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whoslaurapalmer · 3 years

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finished rereading the raven cycle and you know how last year i said i could be pickier about the raven king but didn’t want to? this year i did want to!

-i mean, i love the raven cycle. interesting magic, very comfy, would sell my soul for the gangsey. -but most of this post is gonna be me complaining about the raven king -the tl;dr of it all is ‘the pacing of the raven king is too fast and too slow at the same time. it’s not that i think it was terrible, but i don’t think it was written as successfully as the previous books. i think, because the pacing of the book is so uneven, that the balance between events, and perhaps the balance between the magic and the characters own inherent internal coming of age power, is off. oh btw i am considering reading call down the hawk but Have Concerns’

-noticed the ‘blue is calling gansey from the phone/sewing/cat room and gansey is calling blue from the bathroom-kitchen-laundry’ parallel which i thought was very, very cute. that has my whole heart -also noticed a lot more of gansey’s whole person just constantly thinking about (or not-thinking about) his death -BUT THEN THE PROLOGUE TO THE RAVEN KING SMACKED ME IN THE FACE AGAIN HOW COULD I FORGET THAT GANSEY LIKE. LITERALLY KNOWS HE’S GONNA DIE AND THE RAVEN KING IS HIM TRYING MAKE SURE EVERYONE WILL BE OKAY AFTER HE’S DEAD -I CANNOT HANDLE RICHARD CAMPBELL GANSEY THE THIRD MY GOD THIS BOY

-canNOT overstate how much i really do love gwenllian. -i love her so much. i love her so much -same with malory. still love him.

-okay i guess i appreciated artemus a little more -i think my thing is like. do i have a problem with blue being part tree? no not necessarily. but the pacing in the raven king is so uneven that i think what i dislike is how the reveal happened -no i don’t know what i’d do differently!! -every time i disagree with a writing choice in a book i try and think ‘now lulu, as someone with a Literal Degree In Putting Words Together, what would you do differently?’ which is a REALLY good writing exercise but mostly just ends up with me going ‘uhhhh. idk. probably have to backtrack a couple plot points and restart from there. no i will not elaborate.’

-last time i thought the raven king moved too fast and this time i agree but also thought it moved too slow?? -i devoured the first three books every time and then both times i read the raven king i kept putting it down because i thought the pacing was so off, so i was simultaneously interested and not interested in what was going on -too fast re: there were A LOT of characters going on, laumonier and piper and henry and neeve and plot points were just piling up and more like slamming together than converging (piper being laumonier’s daughter and henry’s mother being seondeok especially feel less like pieces falling into place than, oh look! ~a thing!!~), ALSO GOD NOAH NEEDED TO SHOW UP MORE (just like. a smidge more noah. would’ve put a lot together), and the speed of finding glendower/driving back/gansey dying/the epilogue -too slow re: somehow so many things are happening but nothing is happening in some parts, some parts dragged, people are just moving around with no real direct sense of working towards the end, blue and gansey were at lunch while adam and ronan were in cabeswater that one time????????????? (-not that they can’t get lunch. but they had time to get lunch???????) -oh i think the four of them maybe felt the most disjointed as a group in this book, which is again not necessarily terrible, but a thing -and these things are just so disappointing because i thought the pacing of the first three books was so GOOD!! things take their time to happen but HAPPEN and i love that so much!!!! -i do feel bad criticizing the raven king bc i know maggiestief was going through health problems at the time and it took longer than she wanted to finish. but i am still criticizing it because it’s still a very unsatisfying ending

-reading this time i felt EVEN MORE FIRMLY that gansey should’ve been glendower, and even went so far as to consider, is the text saying he’s glendower, it’s just not explicitly stated?? because of all the parallels??? of gansey being old and young at the same time, gansey + his own magicians, the parallel between glendower shoving that guy in a tree and gansey wanting to do the same to ronan over the pig, the timelessness of the things gansey loves, the Power of command in his voice, a resurrection in the first place -and i was going to just say, yeah, it’s there, until i got to noah’s chapter again. -i think noah deserved at least one chapter per book (and maybe more during the raven king) and that would’ve made an already tight plot even tighter, especially in the raven king. (-i was also thinking that if gansey was glendower then something else would’ve happened when they found him, no i still do not know what)

-big respect though to maggiestief saying glendower had to either be dead or evil and by that page number there wasn’t enough room for him to be evil -and big respect to the fact that, of course it’s not about teens finding a hero, it’s about teens becoming heroes (these thoughts also pulled from her twitter reread), finding glendower (alive) would never have been narratively good or satisfying (-especially because it makes sense that glendower was dead all along -- if gwenllian was put to sleep wrong, who’s to say that glendower wasn’t, too?) -BUT, IT ALSO MAKES SENSE IF IT’S GANSEY -but then you have like. the whole time it wasn’t even glendower. it was noah -which is why i wanted more noah!!! to better lead to that!!!!!!! cause i feel like that kinda comes out of nowhere!!!!! -the balance of the magical and the real is just off in the reveal i think -man i don’t know. this is a lot of words.

-i also appreciated adam’s character arc better this time, which was really nice. -but i still feel no great attachment to ronan and adam’s relationship

-you know what. i want more mr. gray and maura -idk if i agree with him leaving henrietta. much like the previous paragraphs and my whole gripe with the raven king, it’s not terrible but i don’t think it’s done well, as well as it could’ve been, as well as the previous books -also! more adam and persephone would’ve been good

-i was rereading maggiestief’s tweets where she reread the books and i forget which thread this was in but she picked out one of the ‘character x says something that makes character y reevaluate every single interaction previously’ lines and she was like ‘that’s all these books are’ and i was like ‘YEAH MAGGIE. I FEEL LIKE I SEE THIS LINE EVERY SINGLE SECOND.’ and not necessarily in a good way -sometimes you can reuse a line and it is a parallel or a connection. sometimes you are just reusing a line over and over.

