#BookWorm

[monstermonger]

Bookwyrm :3

[peacefulandcozy]

ig credit: chaptersofshau

[juliaxyn]

Even when you're tired, remember why you started.

[triflingthing]

There was a bookshop in Lisbon

[charliejaneanders]

Pre-ordering is inherently a hopeful, forward-looking action that declares that we will survive, and there will be wonderful books for us to read when we do.

My latest newsletter is about pre-ordering books (including mine!) and why it's a way not just to support authors, but also to make yourself more of a citizen in the republic of books.

[anythinggoesbutme]

Gravity’s Got You

Grayson Hawthorne x Lyra Kane

Warnings: Intoxication, vomiting (caretaking), reckless driving (no accidents), suggestive language, fluff, humor, very soft Grayson Hawthorne

Synopsis: While Grayson is racing his brothers like a reckless Hawthorne, Max calls with a very urgent message: Lyra is drunk out of her mind and trying to scale public property. It’s time to come get his girl.

Song: “505” — Arctic Monkeys

Word Count: 1,124

Tag List: @anintellectualintellectual @aria-filomena @angelnextdooor @runningoutofink8 @saythewordheiress @lyrrrr @laurilovesbooks @sp3ncerre1dsw1fe @joelmillerswifeyyy

It was supposed to be a normal night.

Well—normal by Hawthorne standards.

Which meant Grayson was in the front seat of a jet-black Ferrari, Nash was riding shotgun, and they were currently going 93 down a winding Texas backroad with Xander and Jameson right on their tail in a vintage Mustang.

The boys were racing.

No stakes. No planning. Just muscle memory, testosterone, and bad ideas.

“Left!” Nash yelled, laughing as headlights flashed behind them.

“Already on it,” Grayson muttered, shifting gears with clinical precision.

The tires screeched as he rounded the turn. Dust flew behind them. The wind whipped through the open windows, and Grayson’s jaw was set in that sharp, calculating way he had when adrenaline overruled anxiety.

“EAT SHIT!” Jameson’s voice bellowed from the rival car behind them.

“WE’RE GONNA EAT YOUR DUST, BUT MAKE IT FUN!” Xander added.

“I am making it fun!” Nash yelled over his shoulder. “Grayson’s just a coward about it!”

“Excuse me?” Grayson said flatly.

“You heard me! I said—”

Grayson floored it.

The speed was breathless. The engine growled like it belonged in a war movie. Trees blurred by.

Until—

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

His phone lit up in the console. MAXINE calling.

Grayson didn’t even think. He slammed the brake.

The Ferrari skidded across gravel. Nash swore. Xander nearly rear-ended them. Jameson howled something gleeful and loud.

Grayson grabbed his phone. “Maxine?”

“You need to come get Lyra.” Max’s voice was flat. Grim. “Right now.”

“What happened?”

“She climbed a sculpture.”

“What?”

“She also tried to give the valet a tarot reading using receipts from her purse, and she meowed at a security guard.”

Grayson rubbed his temple. “What the hell did you let her drink?”

“Nothing I didn’t supervise,” Max snapped. “She was fine at dinner. Avery, Libby and I were all sober. We still are. But then she found this drink called a Galaxy Dream and declared herself the embodiment of cosmic truth, and now she’s trying to parkour across a firepit.”

“Oh god.”

“She refuses to leave unless you come get her. She said, quote: Only Gray knows how to hold my hair right if I barf.”

Grayson was already pulling a U-turn. “Send me the address.”

“Already did.”

“I’m coming.”

“And Grayson?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s standing on a bench and quoting Shakespeare now.”

Grayson cursed under his breath.

“What’s going on?” Jameson called from the other car, sticking his head out the window like a golden retriever.

“Lyra,” Grayson called back, dead serious. “Emergency.”

“Shit.”

The club was high-end, rooftop, and annoyingly exclusive. Of course Lyra had convinced them in.

Grayson barely slowed down pulling up to the valet, didn’t bother looking twice at the people in line. He walked through the velvet ropes like he owned the damn place.

The bouncer saw him coming. One look at that Hawthorne face and all the tension in his shoulders disappeared. “Rooftop’s up the stairs.”

Grayson took them two at a time.

He saw Max first. Arms crossed. Jaw clenched. Sober and furious.

Libby and Avery were hovering near the bar, both looking equally unimpressed.

But Lyra?

Lyra was in full goblin mode.

She was barefoot on a stone bench beside a glowing firepit, one arm raised to the heavens like she was performing Hamlet. Her sparkly dress shimmered like a disco ball, one strap falling off her shoulder, her lipstick smudged in a way that somehow still looked hot.

“I AM A STAR,” she announced, wobbling. “YOU CANNOT CAGE THE COSMOS!”

Grayson exhaled. “Jesus Christ.”

“GRAY!” she shrieked, spotting him instantly. “MY GRAY KNIGHT HAS ARRIVED!”

