? After everything he’s been through, he’s content to literally just return to the status quo? Switch places with Margaret so he can hang out at court? The same thing he was doing at the beginning of the novel? I get that he’s supposed to be just Some Guy, but he ends the novel as just Some Guy too! I refuse to believe he emerged from everythin he went through as just Some Guy. He became a bit braver, a bit more self-assured, but I don’t know that he went through the kind of radical transformation that makes a story interesting to me.

Tané’s ending felt better than the others, though (Niclays excepted. Niclays’s ending was the most narratively satisfying imo even if his character development felt somewhat sudden). The resolution of her guilt and anxiety was pretty rewarding, so even though she achieved exactly what she wanted at the beginning of the novel, it felt hard-earned and real. I think I just really like Tané as a character so she can get away with more than the others

Idk. This isn’t even getting into my opinions on the final battle, which I also did not enjoy. There were some other issues I had as well—there were some plot holes IMO and some parts of the world that went tragically unexplored. Maybe I’ll play script doctor later. Everything was just so neat and perfect, and while I enjoy happy endings, it just felt unsatisfying. Idk.

#don’t get me wrong—I really enjoyed the book overall! just wish the ending was juicier #Maybe I’ll write more about my opinions later. It was just a lot messier and less polished than I expected going into it #If anyone wants to drop an essay on the replies about how I totally misinterpreted the characters I would be overjoyed btw. PLEASE prove #my analysis unfounded bc I really really wanted to like this book more than I do #The Priory of the Orange Tree #unfortunately I do not think I will be reading any of Shanon’s other work. I think she’s got the bones of a good story #it just needed some small adjustments (mostly in the last fifty or so pages) and it would have been totally legendary

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

I'm piggybacking a bit off of the last ask of asking for writing tips but I have an odd question... Am I the only person that struggles actually PICKING a book? It's the absolute bane of my existence because I feel like I can be so picky... Don't get me wrong, I love being a bookworm, and I'm trying to get back into reading physical books but it's so difficult to find a real taste of what the book is like without being completely spoiled or something... I miss when backs of books had an actual summary and not just NO.1 NEW YORK BESTSELLER!!!! It's so frustrating... I've been trying to get back into it by re-reading fond chapter childhood books read to me (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane & A Wrinkle In Time). But at the same time I'm also trying to get into more "adult" books that isn't... Well, you try googling "adult books" and see how that goes, I didn't think too hard about what a poor decision THAT was. But I'm working up the courage to read Cat's Cradle right now to start with "Classic Authors" I guess!

Anyway I'm rambling here, I guess my question is... How do you pick out the books you read? I don't really have friends that read many books to recommend to me :')

Thank you in advance, Bog! I hope you get a callback from that interview soon!

no ok actually you've mentioned something that's been bothering me for a while - What The Hell Do Y'all Mea, Books Don't Have Summaries Anymore???? i have not once in my life found a book that didn't have a summary. i was in barnes & noble recently and everything i looked at had a summary. i have literally never seen a book without one in my life of reading & looking at new books on a regular basis

softcovers have theirs on the back. hardcovers are on the inside of the sleeve - lift the cover and it should be printed right there on the inside flap! summaries aren't legally required but both the author and Especially the publisher(s) know that no one's gonna buy a book without a summary. trust me, all books worth reading have a summary. if a book doesn't have one, it's probably not worth your time anyway. you just gotta know where to look!

so my answer to how i choose books... i read the summary lmao. if it seems interesting, ill either write it down to get later or ill get it there and then.

Before the summary though, i look for any titles that jump out at me from the shelf. then i look at the thickness. i like a bit of meat in my literature, so i tend to shy away from thinner books. thicker ones grab my attention more easily. then i look at the cover - if it interests me, then ill read the summary. i don't have specific tastes in title or cover. as long as it makes my brain "hm" thoughtfully, ill take a gander!

and really, if you have access to a bookstore (chain or not, ive found plenty of bangers in tiny used bookshops) or library, the best way to find a book is to physically browse. even if you dont buy anything, you can take pictures of books / write them down to buy online. but going to the store lets you search them out, examine the length, cover, title, summary - and easily put it back on the shelf or keep it. i hate shopping online bc there's ads, you can't examine the product, nothing really stands out since it's all portrayed similarly, there's limited pictures instead of the physical thing, and photos can lie.

plus, everything is (typically) meticulously sorted by genre & age range. when you go into a section with literature aimed at adults, you'll find exactly that instead of smut novels lmao. real life bookstores can be more accurate than online searches. & there's just something so good about walking through shelves, searching for that one book before you know it exists, smelling the paper... yeah...

#like for example i recently bought priory of the orange tree #ive been wanting it for a while and havent read it yet since im finishing something else #BUT! i remember when i first saw it #nothing had gotten my attention for a while #but then i saw the thickest fucking book ive seen in ages - which was automatically very sexy of it #and then the title was unique - priory of the orange tree??? whoah! what the fuck does that mean!!! #so automatically there was the interest of neat title + a new word that i get to learn + the implications of the word now that i understand #and then i picked the book up and it was deliciously heavy - & there was a Dragon on the cover. which. YES PLEASE #then the summary was fascinating!! the book was immediately seared into my brain! im very excited to read it #so thats a highly successful example of my book choosing Process #it checked all of my boxes so it was a win #most books dont check all of my boxes but as long as it hits most of them im down to clown yk yk #but yeah im picky too so! nothing wrong with being picky or having high standards! #rambles from the bog #my shelves are fuckin Full of books ranging from 'it was ok' to 'I WILL RECOMMEND THIS TO ALL WHO WILL LISTEN' #and then i have a drawer filled with books that i just could not care less about / dont like #but dont have the heart to throw away bc. well putting a book in the trash kills a part of my soul #i need to donate them... #but yes! i hope that helps! #and Thank You! i hope i get a callback as well...

[thanflowers]

one day i shall return and then it's over for you bitches.

#in the meantime i've been reading so much #like i finally read priory of the orange tree #which i've been wanting to do for literal years lmao #now i've just started good omens #feels good feels organic #ooc. ( out questing ) #tbd.

[fyrewalks]

tasks and chores are done for the day! excited to update mickey's bio (thanks to chi for the inspo) and then work away queueing drafts. i am determined, if a little foolish, to get all 19 of them queued lol. keep me company on disco!

#ooc #my brain is stuck in an all or nothing mood #so i feel like if i get them all queued #then ill actually get to watch queen charlotte #and/or spend sat reading #stuck between wanting to finish crooked kingdom #or keep chugging along in the priory of the orange tree sequeal #we shall see #either way #first drafts

[spiritofjustice]

i know it probably ain’t impressive but it feels GOOD to start reading regularly again. i only read 4 books last year and i am still proud of myself for that, but i’m reading regularly now. i am up to 6 books this year, counting the one i am on now. it rules

#Psy's no punctuation posts #reading is so fun i missed it #it's time to start believing in myself to do hobbies as i said #right now reading Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill and i really like it #i like historical fiction type things- and it has fantasy intermixed with real life settings which i love #i am not a high fantasy man i just like the real world w some fantasy on the side. #tis fun #though i want to read Priory of the Orange Tree eventually- #maybe when i get through my backlog a bit #though i neverwill at that rate i've already placed another book on hold at work smh #gonna read Frankenstein in Baghdad after Fairy Bargains and East of Eden it just sounded SO interesting

[oldblood]

can anyone recommend any intensive(?) fantasy books to get into

#i just havent read any in a long time i want to get into a world #highly detailed and stuff #pls dont recc priory of the orange tree tolkien and grrm stuff they r on the list #t.