#This book is getting a physical copy bought to be put on the shelf

[rollerskatinglizard]

Binding A Page In Print!!!

It took a month to work out all the kinks (lol) but our steamy vampire romance novella Binding a Page is finally available for print on demand! (Meaning you won't find it on the shelf in a physical store: they only print a copy when you order it.) I know it's at Amazon and Barnes & Noble's site, and it should be at most other online retailers.

There's the front and back covers and first page of my author's proof copy, looking good!

Binding a Page: Chris is a small-town high school drop-out from West Virginia, still trying to find his feet in the deadly currents of vampire high society after being turned into one of their Rulers by accident. Gabe is a disgraced Page, stripped of his bond and left starving and alone in Chris's guest bed by a man who wishes neither of them well. An unlikely match, nonetheless Chris and Gabe find themselves drawn together against a world they're desperate to escape… and find in one another a chance for true freedom.

Content warnings: Mention of: domestic, emotional and sexual abuse, drug use, captivity, violence, non-consensual bondage.

“Bought it and read it all the way through in one go, I couldn't put it down—sweet, hot, and great worldbuilding!” —ValencePositive

“Highly enjoyable for fans of complicated vampire politics, emotionally-sensitive men who want to do the right thing, and sex that’s full of feelings.” —thinofsubstance

I'm extremely excited about getting a book into print, and I hope our readers are too. Go forth and order if you want to hold this book in your hands!

[azsazz]

heyyy i had a teeny tiny lil wuestion and im a lil shy to ask it off anon lmaoo

SO

how did you go about making midnight muse a book?

like after you drafted and edited and all that fun stuff, how did you like. start to get it published? AM I MAKING SENSE?

see this is why im on anon

hiiiiiiii. im here to answer ur teeny tiny lil question my sweet anon 💙

hmmm...so after drafting and editing, you have to figure out how you want to published. you can either self-publish (which is what i'm doing) or try and go with a trad publisher.

i'm not sure the entire process of finding a trad publisher besides finding an agent (i think) and querying which is writing to the different agencies and trying to get them to read your book. If you'd like more information on trad publishing i'm def not the right person to ask, so i'd suggest googling it!

as for self-publishing, i'm choosing to go with Amazon KDP (kindle direct publshing). It's a fairly simple process. You create your account and upload your files, set your prices and dates and basically you're done.

I'm also uploading my book on IngramSpark which is the website where most bookstores and libraries order their books from, so this is also an important step. It's essentially the same process as KDP but takes a little longer for them to review your files and info.

When your book is done being edited, you can copyright it which is what I did. It was $45 but i don't believe this step is necessary but could be a good idea.

Then you have to format it. I used Vellum to do mine but if you know how to use InDesign or I believe Scrivener (cheapest option of the 3 and you can actually write your book here and keep all your thoughts organized) can do formatting as well. You can download all of the versions that you need for the interior files of your book (EPUB, paperback print, hardback print, etc). You can also pay someone to format for you.

You also need a book cover. I paid someone to make mine and they made it for all of the different formats i needed it in (like above). i found them by looking at the books with covers i liked on my shelf and seeing who made them because it says who designed the covers on them.

you'll also need ISBN's, but i believe you can get them through KDP or IngramSpark. I bought a bundle of ISBN's from Bowker. You need one ISBN per place you upload your book, so one for paperback print on KDP, one for the ebook on KDP, one for the paperback on Ingramspark, and one for the ebook on ingram, etc. If you want an audiobook, you'll need one for that too. KDP puts a barcode of their own on your book so you don't have to pay for that.

Then you upload all your files, wait for them to process, and then you can order a physical copy of your book!

hmmmm hopefully this helps, but if you have more specific questions or any other ones i'd be happy to explain more! 💙

i also have a post about costs i paid for during this process here if it might help!

[literaticat]

How does Barnes & Noble allocate shelf space and choose books to put on display? Do publishers pay to have their books in Barnes & Noble stores? Do they pay to have their books displayed in prominent spots? What about independent bookstores? How do bookstores and libraries find out about upcoming books to order? Thanks!

Oy. This could be the topic of like, a nonfiction book (for a very niche audience), or a college seminar, rather than a TUMBLR POST, but hey.

First, a caveat: Please do bear in mind that, while I have 35 years of bookstore experience, I don't work for B&N or have any insider access to B&N; all my knowledge about B&N comes from easily available, non-paywalled reportage that can be found by anyone online. I have never worked for a library except as a board member, so I have zero insider library collections knowledge. I also was a bookstore buyer a decade ago at this point, so some things might have changed -- and I worked for an independent bookstore (key word is INDEPENDENT -- ie, different indies may have totally different ways of doing things!) -- So this is quite broad strokes info.

I'm going to take your questions out of order because it will make more sense.

How do bookstores and libraries find out about upcoming books to order?

The first and most obvious way bookstores and libraries find out about upcoming books to order is via the Publisher's Frontlist Catalogue. "Frontlist" is the term for BRAND NEW / FORTHCOMING BOOKS. Catalogue is exactly what it sounds like -- literally a big ol' catalogue that describes the books, has early reviews and blurbs and whatnot, is full of praise for the books, yadda yadda. Catalogues are divided into multiple "seasons" throughout the year. (Nowadays, catalogues are mostly digital via Edelweiss -- but the same concept applies!)

Generally speaking, publishers have Regional Sales Reps across the country. Those reps physically go to the bookstores in their region every season and present the future season's frontlist offerings (ie, the stuff in the catalogue!) to the buyer. (Very small or far-away stores might have a phone rep -- and nowadays some rep meetings are done via Zoom -- but you get the idea!) The reps have marketing material like ARCs or samples of the books to share, and be able to give more intel than the catalogue alone can do.

It's the sales rep's job to know the bookstore buyer well, know the audience who shops there, and make great recommendations to the buyer. The buyer makes decisions about what to stock based in part on the sales rep's recommendation, but also on whether or not they liked the book or think that their patrons will like it, and based on historical data, like how that author or genre usually does in their store, etc etc.

