#gas station meetcute

[britcision]

re: "Wait where the hell do people not pump their own gas" --- > NEW. FUCKING. JERSEY. It is literally against the law to pump your own gas in NJ. They have dedicated gas station attendants to do so. IDEK it's a weird fucking law and as a Pennsylvanian it INFURIATES me. If only because it's one more reason to hate fucking Jersey and their asshole drivers who can't drive correctly in Allentown. Takes twice as long to get your damned gas, too. Anyway, this means that since Gotham is in NJ, the batfam have never filled their own vehicles at a (civilian) gas station unless they're out of state. I wish I saw this more in fanfic because it is absolutely hilarious to picture. Especially if the one of the kids are on like, a civilian road trip and go to gas up out of state and wait five minutes before they realize, Oh, Right, Fuck, I gotta go do it myself, and then fumble through it like a fucking 16 year old blushing as they remember their dad walking them through how to do it using terms like "male plug" and "female socket", even if they're in their 20s.

I fucking HATE having someone else put gas in my car I did it once by accident cuz I didn’t realize it was full service and then I was there and couldn’t just LEAVE

So I’m just literally never going to New Jersey ever and that’s fine

BUT ALSO

I need this to be a feature of team ups more

HOW OLD WAS BRUCE WHEN HE FIRST PUMPED HIS OWN GAS

When Teen Titans go zooming around, who fills the tank???

And far more importantly, Who Fills Up The Batmobile

Motorbikes are probably under the same law, imagine RED FUCKING HOOD rolls up covered in explosive residue for a top up

Fuck it, DP x DC meetcute Danny works at a gas station that has somehow become a bat’s favourite place to top up

If it’s Red Robin, Red Hood, or Signal they can just casually stay astride the bike it’s fine

[rosemariejean]

the idea of a person is a safe place to live in

they can't disappoint you when they are not real

i know the difference between reality and make believe

but the lines are blurred when the reality is over

i have been existing in the "after you"

the stories i tell myself feature you in some capacity

the gas station two states over might be our next meetcute

we drove this road together once, and you played david bowie

blackstar in the darkest part of my mind

i am the only one keeping you and i alive

should have buried you so long ago

but god i love to pretend we would meet again

and i hate to erase you from my past

[onedreamseeker]

im officially watching episode 1 of the begins youth series! I'm incredibly excited. so this post will just be all of my live reactions for the first episode

BROOO the fire???? That’s a crazy intro

Okay Hwan is Jin’s character

Getting straight into the rich father storyline okayyyy

The actor for Hwan is doing so good already like tell me why I see Jin’s mannerisms in the way he walks and stuff 😭😭😭

The way they’re making it clear that Hwan has trouble connecting to his peers and finds it hard to make friends my baby 🥺

Oooh as gas station worker is this Namjoonie?

Okay and Jooan that’s Taehyung I believe

Yeah they’re setting up the Taehyung/Namjoon friendship immediately

ONG JOOAN ACTS JUST LIKE TAEHYUNG OH MY GOD ITS PERFECT. HES SO SILLY MY NEW SILLY GUY

I must have missed namjoon’s character’s name

What’s my man doing? Looking at home videos of his mom?

oh my god are these two dumbasses gonna break into Hwan’s house?????

No wonder they’re always being chased by police in the MVS 😭😭😭

LMFAO THE NAMJOON/JIN/TAEHYUNG MEETCUTE

HE CALLED THE POLICE SHUTTHRFUCKUP

THEY CAME BACK 😭

LMAOOOOO

Jooan threatening Hwan 😭😭😭 yall are gonna be besties soon stfu

lmao he found the money namjoon dropped

DID JOOAN STEAL HIS BIKE ???? NO NAMJOON DID 😃😃

JOOAN JUST DROP KICKED THIS MAN 😀

Is this how they all get detention????

OH A NEW PERSON JOINS THR FRAY

DOGEON IS NAMJOONS NAME FINALLY

New guy trying to come to Jooan’s defense

Two more people watching the drama 😭

AM I WRONG TITLE SONG WHOOOOOO

Another new person !!!

