Never feel guilty for reading fan fic at 3am. Everything is fanfic in the end. From fanfic you were made, to fanfic you shall return.
Read that which has been panned by literary snobs. Read novels churned out by the dozen by authors with a dozen pseudonyms.
Read your US and People. Flip through Popular Science just for the gadgets section. Read articles about the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Read books outside your comfort zone. Don’t finish them if you don’t want. It’s the book’s fault, not yours.
Read in your comfort zone. Read a YA and romance and science if and fantasy.
Skip over the boring bits. Read it because you heard about it from Oprah or because everyone else is reading it.
Giggle yourself silly at something so poorly written and full of author wish fulfillment that you just can’t stop reading it.
Don’t listen to the keepers of taste and culture. Their reward comes every time they pat themselves on the back for their superior taste.
Don’t listen to the academics that bemoan the downfall of society and learning. They have been doing that since Socrates’ time.
Don’t listen to the tv presenters who insist you are not cultured if you haven’t read from this list of books.
Audio books count as reading. Ebooks count as reading. Fanfic of questionable quality counts as reading. Rereading books for the third time counts as reading. Reading to your child counts as reading. Reading from the back of the cereal box (and doing the puzzle) counts as reading.
TL;DR: read what you want. Don’t be ashamed. Never let someone try to make you feel bad for how or what you read and enjoy. Tell them that I, your Friendly Neighborhood Librarian have absolved you from your guilt and have given you special blessings. Go forth and read, my child.
Tag Archives: books
Ermahgerd: Suma Mah Fravrit Berks!
Rules: in a text post, list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard– they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. tag 10 friends, including me, so i’ll see your list ;3
Tagged by @seidenblatttanz, merci~*
1. Interview with the Vampire (+ VC in general) by Anne Rice – wELP… This goes w/o saying and it would be cheating if I listed more than that one, wouldn’t it?
2. the Shining by Stephen King – and the movie, too!
3. Animal Farm by George Orwell, illustrated by Ralph Steadman – this illustration style and this story is KILLER. Go check it out. Right now. I’ll wait.
4.
Firestarter
by Stephen King – and the movie, too! The beginning of my supernatural passion.
5.
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell – biography of Marilyn Manson, written with Neil Strauss
6. Jurassic Park by Michael Crieghton – and the movie, too!!
7. The Sneetches and Other Stories: Dr. Seuss – really good life lessons re: tolerance, etc., and excellent illustration.
8.
Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein – some of these were really very gross and my childhood self loved it all!
9.
Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back by Shel Silverstein – a lion that essentially became a man and then no longer fit into the wild or civilized worlds.
10. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez – My teenage angst phase.
Bonus:
11.
the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – for French class! I related to the rose, of course. There’s no rose w/o thorns.
12.
Dogs: written and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet – gorgeous illustrations and sweet anecdotes re: doggies!
13.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding – I had to read this for school in middle school I think and I just loved it.
14. Also LOTS of fanfic…. which of course does not exist…
^These are not in order of favorite aside from #1 yes I know I know! Just what comes to mind. Lots of Fluff & Angst there, sheesh. I like it fluffy and angsty what can I say.
Tagging anyone who wants to share! (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
And specifically, this bunch of ppl bc they seem like they may be booklovers:
@annabellioncourt, @fyeahgothicromance, @gothiccharmschool, @gairid, @firelight-fading, @roselioncourt, @burnthejacket, @eibhlis97, @hyperbeeb, @luthi69, @thelionscrimsonclaws, @darknessmolten, @laviniaspeaks, @adirotynd, @jardinsalvaje, @kittyslover, @artisticfreedomofexpression, @teabq, @redversaillesrose, @cup-of-lixx, @witchyrem-ains, @nixiey, @incessant-ree, @underhyll, @theamazingdrunk, @sheepskeleton, @kotilae, @ashetray, @alvadee, @muirin007, @b-juned-91, @clarahighlander, @inactiat, @musicislifeme, @mymillenniumpuzzle, @the-gentleman-chronicler, @mickimonster, @rian-garou, @sherlockspider, @florbe-triz
I just have one question about The Vampire Chronicles, I’m in my local library and notice they don’t have all the books, and in the little info bars I noticed different main characters (I initially believed it followed Lestat all the way through), do you have to read them in chronological order? Or would that just confused you?)
They don’t have all the books??! How rude. You might be able to find the others online for free very cheaply, or at second-hand stores like the Salvation Army.