Sales reps visit about 6 months prior to the season being discussed -- so the Fall 2024 books that are in stock at stores now and in time for Christmas were certainly already ordered before Easter.

Independent Bookstores have their own sales reps; B&N and Target and Amazon and places like that have their own sales reps just for them. (I don't really know how it works for libraries -- very big library systems might also have their own sales reps, but I don't think very small systems would, but idk!)

Other ways they find out about books to order: Booksellers and librarians (and publishers) attend library conferences and trade shows every year, sometimes multiple per year both regional and national; the publisher's sales and marketing teams do presentations about books, have booths with all their upcoming books on display, etc etc.

Booksellers and librarians also are regular people in society, so sometimes they find out about new books sometimes the same way anyone does - through the media and social media! They read reviews, listen to the radio, watch Colbert, go on Instagram, or whatever -- so if they skipped it or only bought two copies when they saw it in the catalogue months and months ago, but then there's a huge media blitz about it, or some amazing reviews come through, the publisher will probably send them a note like "heyyyy just so you know, this is getting HUGE BUZZ, you should probably order extra!"

Basically: Publishers Sales, Marketing and Publicity departments are all doing things behind the scenes for months before a book ever hits a bookstore shelf. That's how books get on the shelf.

How does Barnes & Noble allocate shelf space and choose books to put on display? (What about indie bookstores?)

B&N now chooses books to be on display at the store level. (More on that in the next question). So I'll answer the Indie Bookstore part, and we can assume that a very similar calculus is going on at individual B&N locations!

As explained above, buyers order most of the frontlist books for any bookstore from their sales rep many months before they come out. For a chain bookstore like B&N or a very large independent with multiple locations, that frontlist buyer may be located in some central location -- for smaller stores, buyers are on-site at the bookstore. (A store might also have a "backlist" or "restock" buyer, either the same person or, for a bigger store, a totally different person, who places smaller orders from wholesalers during the week to fill special orders for books customers request and to replenish stock of books they are selling well).

On the backend, bookstores use "turn" to allocate how much shelf space a given section will have -- but that's a much more technical / granular answer that you can read more about here. But as for what comes in and what gets displayed, the new books get into the store in the first place because the buyers have ordered them months in advance, usually via the sales rep (as described above), and when they come in, booksellers use their brains and taste to display them.

Most bookstores have several tables or displays that are always the same (with rotating stock) -- something like New and Noteworthy in every section. So New Hardcover Fiction, New Paperback Fiction, New SF/F, New Nonfiction, etc. When large piles of new books come in every tuesday, the booksellers on the floor will put the piles of books on the New table appropriate for that book. If a pile is getting low, they will swap those ones out so that they table looks full. You get the picture!

Most bookstores also have temporary displays -- seasonal, for a holiday, or themed in some way. For example, it's late October as I type this, and my local bookstore currently has a Kids Halloween display, an adult "Spooky Season" display, a display about democracy/voting (because election day is around the corner), a display about autumn/cozy vibes, a display about fiber arts (because the town hosts a massive craft show), etc. The manager or the owner or one of the booksellers might decide "oh, isn't it funny that all these books have OWLS on them this season, let's make an OWL display" -- and they put whatever they want on it.

(Again, for B&N, many decisions probably also are made at Headquarters -- BUT, individual stores have leeway about how they display their books based on their location, etc etc.)

Do publishers pay to have their books in Barnes & Noble stores? Do they pay to have their books displayed in prominent spots? What about independent bookstores?

Yes and no? Kindaaa, but not really in the way you are thinking?

ETA: THIS IS INSANELY COMPLICATED AND THE EXPLAINER BELOW IS JUST BARELY SCRATCHING THE SURFACE. It's just the best I can do, in this forum, right now.

OK. There's something called "Co-Op" -- that stands for like, "co-operative marketing" or something like that. There's a world in which you could consider Co-Op "publishers paying to have books in stores" -- that's how it kind of was historically, anyway.

Basically, IN THE PAST (I really can't stress that enough), publishers and major bookstores like B&N would come to some sort of agreement about certain titles that would "get co-op" -- like, OK, we have a Spooky Season table in the front of the store, it will cost you X-hundreds/thousands (??) of dollars to have a pile of your new upcoming book SPOOKY GHOST STORY on the front table of every B&N store. Publishers paid it, the bookstore ordered all those books and put them on display. Here's an article about that from 2010 that gives the basics and some links.

This straight-up "paying for a display slot" MIGHT still be the case at stores like Target, I have no idea. But for B&N, it's not the case anymore. This article from 2022 explains how the revamp of B&N includes getting rid of "pay to play" displays:

"Although the chain’s stores carry similar titles, in a shift away from centralized buying, individual managers determine where the books are placed and order quantities. The focus better aligns assortments with local tastes. Mr. Daunt told Publishers Weekly last year his goal is to provide managers with tools and then “get out of the way.”

Co-op title placement practices have also been ended because unpopular titles were receiving prominent placement and driving excessive return rates."

FWIW, Indie bookstores didn't / don't usually do "co-op" in quite the same way -- a single independent bookstore simply doesn't have the money or clout for it to be worth it for a publisher to pay them for title placement. Like, if Grandma Sassy's Olde Bookery orders five copies of a new book, that's huge for them, the publisher doesn't care what Grandma does with her displays, it's not making a dent for Penguin Random House, you know? Much different deal than a chain.

HOWEVER, co-op isn't ONLY about "pay to play" title placement. For example, let's say the publisher has a huge new book they want to promote because it is hotly anticipated and they have nine bajillion copies. They might create a special display out of cardboard (called a "dump") that fits 15 copies of the book -- any bookstore who orders 15+ copies of the book gets this special cool display, and a special discount.

OR, maybe the publisher decides to do a "Summer Reading Special" where they create special paperbacks of 20 different titles that have "buy two get one free" stickers on them -- if a bookstore wants to participate, they will order however-many copies of those books, but they will get a much better discount, both as an incentive to participate and put these titles on display and push them, and to make up for the money they would be losing by giving some of them away.

