#boxes full of rambles

[burningboxes]

people who post about "i'm not proship or antiship, i pay taxes" have the same energy as people who joke that their pronouns are "nor/mal": they aren't funny or interesting and they're inadvertently enabling fascist & bigoted behavior

#not fandom #boxes full of rambles #proship #proshippers please interact #anti anti #''i pay taxes lol im a grown up!!'' okay then go live your boring-ass life somewhere else #gives the same energy as a 16 year old kid who just got his license.. ''ooooo look at me i do BIG BOY things'' shut yr fuckin lips #go back to the boring bitch table; the cool people are talking #just to clarify im not dissing paying taxes. im dissing bragging about it like these dumbfucks do #pay your taxes all you like but no one wants to fuckin hear about it

[japhers]

Perhaps weird question - how do you draw line patterns on characters' clothes? For example the gold filigree in Azemgoose's gown? Or more specifically how do you make them feel so organic and balanced? I tried to add such patterns to my own designs but they feel stiff and not evenly detailed, if that makes sense. Do you have a specific fashion era to reference them? (I assume at this point you draw them from your head but it had to have started somewhere) :0

OH I'm glad you see them that way! It took a lot of trial-and-error, but I take much and more of my inspiration from Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt and elements of Baroque Architecture. (just the mainstream stuff though, I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert lol)

Long post ahead!

The main thing/takeaway I got from these is that having a decent amount of detail and not getting them to look busy involves reminding yourself that there are, in fact, patterns in nature, and any random piece of filigree that you want to place will have some sort of underlying structure, which will help you visually balance things out!

I also find that having straight lines contrast with curves do wonders to the composition.

(Here's a link to a post I keep remembering and coming back to whenever I try to study Mucha's works, reblogged a while back from Becca Burns! It's a really nice way to break things apart.)

Not only that, but having clusters of detail and spacing them out involves also looking at the negative space- basically you want your eyes to rest in places. You'll notice this more or less in how these artists leave out so much shading/detail on the flesh of the models on the pics up top, as well as on some of the backgrounds or outside the frames/borders, which end up serving as the 'wide open space' your eyes can settle on.

Even on stuff like these buildings you can see how the gold details settle on some of the windows and roofs but most everything else is kept white or otherwise neutral to have them details really pop!

Keeping a mental or even physical database of little details you can come back to when you're drawing on the fly also helps- here's some I've ended up coming back to time and time again!

#japhtalks #I hope that helps a bit? I can never really like. Talk about my process without rambling OTL #it's all like having a little box full of scrap and taking from those to put together basically

[superherokisser]

i’m gonna mcfuckign pass out

#terrence rambles #guys i ate like two full boxes of cookies

[randomminty]

please i am BEGGING for you to drop the other roleswap champion designs,,, i had no idea how hard cynthia would slay in lance’s fit and my animal brain is now starving for roleswap steven and lance if you ever feel confident enough to post them,,,,,;

[insert meme of guy on his hands and knees offering a wad of fanned-out dollar bills here]

TY JUST FOR YOU ANON…. i redrew my old designs. I still cant figure out stevens design but this will do

Just for fun ill throw my old designs/brainstorming under a read more too!

This is a year old. Theyre so ugly. Okay

#he looks like steven stone if he had pronouns #anyway. wehhe. #didnt know if i should make a new post or just put the art under the ask ohhh welll #art tag #pokemon #i need a prper ask answering tag…… meh #minty rambles #champion lance #champion steven stone #i wont tag cynth shes not even here. shes here in spirit #to the other anon in my ask box…… im a tiny bit busy bit ill get to u. promise. i gotchu #ty for the ask!!!!!!!! deadass these designs wouldnt have seen the light pf day if u didnt ask i forgot the second i posted that cynthia #shout out to everyone tagging the cynthia art as teef. very common opinion. and the people calling her hot #lucky you didnt catch my in the height of my champion craze i could be SO insufferable rn. im a litle normal. #ill post this to twit but idk if i should now bc everyone asleep…. i could bump it in the morning…. hmm……… #also ill be dead honest i got rid of lances littl ehair thing bc i thought hed look way too much like kuro enstars </3333 #and bc i managed to draw his hairline and felt rly proud #okay bye bye. byyyyye #steven stone #girl has a full name i dont need to add champion. okay #ask tag

