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Huge pet peeve in video games is when you can’t hold your breath underwater for very long or it takes a good while to regain your breath above water. Unrealistic. Like my condolences to the devs for your lack of breath support but that just could not be me…

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Reading Challenge Update - #20

Book number 3 goes to spot #20 A short story, one with less than 5,000 words. I read the whole collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, which certainly contained stories under 5000 words lol.

Why this book: This was part of my sci-fi language wishlist for books that use linguistics/language as a central theme or plot point. When I realized this had the story that the movie Arrival was based on, I was even more excited to read this collection.

Why this category: Last time I did this challenge, I got really hung up on trying to figure out how many words various books had. Kinda not caring as much this time, haha. Are there short stories? Sweet, probably under or about 5000 words I bet.

What did I think: This was an excellent collection of stories. I had two favorites. First, Division by Zero. Short stories are such magic - so few words and I care so much about Renee and her work and Carl and his poor choices lol. Second, Hell is the Absence of God. Good world-building, I easily identified with the main character and his ambivalence towards religion and belief. The ending of this, *chef's kiss*. I always enjoy a good ironic story about how cruel love/devotion can be.

Stories of Your Life was also great. I enjoyed Arrival, but I liked what the short story focused on instead of creating some wild threat to humanity. I also liked that there were more humans who understood the alien writing system - and more humans therefore who were going to experience this new way of seeing the universe with this "simultaneous consciousness."

My least favorite was probably 72 Letters - neat idea with industrializing the golem. But I felt like it got really bogged down in building the world and explaining the minutiae of making golems. It's a short story, you don't need to spend that many words suspending my believe. Let's hear more about the Kabbalist, the cultural impact of the golems, and what the elite British wind up doing when the plan comes to fruition. Overall though, great collection of stories and definitely recommend.

A quote or two:

"What he insists on is that they not love God under a misapprehension, that if they wish to love God, they be prepared to do so no matter what His intentions. God is not just, God is not kind, God is not merciful, and understanding that is essential to true devotion." ~ Hell is the Absence of God

"-'No one could actually experience such a thing; it's like believing six impossible things efore breakfast.' -'How would you know what I can experienced?'" ~ Division by Zero

"Brain damage is never a good idea, no matter what your friends say." ~ Liking What You See: A Documentary

Next books: On my Discworld journey, I finished Jingo and started Last Continent. I'm excited to see how many categories I can shove Discworld into lol. My kiddo recently started The Giver at school, and I finished that during a long night at the hospital. I had never read it before. I also still have Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky in the wings.

#thespoot reads #Stories of Your Life and Others #ted chiang #reading challenge #booklr

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Book #71 - Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

(first time read; usually fairy tale parodies/satires make me feel like someone is kicking down my inner child’s sand castles, but Discworld do be Discworld, so I don’t know why I was worried) Like………… objectively. Morally. From an ethical point of view… Greebo is horrible. But. But, and here me out on this. But. He’s also endearing. Somehow. In the stupidest possible way. I really am a cat person, huh. I find it hilarious how the witches try to break the flow of the story and then Mrs Gogol just struts in with a literal deus ex machina and it actually seems to be working until Granny looks at the situation and is like “no, this is dumb” and goes to solve the plot herself and it is…. It’s what needed to happen? In order to have a satisfying story, this book needed the confrontation between the sisters. Just solving the plot with a god wouldn’t have been satisfying. So this book about breaking stories still explicitly insists on ending its story the right way. Because it is still a story, and what it is saying is: Treat your story as a story, always. (Also, solve your local vampire problems by feeding them to a cat.) I have too many feelings about the confrontation in the mirror room, and a lot of them have to do with how I am getting unreasonably attached to an old woman who is mean to people, but one thing I enjoyed a lot is how they’re both asked the same question in the end and only Granny figures out the answer, and she does so without struggling at all, while Lilith is presumably trapped forever. The amazing thing is… All this is the second half. Solidly half this book is a travel log through rural Europe and every better known folktale thereof, and then the other half is fraught family relations and different angles on the same chosen identity and an absolute refusal of determinalism. And then it returns to travel and binds the two halfs together and I get shrimp emotions again. Also, last thing: Death running into the witches because he genuinly is just visiting this party, not there for a job or anything, and them always needing a second to realize it’s him is my new favourite thing.

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Pls reblog if u vote :)

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This is Nicole. She is an amazing Canadian wood-splitting machine.

I have a huge pet peeve about people swinging axes and sledgehammers without using the kinetic chain. You have to use your entire body to get real power in your swing. And in so many movies you see actors just trying to chop things with only their arms. But Nicole has perfect form. And cute pajamas.

I'm not sure if she is technically a lumberjill. I think she just refers to herself as a wood splitter. Either way, she is badass.

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remember that time that spock said “this is about sex” but he couldn’t say sex so instead he said “biology” and kirk clearly knew what he meant but was awkwardly like “what kind of biology” and spock got this look on his face like ‘oh lordy i’m not dealing with this today’ and said “vulcan biology” and kirk can’t say the word sex either so he goes “u mean the biology of vulcans” and then they stood there in silence for ten seconds like a pair of fucking idiots

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Reading Challenge Update - #1

From 19 to 1, the second book of my reading challenge redo is #1 A book originally published in a language you do not know goes to Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell.

Why this book: I picked up this book from Wild Detectives in Deep Ellum (Dallas) on a trip with a friend. The summary looked really interesting. It had sat on my to-be-read list for a bit, but I picked it back up for a long flight.