I need these names and backstories so I can figure out who is who immediately

The detention Classroom!! This is like a dream come true oh my god 😭😭😭

New guy giving me jhope or jimin vibes and the other one giving me yoongi

Cein is that the yoongi character?

Oh my god this guy HAS to be jhope he’s got the smile!

Jeha! THATS TEH JUNGKOOK CHARACTER I THINK HES SO CUTE

The jeha/cein stuff starting already. Which must mean the other little guy must be jimin!

Haru is jimin!!

So Jooan is Taehyung, dogeon is namjoon, Hwan is Jin, jeha is Jungkook, haru is Jimin, cein is Yoongi, and the unnamed guy with The Smile ™ is jhope

Oh my god :( Jooan is so excited to see his dad not drunk :(

Hosu! The jhope character is officially named!

He literally has hobi’s smile oh my god he’s perfect :(

Haru and Hosu!! Oh my god they like to dance together oh my god my heart it’s broken

Haru’s mom when I catch you!! Forcing him not to tell any of his friends about his trauma !!!

HOSU IS LITERALLY HOBI OH MY GOD THE CASTING WAS PERFECT

He just did the jhope head tilt/smile/sigh combo!

Haru and Hosu mean so much to me actually they’re perfect

Oh god Hosu just mentioned the flower areboretum to Haru and the the way his face fell 😭😭😭

Jeha is SO CUTE, he literally perfectly reminds me of baby jungkook These actors STUDIED

Jooan looking for the bike 😭 he’s so sweet he just wants to help his friend 🥺

Hwan get your shit together and make friends with the others

This bike causing so much drama!

Cein my boy bout to get this bike back!! I know that’s right!!!! He’s playing into the scariness to help his new friends he’s sooooo :( my baby

YESSSSSS he got dogeon’s bike back from Hwan and gave Hwan his bike back that’s my man!!!! He gets shit done!!

Now Hwan has to go apologize and give dogeon’s bike back!

This romantic ass music playing during this apology 😭

He gave him back the money :(

They’re making up 😭😭 HWAN AWKWARDLY ASKING DOGEON TO COME EAT EITH HIM

DOGEON HAS JOONS BREAKS EVERYTHING CURSE 🥺

Aww Hwan is gonna join the boys in detention because he knows the fight was his fault too 😩

THEYRE SO CUTE

Wait this is SOOOO GOOD!!!

These are our boys!!! First episode over!! Set up complete!!

I’m ooh we’re setting up the Haru Trauma at the flower arboretum 👀 a little cliff hanger

Final thoughts on episode one:

I really loved this! The actors are PERFECT! And I’m really enjoying the cinematography and dialogue so far! They’re keeping very in line with what we know about the hyyh story! It’s so exciting to see everything from the mvs acted out! And it’s so cool to see more detail of the characters and their relationship with each other!

[ragwitch]

Soooo. Now I'm back with a prompt, because you deserve all the good things in life and I'll make it one step closer to a full prompt list! Because I saw that you were hoping that you'd get enough! Well here's one more! Darcy/Bucky soulmate au (where you only see in black and white before you meet your match). Ps. Never done a prompt before so idk if that is too specific or not specific enough but I like your writing style enough to let you take whatever liberties. I'm just here for the meetcute

I have A LOT of feelings about this kind of soulmate verse!!! This is more than I meant to write, and probably a lot of extra stuff that you didn’t need outside of your meetcute, haha! But I definitely want to play with this again, so thank you so much for the prompt! I really hope you like it.

Pairing: Darcy Lewis/James Bucky Barnes

Rating: T

When Darcy Lewis was sixteen, she did not believe in soulmates. Her parents weren’t soulmates and they were the happiest couple she had ever met. None of her friends had soulmates and they were falling in love left and right. Soulmates, the Hues, were fairy tales and the people who claimed to have them, see them, were stuck up liars.

She had Values, and the sharp brightness of the sun or the glitter over water, or the deep absorbing darkness of a shadow at night were just as beautiful as any color a Hue could claim to see.

_

At twenty, in the desert, after electrocuting a man to the ground, Darcy Lewis stood next to Jane Foster.

“The night,” Jane whispered, staring up to the sky with sudden tears rolling down her cheeks. “The night has hues. Oh my god.”