-she also mentions writing arguments from a point of, both characters are right, or think they’re right, or as right as they can be or something to that effect -which i really like, and i absolutely 100% see in her writing -and so i don’t know if this is just a me thing, because i have this obsessive need to backtrack through even the tiniest disagreements after the fact to calmly figure out where i’m coming from and acknowledge where the other person’s coming from, so while i like that every character comes from a place of ‘i’m right’ i feel like it leads to a lot of arguments left unresolved -but i think that’s just me feeling like everybody should always talk everything out as much as possible so -and like resolution doesn’t have to be a big dialogue acknowledgement -but i still didn’t feel like it left a lot of room for these characters to really work towards change -they do change! but i wanted to see it more

-oh hey so. did gansey successfully sell of monmouth? did ronan get a diploma anyway?

-me: ‘thing’ is ultimately a vague, unspecific word and should be used sparingly in a narration, much like ‘interesting’ maggiestief: /flinging out ‘thing’ all the time me: you know what, though???? sure, good for her

-i like henry. but he’s written terribly, the poor guy comes OUT OF NOWHERE too and should’ve shown up earlier more than his two times in blue lily lily blue, and adam and ronan’s super casual racism towards him is like..................................................................mostly unchallenged and really unnecessary -if a racist comment is going to remain unchecked and unchallenged by the narrative and the characters, what does it accomplish? -especially because it never ever shows up again or showed up before -and gansey just kind of scoffs it aside and blue doesn’t even really truly call it out which is like, the amount of other things gansey will call out???? the amount of stuff blue will call out??????? AND THEY JUST LET THAT GO?????? -so, again! it’s not necessary!! it does nothing!!! it just adds unchallenged racism that has no place!!!!!!!!!!!!

-also reading this time i felt like maggiestief went out of her way to just not say what race blue was -that shouldn’t be a thing you just repeatedly dance around and never confirm for your main character

-so my library still does not have the ebook for call down the hawk but i am vaguely considering buying it to read it but also....................i don’t know -i did read the first eight chapters because they were online and i’m like. Intrigued but also?????? Concerned. idk. idk

-looking at it from a distance i have the same concern with it that i do with king of scars. -do i think dreamer trilogy is necessary in the way that it explores things that are set up in the raven cycle and have big potential consequences? yes. the hunt for the ‘greywaren’, kavinsky proving that there are other dreamers, trying to make sure a dreamed thing can still exist if something happens to the dreamer, the possibilities and limits of dreamers, ronan trying to dream another cabeswater, ronan’s fear about what’s real and what isn’t/what he dreamed and what he didn’t dream, and maggiestief clearly loving writing ronan and wanting to write more of him -do i think those things are executed well in the dreamer trilogy? from what i’ve read about it, maybe not???? -especially re: ronan and adam’s character arcs????? -which i feel like, stupid and bitchy being picky about. -change and recovery do not happen in straight lines. but i think this kind of cycles back to the way she writes arguments with like, is it too unresolved to the point that no change, either positive or negative, is happening? -ugggg also makes me worry that i just wasn’t Reading it enough or thinking about it enough -my additional concern is that maggiestief should’ve maybe had firmer rules for what can and can’t be taken out of a dream (-yes i suppose that limiting the very nature of a dream goes against the power of ‘the dream’ so it makes sense for it to be limitless BUT i feel like especially the dreaming of people is gonna paint you into a corner if you’re not careful) -but i am also BIG worried re: the character arcs. -also where ronan’s character arc is after the raven king, do i think he would do the reveal in mr. impossible?? i...........do not know -well i didn’t think so AND THEN I READ OPAL which i kind of enjoyed, with reservations, which is mostly back to ‘is no change happening’ (-i love that opal is like, ‘ronan’s inner child’ or whatever it was and i liked her more this time around but last year when i read the raven cycle i was like ‘but what’s the point of taking opal out cause they just kind of shuffle her around?’ now, what was the point of taking opal out if they’re gonna put her back??? and actually almost COMPLETELY IGNORE HER in the short story????? there was so much potential there for her and ronan and it didn’t happen...........) -nightwash kinda just happened too, huh. (-in general ronan bringing his nightmares back with him is like. God Perfect) -but this all really takes me back to maybe there should’ve been limits on dreaming -also after reading the first eight chapters, i’m like -i 100% respect maggiestief for not wanting to rewrite the raven cycle and not wanting to just write about henrietta, i absolutely do -but it feels so strange to read about ronan and adam and not read about gansey and blue as well? -which isn’t TERRIBLE, but. -but when i see like, single lines from or little sections i’m like ‘oh that looks like a good time’ because i do like the way maggiestief writes because a great deal of it is so rhythmically poetic and beautiful, but so is a great deal of the raven king while still being disappointing. -i feel like i’m just gonna feel about it like how i feel about the raven king honestly -and well king of scars.......

-ANYWAY -might read it. might not. still going back and forth on this a lot. i was leaning towards, i’m gonna do it, but now i’m leaning more towards, i don’t want to, i want to keep the image of these characters where i like them, and right now i am aggressively combing through fanfic because i care a great deal about post-raven king trauma discussion and that’s mostly what i want at the current time

#lulu talks about the raven cycle #a tag now!!

