beelovesreading

[beelovesreading]

[beelovesreading]

Some observations on book covers

Edit because apparently this needs to be said: the point of a book cover is to tell you what you're about to read and whether or not you want to read it. Following trends in cover design doesn't mean the book is bad or had a bad cover designer. It's visual communication. I've read and enjoyed about half the books featured here.

[beelovesreading]

literary kinsey scale time

i’m just curious what mix of fiction and nonfiction the average tumblrina is consuming

[beelovesreading]

Books on Libby have started disappearing.

My friend pointed it out first, and then I started noticing too. Why would books that multiple libraries definitely, 100% had digital access to a couple of months/weeks/days ago disappear?

Amazon is getting exclusive rights to them.

Ebooks that the public library once had digital copies of are now only available through Amazon. Audible boasts on their covers about Audible-exclusive audiobooks that did not used to be Audible-exclusive. Entire series and collections are disappearing overnight.

Keep your eyes on the privatization of media and your libraries.

[beelovesreading]

All my current book spine bookmarks!

[beelovesreading]

I've been guilty of this in the past, but I'm old now, and tired of seeing a bunch of little shits on every author's post going "okay so you mention the representation and some tropes, but what is it ABOUT???" Gee, if only there was some way for us to figure out what the book is about beyond the author-provided trope map? Mayhaps the author-provided link to where the book is being sold, which also contains the blurb? Maybe we do an ounce of work instead of filling ops replies with the same comment?

Maybe we can also acknowledge that trope map/rep-based book advertising gets more attention, and far too many people will see a promo post with full blurb and go "hmmm that's too many words." Maybe we can acknowledge that self-pubbed authors are working with a very different beast in the publishing industry and might need to promo their books in ways you don't prefer, and you yourself can help by clinking a single link? I promise, in the time it takes for you to bitch about a struggling author marketing via a trope map, you could have already read the blurb.

[beelovesreading]

picturing griddlehark college/otherwise normal aus is so fucking funny. like. you meet this lesbian couple, right. one of them is on a full sports scholarship, she's big, beefy, a little lacking in social skills but obviously happy to try. she swears every other sentence, has a poster of megan fox in transformers in her bedroom like a 13 year old boy. she's got an anime girl phone background. she wears a black choker all the time which does NOT match her otherwise purely sun's-out-guns-out-paired-with-cargo-shorts type wardrobe.

the other one is a full head shorter than her and shaped like a stick, wears exclusively big, shapeless cardigans and skirts that reach her ankles, will not speak to anyone but the beefcake in full sentences if she can avoid it, and visibly has not slept in a week. the one time you convince her to speak, she ends up insulting you in the most unnecessarily graphic and specific terms you have ever heard, gives you a look which singlehandedly curdles every ounce of self-esteem you've ever possessed, and immediately returns her attention to studying.

one day, you finally work up the courage to ask how the fuck they met and why they're dating. they tell you that they both grew up in a small-town christian cult which the stick figure's parents actually led, beat the shit out of each other daily for their entire childhoods, and finally resolved their differences in their late teens and immediately ran away together. the stick figure twitches up a sleeve of her oversize black cardigan to reveal a bracelet made of the beefcake's baby teeth that she personally knocked out of her skull. the beefcake smiles at her like this is the height of romance. the only issue they will acknowledge in their relationship is that when she was little, the stick figure fell madly in love with a painting of the virgin mary and has never quite recovered. they've been married for 3 years. they are 20 years old.

also the beefcake wears the choker because the stick figure said "no" to dog collars in public.

[beelovesreading]

What's cool about Gideon I think is that she's actually, in-universe non-conforming, rather than just being "butch" or "masc" to our sensibilities but relatively passé within the universe. We read Gideon as masculine, yes, but it's not like Gideon acts like Ortus, or Mortus, or Crux. Nor does she act like Aiglamene, for that matter. The Ninth to me presents a kind of monastic androgyny - everyone shaves their head, everyone wears baggy black robes, everyone paints their face. Gideon, with her "ridiculous" hair and aversion to skull paint, is therefore non-conforming to the gender of Ninth. She's also non-conforming to the gender of cavalier, it's not something she was raised in, it's something she struggles to "pass" as. Gideon is basically transcavalier. And I think that's cool! I've seen a lot of people posit basically "what would it even mean to be 'butch' in a post-gender society" and I think Gideon solves that equation nicely by being "butch" to us in the real world and being decidedly nonstandard for both Ninth cavalier and a cavalier in general within the text. You need to look beyond what we consider arbitrarily "masculine" and "feminine" in order to effectively analyze gender in tlt, and I for one think that's very interesting

[beelovesreading]

You know i keep seeing so jokes about books with "therapy speak" and posts about why that's bad and how it ought to be XYZ and

I've not once seen a post with an actual example of this apparent phenomenon? What books are doing this? Is it actually a widespread plague? Everyone's agreeing 'that would be bad' but like have you actually seen this in the wild?