OR, a bookstore is doing a special event for an author, and they pay for a bunch of special posters to be made -- they might be able to get reimbursed from the publisher for some or all of the money they spent.

Those things are (kinda) the publisher "paying" the bookstore, so they are also technically co-op marketing! But as you can see, it's not quite the same as publishers directly paying a bookstore for a certain title's placement.

Sorry for the length, but hey -- that was a lot of questions!

[momolady]

Do you have book or author recs? Thank you! ☺️

I’m afraid I haven’t kept up with my reading in the past few years. Last thing I read was “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jeanette McCurdy (so good holy shit” but I think everyone knows that book by now. So I am going to rec some of my favorite and comfort books.

This is my favorite book of all time. I absolutely love the way Peter S. Beagle writes. If you love the movie, the book makes the movie so much better. The graphic novel is also a favorite, it’s gorgeous.

I can remember reading Allie Brosh online eons ago. Her first book has the best depiction of depression I’ve ever seen. And the second book in particular means the world to me. I got it a year after my brother’s passing and her talking about her grief over her sister’s death helped me understand my grief and pain. They’re equal parts hilarious and gutting. Absolute favorites that I reread every year if I can.

Anything Carrie Fisher. Just like Allie Brosh she’s equal parts hilarious and gutting. I read this book when I found it at the thrift store I worked at and it’s stayed with me through three moves and more. Read all her stuff, she’s brilliant and I miss her constantly.

This was one of the books my mom had on the shelf she told me not to look at. I constantly looked at it. The artwork in it spoke to me and stuck with me all through my adolescence. There’s a piece of art that I believe is part of my monster fucker origin. But the story is nice and short and it’s really fun.

As a child my mom put on the universal monster movies between Disney viewings to save her sanity. Creature from the Black Lagoon was a marvel to me. The underwater scenes were my favorite. So this book and the creation of the character was the perfect read for me. Millicent Patrick is one of the coolest people to ever exist.

Two of my favorite Beauty and the Beast retellings I think Robin McKinley is pretty much on everyone’s list. Beast is a really fascinating retell from the Beast’s pov, and it still strikes me to this day. (Don’t tell anyone but I stole the Beast book from my high school back in the day).

When I turned 18 these were the books mom bought me for my birthday. Granted, this was also the woman who let me read Interview With a Vampire way too young so I dunno why she thought this would be such a shocking gift. Anyways, these books really introduced me to erotic writing and are probably the reason I’m even here today.

Shout out to @monster-bait this book is so much fun and the characters are enchanting. I really want to get her new book but I’ve been broke and I love having physical copies. (Also I haven’t been reading lately and I’d feel bad if the book just sat there).

I’d love to have suggestions and if any of you have books out there you’ve published you’d like me to read please let me know! I’d love to support my fellow writers here before I buy anything else.

[hklnvgl]

I love getting to ask you about books because you've always got something interesting to talk about!

For the end-of-year book ask: 2, 3, 6, 15 & 18.

omg hiiii i love talking about books with you too! if you think about it it was books that first brought us together ✨

2. Did you reread anything? What?

i did reread volume 4 of mdzs twice before volume 5 came out because i didn't know what to do with myself while i waited. i meant to reread the letter by walter somerset maugham but never got around to it

3. What were your top five books of the year?

hmmm i usually make a list the last days of december but for now i'd say the layover by lacie waldon, the master and margarita by mikhail bulgakov, the makioka sisters by tanizaki junichiro, the mercies by kiran millwood hargrave and of course dial a for aunties by jesse q sutanto. but i also loved here lived nefertiti by mary chubb and love for lydia by h e bates.

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

yes! tons! to live by yu hua has been sitting in my shelf for a year or so 🫣 last winter i wanted to read doctor zhivago but then i never did. and i bought it last month so i thought somewhere this month i'd fit it in but then i put a hold on war and peace in the library and it's coming next week so i guessed it'd be just too much russian lit all together so i'm waiting a bit on dr zhivago 😅

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

i have no idea let me check. i did read half of a yellow sun by chimamanda ngozi adichie, that won the women's prize in 2007, and absolutely loved it (though i had a hard time reading it!)

18. How many books did you buy?

omg too many! counting only physical copies because i've definitely bought lots of ebooks too: 28 i think, though a couple i might have bought in 2022? cant' remember 🙃

end of year book asks

[littlewalken]

jun 22

Any long time listeners really in to having physical copies of Spider-Man comic books but not pristine ones? I mean well read, bought used in a bundle, former library copies, fold it up and stick it in your pocket just to see fan boys cringe ones? Long story short I think I will be cleaning out my comic stash in favor of digital versions and short of cutting them up to make art projects if someone else wants to read 'em we can work something out.

Meanwhile I put the small spooky shelves on top of the big shelf but I don't like how that is so if I can't figure a way to live with them being on the next one down I'll have to put them on the silver shelf and stuff from the silver shelf on to the other one. Can be done, I was just hoping for a resolution sooner than not sooner.

Speaking of Spider-Man tidying up the digital files, there were some duplicates and triplicates and now we've at least got the first 900 amazing issue with their legacy numbers, still missing some 800s.

something something putting together a goblin-Osborn reading list for my CYOA thing something something

Please point on the diagram to which Spider-Man reboot hurt you when you drove a semi-truck through the plot holes. And those are just the canon plain old white possibly Jewish Peter Parker who ends up marrying Mary Jane Watson and probably had college flings with Harry Osborn and Felicia Hardy altho one of them told him to put the Spider-Man mask back on.

My thing is I want to work in some of my original ideas, half finished as they may be, with what would have happened if some canon decisions were made differently. Or Pete was hitting the bad decision juice, look up alcoholic Spider-Man why don't ya?

And if it never gets finished it never gets finished. It's all for fun and to get some writing exercises in and distract me in a positive/useful/non harmful way from my thoughts I'd rather not dwell on.

