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seema

head in the clouds, nose in a book 🪱✨🌈 she/her

76214 points

0% overlap
Early UserReadalong Completionist 2025Pride 2025
Cozy Fantasy
Dark Academia
Pagebound Royalty
My Taste
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Don't Let the Forest In
Palimpsest
The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1)
Reading...
Dracula
14%
A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)
40%
A Love Song, A Death Rattle, A Battle Cry
0%
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History
75%
The Once and Future Witches
45%

seema commented on a post

1h
  • Bad Gays: A Homosexual History
    mythos
    Edited
    Thoughts from 13% - Hadrian and the Historia Augusta

    just wanted to point out that the Historia Augusta, a collection of imperial roman biographies that the authors use as a source, is a pretty debatable source when looking at its reliability, and that in general ancient biographies have to be handled with care, because the goal of the ancient biography was different than what it is now (they often had very moralistic goals, e.g. Suetonius, and often invent information to further their ideological aims). i’m not saying that you can't use them as historical sources, as we often don’t have any other options, and they still can contain accurate information, but a roman emperor’s sexuality/sexual practices (and gender identity) is exactly the sort of thing ancient biographers, who didn’t like said emperor, would have created stories about to ruin his reputation or spread gossip about. especially the Historia Augusta is debatable, since it was written near the end of the fourth century, so 100-150 years after the facts recorded in it, and the author pretends to be writing as multiple people, though there is only one author for all the biographies. some academics have deemed Hadrian's biography to be one of the more reliable ones, though. we do know that the author used some historical sources, like Marius Maximus, but it's best to stay skeptical. it's basically as if you used Bad Gays as the definitive historical source for someone's biography: sure, most things might be true, but be careful! i kind of want to assume that the authors have engaged carefully with this source, but i'm not super sure, since their handling of other elements has seemed a bit superficial, and they also did not disclose any of the difficulties that come with handling it as a historical source.

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  • A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)
    Thoughts from 37% (mid Ch5)
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    2
    comments 0
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  • seema commented on a post

    1h
  • A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)
    Thoughts from 17% (Ch3) - Zinnia's sexuality?
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    3
    comments 2
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  • A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)
    Thoughts from 33% (Ch4) - meta fairytale commentary
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    4
    comments 0
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  • A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)
    Thoughts from 17% (Ch3) - Zinnia's sexuality?
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    3
    comments 2
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  • seema commented on a post

    3h
  • Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
    Thoughts from 98% (page 1025)
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    15
    comments 2
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  • seema commented on munitum's update

    munitum made progress on...

    1d
    Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

    Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

    Victoria Schwab

    97%
    6
    3
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    seema commented on a post

    3h
  • Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
    seema
    Edited
    Thoughts from 96% (page 523, Alice Round 9 mid Ch VI) - Roots
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    17
    comments 7
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  • seema commented on a post

    9h
  • Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
    idk if this is the point
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    16
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  • seema made progress on...

    18h
    A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)

    A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)

    Alix E. Harrow

    40%
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    seema made progress on...

    19h
    Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

    Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

    Huw Lemmey

    75%
    19
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    seema commented on seema's update

    seema made progress on...

    21h
    Dracula

    Dracula

    Bram Stoker

    14%
    22
    1
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    seema made progress on...

    21h
    Dracula

    Dracula

    Bram Stoker

    14%
    22
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    seema commented on seema's review of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

    21h
  • The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
    seema
    Jan 17, 2026
    The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
    3.0
    Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 3.0Characters: Plot:
    🤝
    🎁
    🍓

    The concept of reciprocal gift economy is heartening and this book does a nice job in drawing the reader to really expand their view of the various relationships and associated undercurrents of energy surrounding us, and to consider how we can more consciously invest our time and energy into those paths instead of the capitalist model we exist in. I particularly liked the repeated emphasis on indirect gifting and reciprocity and action that nudged away from the direct/immediate/transactional status quo.

    I ended up reading this twice - once on audiobook (really struggled retaining with this, which is absolutely a personal difficulty with audiobooks and not a reflection on the book or narration itself), and then again with an eye read. My biggest qualm is honestly that despite two reads I come away understanding the concept and remembering several anecdotes, but feeling like even as short as it is, it could have been significantly shorter still and deliver the same points. I couldn't really differentiate one chapter from another. I believe this originated as an essay, maybe for me personally and my prior familiarity with the central idea of this book that would have been more suitable.

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  • seema commented on a post

    2d
  • Half His Age
    Meta Writing Commentary
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    14
    comments 6
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  • seema made progress on...

    2d
    Dracula

    Dracula

    Bram Stoker

    14%
    17
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    seema made progress on...

    2d
    Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

    Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

    Huw Lemmey

    69%
    22
    0
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    seema commented on seema's update

    seema made progress on...

    3d
    Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

    Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

    Huw Lemmey

    51%
    22
    6
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