[beelovesreading]

I am p convinced most of those posts complaining about books where characters constantly introduce themselves by their microlabels are popular mainly with people who have never read or seen a book like that. Same with the complaints over "poly lesbian barbarians in space" marketing

Look. Guys. Listen.

1. Marketing books by labels shouldn't be the sole detail given, obviously

2. The reason people do it is because it actually works far better than marketing based on plot. People do, in fact, care about seeing repsentation because many identities still have very little representation out there. Advertising based on this Does Better. People ignore books they haven't heard of, indie books, all the time— authors need to advertise instead to those communities looking for representation. As an author who has tried various appeals back in the day. I can promise you this is why. Most authors I've spoken to about this agree reducing your book down to tropes and rep feels Ugh, but unfortunately, it works.

3. The discussion around it, and the writing of marginalised identities, so often turns hostile and exclusion based. "I hate when a character says they're asexual it should only be hinted at" do you know how long it could only ever BE hinted at?

4. Obviously the execution varies and should make sense. Of course it's off if a very historical novel suddenly uses modern slang. Of course it can be cringe. Of course it can suck. Okay.

5. But how much are you actually encountering stuff like this in your reading, versus seeing people complain and agreeing "that sounds like shit"? It's... a vastly overstated problem.

6. You guys need to read more indie books, where you can find all kinds of representation, subtle or explicit.

7. Every post on the topic is full of notes just talking about Hell Followed With Us. I agree that book was pretty silly with its post-apocalyptic cast fighting over identity politics but also if any group was going to fight over labels in the angel apocalypse it's pretty realistic for it to be 16 year olds living in a LGBTQ community center. Like tbh. Checks out

[beelovesreading]

The beauty of ebook readers (as in the physical devices) is that you can adjust the font size and it reflows the entire book.

In unrelated news I recently bought Stormlight Archive 1-4 compiled into a single ebook.

10969 pages. That's a lot of journey before destination.

[beelovesreading]

Do you have a hot take about romance novels/the romance genre

I wish more male leads in het romances were under six feet tall and didn't have abs and were maybe even fat sometimes where the fuck is the wish fulfillment for bitches who like regular men

[beelovesreading]

ig credit: myphotography_com

[beelovesreading]

my friend hates her mother's evil cat so much and wants him to die and im just now finding out his name is tubby pumpkin 😭 like bro why do u have beef with tubby pumpkin

[beelovesreading]

2025 Book Bingo TBR?/Hopefuls

I've been seeing the 2025 book bingo challenge by @batmanisagatewaydrug floating around and I figured it would be really fun to participate! I'm starting very late but I'll include books I've read earlier in the year (as long as they aren't being used in other reading challenges :p ). Because my main goal with reading challenges is to reduce my physical TBR (because I have problems) I'm going to be a little loose with some of these (I'll explain as it comes up lol) and I might not hit all the squares but I'll try my best! Though, I will likely use the library for things like memoirs/non fiction/literary fiction, since I do want to read more of those but don't own a lot of it.

Rough plans/what has already been checked off:

Literary fiction: Honestly. Not sure yet and I don't want to box myself in. I'm typically not the biggest fan of the genre, but it's so vast I'm bound to find something I like. I might read Pride & Prejudice, The Color Purple, or maybe Milk Fed.

Short Story collection: I'm in luck, because I recently picked up All Out (edited by Saundra Mitchell). I'm hoping to read it throughout June since it's a queer anthology collection! I've read two of the stories thus far.

Sequel: I'm going to claim this as A Wild and Ruined Song by Ashley Shuttleworth, the finale of the Hollow Star Saga. I recently finished this one, and it was a lovely conclusion to the series!

Reread a childhood fave: sorry batman I'm going to bend the rules here :p I'm going to read The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages for this one. The first book of this series is so near and dear to my heart and is probably the most Childhood Fave book I can think of, but I've owned this book since it came out and haven't read it yet and I'm ashamed so. Forcing myself to here <3

20th Century speculative: I'm just scrapping by here (published 1998), but I hope to read The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan here, the next book for me in the wheel of time series. I'm still waiting on this audiobook to come in from the library, since for some reason my library only doesn't have this book in the series lol.

Fantasy: This is one of the main genres I read, so I'll save this space for my favourite fantasy of the year!

Published before 1950: truly spoiled for choices in general. I might pick up the Odessey or the Illiad, Dracula, Frankenstein, any of the Arsene Lupin books I received or anything else that catches my fancy.

Indie publisher: I try to read a lot of indie published books, so I'll include my favourite one at the end of the year. As of now that would be Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao, but I hope to also read Failure to Communicate by Kaia Sonderby (sorry don't have the O with a line on this keyboard) which I also think I'll really enjoy.

Graphic novel/comic: I'll be reading On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden, another one I've owned but haven't read for an embarrassingly long time.

Animal on the cover: I might revist this one later, but for now I'll say I'm readin Cazadora by Romina Garber.

Set in a country never visited: I'm honestly not able to think of anything right now off the top of my head, so I'll update at the end of the year with some book, since I do try to read roughly around the world and have only visited Canada/US so that leaves me with a lot of options.