If Jane Foster, the most practical, scientific, no-bullshit person Darcy had ever met, could see hues then they must be real.

At twenty, Darcy Lewis believed in soulmates.

After the Destroyer had been destroyed and Thor had vanished, Jane drove them both to Las Vegas to the nearest pigmented shopping district. Jane bought a can of Night Without Light paint (Value #5279832 and nearly black to Darcy’s eyes) and Darcy bought a gallon of Kernels paint (Value #1854) to paint her room in.

“That’s…a little obnoxious,” Jane said, wincing at the hue card in Darcy’s hand.

“Perfect,” Darcy said with a shrug.

They bought patternless clothing, dresses and shirts and pants all in one value, one hue. Darcy picked everything based off it’s name. Cockatrice, Envy, Electrical Storm, Life Blood, Bitter. Jane bought Deep Lake and New Growth and Dirt.

“People will think you’re Hued,” Jane whispered into Darcy’s ear in the dressing room.

“Perfect,” Darcy said with a shrug.

There was a department of hues for the body, eye powders and lips stains and nail varnishes. Jane wrinkled her nose at it all. Darcy bought one thing, a lipstick called Kiss Me.

“They look silly,” Jane said on the way home after stopping at a gas station. “I never knew how silly everyone looked, dressed in values. Spreading them on their faces. They don’t match. It’s all…splotchy.”

Darcy stopped wearing any makeup but the hued lipstick and her Value #9999999 eyeliner and mascara.

“The world doesn’t match,” Jane told her, out in the desert while she stared up at the sky. Darcy wondered if she was still looking for Thor, or if it was the hue of the stars and the dark sky that she was in love with now. “They tell you everything will be in hues, when it happens. But the world is designed for Values, we’ve built over all the colors.”

The next day Darcy wore her shirt the hue of Envy because she burned with it.

_

When Darcy was twenty-four she believed in soulmates, she believed in Hues, and believed she would never meet hers, would never match Jane’s descriptions of grass and sky and skin to their actual tones.

“But you’re so young,” Thor told her as Jane napped, upright at her desk.

“Only eight percent of the world sees hues,” Darcy said, scribbling with pigmented markers into a blank notebook. Orchid and Cerulean were nearly the same value, a reminder that her world was incomplete, missing information.

“And how much of the world is your age or younger?” Thor asked. “There is no age-limit on meeting your soulmate.”

“I don’t have five thousand years to wait, Thor,” Darcy said, raising her eyebrow.

Thor smiled. “You believe I am Jane’s soulmate.”

Darcy stared at him. “Of course you are.” He had landed and Jane’s world was in color. Those were the rules.

“Perhaps,” Thor said with a shrug. “I would like that to be so. We have always lived in color on Asgard, and we have the notion of a soulmate but no proof of it like Midgardians. Do you know what I think?” Darcy didn’t want to know what he thought. She didn’t want Thor saying anything but that he loved Jane and Jane loved him and it was a perfect absolute that brought Hue to Jane’s life.

“What?” she asked finally, because Thor had been patient.

“I landed, and I proved Jane’s work,” Thor said, and his fingers brushed against Jane’s hand, making hers twitch and reach for him even in sleep. “Tell me my love’s heart does not belong to her work, that her soul is not entwined with the stars.”

_

Finding your life’s purpose was about as easy as finding your soulmate, as it turned out. Maybe Thor had been right about Jane. They were still in love, that much was clear. What was clearer was that Jane’s priority was understanding, perfecting, and protecting the pathways of the universe. And Thor’s priority had always needed to be Asgard. Still in love, but not at once, not in rhythm together. And Jane still saw hues.

So Darcy had a degree and after the disaster of the Accords she found her calling. Unfucking the relationship between the world and it’s heroes. She loved it. She woke up everyday ready to kick ass. She felt fulfilled and purposeful and happy and satisfied.

She stared at the world and she counted every shade, the thousands of values in the moving ocean, in the streets of cities, in the sky. Orchid and Cerulean were close but they were not the same. There were more than 999,9999 little strands of light to see in the world. It was an infinite spectrum of value and it was beautiful.

_

The world did not end. Not when it was supposed to. Not when they promised it would.

That was good too. That would make Darcy’s job a lot easier. Heroes saving the day always did.