There ARE different main characters in some of the books, and in some, Lestat is almost entirely left out. He is mentioned only once just to point out that he WILL be completely left out in Vittorio, but that book was not really intended as a Vampire Chronicle.
But the order of the VC still tracks along Lestat’s journey, even if it veers off for a book or two (as with the Vampire Armand or Blood and Gold) and then picks back up with him.
When I was asked “Which books do you personally and/or (if you might feel differently) the majority of the fandom regard as canon?” I answered that I had read them in chronological order as they came out, and it makes sense to do it that way since that’s the order in which Anne Rice pursued her interest in developing different characters/storylines/worldbuilding/etc. and establishing her own rules re: vampire origins, powers, and limitations.
Short answer is: without access to the full canon, you can’t just breeze through it like I did, and I don’t know which ones you are missing, but…. I recommend you read them in order as best you can. In later canon, other characters will refer to scenes already played out in earlier canon, contributing their own perspective, which may be confusing and will spoil those scenes for you. It will be up to you to decide which character’s account of things to believe. They’re all wildly unreliable narrators with their own selfish reasons for explaining things the way they do ;D
^Regardless of the “truth,” do I grin like I’m seeing old friends every time I see a lineup of VC on a bookshelf, no matter what their condition? You bet your a$$ I do.
Hit the jump for moar on this.
Some ppl who HAVE access refuse to read Prince Lestat, or a bunch of the other books, and won’t even give them a chance, so your lack of access might also reflect the fact that the books are not all equally popular. Your library might have purposely not included what it considers the less-popular installments.
Most of the fandom, in my experience, have had different gateway drugs to the series. I love collecting stories of how people first got into it (#I love these kind of stories tag). They first saw movie!IWTV or movie!QOTD and then read the corresponding book, or a friend gave them a random one from the series, or someone donated the whole series to them, etc. From there, some people read in order, some people skipped around.
THAT SAID, if you want to make VC fanworks (including fic, meta discussion, fanart, etc.) or do VC RP, it seems to help if you’ve read at least IWTV, TVL, and TVA (TVA might spoil previous events in canon but it’s really THE authority on Armand)(and read some fanfic!).
I think those VC contain the crux of the fan fave characters (Lestat, Louis, ((Nicki)), Gabrielle, Armand, Daniel, Marius) and scenes that have had alot of impact in developing the main characters. Your fanworks/RP will be richer if you know the background of the characters, because you’ll be able to refer to the events, or quotes, or take them as a jumping-off point in your work.
However, in the later books, you get new info, new characters, and new perspectives on previous events (example: Claudia’s diary entry in QOTD is heartwrenching).
@annabellioncourt had added this good commentary on that post and I agree with her 110% (except that I don’t love Vittorio but still):
I personally recommend that people read the first three books (IWTV, TVL, QOTD) and if they really enjoy it to try reading the rest of them.
But my caveat for that is that if they don’t care for Body Thief or Memnoch then still give Pandora and Vittorio a chance, then Armand, and if they enjoyed Armand and Pandora, to try Blood and Gold.
Its complicated, but so is the series, for such a seemingly straightforward concept of “vampires decide to write tell-all memoirs of their behind the scenes lives.”
Damn
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a book used explicitly as a yonic symbol and I like it.
Stories with non-binary/genderqueer protagonists?
I’m hoping Tumblr can help me out here. I’m looking for stories with non-binary/genderqueer protagonists. Any medium: books, comics, TV, movies, fanfiction (any fandom), whatever.
The key part of this is protagonist. I’m finding things which have non-binary/genderqueer characters but they are always supporting cast. I’m looking for stories where they are the main character. Or, if not the main, then close enough to it in terms of their significance to the story. (Such as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, or Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.)
I’m interested in anything which falls under the label non-binary or genderqueer, so genderfluid, bigender, agender, transgender, and so on are all welcome.
Any pointers are much appreciated. And if you don’t know of any, a signal boost would be appreciated as well. Thanks!
Did you read Prince Lestat and if so, is there anything about Nicholas? I do not read the books in English so time will pass till I come to the last one.
Yes, I did read it! No real spoilers under the cut, bc the short answer, about Nicolas, is No :-
Characters refer to Nicolas a few times but he’s not around. There is the theory out there that he faked his death and may yet reappear in the next book, though!
Lestat still has the letters Eleni wrote to him about the Theatre, and he writes about them: “the letters that told me of its prosperity with the Paris audiences, of Armand’s governance, and of the death of my Nicolas, my second fledgling, my only mortal friend, and my greatest failure.”
;A;
I-want-my-IWTV 