Also to remind myself, use the iShiny to draw fake covers for some of your ideas. It'll give you something to do and drawing practice on the tablet.

[oysterie]

I set reading goal for 60 books this year but idk what my employment status will look like (if i get a better job i probs cant listen to audiobooks half my shift) so that may get adjusted. I want to prioritize some re reads because i didnt do any last year. Maybe read a romance or two if they call to me. Or more comedy in general. Also my library just added a book thats not out until march and im fourth in line for the ebook and audiobook so like. Okay. Also i need to read my physical books i own. Uhm no longer human is on the shelf next to me and i also bought a copy of vagabonds which im excited to read over the course of like 3 months. Mant other physical books too i have piles. I also want to finally read girls last tour ofc ive been putting it off too long. Srart tyrant baru soon ofc.

[arkhatype]

Nahoya and I have four kids together and I’d thought I’d introduce them to you all.

Let’s start with the triplets. Yes, you read that right, triplets. They’re all 4 years old and they keep us on our toes.

First up is Yua. She is the first born and a carbon copy of Nahoya. Loves to laugh and always has a smile on her little face. She’s always getting hurt because she doesn’t know the meaning of the word “fear”. If she wants to try something she is going to dive in head first. She’s the most confident of the four and we call her “sun”, “sunshine” , or “sunny”. She’s connected to her daddy’s hip and just like him she’ll lay someone out if they harm her siblings. Baby girl is a protector and Nahoya and I have had to visit her school on more than one occasion to talk with the principal because Yua has laid a kid out

Next is Yui. She is the second born and a carbon copy of her uncle, Souya so we call her “blue”. She’s a shy baby. Always hides between one of our legs at social gatherings, but once her sister grabs on to her hand and shows her it’s okay she warms up fast to others. She’s my artistic baby. Loves to draw us pictures of anything and everything. She’s always wanting to help me when I’m arranging flowers and always begs to visit Uncle Takashi at his studio so she can see all the models and watch him make outfits (she’s posed in a few shoots with me). Baby girl is also fiercely loyal. She never leaves her sister’s side and if one of them is in trouble then the other one is in trouble too.

The last born of the triplets is my first boy, Yuuta. Yuuta is my carbon copy. He cries easily and doesn’t like very many people so he’s always clinging to me (we’re working on this but it’s hard because he got it from me and I’m still working on it lmao). He loves to nap and just like his daddy, he loves to cook. More than anything though he loves to read. He’s always asking Nahoya or me to read to him and when we go to any book store we’re leaving with a new book for his shelf. He also loves to tell us stories. Whether it be about an “adventure” that he and his sisters went on with their uncles or just a made up story featuring one of his favorite heroes. Unlike his sister, he’s not one to get involved in a physical fight, but he will verbally decimate someone (as much as a 4 year old can). He’s made a few kids cry so we call him “wolf” because he always goes right for the throat.

Our youngest is a sweet boy named Yasahiro (we call him Hiro for short). He’s 2 years old and he’s the most giggly, talkative toddler in the world. He always wants to be loved up on. When he’s not being held this little boy loves to get into any and everything. He’s gotten into Yui’s paint and managed to leave little handprints all over the walls. He chewed on Yuuta’s books (this was when he was teething. I don’t think he ever watched a 4 year old’s soul leave their body, but Yuu’s did). He somehow got Yui’s karate belt in his hands and got food all over it (Yui almost pulled a Tommy). We’ve replaced everything the little bringer of chaos has destroyed though and we bought the triplets different things to make sure their younger brother doesn’t get into it. They still adore him though. They dubbed him as “bear” because just like a bear he’ll put his paws on anything that catches his eye.

That’s all of our kids so far. Nahoya teases the idea of having one more, but it’s always and only when he sees me holding one of our friends' newborns, but I don’t know how long I can hold out when my own certified DILF gives me those bedroom eyes and kisses me stupid. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens *shrugs shoulders*

[batgirlgeek]

Funko Pop Collection

So I got this ask a while back from a mutual (aka @blackcat2907) and I mentioned in the tags that I could show off my funko pops so here I am! I started collecting them in middle school. They’re probably a money waster and will most likely be thrown away by future descendants but I like them🥰

I tried to get them all pictured together since they’re all scattered about my room but that didn’t happen bc I either misplaced some or they weren’t standing right (bc as we all know, Funkos can be finicky with if they want to stand properly on a given day).

My Harlequin Batman/Alfred Hitchcock/Darla/Lock/Mr. Rogers are usually on a shelf together since I don’t know where to put them and I’m not sure where most of them came from. I imagine Lock was purchased around the time when I was making my descendants fics (one of them featured Lock, Shock and Barrel’s Children) but idk for sure😅

From back -> front/left -> right we have:

Carmen Sandiego (she was my first)

Drowned Batman/-11 Batman (I haven’t actually read Death Metal but I really like the aesthetic of that AU Batman😅)

Regular Batman

Harlequin Batman

Darla from Shazam (I really liked the first live action—and the second—and I thought Darla was sweet❣️)

Alfred Hitchcock

Lock (nightmare before Christmas)

Mr. Rogers (I think I bought this when I saw the Tom Hanks’ biopic)

Eric + Ariel (I keep them with my fairytale retellings. I’m hoping to get a Cinderella figure at some point since

Batgirl

Pride month Robin (I usually buy my Funkos from retailers or Amazon but this one I got from funko’s official store since it came out during June last year shortly after Tim came out)

A bonus Dorian from D&D: Honor Among Thieves:

I enjoyed that movie a lot and I have a soft spot for tieflings so when I saw Hot Topic had the movie Funkos, I snagged her. I nearly forgot to include her since she’s usually sitting on a corner bookshelf behind my chair/desk. Since D&D is a roleplaying game, I’ve kept her with my game disks/switch & DS cartridges

The bombshells collection:

Left -> right:

Hawk girl

Supergirl

Batwoman

Poison Ivy

Catwoman

I’ve been trying to collect DC’s Bombshells line because I just love their 40s aesthetic a lot—I’d like to get the comic series also but I’m currently on a book buying ban to curb my physical TBR (there’s 58 books left if my Storygraph’s count is right).

