HP fans read books too. Fascists read. And there are enough ppl who want to take their money. Like trad pub.

So seeing all these shocked people is just... Sad. Bc you're proving yourself wrong and my point for me by pretending that it's unfathomable to you that reading doesn't make you a hero.

And yes, literacy crisis and reading comprehension etc. All of that.

But maybe it's also that societies built on white supremacy produce things reinforcing that worldview and most of the time y'all don't want to question and unlearn shit while reading. So why tf wouldn't "these ppl" be here?

"If you read Romantasy/fantasy/romance/[insert whatever you want there], you understand nothing about the books you're reading!"

Yeah, maybe that's part of it. If Andy Weir taught you anything, it's that not even authors get what their books transport as a message sometimes.

Without making it into a ranking bc I don't think any genre is worse than the other, but just the fact that your genre has great overlap with romance should tell you that yes, you absolutely have maga white supremacists in all your book clubs, reading nooks & cozy crannies. Why wouldn't you?

I'd argue that in most genres you don't even have to try hard, just pick the books traditional publishing champions most & 75% of every list of hyped books in bookish spaces and you're golden.

And it's funny to me to see Romantasy readers be outraged that they have these ppl reading 'their' genre.

No matter what genre, if you try hard enough, you can A) Ignore any & all social commentary or political implications you don't want to see and/or B) only pick cisheteronormative white books by allocishet white authors that tell you "yes of course, only we have value & deserve to be heard & loved".

And that's actually true for all reading, not just the fiction readers. You can spend your whole life reading only books that enforce your view of the world, even if it is an extreme perspective that is fundamentally misanthropic, inhumane and built on white supremacy.

Which... Duh.

It's taking "reading is always political" in a direction that is just bullshit, over and over again. Yes, reading is political. But not in the sense that all reading is automatically teaching you to be an empathic participant of society who values human rights & solidarity.

And it's interesting to see this play out in all the genres, across the platforms, repeatedly. The amount of people being either snarky or plain shocked that a person can read a genre of fictional books and also be a person who shares none of your values, morals or principles is sad, honestly.

The comments under a video calling out Fairyloot for possibly putting a maga-supporting author in their Romantasy box for June is not only a free block list for me, it's also a reminder that the discussion about reading not making you a morally great person might feel overdone but is still relevant.

75. When the Crow's Away by Auralee Wallace
Cozy witchy mystery sequel I didn't like quite as much as the first one, mostly bc of the solution & very last chapter (iykyk). But I'd like to read not about the cast of characters & did enjoy the personal journey of the MC.

72-74. Beginner's Luck series by Kate Clayborn
Comfort book audio reread. The series that made me the biggest Kate Clayborn fan & her one of my autobuy authors forever. Lick of the Draw is still one of my favorite contemporary romances of all time.

71. And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison
One of the popular authors where I rly get the type. I love how the author characterizes MCs, builds relationship arcs & how she writes love. One of my favorite romances of the year so far. Adorable, hot & with the right amount of angst & heavy themes for me.

70. Deutsch für Alle by Abbas Khider
"German for Everyone" with the tag line "The ultimate textbook" - that it was. I might not agree with the proposed rules, but that wasn't the point. Using the language & linguistics for a scathing analysis of German society via wordplay in a textbook? Brilliant.

69. Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
Cozy & with a magic suspense plot, but it took me a bit to get into it. I really liked the MC & all the cats, the suspense part in the second half didn't work quite as well for me tho. One plot twist was a pet peeve, but still a good read.

I have completely neglected this bc words got hard & nothing I wanted to say about books made sense in my brain, but let me try and see if I can catch up a bit.

Right back at you, bb. 💖 And I'd like to propose to put it (and us in it) somewhere near @auntiekristy.bsky.social's backyard for visiting purposes etc. 😌

Yes. And an oven for all the baking I'd love to do. It would be perfect 🥹

Oh my God, me too 😫

A small oval shaped disk of modeling clay that I painted with a base layer of green acrylic paint and then added some brighter tree branches at the top and a tiny cottage in the middle, with one bigger and one smaller room, so it looks a bit like an L-shaped timber framed cottage. Both have pointed roofs and a chimney where they both connect, with some pink tinged smoke coming out of it. The foreground just has some grass and a winding path going through it for now.

Adding a little whimsy to your TL: I've been painting a little cottage on some leftover modeling clay the kids didn't use for their magnets and I keep working on it whenever I listen to audiobooks. I think it's turning out really cute. 😌

Goodnight, folks! $1135 to save the day!

Paypal: affirmationgin at gmail
Cashapp/Venmo: showupforthis

gofund.me/74bb276c7

I am 15 books away from finishing HRCYED 2.0 and I'm already really fucking proud of doing the whole thing 😌

I know it's partly the nerves I agitated by carrying home this book bag on one shoulder because I actually got extra nauseous from it, but I think I got a handle on that one pretty fast. So all that's left is this blood loss bullshit and it just really really sucks today.

This period feels like it's draining the life out of me slowly and it hasn't been this bad in a long time and I hate everything about this so much, urgh

Three layoffs in less than a year in a job market that ain't a party. April rent and bills are overdue, we're more than halfway to May already.

If you see this, will you please share it? Thank you for helping!

Paypal: affirmationgin at gmail
Cashapp/Venmo: showupforthis
gofund.me/74bb276c7

I will absolutely do something about my ugly terrible kitchen though. I have three weeks off in the summer, it'll be great and then I won't want to renovate anything ever again for a couple of years at least.

Also I'd have to have a house to renovate first, so that's that then. 😬

Every time I watch these house renovation videos I think to myself "I can do that! Maybe I'd love to do that?"

And then my brain comes back on to remind me that I'm chronically ill & disabled and could, in fact, not do all that.

Every damn time.

Afternoon y'all! $1158 to go!!

I'm very very carefully dipping my toes into horror bc it's not exactly my genre either, so I'm taking note of this and maybe her horror will work a little better for me than the fantasy books.