“I told her you were coming,” Max said dryly. “She said she could feel you approaching through her soul bones.”

“Her what.”

“Don’t ask.”

Grayson crossed the lounge in five long strides. Lyra nearly fell off the bench trying to get to him, and he caught her by the waist mid-sway.

“Hi,” she whispered, blinking up at him like he’d come down from heaven. “You smell like gasoline and God.”

“You smell like tequila and war crimes,” he murmured, holding her upright.

“She tried to kiss a statue,” Avery offered. “For ‘symbolic reasons.’”

“She tried to summon her ‘inner dragon’,” Libby added.

“She succeeded,” Lyra insisted.

Grayson sighed. “I’m taking you home.”

“But the night—”

“Is over.”

“Just like that?” she pouted, arms around his neck. “No dramatic exit?”

He picked her up.

She shrieked in delight and buried her face in his neck. “I’m flying!”

“You’re being carried.”

“I like it.”

She started to quiet in the car. Sort of. She pressed her face to the window, mumbling about stardust and civil disobedience, then suddenly announced she might throw up.

“Window down,” he said calmly.

“Too late,” she groaned.

Grayson pulled into the Hawthorne driveway with tires crunching over the gravel and Lyra already clawing at the door handle.

“Wait,” he said, jumping out.

But she was gone, bolting across the lawn barefoot, arms spread like wings.

“Lyra!”

“Grass is nature’s carpet,” she called.

She made it halfway to the big oak before she dropped to her knees and gagged.

He dropped beside her fast, sweeping her curls away from her face, kneeling behind her as she threw up into the dark grass.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered.

She whimpered. “This is so gross.”

“You’re okay.”

“I’m not okay.”

“You will be.”

She hiccuped, then slumped against him.

He held her.

In the house, he cleaned her up. Brushed her teeth, wiped her face. Got her into one of his old shirts. She curled against the bathroom wall while he ran a warm washcloth over her forehead.

“I’m the worst girlfriend ever.”

“You’re the best girlfriend in the galaxy,” he said. “You said so yourself.”

“I was insane.”

“You were celebrating.”

“I was dancing with a glowstick and I hit myself in the eye.”

He smiled gently. “Still hot.”

She stared at him. “You’re so in love with me.”

He kissed her nose. “I really am.”

She refused to sleep anywhere but the big bed. Dragged him there with her. Curled into his chest like she couldn’t remember how to sleep without him.

“You saved me,” she whispered, half-asleep.

“Always will.”

“You’d hold my hair again, right?”

“Anytime.”

“You’d race across the universe if Max called and said I was being reckless?”

“I already did.”

She sighed. “Gravity’s got nothing on you.”

The Next Morning

She woke up with a hangover, a bottle of water, and a note.

You meowed at a security guard and tried to quote Shakespeare while standing on a firepit bench. 9.5/10 performance. Half-point deduction for projectile vomiting on the lawn.

Bagels coming. Stay horizontal.

— Your Gray Knight

She groaned. “I’m never drinking again.”

Then smiled.

Because god, she loved him.

[bookstackxyz]

Check out books by order

2023 in books, minus e-books, audiobooks, and borrowed and lent ones. a crisper list of favourites is on the rabbit hole

[authorinthemaking]

Be kind to your past self when rereading old writing. It just shows you've grown.

[unfairlyfallen]

@buried-in-the-archives

To be fair, Leitner and Jane are both in the walls, they could be kissing in there, you don't know.

I have no clue which of them to be more disgusted for... No, that's a lie,

Jane, you deserve better than this crusty old rat bastard, I understand that you are a writhing mass of larvae and decay, but please raise your standards. 🫶

.

.

[whilereadingandwalking]

It’s the kind of week where no amount of coffee is enough coffee.

[bookstackxyz]

Check out books by order

📷 Pinterest

[killerflame6623]

so I’m reading Silverborn rn and I love how every time Morrigan has a problem with wunder Squall just immediately comes and all I can imagine is this:

Morrigan: (does something)

Squall:

Squall: (stares into camera like it’s the office) she did something didn't she

Squall: I’m going to have to intervene aren’t I

Squall: sigh

[literaria-journal]

[46,47,48,49,50,51,52/100] days of productivity

Oh my! It's becoming increasingly difficult to remember to post updates for this challenge.

Anyway, I read a lot (Much ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare + Fernando Pessoa's poems and made progress with Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett), ate some delicious pastries for my bf's birthday, did a little bit of shopping (taking advantage of the summer sales). I finally found the perfect linen pants that actually fit my body and stay loose and are so gorgeous...I can't!

Lots of house chores, deep cleaning stuff.

Day 29 ➡️ 254/1049 pages read.

[shisasan]

Going down, because you are far away. That’s why I am writing.

July 22, 1916 Letters to Felice by Franz Kafka First published : 1973

[chasingrainbowsforever]

~ White HOT ~