And finally, my minis:

My mom got me this DC funko advent calendar for Christmas last year and it was very fun opening them all up since it gave me something to look forward to every day. Unfortunately, a lot of them were duds as there were so many duplicates (I suspect the company just retooled actual Funkos and didn’t bother to make new ones lol). Also the flash ones don’t stand unless they’re leaning against another mini. But I still think they’re cute so they’re displayed on their own shelf :)

I’ve never officially counted all my Funkos before but in total (excluding my advent calendar minis) we have 18. There’s a lot more I’d love to buy (including a Huntress funko) but at the moment all I can do is stare wistfully at an Amazon wishlist and I’m okay with that for now😅

(I’m sorry this took awhile BTW. I could lie and say I was busy but I really got sucked into the tv series White Collar of all things. It’s good, I’m on s4 <3)

By the way,, before you leave: if anybody is reading this and is collecting the deluxe editions of these dragon age books or knows where I can get copies for a reasonable price, I would appreciate it. They are very hard to find now since they’re technically out of print I think. I’m missing The Calling, The Stolen Throne and Last Flight. Might have to cave and buy them in their original editions which would be a shame bc I think these copies are gorgeous and have incredible art😅

[brongusthearcanist]

So my favorite part of reading a book is finishing it and deciding where to put it on my shelf. I don't allow myself, or really can't put one on there unless it's finished. It's quite convenient for my wallet as I will only buy books that I am immediately going to read very soon, and I only buy 1 at a time unless it's a series. I work at a hotel and most of the time I can have an ear bud in so I can listen to audiobooks. I am just about to finish Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series and I only own the first book physically. I almost dont want to finish it cause there will be no shelf organizing and I am deeply depressed by this. This wouldn't be a problem if I could actually afford to get myself the physical copies, but it doesn't make sense at the moment. Have I even experienced a book if I don't get to shelf it? Do I even enjoy books or do I just like horizontal stacking? These are the questions I ask as I have paused the last hour of the book for the past 3 hours.

As a side note it's nearly impossible to get me to read a book unless I have a physical HARD copy, because I need stuff to be in top condition at all times and paperbacks make that hard with all the creasing and they look boring. I was so pissed to find out that the best selling sci-fi book of all time Dune, only has a hard cover for the first one, and the rest are paperback(yes I know they just released messiah and children on hardcover, but what am I supposed to do with God emperor god dammit!). Someone recommended Night Angel to me and I bought the 10th anniversary for 80 dollars because it was the only hardcover. Help me

[onyourstageleft]

I absolutely love that you found this post from 2017 bc although it has been 8 years since I made it (how?!) it is still a mood. I first discovered Tamora Pierce when I was in late elementary school, I genuinely don't even remember which book was my first read (I think maybe Kel's series?) but I know I picked them up at the library, my dad bought me Alanna's quartet on ebay, and before I knew it I was in deep. the local librarian printed a list of all of Tammy's books for me and I hung it on my bedroom wall and marked them off as I read them, highlighting the ones that I had my own physical copies of from the local used bookstore (the owner had my number on file and knew to call me if she got any Pierce books in so I could have first dibs on any copies before she put them on the shelf). I still don't have all the books in physical copy, but I was reading a lot on my Nook at the time, so I have all of them in ebook format - I like finding the print books at used bookstores rather than ordering them, it's like a scavenger hunt

literally anyone who knows me on a personal level has heard me talk about Tortall books. I have read the first Circle of Magic series but even though I have copies of some of the follow-up books, I haven't actually read them, not entirely sure why either bc I do love that series too, I guess I just didn't discover them during the exact right time, I just imprinted on Tortall at the age of like 10 and never looked back (27 now and still going strong)

the person that I made this post about was someone I worked with over a summer theatre carpentry job and I mentioned Tamora Pierce and when she said that she had read some of the books, I genuinely started gushing and asking questions, and she got kinda tired of it real fast. in the meantime I have taken matters into my own hands and converted people to talk to about Tortall - I read my mom Alanna and Aly's series like a decade ago, and last year I started reading them to my husband - I read my husband Aly's series first (as much as I love Alanna I know that her books wouldn't have been a great place for him to start in the world) and now we're reading Alanna's series, we're on book 2 right after her fight with Alex and he's been pointing out the slightly questionable things in the series (George's first kiss for example) and I keep telling him to just wait, it does get a little worse before it gets better, but that's just part of the charm of them for me at this point. my other partner is also reading the books, although she prefers to read them on her own rather than having me as her personal audiobook narrator, and she's just finishing up Alanna's book 3 - she's reading them in chronological series order (minus Beka, bc I honestly think that her books are better appreciated after reading the others despite being technically a prequel) and we've talked some about her thoughts, but not as much as I'd want to bc I'm trying to avoid spoiling other future things for her

oh I also literally wrote my MA thesis about Tortall (Cultures & Colonization in Tamora Pierce's Young Adult Novels, and it is indeed public access if you wanna read about me going on about Tortall in an academic fashion for 40+ pages) so I am in DEEP. I think my main problem is that I sometimes have a hard time (even with people online) figuring out what to talk about. like other than listing the things I love about the series, I'm not that great at making observations and connections, so it's easier for me to follow along with other people's theories and ideas and bounce off of them rather than creating my own stuff (although I would like to practice actually theorizing of my own accord)

I have recently been deep in fanfic, I'm not sure how much Tortall fic you've read but the fandom has been popping off in recent years with some absolutely stellar writing if you need to feel more feelings about it. I'm glad to hear that you love Beka too, I think that sometimes her series can be underappreciated (and underrepresented in fandom spaces) just because she doesn't have that in-world overlap that the other characters benefit from - we get to see Alanna from the beginning of knighthood all the way to motherhood and beyond in the background of other stories, but for Beka all we have is Beka's series. she's definitely my comfort character though, I have the audiobooks of her series (the narrator of it is absolutely phenomenal) and I relisten to them almost yearly. if I ever try my hand at fanfic I would love to write a Beka fic, but I really struggle with writing dialogue, so I've never actually tried beyond having Ideas

I just realized exactly how long I've made this reply and I apologize for writing an absolute essay, I thought "let me pull out my laptop it will be easier to type on than my phone" and then didn't stop typing. also, happy early birthday!!