[quietwingsinthesky]

in the amelia pond au, amelia’s aunt does still send her to therapy between doctor adventures, but since amelia is now secure in the fact that he’s Definitely Real since both rory and mels have also met him and because she lost a tooth last week from tripping on the stairs of the tardis, she doesn’t bite any therapists this time around. and besides, her therapist is a very funny lady. she reminds amelia of her doctor, with how her voice will flip and jump in volume and accent and tone on a whim, with how she’ll talk to amelia like they’re conspiring together. she keeps the pictures amelia draws of the doctor and their adventures for her, even hangs one or two on the walls. she listens very intently to every detail, which no adults in amelia’s life do save the doctor himself and river song, whenever she’s around. and best of all, whenever she tells amelia’s aunt that amelia is doing just fine, don’t you worry, she’ll grow out of this, she winks at amelia so that amelia will know her therapist is only playing along to wave away her aunt’s suspicion.

it is a little odd, though, that she insists on only being called Missy. but amelia is quite used to odd by now.

#not the point of this post but. please do imagine amelia and rory and mels and the doctor all having escaped from Real Actual Danger #rory has the energy of a cat with its fur all puffed up and looks like he’s either going to start crying or yelling at the doctor #mels is standing on the box the doctor got her so she could see the tardis console better and studying the way he flies it very intently #and amelia is still full of energy and adrenaline and can’t stop racing around the tardis like a hyperactive gerbil. because if she stops #she might have to be scared instead but if she can run long enough she’ll forget to be scared at all and when she collapses exhausted all #she’ll have left are the exciting happy memories #and then she misteps racing up the stairs. shouts! the doctor and mels and rory are all at attention immediately. mels moves first but rory #is closer and helps amelia back up. and then the doctor is crouching down in front of her. ‘let me see. oh that’s a lot of blood. that’s. #how much blood are you able to lose again? its more than this. probably.’ amelia’s whole face hurts. but the doctor’s rambling is familiar. #it helps. and he’s only so talkative when he’s sure he has a solution. besides. rory’s head’s nestled on her shoulder and mel’s got her #hands. the doctor wipes blood off her nose and her chin. tilts her head up and goes ‘aaa’ sticking his tongue out until she does it too. #and he tells her to feel her upper row of teeth with her tongue. she does until she finds the gap. #it still hurts. hurts more when she nudges it with her tongue all bleeding and raw. but she just lost a tooth! and you know what that means. #they have to find it. or else how will the tooth fairy leave her any money? #(the doctor hears her say that to mels as they search. and he glances off to the side and makes a note to go back and make sure it *was* her #aunt leaving her those coins. and not something else. which he does. and finds out her aunt wasn’t leaving her any coins at all. #he can’t just let that stand! so the doctor becomes amy’s tooth fairy as well.) #and that is how amelia loses a tooth on the tardis. #amelia pond au

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Im surprised that you haven't drawn anything laughingstock related based off of the new content lmao-

my guy! patience! i draw & create slowly, and i am still Absorbing and Resting!

#that and my brain's still a lil fucky from two migraines in one week - i am Trying to avoid a third! #spirits are high but the energy is low and some days i simply cannot scribble very much #i will get there when i get there! #rambles from the bog #and honestly i'd rather respond to some scribble-prompting asks first #the box is getting quite full #im nearly at 60! #im determined to stay somewhat on top of it with this blog! #as a sort of backwards apology to my other one... 630 asks strong.... eugh.... #do i feel terrible about it? yes. yes i do #someday i may return... #welcome home may relax its death grip on my soul.... eventually....

