firstbooknyc

[firstbooknyc]

people who get stressed about only reading like, 1 or 5 or 10 books in a year forget that the influencers to whom they're comparing themselves are by definition not representative of the 'average' or 'ideal' reader. reading books is their Job. they are paid by book of the month and other services. they get more views the more [popular, buzzy] books they read. they are incentivized to read hundreds of books per year, annotate in aesthetically pleasing ways, and have on-demand Takes to post on social media.

this is not normal, and it's not a helpful way to relate to pleasure reading. book influencers, even ones who enjoy reading, are not doing this solely "for fun." THIS IS THEIR LIVELIHOOD. comparing one's own reading practice with theirs is like comparing one's body to a fitness influencer's (*something that i, along with many others, also struggle with!) –– their chiseled abs guarantee their paycheck. that bookfluencer's aesthetic tbr cart and rapid consumption of every goodreads award winner decides whether or not they can pay rent. YOU DO NOT NEED TO LIVE THIS WAY!!! be free!!!!

[firstbooknyc]

[firstbooknyc]

“I think the act of reading imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don't read can sometimes lack. I know it seems like a contradiction in terms; after all reading is such a solitary, internalizing act that it appears to represent a disengagement from day-to-day life. But reading, and particularly the reading of fiction, encourages us to view the world in new and challenging ways…It allows us to inhabit the consciousness of another which is a precursor to empathy, and empathy is, for me, one of the marks of a decent human being.” ― John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things.

[firstbooknyc]

[firstbooknyc]

The idea that children love fairy tales because fairy tales treat them seriously and do not shy away from the violence and danger the world has in store strikes me as very correct, but the fact it is generally expressed as "it is dangerous to go alone in the woods because there are wolves there"... gives me pause.

To begin with, this is just one fairy tale narrative (little red riding hood), which is thus elevated to the rank of "quintessential fairy tale" (debatable at best); secondly, this is a (deliberate?) misrepresentation of the tale's *actual* danger, which is the wolf specifically *as it lowers the child's defenses by impersonating her grandma after eating her*. It's not about the child being attacked by a wild wolf in the forest, it's about the horror of using familiar and comforting surroundings within the family sphere as a decoy (the plan is quite an elaborate one, too). And finally, this ties into my main remark, which is that in many fairy tales (a majority? I don't know), the danger children (or more generally fairy tale protagonists) face is less related to a foreign monster than the family itself: snow white, obviously, but also hansel and gretel - abandoned in the forest by their parents, twice!; rumpelstiltskin: the heroine was sold to the king by her lying, greedy father, and risks being executed by her master for most of the tale; donkey skin (self-explanatory); bluebeard (similar forced marriage situation); cinderella (and all the cruel step-mother stories in general...) - also self-explanatory...

Fairy tales tend to admit freely that families and parents can be actively harmful to children, whose perspectives the narrative centers; which is a (well-known) fact that makes everyone uncomfortable Always. So I think it's disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst to act as though the violence comes from the wolves outside and not the family inside.

[firstbooknyc]

they don't want you to know this but rereading books is not a waste of time and is actually even more fun than the first time around

[firstbooknyc]

No children are allowed in the Library of Congress.

It's not that kind of library.

In other words...

You are being lied to

again

[firstbooknyc]

Woman reading -  Giola Gandini , 1938.

Italian , 1906-1941

oil on canvas

[firstbooknyc]

[firstbooknyc]

📢📢📢

[firstbooknyc]

Since I don't know every child's living situation, instead of saying "your mom or dad" to the kids I've started training myself to say "your grownup" instead, as it's both gender-neutral and encompasses any type of living situation where they aren't living with mom or dad.

[firstbooknyc]

hey, did you know that the world is a better place because of your creations and art and writing, no matter how niche or how many people see it

[firstbooknyc]

sometimes I wonder why y'all are obsessed with specific characters and I'm like "why them" but then I remember that sometimes its literally not your choice you just look at them wrong and all of a sudden they're taking up your every thought forever

[firstbooknyc]

Same thing goes for characters I'm diverse books.

Whenever I hear people complain about there being "forced" racial diversity in shows (eg. Encanto) I always think of my family.

My cousin looks Middle Eastern, my nephew looks Black, I look white, and I have some second cousins that look Indigenous.

We're all blood-related.

Pretty much the only look we're missing in my family is Asian.

[firstbooknyc]

The purpose of life is to get really into stories that drive you so crazy you sometimes feel the need to throw up from how much you love them

[firstbooknyc]

Victor Crudu (born 1958, Moldova)

[firstbooknyc]

i do love to think, just for fun, about the kind of movies and books i'd select for my future child to be raised on. like i believe in letting children read and watch what they want, but there'll be no disney in my house. i must have principles