readingaccountability

[readingaccountability]

I've been using these as illustration warmups for the past five weeks

[readingaccountability]

Hunger Games didn’t really eat holes in my brain the way that it did for some other people but god the opening lines. The opening lines. Katniss wakes up in bed and immediately, instinctively reaches beside her, only to find the bed empty and cold. Before we even know her name – before we know literally anything about her or this world or her place in that world – we know that she loves someone. We know that she is reaching for where Prim should be, sleeping safe and warm beside her, but Prim is not there. She is not there, and her half of the bed is cold and empty. People talk about characters being “doomed by the narrative” when most of the time the character was literally just a well-foreshadowed death, but Prim WAS doomed by the narrative. It’s the very first thing we learned. It’s the most key, integral, important piece of information we’re given about everything that is about to happen: Every single choice Katniss makes is to protect her little sister, and it isn’t enough. In the end, Prim still dies. Prim was dead before the story even started. Katniss, reaching. Prim’s side of the bed was cold and empty. There is no version of this story where Prim could have been saved. Katniss, reaching. The very first thing she does in the series. She wakes, and she reaches, but Prim is already gone. THAT is how you do Doomed By The Narrative. Edit: Also it is key that there was literally nothing Katniss could have done differently. If she had not acted to save Prim, Prim would not have survived the Hunger Games. But by acting to save Prim, Katniss accidentally kicked off an entire rebellion and ultimately massively increased the amount of danger Prim was actually in. The key is that this is irrelevant. If Katniss had done literally anything differently, Prim still would have died. If Katniss had faltered or changed course at any point, Prim still would have died. There was never a point where Katniss could have changed Prim’s fate. There’s no version of this story where Prim lives to see the end of it. She’s dead before the story begins. That’s doomed by the narrative.

[readingaccountability]

Intersex Paul Atreides is like. Ok. So he was supposed to be born a girl but his mother refused to force him to develop that way in utero. He's raised as a boy because the duke needs an heir but he is born with masculine and feminine traits, the latter growing more obvious as he matures into a very androgynous social role as both conqueror and psychic space witch. He can tap into both male & female ancestral powers. He's presumably really genetically quirky from being the culmination of the space eugenicist breeding thing. & this is just the plot of dune

[readingaccountability]

“It is said that, during the fantasy book in the late eighties, publishers would maybe get a box containing two or three runic alphabets, four maps of the major areas covered by the sweep of the narrative, a pronunciation guide to the names of the main characters and, at the bottom of the box, the manuscript. Please… there is no need to go that far. There is a term that readers have been known to apply to fantasy that is sometimes an unquestioning echo of better work gone before, with a static society, conveniently ugly ‘bad’ races, magic that works like electricity and horses that work like cars. It’s EFP, or Extruded Fantasy Product. It can be recognized by the fact that you can’t tell it apart form all the other EFP. Do not write it, and try not to read it. Read widely outside the genre. Read about the Old West (a fantasy in itself) or Georgian London or how Nelson’s navy was victualled or the history of alchemy or clock-making or the mail coach system. Read with the mindset of a carpenter looking at trees. Apply logic in places where it wasn’t intended to exist. If assured that the Queen of the Fairies has a necklace made of broken promises, ask yourself what it looks like. If there is magic, where does it come from? Why isn’t everyone using it? What rules will you have to give it to allow some tension in your story? How does society operate? Where does the food come from? You need to know how your world works. I can’t stress that last point enough. Fantasy works best when you take it seriously (it can also become a lot funnier, but that’s another story). Taking it seriously means that there must be rules. If anything can happen, then there is no real suspense. You are allowed to make pigs fly, but you must take into account the depredations on the local bird life and the need for people in heavily over-flown areas to carry stout umbrellas at all times. Joking aside, that sort of thinking is the motor that has kept the Discworld series moving for twenty-two years.”

— “Notes from a Successful Fantasy Author: Keep It Real” (2007), Terry Pratchett. (via the-library-and-step-on-it)

[readingaccountability]

Harrow the Ninth i love you..

[readingaccountability]

"I see you're trapped in my gay and stupid maze again" — Flora Sutton, probably

3/20 Queer Book Draw Challenge: A Marvellous Light by @fahye

[ID: an illustration of Edwin and Robin in the hedge maze scene. They are surrounded by a holly hedge, which reaches out to them with thorny vines. Robin is in the background, pinned against a neoclassical statue. In the foreground, Edwin kneels, face racked and hair askew. The vines are wrapped around his arms, leaving cuts and scratches. All of his focus is on a palmful of dirt in his hand. Behind them, the sky has darkened to the point of storm. End ID]

[readingaccountability]

[readingaccountability]

What books have you done this to?

Instagram / Shop

[readingaccountability]

When I was a kid I read a ton of books that were definitely not appropriate for my age. One of two things would happen:

I was too inexperienced to understand what I was reading, and it had no effect on me.

I understood what I was reading, and I leveled up.