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the-last-airbadger · 3 years

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My 2020

Hey y’all. So 2020 happened. That was a thing. Apparently. I know for a lot of people this year was uhm… pretty shit… but it was still a year that happened so it’s time for my annual reflection post (probably the only time I still post about myself on tumblr lol) and maybe we might even find some good things that happened this year!

The Beginning of 2020 vs Now

So, a lot has changed since the start of the year. A pandemic happened, for one. I can’t believe that a year ago I could still go to class every day and see my friends and now I’m pretty much stuck at home every day. The year started out pretty normal and then march happened and well, you all know what happened next. The worst part about the pandemic for me personally was probably the fact that I barely see my friends anymore and I can’t go to class every day. Some people may not think that not going to class is that bad, but I really enjoyed university more than I ever enjoyed school and I was really happy going there every day, and I was already sad I’d only have 4 to 5 years to spend there, so when that period got even shorter it made me kinda sad.

On the other hand, I do think that mentally I’m in a much better place than I was last year around this time. Being home this much really gave me time to reflect and work on my issues, and because my sister was stuck in our house for a couple of weeks I got to talk to her a lot which really helped me feel better. I think in general my entire family (my brother, sister and mom) have become a lot more open with each other which I think is great! I guess quarantine can have some benefits.

The Best Things about 2020

Okay, here��s is where we’re going to get even more positive and go over all the good things that happened (to me) this year! To be honest, most of the year was a bit of a blur so I probably will forget quite a bit, but I’m going to give this a try anyway. At the start of the year (when things were still normal) I was super excited to get into the next semester, as the one before had,,, kinda sucked, and those 6 weeks of class I had at the start of the year were really great. I remember me and my friends having a competition of who could get mentioned the most in our teacher’s powerpoint presentation so those classes were always interesting. I also finally got to dye my hair for the first time with the help of my friends. I’ve been wanting to do that for so long, and I’m so happy I finally got to do it! I even know how to do it myself now, and my hair hasn’t been brown since the start of march! Then, at the start of march, my dad and stepmother moved away and I permanently moved in with my mom. Before, I used to live with both my mom and my dad and I got really really sick of switching houses every week, so to finally live in one house and have all my stuff in one place was a bit of a relief to me, and I’m still really happy with it. After that, things become a bit blurry. I remember that at the start of quarantine in … April? I watched Sex Education or the first time, which is now not only one of my favourite shows ever, but also taught me a lot and helped me with some of the issues I was dealing with. We’ll skip over the subsequent sexuality crisis I had (I think I might actually be straight??), and skip straight to the summer, when I started watching I-Land. I watched every episode as it aired live, and because of this show my Fridays really became the highlight of the week. I don’t think I’ve ever been so invested in a survival show XD. The rest of the year was mostly just me spending time with myself. It got a bit lonely sometimes, but I also don’t think I’ve ever written as much as I have this year, and my drawing has significantly improved (if I may say so myself)! Especially towards the end of the year, when I started making a planning every day to prevent myself from wasting away all my time on youtube, I got super productive, and I wrote a lot, and made a lot of art, and I really felt good. I even started (gasp) working out. Yeah I know. Shocking right.

There was also a lot of good music that was released this year, and, to close this section on a great note, through one of my classes I finally found a group of friends to play D&D with! We haven’t actually played yet, but we will, and I’m so excited to play the game and get to know these people more! They all seem really kind!

My Resolutions for 2020?

Now, here’s the part where we check whether I actually reached all the goals I set myself for 2020. As usual, I have no idea what my resolutions were, so I honestly have no idea how I did. Let’s see, shall we?

Express my feelings more (as in I get really awkward in any sappy or mushy situation but I would like to be able to tell people I appreciate them without cringing) – UHM way to attack me on the very first resolution jeez. I did get more open with my family but I still can’t tell people I care about them without cringing so this is a fail lol

Again, learn to depend less on other people’s opinion and trust my own – I’ve been working on it, I think I’ve gotten a bit better? So win?

Get my sleeping schedule back on track – did that! It’s a bit whacky again now because of the holidays, but October and November were a big success regarding this resolution

WRITE MORE. This time I’ll make some concrete goals: Either I’ll get my story’s first draft done, or I’ll write 100 pages on a single project – okay, so here’s the thing. I don’t think I did any of these particular things, however this time I am 100% sure I wrote a lot more than the past years. I cannot count all the files and pages and notes I have now, but I wrote a lot, so I’m counting this as a win

I want to try NaNoWriMo (not necessarily in November, but at some point) – yeah, didn’t do that oops

I want to read a lot again but maybe not as much as this year because I want to focus on writing too. 40 books? – 49 books babey

Read all my current unread books (Aru Shah 2, Skullduggery Pleasant 9, Gemina, The Mistborn Trilogy and Call Down The Hawk) and finish my reread of Heroes of Olympus and the Raven Cycle) – Did all of these except Skullduggery Pleasant 9 (the start was so boring I decided not to read it all) and The Mistborn Trilogy (I am about halfway through the first book I think?) so I’m counting this as half a win

Finally read a book by V.E. Schwab (I’ve been wanting to try one of her books for ages) – Did that! Read a whole trilogy. It was good but not as great as I expected them to be. I think my expectations were too high though

Finish Playing Twilight Princess (I promised my brother) – Did that! I’m really proud of myself and so is my brother

Go. Swimming. Seriously. It’s scandalous that I still haven’t done that after waiting so long to be able to – IT’S BEEN 5 YEARS SINCE I LAST WENT SWIMMING WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME. I did buy new swimshorts but I still haven’t actually used them… shame on me

Try to worry less about school and not overwork myself – kinda?

