The last two years have been a disaster, reading-wise. I blame Harry Potter! Since getting into that fandom, which is rife with excellent fic (by which I mean, stuff that’s excellent by tradpub standards), there’s not been a day when I didn’t read — fic. Consequently, there were far fewer days when I had time to read things other than fic. And little by little, my tolerance for fic that isn’t all that excellent increased, while my tolerance for tradpub stuff that isn’t super-gripping and/or relatable, decreased; so that nowadays, I read even such fic that rates below average on my personal quality scale, and struggle to finish regular books that would’ve given me no trouble a couple years back.
This is not ideal. As someone who considers themselves a writer, I need to drink from a much, much deeper pool of literature. And I’m trying! Just not very successfully. So far, I’ve finished 9 books this year; I dropped one, and I’m currently reading another. That’s really quite sad and does not bode well for my all-year totals. Last year was no better; I finished 10 books, plus one I dropped. In 2024, I finished 12 books, plus one I dropped. Of the 22 books in 2024 and 2025, 6 were the Harry Potter books. đź« And I am yet to finish the series! The last book remains, waiting its turn on my ever growing TBR list, even though I’m supposedly a fan? Incredible.
Anyway. Let’s do this.
Continue reading Books of 2024 and 2025
In a hypothetical future where Ferris survives, meets Jacob again in New England, and forgives him, Jacob tells a tale of his god-fearing father.
Jacob turned his back to me, making none of his usual gestures of possession, and shivered despite the day’s heat. I kissed his shoulder, clammy with sweat. “Have I hurt you?”
“Nay.” He gripped my hand as I slipped it over his waist, fitting my body around his as best I could. “You know I had never—“
“I know.”
“Only I think I had.”
He sounded calm, but I felt a tension in him that put me on alert. “I don’t understand.”
“Somehow I’d not thought of it once, all these years. But I remember it well enough now, unlike some other things.”
“Remember what, Jacob?”
“How he punished me.”
“Who?”
“Father.”
Continue reading Father
If my Goodreads summary is to be believed, I managed to read 53 books by the end of 2023. I don’t think that’s exactly right, but it might not be very wrong either. Some of these “books” were novellas that felt more like really long short stories. Others were actual short stories that are, for the lack of a better alternative, also labeled as “books”. If five substantial short stories or two novellas make a “book”, then the honest count would be 45. But, this year I read dozens of short stories that are not on Goodreads at all; also, I read some (gasp!) book-length fanfiction. So I’m good with “around 50”. It’s still twice as many as usual.
Let’s dive in!
Continue reading Books of 2023, part 2
This is really news from June, which I forgot to post amidst the excitement regarding original fiction stuff. For the first time in years, I ordered a physical copy of a book, and of course, it’s the book. I took pains to get my hands on this specific edition, for the sake of the cover, and it meant waiting a good long while for the delivery. I didn’t expect it to be so fat! “A fat juicy masterpiece” nails it.
It’s odd to be reading a physical book. I can’t highlight a selection to save it, and I can’t click on a word for an instant dictionary definition. I’ll admit that a physical book gives better progress feedback, and is able to embody certain sentiments that you can’t really attach to a file. Otherwise, however, it’s a vastly inferior experience.
Which isn’t to say I regret the purchase or the wait. My main reason to get the physical copy, at least as far as I could rationalize it, was that the digital edition misses some words! But really, I just wanted to be able to, like, hug it. Yeah.
It’s not even June yet, and I’ve already read 25 books. If I keep this up, I might reach the unprecedented count of 50 books in a year! This is the first time I’ve had reason to split my yearly reading report in two parts, and it feels good.
Continue reading Books of 2023, part 1
Like, literally. Two months ago, I had a dream where I was in possession of an actual, 100% official sequel.
Continue reading As Meat Loves Salt: Dream of a Sequel