#i've been reading lots of books lately.

[sennik]

so, turns out the best cure for being depressed, overworked and uninspired really is working less, spending time with friends, and consuming media you actually like.

[justalittlebluetiefling]

Liam: Matt, did you create the one fantasy world where history isn't warped by the people who are telling it or can we actually not trust anything you have said up until this point?

[lucyshypemaster]

keefe was actually insane for this

[livrere-green]

"Over the past few months, I’ve come to realize that I am far more of a blog than an actual person. I don’t know when this blogging thing started, and I don’t know when or why I signed up to this website, but I can’t seem to remember what I did before and I don’t know what I’d do if I deleted it. I severely regret starting this blog, I really do. It’s pretty embarrassing. But the only place where I ever find people who are sort of like me is on these blogs. People talk about themselves here in ways that people don’t in real life.

If I delete it, I think I’ll probably be completely alone."

— SOLITAIRE (2014) , ALICE OSEMAN.

[viridian-house]

Do you have any favorite naruto fics you’d recommend? Any pairing, complete or not, on-hiatus, gen, oneshots, anything is fine lol

I was legitimately just pruning my bookmarks the other day!! thank you so much for asking.

I don't read too much fanfic these days, and I'm picky when I do--only about grammar/punctuation and immersion though. I ship a LOT of stuff (I guess The Youth would call me a proshipper) and although I never read darkfic, I don't shy away from weirder kinks and unhealthy relationship stuff.

categorizing by pairing, if applicable. some of them are smutty, and please note that the first 3 come from FFN which doesn't have a tagging system, but there is some SA CW I'll give in advance.

KAKASAKU | my first OTP! formative fics that totally reshaped my understanding of what fanfiction could be, and how well-written chemistry can make it or break it

HOUSE OF CROWS is the quintessential kakasaku fanfic. it was written during shippuden and so is canon divergent because of that, but also tells a comprehensive story of its own right that is intriguing and well planned. excellent characterization and world building. leaves me gutted in the best way on my yearly reread.

DUTY BEFORE HONOR is another silvershine classic. I don't reread is as often as House of Crows but they are just about equal in quality. again, the chemistry between them is off the charts, and the world feels so alive.

WILL OF FIRE for me is up there with House of Crows in being essential kakasaku reading. cynchick is a multisaku champion and a wonderful storyteller. the stakes in this one are stressful, the romance tense and believable, and we once again get lovely world building and great chemistry.

ITAKISA | a pairing near and dear to me, because men who do everything wrong are so deeply relatable. they both know they don't deserve anything good ever again but they found each other!!!! ARE YOU GUYS SEEING THIS--

A SHARK HIDDEN INN THE LEAVES doesn't have my favorite version of Kisame, but he's plenty close enough. it's a lengthy oneshot that got me into certain *ahem* kinks. it is a very fun and wild fic that is entirely self-aware of how absurd it's being, and manages to have nothing but sincerity at the same time (and I highly recommend the author's other stories as well)

AN ORCHESTRA PLAYING ON, INSANE is a modern AU (extremely rare in my bookmarks) that absolutely tore my heart out. god is it SO much to ask for these losers to be happy?! yes, it is, and I love every moment of it

MADAMITO | a rarepair I am SUCH a sucker for that has some of the most talented authors writing for it. lots of them have ot3 elements between them and hashirama, often angsty, but stuff like that is part of the appeal for me, lol

A HANDFUL OF SKY is an unfinished fic that I genuinely think about like once a week. if it ever updates then I will be over the moon. technically hashimadamito but it hadn't quite gotten there yet

LIKE ALTARS is just such a beautiful piece of writing, mostly on madara. it is everything, that is all

BLOOD AND RIVER WATER is more mito-centric but has one of my favorite madaras of all time

YOURS ARE RATTLED BONES is another short, mito-centric but gut-wrenching piece featuring the opposite type of madara from the last one

OTHER | character-centric stuff that isn't necessarily shippy but also doesn't have a very "gen" vibe either?