Maybe try another drawing challenge somewhere this summer? I haven’t done any of those in a while and I feel like my art needs more attention – okay, so I didn’t do that, but I did at the start of the year make the resolution to make portrait/photoshoot-like drawings for my 8 main oc’s, and I did actually manage to finish that, and they are some of the best drawings I’ve ever made, so though I haven’t actually done a challenge specifically, I did do something

I want to try a 24 hour readathon – Yeah, didn’t do that oops

I kinda want to learn a piano piece as well, but I already have so many hobbies I want to focus on so I don’t know if I’ll have the time ☹ – yeah my dad sold our piano so… fail XD

Expectations for 2021

Now, after last year I think it’s safe to say we can never really know what to expect. But! I’m going to guess anyway because it’ll be really fun to see next year whether I got anything right.

The first thing that I think will probably happen this year (if I don’t majorly mess anything up) is I’ll be writing my thesis next semester, and then in the summer I’ll get my bachelor’s degree. Honestly I can’t believe how fricking fast those 3 years went, but I guess I’ll just have to roll with it lol. Corona vaccinations will also probably start happening next year, and hopefully this will mean that going outside and seeing my friends will be possible again next year – at least a lot more than it was this year. I hope 2021 will be the year of hanging out with friends and getting to live a little again. Maybe even get to go to class. That would be great.

On to more minor – but no less exciting – things, 2021 will probably bring us a new season of Sex Education! I’m sooo excited for that holy shit. And, in a similar vein, I have high hopes for kpop releases now that SHINee is finally back, and it looks like Haseul is also returning to LOONA! 2021 will also be the year in which ENHYPEN makes their first comeback, and some of the other I-LAND contestants will also make their debut, and there might even be a new season of I-LAND as well in the summer? So there’s a lot of things to look forward to. Oh, and I almost forgot, Dan Howell’s book will be released in May, and there will be a new Grishaverse book, and the Shadow and Bone show will start airing, which I am really curious about. Again, lots of things to look forward to!

2021 Resolutions

I’m not feeling as ambitious as I was last year, but there are a couple of things I want to try and do, so let’s jump into the resolutions!

I just came up with this today, but I think I want to try and build a bit of a skincare routine? The skin on my nose is kinda flakey, and I think it couldn’t hurt to try and take better care of my skin

Keep up with my daily workouts. I want to work out every day, except when I’m at my dad’s or when it’s a special day, like Christmas or something.

Be able to do either 50 push-ups on my knees, 25 normal push-ups, or both

GO SWIMMING

Keep up with planning daily! It’s a really good way to balance all of my 3195 hobbies and it helps me to not get stressed about school

Write (almost) every day. I need to make it a habit

Draw at least once a week, every other day if possible

Go outside at least once a week. That doesn’t seem very hard but with corona I did not realise how little I go outside if I am not forced to. Sometimes I spend 3 weeks without going out and I don’t even notice it. That can’t be good for me lol

Try to make healthier food choices. Maybe follow the lunch meal plan of the guy whose workout videos I follow.

Get my bachelor’s degree

Grow a beard. I’m getting closer… I know I’m getting closer…

Meet with my frIENDS and give them the alBUMS I have for them

Be more careful with my money, maybe even save a bit of money

Spend less time on social media

Read more educational books

I think that’s it! I can’t think of anything else right now so these will have to do. I wish that 2021 will treat all of you much better than whatever mess 2020 was! Happy 2021!

Last year’s post: (x)

@the-official-pentacorn @asiandutchgirl

#personal #my 2020 #this year was a wild ride #here's to a better 2021

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starspray · 6 years

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1, 22, 34

Ooh, and 39!

This got long so there’ll be a cut.

1: Talk about the first time you watched your favorite movie.

My favorite movie is probably The Princess Bride, but I was a young kid when I first saw it and so I don’t...remember the first time. I’m sure a lot of it went over my head. I’m also sure it was pretty formative as far as my sense of humor goes, and probably as far as my fondness for playing around with tropes and cliches goes, as well.

22: Talk about your worst fear.

Probably wasps/hornets/bees etc. Not necessarily bumble bees--I’ll flinch if one of them flies by my head but it’s not nearly as bad as how freaked out I get when a yellow jacket makes an appearance. I was actually stung by a hornet a couple weeks ago, on my chin and my finger, because hornets are little sadistic bastards. It didn’t swell up as bad as it could have (I was stung over my eyebrow once in fifth grade and my eye swelled shut--I had to go to school like that, and all my teachers made a fuss, which just made it even more embarrassing, ugh), but I definitely freaked out. My biggest fear regarding this sort of thing is somehow suddenly developing a severe enough allergy to experience like, anaphylaxis or something, although at this point in my life it’s probably unlikely? But I’m also afraid to research it to find out for sure.

This might also be on my mind because I’m rereading The Raven Cycle atm and Gansey is extremely relatable.

Also jellyfish fall into this category because the single beach vacation I remember involved getting stung by one.

34: Talk about the worst physical pain you’ve endured.

On the day before Thanksgiving when I was in ninth grade I woke up with what I thought were cramps, or something. But then they started getting worse, and it was a different, sharper kind of pain. I wasn’t entirely sure where my appendix was, but I thought it was in that general area. Except my mom wasn’t home--she had taken my sister, ironically, to a doctor’s appointment, so I had to call my dad at work and he took me to the doctor, who poked around and asked me questions (sending my dad out of the room at one point to quietly ask if I was pregnant, which of course I wasn’t), and then I was sent to another doctor I forget where, who then sent me to Holy Spirit Hospital in Harrisburg. I threw up outside the second doctor’s office from the pain; I honestly cannot describe how bad it was.