_

She almost didn’t notice, not at first. The heroes were trailing into the tent, one after the other, and it was a gloomy day, although by all rights the sun should have made an appearance for their victory. The world was muted, values blending softly together.

It was the Black Widow’s hair she noticed first. A low value, but bright and…words she didn’t know. The Black Widow’s hair…was hued. Everything. Everything was hued. Darcy gasped, a broken rattling breath, and fell back into her seat. Her skirt on her lap was vivid, saturated, strange and violent and Bitter.

“Bucky?”

She looked back up and Captain America had The Winter Soldier by the shoulder, worry between his eyes as the man—there was so much to see, she felt dizzy with it—stared raptly back at her.

“Hues,” Bucky said.

Soulmate, she thought. And some tiny, silly voice at the back of her head thought, Not bad, Darcy.

“Well shit,” Tony said and Darcy realized they really ought to talk about how ridiculous the hues on his suit were. Even if only eight percent of the population had to see them. “Let’s give them a minute.”

One by one the others left the tent—it was in a value, the tables and chairs were all valued too, as if a part of her world hadn’t changed when it had—but with the flick of the curtain Darcy could see that the outside world was riddled with hues and it made her heart pound. Bucky Barnes hadn’t moved, only watched her warily. She stood up and nearly laughed at herself. She was wearing the most…obnoxious colors. She must have spent the last seven years of her life looking like a color-blind Hue.

He was dressed in values but the hues of the room, the hues of her, of his hair—rich and warm and she wanted to touch it—bounced off the polish of his metal arm.

“You’re so…” he started and then swallowed heavily, eyes growing big as if he just realized he was about to speak out loud. But he came closer until they were standing just a step or two apart. She felt like she was learning a whole new language without being given any words. She had understanding and no vocabulary.

“How does anyone do this?” Darcy asked, finding his eyes and feeling shy and urgent all at once, feeling like their sharp pale color was peeling away all her secrets. “It’s everything at once.”

“You…” he started again and Darcy watched his eyes drift down to her lips. “That’s…quite a hue.”

“Kiss Me,” she said.

Bucky blinked at her and then before she could explain, he was there, warm hand pulling her closer by her cheek and mouth slotting over hers. Darcy made a sound, half-surprised and half-excited, and then her arms were over his shoulder and he was groaning as she returned the kiss, wanting every texture and flavor of him all at once. There was Hue in this too, she thought, the warmth of a mouth was a color and the taste of a man’s breath was a color and the feeling of fitting against a body so much larger and brutally stronger than her own was a color.

They pulled apart with a gasp and Darcy grinned, seeing the electric splash of her lipstick smeared across his mouth. She lifted her thumb to wipe it gently away and he leaned into the touch.

“The hue,” she explained, smiling at him. “It’s called Kiss Me.”

A new hue spread over his cheek and Darcy touched that too.

“It’s a good name for it,” he said, the blush (she had a dress called Blush and she wondered if it would match this) fading from his cheeks as he nestled her closer against him, and Darcy’s skin blossomed at every lick of touch. “A hue like that feels like an instruction.”

“Follow it again,” she said, watching his eyes change, darken. (Value or hue, who cared now?)

“Yes ma’am,” he said, and kissed her again.

[toooceanblue]

MeetCute(?) and Fall

Soul Evans was doing fine, thank you very much.

He’d been living by himself for nearly a week (though arguable not in the best part of town), and had already paid for his first month of rent with what he had saved up before leaving his parents. He had gotten a job as a prep cook at a fairly nice place that his parents had never even heard of, and had just cashed in his bi-monthly paycheck, which should cover groceries and a decent chunk of next month’s rent. So he was doing great, actually, superb, and he hadn’t needed help from his parents, or his brother. No, Soul Evans was a fully functioning adult in society, all on his own.

He patted his hand over his right pocket, feeling his wallet there. When he got home, he was definitely treating himself. Maybe after buying groceries, though. And stashing whatever money was leftover somewhere safe until rent was due.