[karda]

random rambling. im so grateful for all the support i get on here. i let a lot of asks just sit in my inbox because i like 2 look back on them, and its hard to realize behind every one of them is an actual person saying kind things to me. it makes me really happy to know ive made some kind of positive impact on people. i dont think ive ever really gotten a hate message, which is kinda insane to me lol. the little bubble im in has become so joyous .its really nice . it makes me think about middle school me who thought i was like doomed . shaking him by the shoulders saying There will be joy everywhere

#it helps a lot when im in an art slump and i know theres literally a little box in my phone that has nice messages in it. .. #probably shouldn't depend on that too much but shhhhhhhh ....shh ........... #tumblr literally changed my life . i almost gave up on art . #rambling #there is 3k asks in my inbox 😭😭😭😭 and almost all of them are full of love. like literally how the fuck

[randomlywanderingmoth]

Frieren lives in my head rent free right now.

Specifically the character of Serie.

She's lived for thousands of years, she's significantly older than Frieren. She has outlived or will likely outlive all of her students, and yet she has this aloof, indifferent air about her.

And it makes sense.

She's lived for thousands of years, and watched as her students rarely live for a hundred. She's seen potential squandered to the ravages of time. She's not only outlived her students, but even common memory of her students.

And yet.

And yet.

She still remembers them.

The boy who caught birds.

The girl who danced water.

The boy who brought statues to life.

The girl who raised a field of flowers.

And countless, countless, countless others.

She hasn't forgotten them. And she won't forget them. Because they were alive once.

Serie acts cold and aloof to people, because she knows how brief their lives are. For her to get invested in their lives, is for her to know, for a fact, that she will only hurt herself in the future, grieving their absence.

And yet, she still does get invested in their lives, from time to time. And the hurt she suffered did not stop her from caring for another one, and another one, and on and on.

#sousou no frieren #my ramble box #I am full of these weird things called emotions #aside from those I am doing fine(tm)

[sensitiveheartless]

Thoughts on the hc that Dazai has a glass eye?

I'm just imagining Dazai getting injured on a case on his blind side, and Kunikida berates him and drags him to Yosano.

And Yosano is like "Really, again? How did it happen this time?" And Kunikida says "Idiot wasn't paying attention."

Dazai "No I was, its just my blind side."

And they both freak out because why? How? Huh? But his eye looks fine?

Yosano: Well, I can schedule an appointment and we can see if we can get you surgery or something-

Dazai: Oh its unsalvagable, I'm blind on that side.

Kunikida: Why does your eye look fine then??? (He thinks Dazai is fucking with him)

Dazai just smiles, reaches up and pull the glass eye out. Kunikida screams.

- Goblin anon

Oh my gosh alsksjdjfjf honestly I think this hc is great just for that potential moment of screaming confusion on Kunikida’s part, Dazai absolutely would do that XD

I guess in general I haven’t thought much about the implications of Dazai bandaging that eye! I know I’ve definitely seen fics and stuff where his vision is off in that eye in one way or another (@feralrookie wrote a fantastic soulmate AU where Dazai’s soulmark is on that eye and it gutted me in the best way). I think it’s really fun to see where different people go with it :0

I do think it’s interesting that he swaps which eye he bandages in the Beast universe…that feels like it has Implications but I’m not sure what they are, I’m not very skilled at analysis lol —Although, slightly related, I do love the moment in the Dark Era where Oda pulls those bandages off as he dies, because it seems like a visual representation of how much Dazai was hindering himself in the mafia (seriously, if there isn’t anything wrong with that eye, that means the dude was shooting guns without precise depth perception seemingly just for the heck of it) and then Oda pulls them off as he tells him to go live in the light and just aaaaaaaaaaaaa I am never not going to be emotional about the dark era ;;

…anyway this got off topic, basically all this to say I think that I think it’s cool how many different interpretations of it there are, and you could definitely do a lot with the glass eye headcanon alskjdjdjd

#I don’t know how coherent this is alskjdjfj #i am very sleepy #…now I’m also thinking about the fact that I don’t think we’ve seen Dazai fire a gun since he joined the ADA #unless it’s happened in one of the LNs I haven’t caught up with yet #idk that just seems significant since the times we’ve seen him fire a gun previously were: a moment of clear trauma for him(the 15 arc) #and him imparting trauma on Akutagawa in the dark era. #I feel like that might be indicative of him distancing himself from his past self #or I could be reading too much into it #fun fact that was actually why I gave him a gun in the Dazai-goes-feral-AU #because in that fic he is regressing pretty heavily due to Stress and Emotions #and also why he immediately drops the gun and leaves it behind after he fires the last shot #cause he knows he’s regressing and he’s trying to distance himself from it. #…I ended up rambling a lot sorry alsksjdjfjf #oooh actually another random thought #dyou think there’s anything going on with Q’s eyes? like can they see ok? #I know it’s a part of their character design but oh my gosh those pupils #I feel like that would seriously hamper your vision #ok I need to stop myself before I write a full chapter of nonsense in the tags alskjdjdjd #ask box #bsd dazai #goblin anon

