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✨Books added to my TBR this past week! There were a lot of preorders.✨

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new years, new reads

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

(Yay, an actual review)

Storygraph genre: fiction, classics, dystopia

I originally read this book in high school, but unlike many of the classics my English Lit class assigned to read, I remembered this as one of my favorite books. Times being what they are, I decided to reread it, and finally got the book after a several-months waitlist. Nothing like the knowledge that you can't read this book again for ages to force you to read when you're in a slump, eh?

Fahrenheit 451 - the temperature at which book paper burns. In an uncomfortably-realistic dystopian future, firemen set fires rather than stop them. Guy Montag is a fireman like any other until he meets two strange women: one, a young neighbor who sees his life in ways even he cannot, and the other, who chooses to go down in flames with her books. Slowly, he starts to realize his society's idyllic paradise isn't so perfect after all, and finds the depth his life lacks in forbidden books.

I don't think I'm anything special - I can't say anything about a classic like this that hasn't already been said. But rereading this as an adult, in today's times, was a very interesting experience. Bradbury, in the 40s and 50s, writes a dystopian future that has some painfully similar aspects to our present-day world.

I was particularly moved by his representation of people being glued to television/screens - what might have seemed like a pretentious assumption when written as TV is just starting to gain traction, seems ominously familiar in the age of "screenmaxing", iPad kids, and TikTok addicts. (No judgment. I only started reading again as an adult as an attempt to detach myself from TikTok.)

Rereading this as an adult, I did notice some holdovers from the era in which the book was written. Namely, there really isn't a single intelligent female character, other than the seventeen-year-old manic pixie dream girl the main character has an honestly strange fascination with.

But while I think it's important to identify these issues in older texts, I also can't discredit how important of a book this is. If you haven't read it, or if you haven't read it recently, I encourage it. It feels very prescient to read in 2025, and more than a little depressing to think that it's still so relevant today.

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Caturday... Updates

✦•┈๑⋅⋯ ᓚᘏᗢ ⋯⋅๑┈•✦

Spring semester is finally over, but I only get a short break before my summer class starts, and life in general is just A Lot right now. I figured it would be better to give y'all something for today's Caturday. Especially because the world needs more Jackie, in my opinion.

I have barely been reading anything, in part due to a stressful semester/life, but also because I redownloaded a social media app I was genuinely addicted to. Terrible idea. I tried and tried to limit my usage, but I was wasting way too much time on it and decided to delete it again.

In part because I'm finishing books at a much slower pace, and to try and remove some of my self-imposed expectations, I'm putting a pause on the weekly wrap-ups and will instead post updates at a more natural, unscheduled pace.

In that vein, I'm drafting up a proper update on books I've finished, DNF'd, read, or plan to read. When that's posted, hopefully by tomorrow, you'll notice I've decided to nix the Goodreads links. I'm trying to give Amazon the middle finger in any way I can, but since its huge audience can be greatly impactful for authors, I'm compromising by continuing to cross post reviews there. So, for now, when I list a book and link a place you can find it, the link will only be to Storygraph.

I liked giving people a choice in links/services, so I'm open to suggestions for other places I can link to! The best alternative I was thinking of is BookBub; let me know what you think of that. I won't be using or linking to Fable, so I'm sorry if that's your go-to.

That's all for now. Thanks for sticking around through my ghost era. I need to make reading a priority again, and that includes posting my reviews for you guys.

/)/) ( . .) ( づ♡

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hello! i just saw your review for our infinite fates and felt compelled to say i could not have vibed MORE. it’s satisfying to see my mish mosh of thoughts put into words, re: enjoying the flashback chapters, appreciating the book generally but finding bits repetitive or too on the nose. but especially the ending for me was so…flat? i was so hype to be nearing the reveal, and it was out of left field in a way i feel like could have been offset if The Big Thing had been introduced early on, but perhaps implied? so we could get a few hints or foreshadowing moments that would have made it Click! in the end. like i wish we’d gotten to see more of it all rather than a final four quickly resolved chapters. and i think i would have enjoyed the end whether it was happy or sad, but i did find i enjoyed the last chapter. something about it felt kind of cinematic lolll

I'm so glad this resonated with you!!

I definitely agree some foreshadowing would've really helped it feel less jarring and out of left field. And how cool it would've been to see more of that bit of world development, learn more of its intricacies.

I totally don't blame you for enjoying the last chapter, it definitely felt very cinematic. I do think it was a nice resolution in its own way.

Thanks for reaching out with this, I've been struggling with writing reviews again, and it's nice to hear something like this :)

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ocean books 🌊📘🐟

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the problem with reading and writing leading to a strong vocabulary is that you tend to know the vibe of words instead of their meanings.

if I used this word in a sentence, would it make sense? absolutely. if you asked me what it meant, could I tell you? absolutely not.

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botanical books 🌷🌸

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when you start reading again and it's like oh. oh . the sun actually does still shine.

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Shop & Instagram

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Oh no, I read the news too much today, so if you need me I will be..

Links

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My new class is killing me, but I'm going to try to post a Caturday review today. I think I'll scrap the Wednesday wrap-ups for now and just post the short reviews more frequently as I finish the books. Hopefully that'll make it easier to give you guys reviews and feel less overwhelming for me!

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boston public library