Soul continued walking down the starting-to-be-familiar street to his apartment, noting the buildings around him. There was a tattoo parlour on his right, which would definitely come in handy, if his parents made him want to do something impulsive to piss them off. At the end of the street was a gas station and corner store, a place he’d already become familiar with considering he’d been living on instant ramen and donuts for the past week. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to stop there anytime soon after picking up groceries. What food was he even supposed to buy to be an adult?

Suddenly something hit Soul’s shoulder, hard, and he had already raised his opposite hand to the would-be injury by the time his eyes zeroed in on the culprit. A tiny girl (far too tiny, he would have thought, to have such an impact) had sprinted past him, was still sprinting down the sidewalk like she was running the last leg of a relay. His brain didn’t have time to ponder what she might be thinking when she grabbed a dark-haired stranger by the jacket and yanked him back, landing him flat on his ass. What the hell?

The stranger tried to shove the girl off but she kept him subdued, shoving her hand into his coat pocket and pulling out a wallet with a scowl. It was then Soul finally realized that the man must have taken her wallet, and she’d had to run him down to retrieve it. At least, he thought that must have been what happened, until the girl let the man go and started making her way back in his direction, holding up the wallet and holding his stare with a friendly smile that did not at all match the feats of physical prowess he had just witnessed.

She had nearly reached him when he finally recognized the generic leather square, and shot his hand down to check his right pocket. Shit.

The girl was out of breath, stray hair from her-sandy-blonde pigtails sticking to her neck. “Hey,” she greeted, like they were at some sort of freshman orientation and not in the middle of the street in a not-so-nice-neighborhood that as of recently happened to be his own. “You got this nabbed.”

Soul was so glad he didn’t blush. “Uh, thanks.” He reached out and accepted  his wallet, sheepishly shoving it back in his own pocket.

“You should really be more careful.”

God this was embarrassing. He was being told off by a girl in pigtails. “I- uh. Yeah. Sorry.”

She was smiling again though, bright as day, teeth showing and green eyes crinkling. She was actually smiling at him, the idiot who’d just gotten pick-pocketed without even realizing it. “Don’t be. You’re new around here right?”

Soul grimaced. “How could you tell?”

The girl shrugged. “I live nearby too, and you’re kinda hard to miss.” She held out her hand, standing up straight and proud. “I’m Maka.”

He slinked his own hand out of his pocket and took hers. “Soul. Thanks for uh. Getting my wallet.”

“No problem. Do you need me to walk you home?”

“Oh, uh,” Why why why was she being so friendly. Not that he minded. It was just unusual. “My apartment is actually just around the corner so.” He gestured ahead on them where the sidewalk curved right around the line of buildings.

Maka glanced back. “Oh. That’s mine too.” She turned her attention back to him and shrugged. “I’m headed home anyway.”

“Uh, okay. Lets-go then?”

She bounded next to him, somehow simultaneously matching his lousy pace, and immediately turned up the small talk. “I’m training to be a police officer, you know, so chasing that guy down really isn’t that big of a deal. What do you do?”

“I’m a prepcook.” “Really? I can’t cook for the life of me, uness you count breakfast. Where do you work?”

“Uh, Sauteed Shinigami?” It really wasn’t that weird a name, considering they lived in a place called Death City.

Maks’s face soured. “My papa loves it there.”

Soul grinned uncomfortably. “I take it you don’t?”

“Oh no, I like it fine. Wish my dad didn’t, though.”

They had already reached their apartment building.Soul stepped into the lobby, holding open the door for Maka- his parents had their faults but they didn’t raise him without manners thank you very much- before starting towards the elevator and pressing the button. “So, what floor are you on?” he turned to face her, but she had already made it far to the left, right in front of the stairwell.

“I’m on the fourth floor, but I take the stairs.” She smiled and offered him a wave. “I’ll see you around, Soul!” she said, before she disappeared up the stairs.

The fourth floor. He was on the third.Which in theory was a good thing. He wasn’t sure his heart could handle running into her again immediately after departure.

The empty elevator opened, and he stepped in, pressing the faded 3 and watching for the doors to close.  Up the floor went, and Soul took a deep breath. At least he had a neighbor now, no matter how jarring. Then again, maybe it would be better if she forgot their interaction altogether, and he could live on without remembering their embarrassing first meeting. She seemed like thy type to have friendly interactions with lost strangers a lot. Unfortunately, she also seemed the type who wouldn’t so easily forget them. The elevator doors opened. Maka was standing there, waiting.