[martybaker]

hob gadling having a huge collection of vinyls because some songs only sound right when played on a record player

#he also has a gramophone and a phonograph #boxes full of casette tapes #older musical instruments #music lover hob #op of that post that said bard hob gadling i toast to you #hob gadling #the sandman #robert gadling #adjacent thought is dreamling slowdancing in hob’s kitchen #dreamling #sandman #my ramblings

[burningboxes]

thinking about. transfems. and trans girls. and how cool they are.. literally if you're a tgirl or girl-adjacent transgender person i want you to know that. you are so wonderful and beautiful and kind and talented.. we need you on this site now more than ever, and im so sorry about literally everything that's happened here. none of you deserve to be treated like this; you deserve so much better, and i'm sincerely hoping that other people (especially people with power to instate significant change that affects a lot of people) will understand this and work towards making this a safer platform for all of you. please don't let anything that's happening right now on this literal hellsite make you think that you're any less than amazing; i love all of you so so so much <333 please stay safe out there!!!

#boxes full of rambles #not fandom #let's get serious #transgender #trans #trans positivity #trans rights are human rights #transfem #trans girl #trans women #trans pride #literally whenever i find something new that i love so so much and i look at who made it #its always a trans girl. always #how are you all so awesome at literally everything #also this includes nonbinary transfems!!! that should go without saying #everyone whos transgender and feminine in any way at all. i love you so so so much <333 forever and always #fuck photomatt this will always be the trans people website #on that note seeing so many people posting transition pics in light of this incident is. really inspiring to me #it gives me hope that someday i'll look the way i want to as well #just... i love trans girls. it cant be put into words how much hope you all give me just from existing and surviving #please keep doing it. please keep existing and surviving #its so so so important that you live #please remember that #sorry if this post is kind of incoherent my brain is. mush. because im thinking about how cool trans girls are

[trollbreak]

heehoo and aurrel neow!!! /lh

Ouh u pick an interesting pair!!! This going under cut bc teehee details to build to the Pondering. Also this is all very train of thought due to the heehoo Lore so :P

SO UM!!! First up, some things abt Heehoo our lad! And Boohoo, who’s um. Kind of inherently tied to him! They used to be the same clown. Teehee sometimes ur church worships eldritch things and sometimes u do weird magic shit that makes one person two. And it’s a whole thing!! Like um. With Gedian and Echo it was. Less than great in the end. But Heehoo and Boohoo had a great go of it!! They’re besties and holding hands and siblings and heehoo will kill u a million times if u try to hurt boohoo and boohoo will send a god after u for the reverse. They’re silly little clowns together!!! Smth smth comedy and tragedy masks, smth smth two sides of a coin, I love them in short

NOW!! I’m gonna face this as like, just swapping Heehoo and aurrel, rather than the person that was there before Heehoo and boohoo, bc um. I don’t have the braincells to make aurrel 2 guys rn lmao

SO UM!!! The base person would ofc b very different. But also? Aurrel is an ass. Even when he cares someone. He’d um. Be mean to boohoo without thinking abt it and it would Crush him Every Time that boohoo is so niceys kind and 🥺 until he like. Chilled out. He’s still very bitey tho, there’s just less baring teeth beforehand. U get faces and rude words when he’s angry and in a Mood as he is, but as a clown? He’d be very >:3 until he’s actively trying to murder u. Also, by VIRTUE of clownness, he would actually do murder!! Like he doesn’t actually do that as a Revant!! He feels like shit if he hurts someone too bad!! But um. He’d be. Violently protective of boohoo, and that would be a very easy way for him to just be. Very violent in general. Dudes living up to the murder clown image and then some. Sir please stop bringing folks to church just to murder them with your teeth, ur scaring the hoes.