I want to make more friends who have read Tamora Pierce books bc my one irl friend who I just met recently who has read them I think is already tired of me talking about them.

pls message me if you’ve read any Tamora Pierce book I will love you forever

[deadrayg2mf]

A Soul to Touch (Duskwalker Brides #3) by Opal Reyne

This is it, this one is my favorite. I adored this read, gobbled up all 589 pages as fast as I could. I lost sleep reading this book, staying up late and getting up early just so I could consume more of Mayumi and Faunus' story. Eat, sleep, breathe Mayumi and Faunus.

Mayumi is a former demonslayer, with her eyes set on keeping the gig up as long as possible whether she's part of the guild or not. She is small, strong, stubborn, and kinky. She also lacks some emotional intelligence and doesn't exactly speak with all the elegance we can get from some others. Basically? She's a normal fucking girl living in a demon-infested world and making the best of what she's got going on. And I love her so much. She is one of my all-time favorite characters. She's not always sure what to say, she can't always express herself perfectly, and sometimes she doesn't know how to handle a situation, but gosh she sure is doing her best and that's all we can expect. Some other highlights include being a fellow monsterfucker and bisexual!

Faunus is our big, monstrous male lead. He is funny, sarcastic, kind of a goofball but with a serious and introspective side to himself. He's the duskwalker with the most humanity so far in the series, and also the most well-versed in bedroom play. This one can crank out some serious dirty talk and he loves watching in the mirror; see also: breeding kink and size kink. He's going through it from what we saw of him in the previous book, and he continues to go through it in this book so buckle up for some heart wrenching moments.

This book has it all; great writing, great characters, gut-punching angst, heart attack inducing smut, and butterflies-in-the-tummy slow burn romance. I'm saying I pulled that one stunt and stopped reading for a couple days about 30 pages from the end - not for bad reasons, but because I simply couldn't bear for this story to come to an end. That's how much I loved this story. 10/10

Would I read again? Yes, 100 times over, I adore this book!

Would I recommend? Absolutely, I encourage it, please read this book it's so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sanguinarysanguinity]

you keep library books for YEARS? 'no one asks for it back' i bet the library is asking!!

My public library's policy runs so:

Patrons can check out a maximum of 150 items

Items are checked out for 21 days

With the exception of "Lucky Day" items (which are unrenewable), physical items can be renewed a maximum of fifty times

Physical items already checked out to a patron are automatically renewed if no other patron has put them on hold

If you do the math, 21 days x 50 renewals works out to approximately three years.

Which is to say, if I check out Nghi Vo's latest novel, I need to read it in twenty-one days and turn it back in, because it's recent and popular and there's a list of people waiting to read it after me.

But if I check out a book on the natural history of the bumblebee or a political history of the decade leading up to WWI, odds are that the library will let me keep it for years, because it's unlikely that anyone else will ask for it during that time. Same with older fiction: even with weeding, they have more copies of the fourth Rivers of London novel (bought when it was new and popular and they needed many copies) than there is currently patron demand for.

This means that:

The library owns far more books than it can physically store in its own premises -- I'm not the only patron who has a hundred or more physical items checked out on my account. If the library went to a one-renewal policy tomorrow, they literally wouldn't have anywhere to put all the books they got back. Think of all our homes as auxiliary storage for the collection.

Patrons should always check the online catalog (as opposed to the library shelf) when looking for books, because there's a decent chance that the library does have that book, but it's sitting in someone's apartment on the other side of town. But no worries, if you ask for it, the library will get the other patron to bring it in for you.

Honestly, it's a pretty decent system. The library gets to have a far larger and more diverse collection than they would otherwise, and if I want to hang on to a history of Nelson's Navy for six months to three years while I use it for research for a story, I often can. Meanwhile, if someone else wants that exact same book during that interval, they can still get it, as long they're willing to wait for a couple of weeks for its current check-out period to expire. It's all good, and everyone wins. Maybe if your public library doesn't do the same for you, you should suggest it to them!

[disaster-vampire]

pls talk about the shelf

i was desperately hoping someone would ask me to rant abt it akehdjshd i'm kissing you sweetly on the forehead anon

okay so if anyone sees this out of context: i have a shelf in my bookcase dedicated to hannibal. yes it's kind of like a weird little shrine but leave me alone.

be warned this is going get LONG.

so, it has the obvious: the hannibal books, the tv show box set, the tv show's cookbook, my fancy copies of the divine comedy (they're hardcover with gorgeous sleeves that have art printed on them to match each book), and i also have the iliad and the odissey in there in a single big book that i bought on a whim when out once and then after buying it i found out it also had the original greek alongside the italian translation and i lost my mind. i've never felt such pure joy and i can't even read greek. yet.

as for decorations, as of right now there's a piece of driftwood that is kinda shaped like an L so it stands up on its own and it also kinda resembles an antler.

there's this fuckin box, i don't even remember how i got it, but it's made of bones. it's shaped kinda like a stereotypical treasure chest but it's literally made of bones. the inside is lined with red velvet.

i'm not sure what else to decorate with? i've put in a seashell but it can't even be seen because the shelf has glass doors but the shell is covered by the frame (might move everything to another shelf where the frame is not in the way tbh just so i can decorate with tiny things at the front).