A SERPENT IN THE RICE is a little series about orochimaru that makes me feel so so so many things. highly recommended

HERETIC is such a love letter to kushina, and kurama too. cannot stress enough how much I adore this one

there's a few others that I probably won't link on tumblr, mostly unhealthy and/or "problematic" smut hhfhdj but maybe I'll make a public rec list on ao3 for these different categories and stuff like that.

but yeah that's pretty much it!!! I know it's not a huge list with a lot of variety but it's what I've enjoyed over the last 15+ years in the naruto fandom.

[finitevariety]

Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) Solaris | Jeff Wall (1989) Photography and Liquid Intelligence | Kaja Silverman (2015) Water in the Camera

[northern-passage]

Do you have any favorite horror book recommendations?

hhng... well i did a lot of reading like a month ago but i can't say much of it was very good.... otherwise im in a perpetual state of reading many books at once that i have still not finished... but from what i've read recently:

fluids & girl flesh by may leitz - these are both extreme horror novels and i actually still haven't finished girl flesh yet. fluids is about two women who meet on tinder during the pandemic and spend a few fucked up days together in a hotel where they hurt each other (and others) very badly.

girl flesh is about two (different) women who are both "famous" in different ways and find themselves kidnapped in the middle of nowhere together and it follows them as they try to escape through the texas mesa.

to be devoured by sara tantlinger - this is a novella and it's one of my top reads. about a woman who really really really wants to know what it's like to be a vulture and eat carrion. (apocalypse party who published the newest edition have quite a few interesting horror books/novellas. i have more from them on my to read list)

death in the mouth: original horror by people of color - this has been my "work read" for a while now which means i read it when i'm on break at work (this also means it's taking me forever to read it) it's an anthology of short horror stories and i've read four of them so far and have really enjoyed every single one.

not read recently but that i remember fondly:

annihilation by jeff vandermeer - i do recommend the entire southern reach trilogy but annihilation is the first one and also my favorite. you follow the biologist and the rest of her team into area x. weird stuff happens.

the luminous dead by caitlin starling - one woman in a high tech suit going on a solo caving expedition. she is guided (and sometimes controlled) by another woman who is able to talk through and manipulate the suit to get her to do what she wants.

bonus round two good horror stories i've read on itch.io lately:

childhood homes (and why we hate them) and gutless

[serendipitouslyyyyyy]

i haven't thought about or reread the narnia books since i was like eight years old but i just came across the information that peter pevensie was thirteen during the lion the witch and the wardrobe and just. what the fuck what the fuck no he was always in that vague nebulous "oldest person" age range i guess i never thought about his specific age as a kid but surely it wasn't thirteen??? surely that isn't old enough to be the definitively old character??? growing up really does come over me in waves because i didn't not expect to get this upset over realizing that peter pevensie was a child. but for some reason, despite again not having engaged with these books since my young childhood, i just cannot stop thinking about this fact.

[felloweeper]

i just want to say a quick psa about something i've seen recently (this isn't exclusive to ft, this occurs very often, everywhere).

you can and should consume challenging media. it's genuinely good for your soul.

i'm not saying everything you read/watch has to be controversial or have morally grey characters (you've gotta have your comfort books/shows/movies), but completely isolating yourself with what you're comfortable with is never a good call. you will never learn or grow if you're comfortable. so watch shows with unlikeable characters! read books that challenge your ideologies! it can even be as simple as trying out a genre you've never liked before!

expand your horizons, i promise you will never regret learning something new.

[lonelychicago]

i love reading so much and i love books, i love feeling like i know the author through their writing and feeling connected to them through their characters, i love relating to fictional silly people bc it makes me feel less alone and i also love not relating to them at all and seeing things or learning things from a perspective i never would've thought. i love crying in the middle of the night bc my favorite character got their heart broken and i love laughing like a maniac at 3am bc of a funny scene. i love romance books and mysteries and true crime books, i love fantasy books and the amazing, incredible world building in them. isn't incredible how one person can reach so many people with just one story? i just— i love books.

