#format: ebook

[curiouscalamitys]

"Right now, I’m not a dark forces war dog who cuts throats, and she’s not the heartless soldier who blows brains out without blinking. Instead we’re two wounded creatures, circling one another in our cage, curious about what will happen if we give in and collide."

I came across this book through a bookstagram reel by the author (unknown to me at the time) promoting it in a way that did not deliver on the expectations that the reel had created. This is a contemporary, dark military romance novel that follows the bully romance trope and I would strongly suggest you read the content warnings before reading. I would only recommend this is if you enjoy dark, violent romances and more spice than plot.

Spoilers below cut.

I'm not new to a bully romance, but with Bones and Bunny I felt like his redemption arc never really balanced out his actions. There is dub/non con moments that were simply dismissed or excused as kinks for both characters involved. I feel like Bunny's masochistic feelings were forced into the character as a way to not have Bones need to redeem for such actions. I also feel like the emotional relationship between the two accelerated too quickly and, thus, was not developed properly. It seemed more like a lust not love based relationship.

Plus, once Jenkins is reintroduced, the plot loses itself, creating an unsatisfying ending. I would have DNF'd it had I not been stubborn about knowing if it maybe got good by the end (it didn't). I only gave it above a 5/10 rating bc sometimes you gotta read some smutty stuff to get the edge off. But I would not recommend unless desperate.

[castingpods]

Some Faraway Place the book of all time (Rose talk to your therapist about your dad PLEASE)

[keydekyie]

it's free now!

[not-poignant]

I was thinking back to the post I made about ebooks being so much more accessible for so many people compared to paperbacks/hardbacks and the other thing I wanted to add is the vast, vast majority of the time, the author gets so much more profit comparatively for an ebook than a paperback/hardback.

That's not a problem for huge huge huge authors either way, but for small-time authors, or authors with small publishing houses, the difference in profits can sometimes be $2.00 or $3.00 per ebook sold vs. $0.50c or $1.00 per paperback. Really. You pay more, but the author gets a lot less.

In the case of indie authors like myself, ebooks give the highest returns always.

This isn't necessarily something most readers think about, but I have had readers assume that because the book format cost them more, that automatically means more goes to the author. In fact it's often the opposite. There are very few exceptions (university texts come to mind). But in the case of your run-of-the-mill indie fiction, if you genuinely want the most profit to go to the author, get the ebook.

[fictionadventurer]

I keep thinking about Lewis' review of The Hobbit, because he claimed that the main thing contemporary reviewers compared it to was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Was fantasy in that poor of a state that Alice was the closest thing they could think of? Comparing that chaotic fever dream to Tolkien's intricately crafted world? Lewis does specify that the comparison is that both books are by an "Oxford professor at play", but they're otherwise so different that putting the two in the same category baffles me.

[magnusbae]

tbf he's not wrong about the council... Jedi Apprentice - Deceptions

[anne-bsd-bibliophile]

The Demon of the Lonely Isle by Edogawa Ranpo

Whatever challenge or hardship we face, it is never as dreadful as that which we are able to imagine.

- Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

Our youthful spirits were still capable of enjoying such adventures and thrilled at keeping secrets. Added to this, the type of relationship that existed between Michio and myself meant we were more than just 'friends'. Michio's affection for me was atypical - although I didn't really comprehend how he felt, I understood it on an intellectual level - and like any normal romantic sentiment it wasn't necessarily unwelcome, so when we were face to face, there was a kind of sweet sexual tension in the air. This tension perhaps made our 'game' all the more pleasurable.

- Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

Nobody can see the plight we're in, we can't see each other's faces. After we die, our bodies will lie here undiscovered for eternity. But just as this place has no light, it has no laws, no morality, no customs. It is another world, where humanity is extinguished. In the short time we have left, I want to disregard all such formalities. We need not feel embarrassment or jealousy, or hide behind good manners or put on a show anymore. We're like two newborn beings, the only living creatures in this primordial darkness. - Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

A little bit of darkness and people fall to pieces. Get a hold of yourself. Where there's life there's hope.

- Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

Fun Fact:

Ranpo's friend and fellow detective writer Yokomizo Seishi (1902-81) wrote, 'the love for the same sex, which had been a long-standing desire of the author [sakka no hisashiki ganbō de atta dōseiai], had finally been incorporated into this novel.' An insert to another multivolume collection of Ranpo's works published in 1938 and 1939 emphasizes in boldface type that Kotō no oni is 'a work in which the author dealt with the topic of same-sex love.'

- Jeffrey Angles, Writing the Love of Boys pages 14-15

[crossf15]

Having finally published my book, I think everybody's wrong, the worst file format of all time has got to be .epub. Jesus Christ. Like what if PDFs fucking sucked, and didn't work, and didn't retain any of the formatting information you put into it? and what if what it looked like entirely depended on what app you use to read it?

[i-can-even-burn-salad]

[ID: White text over a very desaturated photo of a rainbow across the sky. The text reads: “I forgot how colors look,” she whispered. “It was always so dark. Even blood wasn’t red when—” She snapped her mouth shut and grabbed her forearm, where under her ratty coat bandages were wrapped around sore skin. “Sorry.” End ID]

:(

WIP Intro

[soupandsorcery]

you can tell that i am deeply obsessed with the mars house because i now have two physical copies of it. one to rebind and keep in a place of honor in my library and one to stuff full of post it notes full of my comments while i try to climb inside gale's brain.

[rogue-rook]

its been too long since I cracked the spine of a wheel of time book bc it wasn't until now that I remembered faile isn't even her real name either

[arctic-hands]

The annoying thing about buying and starting a new book series and is that you'll finish it and the series goes on and you'll have to buy more

[not-poignant]

For t/f: I assume you’re a huge advocate for physical books over ebooks??

False!

~

Ebooks are hugely accessible, and as someone with massive RSI issues in my wrists (partly from writing), holding heavy books and the repetition of turning pages can be literally agonising, and can even lead to me needing surgery one day for tendon release.

I do love physical books, and I have a large collection that I'm very proud of, and weed on a yearly basis. But I absolutely am not an advocate for them over ebooks, let alone a huge one. Ebooks have been such a game-changer for anyone with accessibility issues.

Readers no longer have to rely on publishers being grudgingly generous enough to offer books in large fonts if they have visual processing issues. They can change the font (most of the time) on an e-reader. Readers no longer have to lug around extremely heavy nonfiction books, and can save their backs and wrists. Readers who live in very small or cramped spaces because of poverty or other reasons no longer have to deal with 'where do I keep all these books' because some of them (or all of them) can be ebooks. Also, almost always - with mostly the exception of some university texts - they're cheaper. What a win!

On an accessibility level, ebooks win every time, especially now that we have so many lighting options so that people don't have to put up with backlight etc. anymore. They highlight just how previously ableist the publishing industry has been around visual accessibility and joint strain accessibility.

So I'm mostly a hardcore advocate of people reading how they want to read. A hybrid mix. Only audio. Only ebook. Only paperbacks. Only hardbacks. Some combination of the four.

I love the smell of books, but I don't love the dust. I love having them organised in my library, but I don't love the eternal problem of never really having enough room. I love my ebook collection, but I sometimes forget to check into it. I love that I can get very large nonfiction tomes in ebook form, but sometimes I find them harder to highlight etc. because there's something visceral to me about dragging a highlighter or pencil across a page. Everything has its pros and cons.

But ebooks beat out literally everything else except audio for accessibility (though I can't do audio ironically because of accessibility, lmao, my auditory processing for language isn't great).

[fictionadventurer]

Potential February Reads

East by Edith Pattou

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Beggar Prince by Kate Stradling

The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Rome: A Handbook for Time Travelers by Jonathan Stokes

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

The Frindle Files by Andrew Clement

A fantasy romance

[wrishwrosh]

trying to read some hypey new histfic about the dust bowl (i love the dust bowl!) with pictures (i love fiction with photographs!) but unfortunately there’s a quote on the cover from lauren groff and the print is unappealingly large so i must cast it away from myself

[an-ruraiocht]

man the stupid fucking hoops i had to go through to add an ebook purchased from hive to my kindle. major bullshit. who the fuck would choose to read anything via adobe digital editions if they didn't have to