#My friends asks for book recommendations

[rootlings]

Help, I just fell into the Shadowhunter Chronicles trap again bc I heard there was going to be a kitty book and now I've been scrolling the internet for all content for the last few days and I've already begun re-reading the entire TSC again.

#story time #I read them for the fist time a long time ago #Like CC was working on the second book of TDA #And I was like 10 #(years old) #So I started with TMI #And I was OBSESSED #Let me tell you I've read the entire series like 10+ times #Then I sped through TID and TDA #But because I was so young and english is not my first language I was very confused with the inconsistencies in time so I just #Didn't like them as much #Except for Kit and Ty #I loved Kit and Ty with the entirety of my heart #I still do mind you #Then #after like the 100th read of TMI I got bored and moved on #However #This year #7 years later!! #My friends asks for book recommendations #And she reads the sort of stuff I enjoyed when I was younger #So I recommended TMI #And she loved it #And we started talking about it #And I got nostalgic #And thought #Maybe I need to read TID again as I didn't really understand it when I read it the first time #This took me three days #And then I was sad when TID ended #So I thought Will and Jem and Tessa are in TLH

[ravewing]

looks at the xmas tree with my neurodivergent eyes (i will actually lose it if i have to wait another day to open presents)

#i want to open them so bad #my whole xmas list was amrev + frev books and anomalocaris toys #this also reminded me to ask if anyone knows any good online autism tests #because all my friends and my mom think im autistic #i took the raads one #and i got 126 but i mean i dunno gang #idk if it means anything but i have like 132 iq or something too .. #anyways yes please recommend me good autism tests #wof #wings of fire #wof art #wof oc #xmas #christmas posting #christmas

[roamingbadger]

Books read in 2024 so far:

- Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

#Leanne speaks #I might try to keep track and if anyone wants to yell about any of these in my ask box please do!!! #also I cannot emphasize enough how funny it was to read these two books back to back #our mutual friend took me three months and small things took me like two hours bahaha #I am really on a dickens kick after bleak house and our mutual friend #does anyone want to recommend my next dickens? #I’ve only read A Tale of Two Cities otherwise so I’m leaning Great Expectations but I’m also intrigued by Little Dorrit

[fictionadventurer]

imaginary book: “The Ruined Idylls of Calomar”, low fantasy (quite obscure, authorship disputed; philologists suspect the first draft was written in a Celtic or Semitic language in the late 19th or early 20th century.)

The Ruined Idylls of Calomar by A.E. Mann

This haunting work of fantasy claims to be the journals of an unnamed scholar living in exile after the fall of the hidden lands of Calomar. Once a thriving, peaceful, highly civilized culture, its glory was brought low by the pride, greed, and wrath of kings, scholars, explorers and warriors who fought for glory, power, and honor, until its final destruction by a dark, nameless weapon left only a scant handful of survivors to escape and tell the tale. In haunting language, the narrator writes of Calomar's glory and intrigue, its final fall, and his irresistible yet doomed attempts to return to his lost homeland and learn what, if anything, has survived.

#imaginary book recs #answered asks #this one was recommended to me by a friend whose tastes are much more cultured than mine #as in she's reading gormenghast and lord dunsany while i read mediocre self-published fairy tale retellings #i read the gutenberg version right on my computer while procrastinating #the description sounds more generic than it actually is #it's like a bridge between those victorian explorer atlantis lost land tales and a more modern take on fantasy #i wouldn't be surprised if it was an influence on tolkien or at least i suspect they're drawing from similar traditions #these people are much less noble and the narrative rather sadder than tolkien's #but i was still enthralled #sometimes you need to read about people who are better than you #and sometimes you need to watch the intrigues of people who fight and fail #and this one fits well into the latter tradition without losing that sense of wonder and goodness that undergirds good fantasy #the language is kind of dense but once you get going i found it rather readable #you have to be in the right mood and fortunately i found it at the right time #i'd like to see if i could find an annotated version one day #i don't know as much as i'd like about the origins and authorship and all those things like that #and at the very least i suspect there are worlds of references that i'm missing

[jasthecowboy]

What is one book quote that absolutely destroys you???

#i ask to my 23 followers 💀 #book tumblr #friends to lovers books #booklr #bookblr #books and reading #book blog #book rec #bookworm #books #book #book recommendations #enemies to lovers #slowburn #forbidden love #fantasy #romance reader #romance #romantasy #book moots

[queenlucythevaliant]

Hello! 🧡 I'm curious how you balance viewing scripture as infallible while also not taking parts of it (Genesis in particular, to reference your recent post) literally. I've heard some people say that Genesis is meant to be a poetic version of creation and therefore not entirely truthful: sort of like a kids' story, how some details could be fudged without losing The Point. I get why God wouldn't give us all the details, and it's not like this is necessarily a core doctrine issue, but I guess what I'm asking is if scripture is infallible, why would it give an incorrect account?

Hey Anna! I'd love to talk about this! It's one of my favorite issues in the world, actually, so please be prepared for a whole lot of passion from me 😆

So the bottom line, like I said in my previous post, is that I believe that all Scripture is true and infallible, but that it ought not be read literalistically. This is not the same as saying that some Scripture is less true by virtue of using poetic language, nor that I believe that details have been fudged. For me (and others who interpret Scripture as I do), it comes down to analysis of Biblical language, style, and genre.