How and why the hell-

But she was already shoving a small strip of paper into his hands. “In case you get lost or something. Or need a friend.”

Before Soul could process, she promptly dashed off, presumably to finish her stair-jog to her own apartment. He uncurled his fist, and it was a phone number, of course it was.

Did he just get a girl’s phone number within five-minutes of getting pickpocketed right in front of her? And subsequently getting saved by her?

Nevermind that, who still wrote phone numbers on pieces of paper?

Soul staggered his way to his apartment, unlocking it with the key that had thankfully not been nabbed. He dropped down into the beat-up arm chair he’d gotten second hand from his friend Liz and glanced at the slip of paper. There was sweat on it.

Soul sighed and took out his phone, texting the number.

Hey. It’s Soul.

Her response dinged within the minute.

Hey. Its Maka :)

Maka with a smiley face. Soul groaned and rested his phone over his chest. Whether his heart was beating from the trek home/social interaction or some terrible kind of instant crush he didn’t know. Did he even want to think about it?

Soul glanced at the text again. Hey. It’s Maka :). He let his head fall back against the chair. What had he gotten himself into?

[drunkbooksellers]

Ep 16: Julia & Christen, Itinerant Literate

Epigraph

Y'all. It's been a minute (or, ya know, 8 months). But we're back with a brand new episode featuring Julia Turner and Christen Thompson Lain, the founders of Itinerant Literate, a mobile bookstore in Charleston, SC.

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, our website, or subscribe using your podcatcher of choice.

Support the show! All books in our show notes link to Indiebound, a website that connects you with your local independent bookstore. Purchases made through our affiliate links help fund Drunk Booksellers, so you can support your favorite indie bookstore and your favorite podcasting booksellers.

If you want to get our show notes delivered directly to your inbox—with all the books mentioned on the podcast and links to the books we discuss—sign up for our email newsletter.

This episode is sponsored by Books & Whatnot, the newsletter dedicated to books, bookselling, and bookish folk; check out their newsletter archive here. Follow Books & Whatnot on Twitter at @booksandwhatnot.

Chapter I

In which a local coffee shop assists in alcohol acquisition, we want more spaceships and dragons, and a book brings Emma to tears.

We’re Drinking

Christen and Julia were given some free beer from their local coffeeshop, Orange Spot Coffee: Stillwater Artisinal's Stateside Saisan and Sake-Style Saison. As our cocktail for the evening, we're drinking the Lime of the Ancient Mariner from Tim Federle's Tequila Mockingbird.

Christen's Reading

  War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Shout out to Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Julia's Reading

    Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka (audiobook via Libro.fm)

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

Monsoon Mansion by Cinelle Barnes

Daphne by Will Boast

Kim's Reading

  Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (audiobook via Libro.fm)

Amateur by Thomas Page McBee (pubs August 14, 2018)

McBee's previous book, Man Alive, is also excellent

Emma's Reading

  Circe by Madeline Miller (audiobook via Libro.fm)

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 

Forthcoming & Newly-New Titles We're Excited About

Julia & Christen are Excited About

   The White Darkness by David Grann (pubs Oct 30, 2018)

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (pubs Nov 20, 2018)

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura

Kim's Excited About

  So Lucky by Nicola Griffith (audiobook via Libro.fm)

also check out her bestselling historical fantasy novel, Hild

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn

Emma's Excited About

    There There by Tommy Orange

Fight No More by Lydia Millet

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (pubs July 10, 2018)

her previous book, Uprooted, is one of Emma's faves

Half-Witch by John Schoffstall (pubs July 17, 2018)

Chapter II [23:30]

In which we discuss how bookstores work (and how you keep books on the shelves in a bookstore that moves), Julia and Christen give advice to future bookmobile owners, and the mobile bookstore finds a forever home!

Customer: So, is this a library?

Interested in breaking into publishing (then abandoning your fancy degree to become a bookseller)? Check out the University of Denver Publishing Institute. Julia and Christen met there, so that bodes well.