He would eventually mellow out a little with time! …Eventually. And only a little. He um. Would get evil abt it tho. I think he’d dip from the church he grew up in the Second that the Gaze wound up as the host for their resident horrorterror, bc he’s like. Wtf, you’re nice. This isn’t how this shits supposed to work. Fuck off. He’d go kind of just churchless after that, and just um. Would do a lot of murder till he got accepted into the fleet to do cullings for a reason beyond ‘i wanna’ again. Dude grows up to be malicious and fucked up abt it. His thing abt body horror is a point of shame, and um. He goes exposure therapy abt it by being more fucked up. Bestie that’s not healthy. Boohoo is um. Going to therapy abt how she’s. A little glad he left. Dude got scary.

HEEHOO THO!!! Um. He’s still silly little guy :3 but now he’s Ferret instead of Corgi and he go BOING!!! I think he’s still doesn’t really talk much bc he doesn’t have much to say! But he makes a LOT of noises sometimes. Also: fidget toy collection. Cargo pants of em. And now he doesn’t do any murder mostly!!! Not unless someone else starts it for suresies. I think Junie def adopts him quicker, due to the hes more roam around and hang out with random folks. And they’re climbing into places they shouldn’t together!!! Please imagine for me junie and Heehoo Revant sat on a rooftop together. Heehoo is on a box or smth so he can kicky his feet. Are u imagining it for me? He’s so fucking ^-^. He’s also very much involved in rebel activity but shhh we don’t worry about thaaaaat, what he’s got going on with Bill is his business, we don’t need to knooooowwwww-

#bloodline swap #this very rambles!! apologies lol #aurrel squeak: fucked up guy. fucked up. evil little man. gremlin. going to kill u one million times for wearing a shirt he doesn’t like #heehoo revant: silly little guy!!! go boing bc he’s so full of joy!!!!! ur niceys to him just a little and he eyes get real big and sparkly #abt it!!!!! he’s got a lot of feelings and it Shows and he has Never sat or stood still in his Life and he still jingles but it’s pins and #bangles now instead of bells in his outfit. puts him in a box of macaroni like a ferret for enrichment #heehoo #aurrel revant #long post #lunchboxtrolls

[thirteenemeraldcats]

I come bearing random fic asks! 1) tell us about your current wip(s)! 2) what's your writing process like? 3) I think you mentioned you have a background in psychology — how much does that influence your writing?

Hello my beautiful friend!!

Thank you so much for sending me these! I have been sitting on this for days because I wanted to banish 'thought that i was young' from my WIPs before answering lol

1.) Now that THAT'S published (and taken most of my WIP wordcount with it *sad violin noises*) there's 3 fics I'm actively poking at, the chunkiest is a Sam-and-Jamie-BFFS-agenda-6-conversations-they-might-have-had-and-one-they-definitely-didn't which I'm pretty sure I've posted a snip of SOMEWHERE before whoops. The working title was too long for me to cope with, to the extent that it managed to override my inability to make my mind up about anything, and is now called 'i said, maybe' - a line I've gleefully pinched from Wonderwall by Oasis! I like it for this fic because *gestures at working title* BUT ALSO Wonderwall is the song Sam sings at karaoke in 1x07 'Make Rebecca Great Again' and the Manchester connection tickles me greatly!

There's a non-angsty, short-ish (I'm honestly shocked) fic that fell out of my brain nearly fully formed a couple of weeks ago (because almost everyone I knew was either talking about or having birthdays) which ALSO has a title 'because he had no say in it (no say in it at all)', which is almost definitely going to be posted next (and hopefully a LOT sooner than the time-space between 'i learned to walk while he was away' and 'thought that i was young').