[readingaccountability]

books read in 2024:

venco - cherie dimaline

the glass chateau - stephen p kiernan

thornhedge - t kingfishe

the very secret society of irregular witches - sangu mandanna

small gods - terry pratchett

the sirens of titan - kurt vonnegut

finlay donovan rolls the dice - elle cosimano

dune - frank herbert

city of last chances - adrian tchaikovsky

veronica ruiz breaks the bank - elle cosimano (#0.5)

flatland - edwin a abbott

the tao of pooh - benjamin hoff

he who drowned the world - shelley parker chan (#2)

the bell in the fog - lev ac rosen

buried deep and other stories - naomi noik

monstrous regiment - terry pratchett

the bullet that missed - rochard osman

the te of piglet - benjamin hoff

the parting glass - gina marie guadagnino

17776 - jon bois

all about love: new visions - bell hooks

honor - thrity umrigar

crime and punishment - fyodor dostoyevsky (the first half - usually i prefer to have books finished before the end of the year but this one is really long and i was only halfway, and its a reread anyway so it probably doesnt matter that much)

[readingaccountability]

2021 / 2022

top reads in 2023 (this year was so fundamental its impossible to narrow it down to ten):

blitz - daniel o'malley

the three-body problem trilogy - cixin liu

the change - kirsten miller

the conductors - nicole glover

stone butch blues - leslie feinberg

the house in the cerulean sea - tj klune

uprooted - naomi novik

the terraformers - annalee newitz

the scholomance trilogy - naomi novik

docile - k.m. szpara

spinning silver - naomi novik

fun home - alison bechdel

the wee free men - terry pratchett

pyramids - terry pratchett

moving pictures - terry pratchett

the truth - terry pratchett

the thursday murder club - richard osman

a hat full of sky - terry pratchett

the holdout - graham moore

top ten reads in 2024:

small gods - terry pratchett

the sirens of titan - kurt vonnegut

finlay donovan rolls the dice - elle cosimano

dune - frank herbert

he who drowned the world - shelley parker chan (#2)

the bell in the fog - lev ac rosen

monstrous regiment - terry pratchett

the bullet that missed - rochard osman

17776 - jon bois

all about love: new visions - bell hooks

2024 was definitely me slowing down (only read 23 books as compared to 70-90 in previous years) both from being much busier in general as well as trying to focus more and be more selective. fun times!

[readingaccountability]

from this point to the end of 2023 i read:

moving pictures - terry pratchett

black cake - charmaine wilkerson

the truth - terry pratchett

reforged - seth haddon

she who became the sun - shelley parker-chan

atalanta - jennifer saint

the thursday murder club - richard osman

a hat full of sky - terry pratchett

confidence - rafael frumkin

manhunt - gretchen felker-martin

until the last of me - sylvain neuvel

the man who died twice - richard osman

a power unbound - freya marske

the holdout - graham moore

a house with good bones - t kingfisher

updates!

have now read:

bringing down the duke - evie dunmore

abandon - blake crouch

fun home - alison bechdel

he said / she said - erin kelly

the wee free men - terry pratchett

the lost apothecary - sarah penner

recursion - blake crouch

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow - gabrielle zevin

pyramids - terry pratchett

currently reading:

moving pictures - terry pratchett

[readingaccountability]

No but the Hunger Games really said "what do you hate more- the atrocities or the people who commit them against you? Because like it or not there IS a difference. If you hate the people who commit acts of pure evil more than you hate the acts themselves, what will stop you from becoming just like your enemies in your pursuit of justice? What will keep you from commiting those very same acts against THEM when the opportunity arises? And what then? The cycle of pain and suffering will never stop. Round and round it'll go. Nothing will ever change. But. BUT. If you hate the atrocities. If you hate the vile, senseless acts MORE than you hate the people who did them to you. If you are able to see that evil is evil regardless of who does it... The cycle ends with you. No, you may never get justice. But you will never be responsible for making others, even your enemies, suffer the same crimes you have. The atrocities will never be committed by you, never by your hand. And that's the way you change the world. It's the ONLY way" and that's why I am sure it will never stop being one of the most relevant works of fiction ever created

[readingaccountability]

Compiling a collection of God Emperor of Dune book covers featuring artist's renditions of Him Worm

[readingaccountability]

The Scholomance: Galadriel. Hey. Galadriel. You should save these kid’s lives. Do it. Be a savior. Be selfless. I know you want to do it.

Galadriel: 

[readingaccountability]

thinking about station eleven and the innate human need to create. "survival is not enough" they quote from star trek. it is not enough for them to simply survive in this post-apocolyptic landscape. if all you are doing is surviving, you are not living. its not enough. that's what really gets me about Kirsten and Jeevan's time at the cabin. they are so at odds with each other, there is such misunderstanding. they are only surviving, they are not living, it isnt enough. and though the parting of their ways is particularly painful, it leads them both to more. they are no longer only surviving, they both have purpose, they both live.

we can't just survive. we need to dance, to sing, to play instruments, to write, to compose, to act, to create, to draw, to read, to tell stories, to share, to heal, to help, to forgive, to connect, to love. this story, above all else, is about connection, about the perserverence of art, about the need for more. we will always find a way to create and share. to help each other heal. we hold on to our stories and art as long as we need them. we cannot just survive. its not enough.

[readingaccountability]

i know the fanon is that annie wasn’t a career and just didn’t have anyone to volunteer for her but i actually think she’s more interesting as a career tbh. she trained her whole life, she volunteered, she saw her tribute partner get beheaded and the trauma was so strong it changed her forever. that’s it, that’s the post.