[tenisperfection]

Everyone please tell me about a book you really loved reading recently and tell me why you liked it!

[darklordazalin]

Randomly thought of the best way to describe the plot of The Infinite and the Divine: Two old men bicker about whether they should keep a toy and display it in the package it came in or open it and play with it.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

It turns out that a great way to recover from feeling bad about your writing is to do something other than writing.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I just read Clemetine volume 2 and it does feel like all three girls are friends when it focuses on all three at once, and I really buy into Clementine and Olivia caring about each other and loving each other platonically when it's their one on one time, but when it comes to Ricca and Clem... I've read quite a few of Tillies original works and she's written some really good wlw relationships but I feel uncomfortable alot of the time when the focus is on them because of how bad Ricca treats Clem

Yes.

I think Ricca is at her best when she's in the group, and at her worst when it's just her and Clementine. I've read some of Tillie's other works, as well, and that's why I tell people to not judge her solely on these comics because those other works are much better.

But you're right, the clemricca relationship is uncomfortable. It always feels like Ricca's expecting more of Clementine and then gets butthurt when Clem doesn't follow through. Clem has legit reasons for being worried about the island and wanting to put off any romantic steps between them, and Ricca acts like Clementine's the villain for it and guilts her. The worst part is when Clem has an "epiphany" and tells Ricca she's right like no, Clem, you don't OWE her a relationship please nooooo...

It's almost fascinating that this is how the romance is playing out... because even if you remove the games from the equation and look at this solely as a story, it's a different approach that makes me question if it's even supposed to be romantic... but then the comic treats it like it is despite the red flags I see and I wonder how it's going to end, y'know? I doubt it'll go into darker territory where now that they're together, Ricca's true colors show themselves since Ricca's established as one of the "good guys" across both books.

After Book Three comes out, I'd actually like to do a deep dive/analysis of the clemricca relationship from a "this is what we can learn from it" approach. I mean, as someone who has read both books several times, I can confidently say they've taught me some things not to do in my own writing.

[l1li4n]

you guys wanna know what i love? FOUND FAMILY.

yeah i know i have a lot of trauma to unpack but whatever.

i will eat a found family book, movie, song, fanfiction EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

friends who are like siblings and care for eachother. YEAHHHHH. an older man who comes to care for someone or multiple people younger than him. YEAHHHHHH.

basically anything. i love when people care for eachother. like that shits knocks me off my feet every single time. like oh my god.

[sysig]

It always seems like such a good idea in the moment (Patreon)

The first four are in reference to a great idea I had of - since I’ve finished my lower-limit page number testing for making books; shorter fics take up less page space, and just increasing the font size isn’t as handsome! - simply making a mini book! All it would take would be to halve the pages again, right? Just cut them right down the middle! Easy peasy!

As I’m sure you can tell by the second, no. Not easy peasy. Difficult painful un-fun >:(

Obviously I still did it tho! What do you take me for, someone who could have the idea of an even tinier book and then not do something about it?? No It’s also the only one so far to have a paper bookmark rather than a ribbon!

All told it’s a bit smaller than your average manga (I love the monochrome covers on these under their dust jackets haha <3) - you can see even with effectively doubling up the pages by halving their size, it was still very small-spined!

A quick shot while it was still being made hehe ♪ It’s Out! Paired here - and the earlier one, just without its dust jacket haha - with my Zarla SC2 collection (ft. Family, Negotiations are Going...Well, and With No Obligation) - I absolutely kicked myself after the fact for not including Out as the run-up to everything, I was really trying to make a full collection in probably-chronological order! Out would’ve been a perfect start! And it only would’ve taken like four pages!!

Ah well, it was still quite a learning experience - I probably wouldn’t make another standalone of under 4k-ish just for formatting reasons but I did get some good ideas of how to do so if I wanted to! Although, my next project is going to be even more of a formatting nightmare........I’ll get there when I get there! Lol