Science fiction: Also have plenty of choices! However, I would really like to read Second Rebel by Linden A. Lewis so I'll put that as my TBR, but if I don't get to it I'm sure I'll read other sci fi :)

2025 debut author: It seems the only one on my TBR that fits this is Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Quin, but I do try to generally read debut authors because it's fun, even if they're not published this year :p

Memoir: this is another one where I'll save it until the end of the year, though I don't read many memoirs. If I don't read any others this year, I read A History of my Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt, which was incredibly well written.

Zines: I don't have any interest in making a zine (sorry batman), so instead I'll make more of an effort to read and support local artists making zines. I read one last month and it was really fun ! (I'll edit with the title when I find it again)

Essay collection: Nothing's coming to mind of anything on my physical TBR that fits this, but I'll try to keep it in mind when checking out non fiction from the library!

2024 award winner: A lot of award winners are not super my jam, but I am interested in Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh, which won the Hugo award last year!

Non fiction, learn something new: Now. This is a little cheating because I got paid to read it since I read it for work, but I read Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production handbook (I read it cover to cover which is why I'm counting it, I definitely wasn't expected to), which taught me tons about the printing process, both history and how it works! Completely new info and really fascinating! People don't spend enough time thinking about printers/printing press, and especially for readers, it's really interesting!

Social justice and activism: This is the main thing I try to read when I read non-fiction, so I'll update at the end of year with my favourite, though for now I really loved A Place of Our Own by June Thomas, which is non fiction about queer women's spaces!

Romance novel: Ditto fantasy and indie published, I read a lot of this! I'll choose my favourite at the end of the year.

Read and make a recipe: This is reminding me I should try out the recipes that come with books! I mean otherwise this prompt is filled out by virtue of me loving to cook and finding recipes online :)

Horror: This will either be filled out by Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo if I get to it before You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White, which comes out late this year.

Published in the 2000s: Hey chat can I cheat and choose Wheel fo time again :p (Winter's Heart, book 8 and the book after the book I chose for prompt 5 was published in 2000!) If I don't get to it, I read a lot of early 2000s paranormal romance, so I'll pick my favourite.

Historical fiction: I've really been dropping the ball on this one lately. His Convenient Highland Wedding by Janice Preston, any of the Beverly Jenkins I own (I think there's 3 I haven't read?), The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley, Siren's Song by Trish Albright are the historical romances I have on hand. If historical fantasy can be counted, I will add to my potential list Descendant of the Crane by Joan He, The Valiant by Leslie Livingston, and A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske.

I honestly have no idea which books have been recommended to me by booksellers or librarians since I know there's a bunch, but I did read Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt which is on the Indie Next list, which. could count in a pinch but isn't the spirit of the prompt. Because I want to get my physical TBR books down in number, I think I'll ask my librarian-in-training friend to recommend me a book (off of what I have).

Very rambly but there are my plans/hopefulls/what I've already read for each prompt! I'll be replying to this thread as things get updated more and more :)

[beelovesreading]

If we wanted to engage in nuance (lol, lmao) on the "are audiobooks reading" debate, we really do need to bring literacy, and especially blind literacy, into the conversation.

Because, yes, listening to a story and reading a story use mostly the same parts of the brain. Yes, listening to the audiobook counts as "having read" a book. Yes, oral storytelling has a long, glorious tradition and many cultures maintained their histories through oral history or oral + art history, having never developed a true written language, and their oral stories and histories are just as valid and rich as written literature.

We still can't call listening in the absence of reading "literacy."

The term literacy needs to stay restricted to the written word, to the ability to access and engage with written texts, because we need to be able to talk about illiteracy. We need to be able to identify when a society is failing to teach children to read, and if we start saying that listening to stories is literacy, we lose the ability to describe those systemic failures.

Blind folks have been knee-deep in this debate for a long time. Schools struggle to provide resources to teach students Braille and enforcing the teaching of Braille to low-vision and blind children is a constant uphill battle. A school tried to argue that one girl didn't need to learn Braille because she could read 96-point font. Go check what that is. The new prevalence of audiobooks and TTS is a huge threat to Braille literacy because it provides institutions with another excuse to not provide Braille education or Braille texts.

That matters. Braille-literate blind and low-vision people have a 90% employment rate. For those who don't know Braille, it's 30%. Braille literacy is linked to higher academic success in all fields.

Moving outside the world of Braille, literacy of any kind matters. Being able to read text has a massive impact on a person's ability to access information, education, and employment. Being able to talk about the inability to read text matters, because that's how we're able to hold systems accountable.

So, yes, audiobooks should count as reading. But, no, they should not count as literacy.

[beelovesreading]

bingewatching will never come close to bingereading. there is nothing like blocking out the entire Earth for ten hours to read a book in one sitting no food no water no shower no bra and emerging at the end with no idea what time it is or where you are, a dried-up prune that's sensitive to light and loud noises because you've been in your room in the dark reading by the glow of a single LED. it's like coming back after a three-month vacation in another dimension and now you have to go downstairs and make dinner. absolutely transcendental