Shout out to Blue Bicycle (founder of YALLFest, Charleston's Young Adult Book Festival)

Fun fact: the aunt in Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is described as itinerant. Maybe not the best role model, but not the worst!

The bookmobile is so purrrrrrrrrty:

  Books that Itinerant Literate must have in stock:

City of Thieves by David Benioff

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine 

Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer

Replica and Ringer by Lauren Oliver

Tips for potential bookmobile owners:

What's an SAN? Ok, go to www.bowker.com

Have an accountant in the family.

Indiegogo is your friend. (Kickstarter only gives you the funds if you meet your goal, whereas Indiegogo allows you to choose to still get your funds if you don't meet your goal.)

Bungie cords are clutch.

Know your legal obligations (you need separate business licenses for every municipality!)

For the first few months, plan two hours more than you think you'll need.

Ask someone who is not in your field to walk through your store and give you feedback.

Don't take everything a customer says to heart.

Engage sometimes, but not always.

Bookstores are businesses too, y'all.

Chapter III [44:30]

In which Julia, Christen, & Emma have the same wheelhouse; we debate Christen's concept of "feel-good" books; and Christen wants to be fierce & fearsome while naked

Book Description Guaranteed to Get You Reading

Christen loves fiction containing witches, dystopias, feminism, misandry, unreliable narrators, and anachronistic elements. Also, nonfiction books about product and content marketing. Highly recommend Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller.

Emma recommends We Were Witches by Ariel Gore, cause witches + misandry = win!

Julia digs retold fairy tales and pop science/medical nonfiction (shout out to This is Your Brain on Parasites by Kathleen McAuliffe).

Desert Island Pick

Christen: Harry Potter, natch

Julia: Young Adult faves, such as Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Station Eleven Picks

Christen's practical book: Peterson's Field Guides to Medical Plants

Christen's "feel-good" books: Letters to a Young Poet, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, and The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Or, to go more apocalyptic: The Giver by Lois Lowry (aka "The Handmaid's Tale for children")

Julia: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Wild Pick

Julia: Nature reading (The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery) or books about female resistance

Christen wants a guidebook about how to be Lady Godiva. #legit

Lady Godiva, the ultimate Rebel Girl

Bookseller Confession

Christen actively doesn't finish things she doesn't enjoy. Real talk, this is a necessity for all booksellers. And readers. And humans.

Neither Julia, Christen, nor Emma have read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. For the record, Kim loves this series and owns multiple editions of the books. Because it's awesome and Kim has great taste. Seriously, look at this pretty cover:

Impossible Handsell

Julia: Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks

Christen: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

Everyone: Hogarth's Shakespeare series

Book for Booksellers

Julia: Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashore

Christen: Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller

Favorite Bookstores

Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA

Battery Book Exchange & Champagne Bar in Asheville, NC

Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC

Charis Books in Atlanta, GA

Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA

Tattered Cover (which is where Julia and Christen met! best #meetcute ever)

Favorite Literary Media

Shelf Awareness and Lit Hub

On Twitter: Maris Kreizman (author of Slaughterhouse 90210 and judge for Book of the Month Club)

Poet.org Poem of the Day

Epilogue

In which we tell you where to find Itinerant Literate on the Internets

Website: itinerantliteratebooks.com or chsbookmobile.com

Facebook: itinerantliteratebooks

Twitter: @chsbookmobile

Instagram: @chsbookmobile

Tumblr: itinerantliterate.tumblr.com

You can find us on:

Twitter: @drunkbookseller

Litsy: @drunkbooksellers

Facebook

Instagram

Email

Newsletter

Website

Emma tweets from @thebibliot and writes bookish things for Book Riot. She's also starting a newsletter called All the Books I'll Never Read, which you can subscribe to here. (Working on show notes is the first Kim has heard about this, and it sounds awesome.)

Kim tweets from @finaleofseem less frequently than Drunk Booksellers posts new episodes. #sickburn #stilltrue

Subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Check out this episode!

[portraitoftheoddity]

AU where instead of working at a coffeeshop or a bakery, your favs are sanitation employees, or flight attendants, or gas station cashiers. Road construction AU. Data Entry AU. Exhausted receptionists AU. Hell, I challenge someone to write the world’s cutest, most adorable Janitor AU meetcute!