They gave me morphine at the hospital, which helped totally and almost instantly, as far as I can remember. It also made me very sleepy. I might have fallen asleep during the ultrasound, actually--which itself was a weird experience because you expect the goo to be cold but it was actually quite warm.

Anyway it wasn’t my appendix, I didn’t need surgery or anything, and I didn’t even have to stay overnight. A cyst had formed on my ovary and burst, or something. The doctor said the morphine did something like “break the cycle” of pain or something, so I was basically okay. It was weird.

39: Talk about things you wish you’d known earlier.

The only thing I can think of is that I wish I’d known years ago that asexuality was a real Thing. It would have saved me a great many hours of wondering what was wrong with me. Actually, I told my best friend sometime in high school that I thought maybe I was something like asexual--I didn’t know it was a “real” orientation, but I knew like, bisexuality was, and thought it stood to reason that if there was an “all of the above” option there might be a “none of the above” option, but she shot that down and did the whole “oh you’ll meet someone someday” thing, and...it made me feel faintly ridiculous, so I basically tried not to think about it.

Until two-ish years ago, when the Internet informed me that, yes, asexuality IS real and it’s not Just You! Boy was that an epiphany.

#meme response #dangerously-human

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midnightliar · 7 years

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the beautiful, luminous, inimitable @violaeade tagged me for 50 book questions!

1. What is your favourite book and/or book series of all time?

oh maybe everything leads to you by nina lacour! it just really gets to me

2. What is the longest book you have ever read? How many pages?

uhh idk what’s the longest harry potter book bc probably that? i dont... read books that long usually

3. What is the oldest book you have ever read? (Based on its written date)

ummm i think and then there were none by agatha christie? i dont keep track by time tbh but i dont read that many old books bc i tend to have trouble reading them

4. What is a book series that everyone else loves but you do not?

the raven cycle lol

5. What book or book series would you like to see turned into a film/ TV series?

oh god most of them? 99% of the lesbian ones for sure. percy jackson would make an excellent animated movie series imo. i’m clearly biased but tasu/teota would be great on screen.

6. What is your favourite stand-alone book?

most of the gay ones i read are standalones and theres so many good ones... i already said everything leads to you but we are okay and you know me well are also extremely good! of fire and stars killed me as well.

7. What is a book that you feel glad for not reading?

god. straight ones? ones that i heard are racist or homo/lesbo/bi/transphobic, but in general i’m picky abt what i read bc i don’t read that many books.

8. What is a book that you feel guilty for not reading?

i was gonna say i don’t feel guilty about not reading books i don’t like/don’t want to but that’s a lie- babe if ur reading this i am SO sorry i never finished the last chaos walking book

9. What is a book you have read that is set in your country of birth?

most of them lol that’s what i get for living in america. i read we are okay pretty recently which takes place in new york, the state i was born in, so that’s a bit more specific.

10. What is a book that you own more than one copy of?

i have 2 copies of redwall for no reason other than my high school library was selling one for a dollar so i bought it even tho i had it already. i have a couple copies of some of the a wrinkle in time books bc i got some of them as gifts a bunch.

11. What horror book made you really scared?

omg i don’t read horror but that one skulduggery pleasant short story about bubba moon or whatever freaked me the fuck out tbh

12. What book do you passionately hate?

um i haven’t read enough terrible books to say i hate them that passionately? but i rly kinda hated trc. oh yeah i read the first c*aptive pr*nce book in hs on the recommendation of a friend and it just made me so uncomfortable the entire time i really. did not have a good time with that one and i wish i hadn’t read it

13. What is the biggest book series you have read? How many books are in it?

skulduggery pleasant! theres 9 books plus short stories i still can’t believe i read all those

14. What book gives you happy memories?

aw sabrina answered this with the flywheel by erin gough and i have to say the same bc she sent it to me for my birthday, full of annotations of thoughts and jokes she made herself AND got it signed by the author, and i’ve uhhhh never felt so loved in my life

15. What book made you cry?

oh the book thief for sure. everything leads to you made me cry a bunch while rereading it even tho its not sad? thos were love tears. that happens a lot actually.

16. What book made you laugh?

skulduggery pleasant! there’s so many good lines in that one. my dad used to always hand me a book he’d just read and tell me to read a certain chapter he found hilarious but i never read the whole book but he always found hilarious memoirs too.

17. What is your favourite book that contains an LGBTQ+ character?

lmaoo like all the books i read are gay? the abyss surrounds us/the edge of the abyss have really unique lesbian characters because they’re so angry and vindictive and dumb and interesting and DRAMATIC so that one gets a shout out

18. Have you read a book with a male protagonist? What is it?

what the fuck is that (ok i legit just finished reading when the moon was ours by anna marie mclemore tho bc my gf rec’d it and it was p good)

19. Have you read a book set on another planet? What is it?

does fantasy count? bc then of fire and stars. uhh chaos walking is on a new planet. a wrinkle in time involves other planets too! wow i’m crushing this one

20. Have you ever been glad to not finish a series? Which?

the raven cycle lol i thought it was a finished trilogy when i started the first book so i just never read the last one and i am so relieved

21. Have you ever read a book series because you were pressured?

not really? i don’t really feel pressure, i value recommendations from my girlfriend friends way more than things that are trending or popular. i’ve read a couple that i blindly picked from internet lists that i didn’t care for tho but that was really a while ago

22. What famous author have you not read any books by?

pretty much any author we were supposed to read in high school. any classic or even modern famous author i probably haven’t read. i’ve read like a dozen books ever

23. Who is your favourite author of all time?

tbh nina lacour is really up there. when i was really young it was definitely gail carson levine. i rly loved anne ursu’s books as well.