i just moved this whole thing from my other bookcase (i just got this new one today because i have too many books and in my first bookcase the shelves are literally bending with the weight of the books piled up on them) and when it was there i also had a teacup in there along with a lighbox that says "bone saw time! 🖤" but this new shelf feels very elegant and there's also not enough space for the lightbox. i also had a bust of dionysus there but i'm going to move it to my dionysus altar.

i've got an old scalpel somewhere too and i'll try to find a visible spot to put it. i also have 3 tiny japanese plates that were all given to me as gifts and some souvenirs from japan from a friend too but idk if i wanna put japanese stuff in there. like it's fitting but at the same time idk if it's disrespectful or not.

if i had money and more space i'd make this whole thing bigger and get like. a little frame with fly fishing lures like the ones will made in the show and maybe something like some ethically sourced taxidermy. a snake skeleton and a mongoose skull would be really cool. maybe i could print out a little something with lures instead of buying real ones and like. a fake death's head hawkmoth taxidermy. i'd need some of those shadowbox frames and i'd make it so the pictures stand out a bit from the back so it looks like they have shadows. bc like i'm fairly certain real death's head hawkmoths cannot be ethically sourced at this point in time because ever since silence of the lambs came out people have started going insane over them.

i think my grandpa has this framed thing somewhere with sailing knots made with actual ropes in it rather than just pictures. haven't seen it in ages so i'm not sure anymore if it was my grandpa's or someone else's. probably my grandpa since he was in the marines when military service was mandatory in italy but idk maybe i saw it somewhere else. i could print out a small picture with various illustrations of sailing knots.

i also have these cards that my aunt gave me at one point that have prints of a lot of famous paintings with descriptions in the back and i THINK one was the primavera. it was either that or the birth of venus i'll have to check but either way there's at least one botticelli in there. i don't like botticelli much tho so 🤷

i plan at some point to also get physical copies of all the movies but idk when that'll be since i've found a different box set for the tv show with gorgeous covers that i plan to buy as well. also of the ones i currently own i think one of the dvds stopped working bc it got scratched while inside my pc because i was pausing and rewinding/forwarding too much. we'll see i guess.

now for the rest of the books. i have a medical book in there called the abc of the human body. i think the title is kind of hilarious for a hannibal shelf. i just found out today while moving books back and forth from one bookshelf to the other that i actually have two copies of this book and one of them was owned by a doctor that died i think like 15 to 20 years ago. i have a few other medical books that said doctor also owned on the shelf above. he also owned the scalpel i mentioned before.

there's the book skulls by simon winchester, which is a collection of pictures of skulls from one of the biggest skull collections in the world, along with a few inserts on biology if i remember correctly? i originally bought it for art references and i LOVE the cover so i made sure it was facing forward in the shelf.

there's the resurrectionist, which is a sci-fi/fantasy book kind of in a frankenstein-esque vein where the main character is this made up doctor who manages to make some mythological creatures through surgery & digging up dead bodies and i won't spoil it any further. the second half of the book is a whole bunch of medical/biology style illustrations of said creatures, their skeletons, their muscles, how certain parts of their bodies would function (for example i believe it goes into explaining the lungs for both mermaids and harpies). i don't think it quite fits thematically with hannibal but i think it's got The Vibe so i put it in there.

there's a book on saint lucy, who is the patron saint of sight. i have it because i was born with my skull being asymmetrical and the doctors immediately told my family it would likely cause problems with my eyes, and so instead of, you know, starting to take me to eye doctors from a young age, they swore me to saint lucy and left it at that. i'm likely going to go blind on my left eye at some point in my life btw lmao thanks st lucy <3 i do like her though. i like her iconography a lot, she's always portrayed as holding a plate with her eyes on it.

there's damien by hermann hesse, which is one of my all time favourite books. it's written in first person and it starts with emil sinclair's childhood, explaining that he sees the world in a very black and white way, and does so very literally because he speaks of the world of light and the world of darkness, which are kind of meant as good and evil. but then something happens to him that starts blurring the clear line he thought was between the two, which sends him into a moral panic until he meets max demian, who starts to make him see that there's more to both sides. the story as he grows up follows his "corruption" into someone who is neither good nor evil. it has a lot of implied homoeroticism, as it was written i think either in the 20s or the late 1800s so it couldn't be explicit but it is very much there and is expressed mostly through demian's mother. there's also a weird cult thing going on and the ending is a bit ??? and honestly i need to read it again because for such a short book SO much happens that i'm having a hard time summarising it accurately.

the only other books i remember being there rn (it's 1am i'm not turning the lights on again) are dracula, because cannibal/vampire count with a big castle, the butchering art, and les fleurs du mal, plus two other books written in french that i haven’t read yet because my french isn't the best, whose titles i don't remember rn, and one in italian that i've found at a used books stall once but i believe it's from a local author and i've never seen it in a bookstore nor online so there's definitely no english translation of it. i still haven't read this one either and i don't even remember what it's about, it might be a poetry book? not quite sure. but yeah these few ones i haven’t read are there like. on trial. if i read them and find them fitting they'll stay otherwise they go to another shelf. i also haven’t read les fleurs du mal nor the butchering art yet, so the same applies to them. i think that's all of them? i plan to put my art history books and regular history books on the shelf above as well next to the medical books to kind of carry the theme over lol.

i would like to maybe someday get some of the books that we've glimpsed from the bookshelves on the show but this is it for now!

anyway. tysm for asking me about it dear anon. you said but a few words yet they meant the world to me <3

[battenthecrosshatches]

A book tag meme thing. Thanks for the tag @looselysealedkrypton :)

Amount of books you’ve read so far: (these are all audiobooks) 22

Best book you’ve read so far in 2022: always so hard to choose. I’m cheating and picking two top authors. I really loved Save Me The Plums and Delicious! both by Ruth Reichl. And I loved The People We Meet On Vacation and Book Lover by Emily Henry.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022: actually I’ve read zero sequels! But, I am looking forward to reading Vol 3 of Crowded, the comic. And another volume of Isola and one of Outpost Zero.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to: I actually haven’t been following anything super closely that’s already out.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: Julia Whelan’s Thank You for Listening & Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Carrie Soto is back. My faves discovered last year.