The only other thing I'm actively poking at right now is in the outline stage, it is also short-ish (please PLEASE stay that way) but is back to the angst-fest that is apparently all my brain wants to spit out. It's Jamie-centric. It involves a cat :)

2.) Honestly at this point my writing process is best described as:

(sound warning)

ANYWAY

(My actual answer about my writing process is that I love planning. Very much. Stretching the dough into spaghetti is where the problem lies 🫠)

3.) I do indeed have a background in Psychology! Like any undiagnosed-in-denial-17-year-old-DUMBASS, I studied Psych right out of high school due to a combined and truly harebrained motivation of 'what IS going on up there' and 'wow I love systematically studying, analysing and mimicking human behaviour [no underlying NOTHING going on up there no siree]' and wound up with a four year degree. NOW, my background is purely theoretical, I have never been registered as/worked as a Psychologist, so I'm not violating any ethical codes by using my knowledge for evil applying my Psych training to fictional stories/characters. Because the answer to 'how much does that influence your writing' is. SO MUCH. Not necessarily intentionally, there's only one fic in the extended-mountainous-WIP-pile that's explicit about Psych stuff (I'm giving Dani Seasonal Affective Disorder whoops), but psychology is one of those fields that once you're trained in it you can't really ever un-know it. Unfortunately for me, and everyone that I meet, there's forever a predisposing/precipitating/perpetuating/protective biopsychosocial model being drawn up in my head whenever someone exhibits any kind of behaviour my forebrain finds moderately interesting. (This doesn't happen with online friends DON'T WORRY [in truth it's only because I can't physically see you all- I AM SO SORRY- I am not in control of this]).

Honestly, I think a big part of it is just that my particular brand of pattern-recognition-AuDHD has been granted auto-inserted citations and gone mad with power.

Take Jamie, beloved stress ball that he is, he has so much psycho-analysis potential that I'm forever torn between wanting to write a dissertation on the various comorbidities that could be floating around in that guy's head, having a Watsonian v Doylist argument with myself about ~artistic intentions~, having to suspend disbelief for the sake of storytelling because I've been cursed with knowledge (gleefully and enthusiastically sought out and paid for knowledge) and just wanting to enjoy the story/character as they're presented/as I'm writing it.

Applying actual Psychology to fictional characters is like trying to tie a balloon to a moving rollercoaster, for the simple fact that they're not real; their actions and motivations and reactions are scripted and rehearsed and performed.

I'm doing it anyway :)

#I do think the nature of characters is fascinating #they're a culmination of several peoples' interpretations/representations of human behaviour #in a not dissimilar way that people are typically a reflection of the immediate people around them #characters are shaped by layers of humans reflecting on layers of human reflection #storytelling is cool #humans are cool (mostly) #homer's the odyssey is used by classicists to ascertain the established ideals of human behaviour from over 2000 years ago #I JUST THINK IT'S NEAT #you've unlocked a word ramble my dear friend i am SO SORRY #THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR SENDING ME THIS #(part of why i love teaching is having a room full of captives that have to listen to me) #(one of my kids last year accidentally unlocked a 20 minute long info dump about the challenger disaster) #(the class was on false memories so it was MOSTLY relevant) #writing tag #ask box is always open #the-sea-anemone #kvetchinglyneurotic

[albino-parakeet]

Seriously debating on buying all the Birdmen volumes even though it's not translated and might never get translated...

Also have never bought not translated manga before so I don't really know where to look.

#birdmen manga #Not great timing cause I'm kind of moving and really shouldn't be buying anymore books until were done #*eyes the two big boxes full of books and the full bookshelf in my room currently.* #i'm just rambling

[todayisafridaynight]

if aoki really was meant to succeed nishiki as Protag's Brother then i think he also should have been short <- 5'11 <- not short at all

#snap chats #no one will ever see the first part of this ramble topic JVLAREKVJLAEKJ BUT NO #im doodling a Total Goth Gear masato ref sheet cause. i guess im committing to drawing it all now im sorry i cant stop #thats my pandoras box ill be fine with a design until i add salt and pepper to it and then i cant go back anymore #but anyway im asking myself if i should make aoki .. average height ..... itd be funny .... and i refuse to accept him at 6'1 #but i also dont want to change him TOOOO much ... im still giving him goth heels tho but he's sitting 90% of the time so #not like ill ever draw him at full height in heels LMAO but anyway #main part of this post is correct i think aoki shouldnt be 6'1 #i think id scream if he was 6'2 cause of sawashiro and now i wanna see that but i refuse to bring that into the world

[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...