24. How many bookshelves do you own?

only one! and a bunch of boxes that i never unpacked after we moved like 3 years ago. my mom wants to put a big wall bookshelf in our house somewhere bc this one didn’t come with any like our last house did but who knows if that’ll happen.

25. How many books do you own?

are u trying to make me count?

26. What is your favourite non-fiction book?

ohhh i don’t read much of this genre. i always avoided it as a kid and i’ve been meaning to get into it more but i haven’t yet. i’m really looking forward to reading a sally ride biography tho

27. What is your favourite children’s/middle-grade book?

the chronus chronicles by anne ursu were my JAM in elementary/middle school omg. i also really loved the may bird series which i didn’t read until high school.

28. What is your next book on your TBR?

i’m about to start georgia peaches and other forbidden fruit finally! my gf bought me 10 things i can see from here and i love her so whenever that arrive i’m probably gonna devour that. i want to reread a wrinkle in time soon since the trailer comes out this weekend! plus a million others

29. What book are you currently reading?

i literally just finished when the moon was ours which felt like it took me ten years to read and i haven’t started another yet but it’ll be georgia peaches bc thats the other one i got from the library and i already had to renew them haha

30. What book are you planning on buying next?

um this old west lesbian novel called backwards to oregon! i’ve been craving westerns lately but as always i’m also craving gay content

31. What was the cheapest book you bought?

i used to buy a ton of old paperbacks, usually goofy looking sf or fantasy novels from library sales for dollars or quarters so definitely those.

32. What was the most expensive book you bought?

i can tell u the most expensive book i got for free was a beautiful bound collection of hg wells stories that i just got from some book at bea before it was bookcon lol

ones i actually paid for... do art books count??

33. What is a book you read after seeing the movie/ TV series?

nah i usually have no intention of reading the book if i watched the show/movie first

34. What is the newest book you have bought?

akdjghksjgh a lesbian western novella called from the boots up for a few bucks on kindle

35. What three books are you most looking forward to reading this year?

the rest of the gay books i’ve bought but haven’t read yet! not your sidekick and labyrinth lost, i’m VERY excited to reread a wrinkle in time and i also really want to read stone butch blues

36. What is a book you love that has a terrible trope? (Love triangle, etc)

crush by sr silcox has the cutest lesbian teen summer romance AND one them is secretly a rock star avoiding her fame bc her controlling dad was turning into HIS dream instead of HERS akdjghksdjgh its fantastic i adored it

37. Have you read a book in a different language? What was it?

oh no i’m dumb as hell

38. What is a book you’ve read that is set in a time period before you were born?

for some reason dave at night by gail carson levine popped into my head first? that was my favorite as a kid and i reread it all the time and i think it took place in the 20s or 30s with all that good good jazz shit

39. What book offended you?

hm not sure how to answer this one

40. What is the weirdest book you have read?

idk the may bird series was pretty weird. gone by michael grant? i read the first for a high school book club and i just could not get into it or understand it even a little

41. What is your favourite duology?

ditty the abyss surrounds us & the edge of the abyss !!

42. What is your favourite trilogy?

wow i really haven’t read that many trilogies esp ones i loved. i guess may bird or the chronus chronicles then!

43. What book did you buy because of its cover?

the maze runner! also bc i heard it was good but i hated that book so

44. What is a book that you love, but has a terrible cover?

honestly i can’t think of one rn

45. Do you own a poetry anthology? What is your favourite poem from it?

nope! i also hated poetry as a kid and have only tried to get into it recently. i have a book of sappho’s fragments and i want to get tracy k smith from the library but thats about it

46. Do you own any colouring books based off other books?

nope

47. Do you own any historical fiction?

thats possible

48. What book made you angry?

the maze runner really did?? for some reason and i don’t get mad that much but it just really had me steamin. sabrina also said grasshopper jungle and i’m inclined to say same lmao. i haven’t read it but seeing all the lesbophobia in not otherwise specified recently made me really mad and also upset

49. What book has inspired you?

aw inspired is a serious word to throw around. the miseducation of cameron post, idk if it “inspired” me but it was my first lesbian novel and that really did a lot for me.

50. What book got you into reading?

i think it was a wrinkle in time! or maybe roald dahl books before that, but a wrinkle in time was definitely up there, and maybe the shadow thieves by anne ursu

i’m tagging @reading-takes-you-places and @mywomensworld and anyone who wants to! i don’t talk to many people here but if you follow me and want to, go for it!

#boy this was so many questions and i really don't......read..............#but ily babe ty for tagging me <3 #long post

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the-sound-and-the-fury · 7 years

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Books of 2016

I set my Goodreads challenge to 60 books this year, and I just beat it by a few at the end! I probably could have gotten farther, but I didn’t read as many novellas as last year, and I had a couple of serious book hangovers to contend with.

As I’ve done before, I bolded my top 10 books of the year, and italicized my next 10 honorable mentions.

Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2) - Gail Carriger

Blameless (Parasol Protectorate #3) - Gail Carriger

Heartless (Parasol Protectorate #4) - Gail Carriger

Timeless (Parasol Protectorate #5) - Gail Carriger

Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake

Baby Doll - Hollie Overton

Autumn Bones (Agent of Hel #2) - Jacqueline Carey

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) - Gail Carriger

Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School #2) - Gail Carriger

Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School #3) - Gail Carriger

Manners & Mutiny (Finishing School #4) - Gail Carriger

Grace & Style: The Art of Pretending You Have It - Grace Helbig

Prudence (The Custard Protocol #1) - Gail Carriger

Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1) - James SA Corey

Wolf by Wolf (WBW #1) - Ryan Graudin

Caliban’s War (Expanse #2) - James SA Corey

The Two Princesses of Bamarre - Gail Carson Levine

Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices #1) - Cassandra Clare

Abaddon’s Gate (Expanse #3) - James SA Corey

Cibola Burn (Expanse #4) - James SA Corey

Dear Emma - Katie Heaney

Nemesis Games (Expanse #5) - James SA Corey

Towers Falling - Jewel Parker Rhodes

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) - Marissa Meyer

Feed (Newsflesh #1) - Mira Grant

The Butcher of Anderson Station (Expanse #0.5) - James SA Corey

Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church - The Boston Globe

Deadline (Newsflesh #2) - Mira Grant

Gods of Risk (Expanse #2.5) - James SA Corey

Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) - Marissa Meyer

Blackout (Newsflesh #3) - Mira Grant

The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) - Maggie Stiefvater

Lair of Dreams (Diviners #2) - Libba Bray

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman - Lindy West

The Complete Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3) - Marissa Meyer

Maids of Misfortune (A Victorian San Francisco Mystery #1) - M Louisa Locke

Uneasy Spirits (A Victorian San Francisco Mystery #2) - M Louisa Locke

When We Were Animals - Joshua Gaylord

Bloody Lessons (A Victorian San Francisco Mystery #3) - M Louisa Locke

The Foxhole Court (All for the Game #1) - Nora Sakavic

The Princess Diaries #1 - Meg Cabot (reread)

I’m Just a Person - Tig Notaro

You’ll Grow Out of It - Jessi Klein

Deadly Proof (A Victorian San Francisco Mystery #4) - M Louise Locke

Imprudence (The Custard Protocol #2) - Gail Carriger

The Raven King (All for the Game #2) - Nora Sakavic

All the King’s Men (All for the Game #3) - Nora Sakavic

Where Am I Now? - Mara Wilson

The Churn (The Expanse #0.2) - James SA Corey

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) - Sarah J Maas

Pilfered Promises (A Victorian San Francisco Mystery #5) - M Louisa Locke

The Boy is Back - Meg Cabot

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) - Sarah J Maas

The Harder He Falls (Kick #1) - Lynda Aicher

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) - Sarah J Maas

The Deeper He Hurts (Kick #2) - Lynda Aicher

Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) - Sarah J Maas

Summer House Party (Timeless Regency Collection) - Regina Scott, Donna Hatch, Sarah M Eden

Elemental Pleasure (Trinity Masters #1) - Mari Carr, Lila DuBois

The Farther He Runs (Kick #3) - Lynda Aicher

Crossroads (Crossroads #1) - Riley Hart

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia #1) - CS Lewis (reread)

Primal Passion (Trinity Masters #2) - Mari Carr and Lila DuBois

I once again told myself I was going to branch out in my reading, only to be confronted with multiple series (fantasy, scifi, historical, romance). But I did read a few good nonfiction books (mostly of the memoir persuasion).

I also had more rereads than the two listed here (aka when I lost my mind after The Raven King, I reread all of The Raven Cycle and maybe dipped my toes into the fanfiction world).

There was no Reblog Book Club this year, and I only halfheartedly followed along with Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf (Persepolis was the only one I’d picked up that I hadn’t already read from that list), so I didn’t have a lot of guided books. I didn’t even bother with most of the monthly books offered at work (other than Baby Doll and Towers Falling, which were ARCs at the time, but I totally recommend).

Highlights from this year really only include going to Grace Helbig’s signing in Boston, and then Mara Wilson’s book reading in Cambridge. I wish I’d been able to go to the 2nd NerdCon: Stories, but failed to get my planning together due to life (though I’ve got my ticket for NerdCon: Nerdfighteria in February). Looking ahead to next year, I already know I’m going to be caught up in a couple more series, though I’m going to make an actual effort of tackling the unread books on my shelf first.

#Books of 2016

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the-last-airbadger · 4 years

Text

My 2019

Hello pals. It's time for my annual end of the year post. The end of the decade means time for reflection and seeing how well I did with my resolutions haha (not that well I fear)

The Beginning of 2019 vs Now

The beginning of this year was amazing! I started off the year with a three week break, and after that, the second semester of my first year at uni started. This semester was honestly probably the happiest I've been in my life. I love attending university and I have the greatest group of friends there and every day there was a treat that semester (the current one is a bit of a drag sadly). My mother also moved in februari, which was something I wasn't really looking forward to at the time, but in hindsight, that was really great too. I was excited to go into the new year and felt sure it was going to be a good one!

I also had the best sleeping schedule back then. I slept from 12 til 9 literally every night, was on top of all of my schoolwork, and basucally I really had my life in order while also having a lot of time left to read and do other fun things, which was a great feeling.

The Best Things about 2019

The first best thing that happened this year was the DAY6 concert! I've been wanting to see a kpop group live ever since I got into kpop, so this was literally a dream come true. Not only was the concert the best concert I've ever been to, I also got the chance to give all the members a high five, which was a surreal feeling. One of the best evenings of my life.

Then, like I said, my mom moved into a new house, and it's such a chill house! I love beeing there! So that was great too

I also fell into a booktube hole around that time, which I'm really happy about! A Clockwork Reader's videos have entertained me for hours and Jessethereader is one of my favourite youtubers right now. I'm so thankful I found his videos! They are both entertaining and has really given me more motivation to read, as well as introduced me to many many books I'd never heard of before. My tbr has grown considerably since then haha. I also read so much since then! I have never read this much in a year!

