A couple of mine:

1. Historical polar exploration horror
2. Queer botanical horror with an older protagonist

Happy Tuesday, friends! I'm continuing the tradition started by acidicchaos of inviting everyone to share what you've learned from your reading in the past week or so. Whether you're reading the most obscure niche non-fiction, or you discovered something exciting about human nature or your own inner self from a great bit of fiction, we want to hear about it!

Thanks to When Trees Testify by Beronda L. Montgomery, I learned about Blackdom, New Mexico, a short-lived town that attempted to be a fully self-sufficient community of African American homesteaders. Environmental factors conspired against them, unfortunately, and it's now a "ghost town." You can get a quick overview from this Wikipedia article. The town was apparently well-known for its Juneteenth celebrations, so this week is the perfect time to learn about it.

Your turn!

I try to be as frugal as I can with my reading. I get most of my books from the library, I borrow books from friends/family, I buy second hand both from physical stores and sites like vinted/awesomebooks etc, and I recently got an ebook subscription service too.

That said, I still think I spend between £50-£100 on books each month. I do read quite a lot and would consider it my main 'hobby', but even so that's prolly a lil much.

How much would you estimate you spend on average? (pls make me feel better about myself)

I've been paying more and more attention to magic systems and taking notes on what I like/what I hope to see in a magic system and am also fascinated my delivery(how complex or simple a system is and how the author conveys it). I would love to know what your favorite magic system is and why it worked for you.

For me, one of my most recent reads that I can't get out of my head is Red City by Marie Lu. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's my favorite, but it reminded me that the magic systems I appreciate the most are those that are grounded in tangible, physical realities that have consequences. The alchemy performed in Red City requires shaving bits of your soul for every alchemical action, and it's a painful experience for the alchemists, but they force themselves to acclimate to the pain to reap the benefits of the magic. Your soul can heal itself in the beginning, but the more you perform alchemy, the more long lasting the damage to your soul is, and all alchemists understand that dying young is pretty much guaranteed. This magic system perpetually made me SO FCKN nervous, but goodness gracious does it affect the stakes, the characters' state of mind, and the overall urgency of the plot. Very fascinating magic system in my opinion.