i am a lesbian that sadly deals with a lot of shame and internalized homophobia. whenever i try and read a sapphic book, especially ones with smut, i end up feeling extremely ashamed and disgusted with myself. to try and get over that feeling i have been exposing myself to different kinds of sapphic romances. i have been enjoying myself so far! the little devil on my shoulder has been telling me that im a “bad reader” and someone who is gross for reading these books. healing isnt linear and i think books are the best way to heal!!

romantasy, contemporary, smutty, not smutty, YA, whatever it is i want to know. i do want to add more sapphic books to my TBR.

“Gytha, is there anything in the whole world you can’t make sound grubby?” “Not found it yet, Esme,” said Nanny brightly.

Who do you want to grow up to be — Esme or Gytha? 😁

Happy end of August/beginning of September! Some book-related roundup questions for y'all!

1. What was your favorite book this month? 2. What was your least favorite book this month? 3. What did you mean to read that you didn't get to, if anything? 4. Did you buy a book this month? What was it? 5. Were you surprised by any books this month? 6. What book are you looking forward to most next month?

I was having a scroll on TikTok today and came across the most beautiful poem, which reminded me of why poetry is so cathartic. When you read something that names your exact feeling, only someone else wrote it, at first you experience the emotional overload of seeing what you feel named and projected onto a format that intensifies the sensation. But secondary to that you feel, in a comforting sense, that you are not alone, because someone, somewhere in the world has felt the same way, and felt it so intensely that they wrote it down, and now it's reached you.

I would like to properly get into poetry. I would call myself a rookie but I actually feel that it's the one field where the only criteria to participate is being human. Nonetheless, I don't know many poets, collections or websites where I can continue to explore. I would love to hear suggestions.

I love reading romantasy and epic fantasy with romance. However, I do not wish to read or watch or hear anything related to romance for a while, as I am currently convinced love is purely fictional and I won't be able to experience it ever. (Today I got dumped via an AI-generated text. AI-GENERATED TEXT. Now I know that when someone is not ashamed of telling you the last time they willingly picked up a book was in middle school, that is a huge red flag. Such people lack not only the empathy to try to understand what the other person is feeling, but also the reading comprehension skills required to come up with a proper answer on their own. I dont feel even a little sad, it just feels like I just parted ways with ChatGPT. Good riddance I guess... I hope I am the first and last person to experience this, but I also know I wont be. I hate AI a bit more each day.)

It feels good to put my anger into words, but back to the purpose of this post: It is kind of hard to find books with absolutely no romance, especially in fantasy. If it won't be too specific to find, I would also very much like books that would make me laugh. I feel a reading slump approaching, so I would appreciate any help 😊

EDIT: I want to thank each and every one of you for all your recs and especially for your support! Your comments mean the world to me :) I realised once more just how much I like being a part of this community. Love you all 💙