I was thinking about this today, cause it /really/ pisses me off. I find it insane how certain books/authors will literally use literally the most ridiculous workaround to portray raw, no condom, no nothing, sex in the main plotline

My worst example for this is love hypothesis, and before trashing the sex scene, I have to say i actually liked this book. So Adam and olive are making out and getting in the mood, AND THEY GET TO THAT PART WHERE HE'S LIKE, WAIT, I DON'T HAVE A CONDOM and instead of literally doing anything else olive turns around and tells him, SHE IS ON BIRTH CONTROL????? mind you, Olive is self proclaimed demisexual, and for a while outside of a relationship, an academic working for quote unquote inhumane hours, SHE DOES NOT HAVE AN ACTIVE SEX LIFE. Olive also doesn't have any forms of pcos or any other complications, her randomly being on birth control, WHEN IT IS NEVER MENTIONED BEFORE IN THE BOOK, is insane to me, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S ONLY THERE SO ADAM DOESN'T HAVE TO WEAR A CONDOM Edit: Bc my point for this came off wrong, I'm editing to say ik birth control has many uses, my main issue was that it felt as just an excuse for said unprotected sex to happen, which is the trope in intimacy scenes that I'm complaining about. The fact that there's no other basis for it and she just blurted it out was what irked me, not the fact that she might, hypothetically, take it. I have to mention here that's not the only just thrown there characteristic that I didn't enjoy in the book, as an aroace person I disliked how her demisexualness was explored and also just blurted it out, in the first few chapters, but that's a whole different matter. I just dont think it was nuanced or ernest

And it got me thinking, just how many romance books/eroticas pull strings like these to portray this fantasy Edit: I'm not shitting on ppl enjoying this trope, I mention later on I've had my run with it as well, just from the broad selection of spicy books I have encountered, I think its over glorified and way too common. To compare, just as I expect a book with bdsm elements to do it in a safe, consensual, not necessarily educational but good way, from a similar pov I find it frustrating that unprotected sex is often shown as more 'sexy' and has no reprecautions whatsoever, not maybe even a little mention. My main issue is sexual health, not conception

I think this is annoying especially in /way/ too much about having to wear one and the measures of protection from pregnancy fall only on the woman (my girls birth control isn't always effective). And that aside why are we glorifying std spreading? I can understand a scene where after a while they don't have one at hand and they use it as a "I need this so bad do whatever" but this is totally different

I'm not gonna say that books have to be a hundred percent textbook accurate cause some of these are just for fun too, but it's getting to a /point/ yk. Idk what's your opinion on this, do we like the rawdogging?

I was enjoying this until the timtam slander but now Andrew is saying Aussies don't say fries. Umm yes we do!!

I went to add some ttrpg books I read this year to my read list since I'm a DM and have read quite a few front to back (I feel some are so long they HAVE to count lol.) But I saw each of them had zero reviews or posts! Any readers here into tabletop games and would you count the rulebooks into your finished reads list?

I read a lot of epic fantasy and there are a lot of "alternative to curse words" which I assume is to get the point across without dropping the f bomb all the time and lose and possibly lose marketability to some audiences.

So I was wondering what some of people's favorite alternative curses are? Some of mine are...

Mother's milk (wheel of time) Rust and ruin (cosmere) Tigers tits (poppy seed war)

okay so i have a one chapter rule- if i start a book i have to at least read the entirety of chapter one. that’s nothing crazy. (this only changes in very rare cases) however if i choose not to continue it after chapter one i wont mark it as DNF, i just quietly take it off my reading/TBR list and call it a day. i mentioned this to a friend and she said i should be logging them as DNF. my pov? i barely even started the book so why muck up my DNF as that’s reserved for books that really disappoint. so your thoughts on it? what are your DNF practices?

This year's Spotify Wrapped is out and I thought it would be a good time to start a little recommendation game based on your most streamed album(/artist/song) this year! I recently saw a post doing a similar thing with the Letterboxd Four and thought it was a super cute idea.

Just post your personal album of the year in the comments and other users will do their best to find a book with similar vibes. (Of course you don't have to use Spotify to participate.)