Watched Whisper of the Heart on Friday and honestly I have no words. This is now one of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies the art, the characters everything is so beautifully written and illustrated <3
“We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings.” – Maya Angelou
If you buy a lot of books and end up not liking some of them very much, can I suggest checking them out from your library first?
I worked in bookstores for a long time, and of course lots of my paycheck went directly back into the store. I've ended up "weeding" a lot of those books and donating them to different places just because I knew I wasn't ever going to read them again.
Now I'm a librarian, and I'm realizing just how much money I'm saving by checking books out FIRST. Maybe I check something out and I end up DNF'ing it within 50 pages. Maybe I check something out and I enjoy it, but not enough to read it again. Maybe I check something out and I really love it, but it freaked me out so bad it's tattooed on the inside of my eyeballs and I won't need to read it again (Drew Magary's The Hike, I'm looking in your direction).
Or maybe I check something out and I love it! And then I go buy a copy to own because I know I'll reread it, probably with a pen to mark up the margins in a way I know I can't with a library book!
Idk man. If you want to be more intentional with the way you spend your money, if you want to combat the commercialization of the publishing industry, if you hate that authors are being forced to do all their own marketing on TikTok and that readers are feeling shame about not purchasing and finishing literal hundreds of books per year... Maybe start by going to your local library. You can still post haul photos of library books without spending a dime.
My youngest niece and nephews agreed to be the first official reviewers for my picture book, and they said they liked it! I was particularly overwhelmed by the fact that the youngest nephew MEMORIZED the whole book because of how much he enjoyed people reading it to him ToT. I think that's the highest compliment that I've ever gotten for my work. Emi Isn't Scared of Monsters is coming out on August 2nd, 2022 and you can still preorder it now!! Go to whatsupbeanie.com/links or look it up in your local bookstores :). It's a silly story about Emi, a little girl conquering her fear of the dark to find her puppy. Book birthday so soon!!!