I turned 20, scored a 10 in one of my courses (very proud of that), and I went to Alec Benjamin's concert with my sister which was amazing!

But I don't really remember many other special things that happened 😅. OH WAIT YEAH AVENGERS ENDGAME AND THE NEW SPIDERMAN MOVIE. And a lot of kpop releases! But I feel like it was mostly a year of school, books, and chilling than one of specific exciting events.

My Resolutions for 2019?

Oof, I haven't really looked at these resolutions at all this year, and I'm realising that I probably should have, because I don't think I accomplished many of these 😂

Dye my hair (let’s give that another go shall we) - My hair is still very brown 😔

Get a good haircut - I've had a couple of really good haircuts this year, so that's a win! This makes me wonder what my hair looked like last year though🤔 (I looked it up, it wasn't that bad XD)

Get a tattoo - Didn't do that :(

Move out of my parent’s house (that’s a bold one) - Didn't do that either! I could have, but then I realised I was actually quite happy living at home so I decided to stay for a while. I guess that's still a win because I'm happy about where I live 🤔. I do still wanna move out at some point though, but there's no need to rush.

Accomplish my reading challenge on Goodreads (I really want to accomplish that 35 books goal, it’s starting to haunt me) - YES. I DID THAT. FINALLY. AFTER 3 YEARS. and not just a little bit either, I read 49 BOOKS this year and more than double the amount of pages I've ever read in a year. 2019 really was the year of reading. Discovering booktube was really a gift.

Get tickets for A.C.E.’s concert - Did that! The concert was cool

Get swol - yeeeaaah nooooppee

Communicate more with the people around me - I don't know if I did that, I guess I didn't really pay attention to whether I did this or not soooo🤷‍♂️

Don’t let other people’s opinions shape my actions - Still working on that

Pass my first year at uni - Yeehaw

Go swimming (I haven’t done that in 3 years) - HOW HAVE I NOT DONE THIS YET?? I NEED TO SWIM IT'S BEEN 4 YEARS

Grow a beard (plz universe) - 😔

Learn how to make flipbooks (it looks really cool) - yeah I kinda lost interest in this

Learn how to knit (I really wanna make my own sweaters) - still want to try this 🤔

Read books on storytelling and learn more about how to tell a story - I did not read books on storytelling, but I did watch a couple of Hello Future Me videos which were helpful so tiny mini win

Develop my story more - This is a very vague resolution... like I have no Idea what "more" is when I don't know how much I wrote in 2018 😂. If this means just continuing to develop my story then I think I succeeded, but if it means I consistenly and conciously spent more time on developing my story then I did not.

Write at least 100 pages - I have no idea how much I wrote this year honestly. I wrote a bit but 🤷‍♂️

Spend more time with my friends, both new friends and old friends - sadly, I kinda feel like I failed this one. Last semester I only really saw my best friends twice. My other friendgroup I saw every day (because school) but I only saw them about 3-4 times outside of school which I would have liked to be more...

Expectations for 2020

I don't really have that many expectations for this year. I know I will start my third year at university (time is going TO FAST) and will have to start working on my thesis which I'm not really looking forward to.

Another thing that I know will happen is that my dad will move, meaning I'll move into my mom's house permanently. I am actually quite looking forward to the stability of living in one house again instead of switching every week, but I will miss my room.

And yeah apart from that I don't really know. I have a feeling this will be a year of personal development, writing, reading and creativity, but I have no idea.

I'm also looking forward to the release of the new Hunger Games Prequel, and I'm also hOPING that SHINee will come back at the end of the year but only time will tell 👀

2020 Resolutions

I'm feeling ambitious right know so I might end up doing none of these things BUT that's okay let's do this

Express my feelings more (as in I get really awkward in any sappy or mushy situation but I would like to be able to tell people I appreciate them without cringeing)

Again, learn to depend less on other people's opinions and trust my own

Get my sleeping schedule back on track

Become better at summarizing (no more 4 page summaries of 4 page texts 😂)

WRITE MORE. This time I'll make some concrete goals: Either I'll get my story's first draft done, or I'll write 100 pages on a single project

I want to try NaNoWriMo (not nessicarily in November, but at some point)

I want to read a lot again but maybe not as much as this year because I want to focus on writing too. 40 books?

Read all my current unread books (Aru Shah 2, Skullduggery Pleasant 9, Gemina, The Mistborn Trilogy and Call Down The Hawk) and finish my reread of Heroes of Olympus and the Raven Cycle

Finally read a book by V.E. Schwab (I've been wanting to try one of her books for ages)

Finish Playing Twilight Princess (I promised my brother)

Finally start spelling "definitely" correctly because I've been spelling it as "definately" for years and I really need to stop 😂.

Go. Swimming. Seriously. It's scandalous that I still haven't done that after waiting so long to be able to😂

Try to worry less about school and not overwork myself

Maybe try another drawing challenge somewhere this summer? I haven't done any of those in a while and I feel like my art needs more attention

I want to try a 24 hour readathon

I kinda want to learn a piano piece as well, but I already have so many hobbies I want to focus on so I don't know if I'll have the time :(

So, that was it for this year! Thanks for reading and happy 2020!

@the-official-pentacorn @asiandutchgirl

Last year’s post (x)

#new year's eve #2020 #2019 #end of the DECADE #personal #the post was made on mobile this year so the layout is bad I fear

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