Why this category: Embarrassingly, I didn't notice the translator credit when I first picked up the book. The original language was Spanish. I've been slowly learning Spanish over the past couple years. I think I'd like to try reading it in the original language.

What did I think: I really enjoyed this book. There are seven short stories in the book connected only by featuring emptiness and loneliness. Sometimes it's the emptiness of the house. Sometimes it's the emptiness of the people in the house. Some of the stories had a completely alien story (like the naked family or the whole thing with the sugar bowl), or some that were too familiar (the storage unit or the dementia). My favorite was the story of the old woman with dementia and dealing with the end of her life on her own. After each story, I sat and paused for a moment to look at the feelings the story had caused. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as an airplane book because there are A LOT of feelings lol.

A quote or two:

I'll edit this later to add in the actual quote (physical book is not nearby) - but in the story of the old woman with dementia, there's a line that stuck with me about how death needs a push, but she had become too light and would seemingly float on forever.

Next books: I finished Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang and finally Jingo by Sir Terry Pratchett. I've got Last Continent, the next Discworld book, as well as Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky started. Since I've been trying to get through all the Discworld books, I've also got Terry Pratchett's biography waiting in the TBR pile.

#thespoot reads #seven empty houses #samanta schweblin #reading challenge #booklr

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Firefighter demonstrates how to put out a kitchen fire

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i did my part 🫡

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Reading Challenge Update - #19

All right! First completed book of my reading challenge redo. I'm claiming spot #19 A History book, fiction or nonfiction for Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang.

Why this book: I have a wishlist that came from a librarian tiktok about sci-fi and/or fantasy books that use language/linguistics as a plot device. Babel was first on the list and my first new book of the year :D

Why this category: So many different categories this could (and maybe should) have gone into, but it really amused me to stick in historical. I also don't normally like historical fiction/nonfiction, so I can save those easier to fill categories for later in the year. I figured close enough since Babel very closely follows the course of the industrial revolution and references things that did happen in the time period. I loved the use of footnotes and got several reading recommendations from the neat things Kuang researched for this book.

What did I think: Oh how I loved this book. Scrolling through goodreads and tumblr, this does seem like a love it or hate it type book. Is it subtle? no. Is it a bit repetitive? sure, especially between dealing with the disaster in Canton and getting to the tower. But the characters, the silver system, the writing style itself, the overall story - fantastic. One thing I really enjoyed in the book was the transformation the definition of "translation" goes through. One of the professors begins by calling translation itself an act of violence, "Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. ... How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?" And though Robin teaches the reader the necessity of violence as part of change, there is hope in that the definition of translation shifts to one of bridging and listening. Translation may be an act of betrayal, but it is also vulnerability - "Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands."

A quote or two:

"Grief suffocated. Grief paralysed. Grief was a cruel, heavy boot pressed so hard against his chest that he could not breathe."

"The origins of the word anger were tied closely to physical suffering. Anger was first an 'affliction', as meant by the Old Icelandic angr, and then a 'painful, cruel, narrow' state, as meant by the Old English enge, which in turn came from the Latin angor, which meant 'strangling, anguish, distress'. Anger was a chokehold. Anger did not empower you. It sat on your chest; it squeezed your ribs until you felt trapped, suffocated, out of options. Anger simmered, then exploded. Anger was constriction, and the consequent rage a desperate attempt to breathe. And rage, of course, came from madness."

Next books: I recently finished Seven Empty Houses, which I'll eventually make a reading challenge post for haha. I've been reading Jingo by Sir Terry Pratchett off and on since December as part of my quest to read all the Discworld books. I've also picked up the short story anthology Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.

#thespoot reads #babel or the necessity of violence #reading challenge #booklr

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The origins of the word anger were tied closely to physical suffering. Anger was first an 'affliction', as meant by the Old Icelandic angr, and then a 'painful, cruel, narrow' state, as meant by the Old England enge, which in turn came from the Latin angor, which meant 'strangling, anguish, distress'. Anger was a chokehold. Anger did not empower you. It sat on your chest; it squeezed your ribs until you felt trapped, suffocated, out of options. Anger simmered, then exploded. Anger was constriction, and the consequent rage a desperate attempt to breath.

And rage, of course, came from madness.

— R. F. Kuang, Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

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Baby chick Frodo and Gandowlf in the Shire 🐥🧙‍♂️ Prints

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the RF Kuang urge to write a queer character who doesn’t have time to realize they’re queer or do anything about it because they’re busy being unhinged 

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I love it when authors do this ❤️ This is one of my favorite tropes lol.

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Later, when everything went sideways and the world broke in half, Robin would think back to this day, to this hour at this table, and wonder why they had been so quick, so carelessly eager to trust one another. Why had they refused to see the myriad ways they could hurt each other? Why had they not paused to interrogate their differences in birth, in raising, that meant they were not and could never be on the same side?

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Hey, you know how you're really enjoying this heartfelt wholesome moment? This bit of golden summer and innocence? You know what would go great with it? Betrayal. Despair. Dread.

You're only a quarter of the way in, dear reader, and hoo boy am I about to torture these characters. *Chef's kiss*

(Really enjoying this book - but I swear every interaction Robin and Ramy have with someone new at Oxford I'm on edge like, are they going to be cool about us being different? Please be cool. Dammit, they weren't cool and now we're running.)

#booklr #thespoot reads #Babel #r.f. kuang

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Original art made by Edward Gorey for - but never published with - Florence Heide Parry’s 1969 children’s book.