Biggest surprise favorite new author (debut or new to you): not a surprise per se but my discovery favorite of this year is Emily Henry. Such good banter, such good spins on romance tropes.

Newest Fictional Crush: I don’t really know that I get crushed on book characters actually.

Most beautiful book you’ve bought this year (or received): I bought my roommate an Alison Roman cookbook and I love the photos. I love food books. They’re so beautiful. The designs are so good. That comes to the top bc I read everything as audiobooks so I don’t spend much time looking at the cover to remember them. Though We Came Here to Forget and Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger have great covers.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year: I’ve had Last Night at the Telegraph Club partly read on my shelf for maybe a couple years now, so I’d like to finish that. I just have had a harder time sitting down with physical books. Also though, I like reading and I feel like framing it as ‘having to’ do anything puts a slight damper on things. My friend gave me a copy of Plain Bad Heroines I’d also like to read.

If you’ve read these and wanna throw me recommendations, I’d love to hear.

If you’re interested in doing this @ekingston @i-am-robie @send-me-a-puffalope

[heybaetae]

Could you share some of the BTS merch/ pcs that you own? If you feel ok? I personally cant afford much but loooove my friends getting cool kpop merch. So far I own Butter cream album and a Hobi pc, a dicon magazine and mots:7 with a Yoongi pcs (lucky me !! He is my bias!!) , And hope to be able to get Proof! Also congrats on getting poodle Tae!!!

hi! sorry it took me so long to answer this, i was contemplating how much to show, if at all. i shared a few photos recently of my collection, but didn’t show my pcs. i never wanna come off like i'm bragging about the stuff that i have because to be really transparent, i also don't have the kind of money to collect all the things i would like to. due to this, a LOT of the stuff that i have was gifted to me by a couple really amazing friends who have been more than generous with how they’ve helped me come to own some pretty valuable items. i’ll share a few of them with you and put them under the cut! 

p.s. i’m gonna be referencing the images i shared in the linked post above so i can clarify what some of those items are.

so i’m not really an avid pc collector, which is why i don’t usually bother buying physical albums. i do LOVE having album photocards, but i just don’t have the money or space to buy multiple copies until i get my desired card(s) that i want to collect. i feel like i don’t need to say this, but i am obviously most interested in collecting taehyung cards, but am happy to have cards of any member of course. 

the few albums that i have on the top shelf in the first photo in that post were all gifted to me without the photocards inside because my close friend, who is a pc trader and helps track down certain cards for me if she can, traded them for the cards inside herself and then let me have the albums. i don’t mind because i like the photobooks inside :’) 

the bottom shelf in that photo is all stuff i bought myself! i haven’t been buying BTS merch for that long, so i usually save up and invest in the larger items like photobooks and dvds, so the photocards that came inside of those are my only genuine pulls. i’m still very new to that experience as i don’t get to do it very often.

mots on:e concept book set: yoongi, jungkook, and taehyung memories of 2020: jungkook motson:e dvd: yoongi sowoozoo dvd: taehyung

that’s only six that i’ve acquired myself with my own luck and i’m very proud of the ones i’ve pulled myself and think it’s hilarious that i’ve only pulled three members and each of them, twice.

here are the books i keep my cards in. the purple one is completely full of non-official pc freebies that i’ve been gifted or from etsy with my pin purchases, so i obviously have waaaay more of those.

the yellow book is what i keep my official cards in, so it’s not full at all. i’ve only filled the first few pages and it’ll probably take me ages to fill it since i don’t buy things often, like i said. but you can spot the ones that i pulled myself (i’ll mark them with an X in case you don’t know which ones attribute to the items i listed above) and the rest were all gifted to me by my friend who is an angel.

also on that bottom shelf are:

the rollingstone box + an extra ot7 cover

the fact photobook from 2020

ot7 GQ cover + taehyung’s GQ cover

ot7 vogue cover

taehyung’s dicon magazine

esquire from 2020

jungkook + taehyung’s WSJ covers

ot7 2021 billboard cover (a gift lmao) + taehyung’s solo billboard cover (i bought it on resale so none of my money went to BB. i forgot i even had those lol.)

moving on to my trinket box that i put all my loose pcs and etsy freebies in because they’re too big to put anywhere else and i don’t feel like buying my own sleeves or binder to put them in. maybe one day. ISN’T THIS THING SO CUTE THO??? it’s totally full, i need to find another box.

anyway these were allll very GENEROUS gifts except for the dicon pc set!!! i have to link images from this point because tumblr won’t let me add any more to this post.

some of the official stuff in here include:

four clear ITS cards

two hybe insight pcs

army bomb v3 and special edition pc sets

a couple random pcs and post cards from bangbangcon 2020 merch

this random mots tour merch pc

random set of sowoozoo merch pcs

dicon pc set

those dicon ones would fit in my yellow book, but i don’t have sleeves that fit them properly because they’re slightly wider than album cards.

everything else in the box are bigger freebies that don’t fit in anything, not even a top loader lol. i also keep my confetti and wristbands from my PTD LA shows in there. my vegas confetti is in an envelope in my VIP gift bag.

my photo grid are just random freebies from friends except the picket (from PTD LA) and VIP lanyard (from PTD vegas). my pin board are all pins i’ve bought myself except the ot7 dynamite pin and the inner child carousel, which were gifts. obviously i like to collect tae + maknae line related pins. 

the two prints in the same frame are from a cup sleeve event that my friend hosted for tae’s birthday last year. she sent me three prints that they hung up around the cafe and i stuck two of them into the same frame lol. she also gave me the banner on the back of the door for my birthday.

that’s pretty much it...i think i gave TMI about a lot of this stuff but i hope it was entertaining to learn about some of the stuff i have. again, i don’t take any of the stuff i have for granted and am so grateful to have the friends that i do who go out of their way to send me things that i otherwise wouldn’t be able to find or afford myself. it makes me feel very loved <3