ok i know it's bc she's literally a vampire and needs to drink blood to survive or whatever but why's Carmilla actually an iconic chronic illness representation

"I know how kind you all are; but, dear child, I am quite well again. There is nothing ever wrong with me but a little weakness. People say I am languid; I am incapable of exertion; I can scarcely walk as far as a child of three years old; and every now and then the little strength I have falters, and I become as you have just seen me."

just the vibe of like, nobody knows what's wrong with her but they all judge her from the outside as having something wrong with her. she has to rely on other people and constantly reassure the people around her that she's actually fine and nothing is wrong. omggg now i'm realizing how vampirism can be a metaphor for chronic illness

but then Laura offers her wine to make her feel better so i guess that's the 1800s version of taking a bunch of advil and laying on the couch

Have you guys ever imagined something from a book incorrectly and then realized it too late? Like, maybe you somehow missed a descriptor while you were reading and you only realized it when it came up again later on?

My BIGGEST screw up was imagining an MMC with dark hair only to realize he was blonde… on my third or fourth reread of the series!! I have no idea how I missed the description of his hair color MULTIPLE times but, I did, and by the time I realized the truth, it was too late to change the image in my head. This happens to me on occasion with hair color, eye color, etc., but it also happens sometimes with setting. For example I’ll read “She set the remote down on the table to her left”, and I’ll be like LEFT?!? Since when is the table on the left?!? But then I go back and reread and… yeah, it’s always been on the left.

This, however, is different than when it’s the author’s fault😡. Like, sometimes authors will wait until 60% of the way into the book and randomly throw in a line like “I gathered my blonde tendrils into a loose bun” and it’s like ummmmm excuse me?? You’ve already given me NOTHING but time to imagine the characters how I want, and NOW you want to tell me something crucial about their appearance?? It’s actually one of my pet peeves while reading when authors don’t establish things early on. Obviously I don’t need every book to start with some cheesy scene where the character is looking in the mirror, unsubtly describing themself for me- but I should at least know the basics by 15% in or something.

Anyways… any thoughts lmao?

I love ❤️ cookies 🍪

To explain, I absolutely love this community and all the different ways we can share and come together. This is a fabulous place to be a reader.

But with every notification I receive, there is a feral little goblin inside of my brain that goes 👹 YES! POINTS 👹

Do I love your little upvote of validation on a comment I’ve made? Of course I do! To debate and argue with you all? More than I’ve loved any job I’ve ever had. The camaraderie of coming together and sharing our thoughts on mutual books is keeping me reading.

👹 BUT ALSO, POINTS 👹

Another round!

1. lush descriptions / minimal prose
2. morally grey leads / pure-hearted leads
3. cliffhanger chapters / clean breaks
4. tense atmosphere / relaxed tone
5. dialogue-heavy / action-heavy
6. unpredictable structure / classic structure
7. myth-inspired stories / entirely original lore
8. dual timelines / single continuous arc
9. messy characters / polished characters
10. book you finish in a day / book you savour for weeks

(potential trigger warning) Whilst in uni we spoke a lot about 'separating the artist from the art' as many of the authors we studied are very problematic. In recent years there's been lots of discourse around authors like JK Rowling and now Neil Gaiman. As a member of the LGBTQ community and a victim of SA I struggle with the appreciation/love of the art but loathing the people that created it. I'm wondering what people's opinions are about still consuming content from problematic authors.

I've seen a few posts where the audience is assumed to be American and it made me curious about how many users are actually American? Objectively speaking it makes sense that the majority is but I wish there was a statistic for it (just out of curiosity).

First of, I'm at awe at the diversity on books we read. But I just had to ask. Did you ever find someone who's 50% and over in overlap with the books you read?

PS: if we are double digits overlap come forward

Fellow readers and eaters of food, I come to you with a proposition. I have only finished but one of the readalong books so far and it was Black Cake, which obviously has a very emotionally significant food at its center. While reading The Ballad of Perilous Graves, despite only being 20% into it I've already heard mention of several different foods I've never tried. In the spirit of creating discussion and expanding my own horizons, I would like to encourage us all to eat some new foods and try some new things, inspired by our readalong choices!!

So far in the books/parts of books I've read for the readalong, here's some foods I want to try, either by making my own or trying it at a local restaurant or at a friend's house:

*Black cake *Fish head stew *Tomato cobbler (I know this one will be controversial for those who are not pro-tomato, and for that...I forgive you 😂) *Sno-cones are mentioned and I'm putting them in here even though I've had them before *Ive also had sliders before, but never lamb sliders...and I would absolutely demolish a plate of lamb sliders and truffle fries

If you have more foods from the readalong books, drop them below to be added to this list! If you have a recipe that you love, link it here! If you have made something, show us pictures!

Myself, I think I'm going to start with tomato cobbler and black cake - but I'll have to start soaking fruit now for maybe an end-of-readalong treat on the 15th.

I started reading Practical Taxidermy by Upcott Gill. Not on here. I think "no problem", I'll sign up to Goodreads and put it here from Goodreads.

Downloaded the app. Made an account. Wasted time. I search for the book... NOT THERE!

Where is it? I swear it exists. It's a book from the 1800s. I saw it on someone's shelf, and, since I'd never be able to find it and copyrights are over, I downloaded the pdf. Where the hell is this book other than the Internet Archive?!!! It's 400 pages, there's no way I'm not listing it here for the yearly challenge and yearly recap if I actually get through it.

Should I just pretend it's one of the other very unknown books on taxidermy nobody has read and sign it as if I read that one?

❝All I knew was that I could able to become a store clerk because of a perfect guidebook; and without it, I had no idea how to be a normal human being❞