So okay, let me start by defining my terms:

History = A text detailing true events that actually happened. These accounts may use symbolic, metaphorical, or otherwise figurative language in the service of conveying these events. A history is also not necessarily complete in its detail or exact in its chronology unless the text itself makes those claims (ie it's possible for histories to backtrack and tell events again from another point of view; this is pretty common actually.)

Biblical figurative language can take a variety of forms depending on the genre of the text we're discussing, however in general it is used to express truths that cannot be expressed in other ways. I'm gonna quote Lewis again here, as I think his discussion of Biblical symbolism in Mere Christianity is really great and relevant. This is from book three, chapter 10 (Hope):

There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of "Heaven" ridiculous by saying they do not want "to spend eternity playing harps." The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity.

Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.

Figurative language is used throughout the entire Bible. It's in discussions of heaven, like Jack illustrates here, but it's also frequently used in the Epistles ("I have been crucified with Christ") and, in the Gospels ("You must be born again.") It's heavily employed in the prophetic books, Psalms, and the wisdom literature (not even gonna pick an example, it's everywhere). It's used frequently throughout the Pentateuch (God "bore [the Israelites] up on eagle's wings"). It is used in Biblical histories ("[Samson's] soul was vexed to death"), though not to the extent that I believe it's used in Genesis 1-11. Sometimes the text telegraphs that figurative language is about to be used, but certainly not always.

None of these things are any less true than the things described in what we might call "plain" language. Rather, imagery is a tool that helps us understand the deeper truth of a thing; it "expresses the inexpressible" without causing us to doubt that the images are about something real. Sometimes, the language even tells us something that occured spiritually/from God's perspective, but which did not literally happen in the physical world (again, "I have been crucified with Christ.") I think it's clearly a mistake to conclude that the presence of figurative language means that the story is merely figurative or that it's incorrect.

So I read the Genesis 1-2 creation account as a largely figurative account of historical events, and I think it's written that way in order to convey God's perspective of creation. Certainly a human perspective on creation would be (a) theologically un-useful and (b) impossible for an ancient person to understand.

To expound on point (b) a little bit: even a modern person, with all the geological, paleontological, chemical, and genetic evidence that we have, simply cannot comprehend the expanse of what we call "deep time." Modern scientists must communicate these things in metaphors: they use 24-hour clocks in which each minute is thirty thousand years and football fields with geological epochs marked off at the various yard lines in order to try to express that which the human mind is fundamentally not equipped to grasp. The Bible should and must tell the story of creation from God's perspective, and to do that it must use figurative language.

Thus, "Days" are figurative days, but as such they convey greater truths about the way that creation appeared to God: it was gradual and periodic and God was patient, yet it did not seem to take eons to him. It was like a week of diligent work that produced good results.

Likewise, when the text says that God speaks light and land and life into existence, we can read that as a statement of God's incredible, beautiful power over creation. The moon likely formed in the "Big Splat," when another planet collided with proto-Earth and flung debris into space (I'm not even gonna touch the formation of the sun-- waaaaaay outside my wheelhouse). To God, these things were as simple as saying, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night" and then making them. The complex natural processes involved were simple before the Almighty God.

Likewise, the billions of years that are took for life to evolve, from self-replicating auto-catalytic molecules to microbes to multicellular life that arose from endosymbiosis and horizontal gene transfer, and then all the way down the epochs of history: the beautiful Cambrian Explosion, trilobites and the first chordates, then Tiktaalik propping itself up in shallow water and its tetrapod descendants stepping onto land for the first time; those strange, fascinating club-moss forests of the Carboniferous, dinosaurs and archaeopteryx taking to the skies, the K-T extinction event and then mammals picking up the torch and growing larger, whales returning to the seas and their vestigial legs disappearing, life, life life... All of that, to God, was two days of creation in which he spoke and natural processes produced the glorious array of life that existed when Adam and Eve came to be. He had authority over all of it. He said "Let the earth bring forth living creatures," and it did! God made them as surely as if he had sculpted them from clay with his hands, as miraculously as if He had spoken a word and they had existed in a split-second.

It's all true! All truth is God's truth! Every word of Genesis is God's truth, not despite the fact that it's written using figurative language, but because it is. We can understand truths that science alone can't account for - that in all the vastness of protein sequence space, God formed rubisco and ATP synthase: not by random chance, but through loving providence using randomness as a tool. We can see deep time as God sees it, not as a yawning abyss that we can't begin to properly conceptualize, but as a week in the mind of our great God who transcends time.

(My concluding paragraph is going to be somewhat harsh toward YE Creationists, but it cuts to the core of why I feel so strongly about how we read Genesis. I'm going to put it under the cut so that no one has to read it unless they want to; I'm not trying to attack anyone. I hope you know that I say all these things out of a place of deep, deep love.)

Returning to what Jack said: "If [people] cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them." YE Creationists would have us read Genesis without allowing for any figurative language; they would disregard the scientific method in order to do so. To my thinking, if a creation in seven 24-hour days were the intended meaning of the text- if we were, like children, meant to take everything in it entirely literally- then God would be a liar, because then he would have created a world in which the speed of light and geologic strata and the fossil record and even the evidence of our own DNA and physiology are all lying to us about how we were created. I could not love such a God.

But because I, like Jack, like millions of other Christians, can read the text of Scripture and interpret the figurative language it uses, I can instead marvel at the wonder and glory of our Creator-God, to whom epochs are like days, who can speak natural processes into existence. Scripture is history and it's poetry and it's all true. All truth is God's truth.

#i would love to write a book on these subjects someday #once i'm an experienced expert in microbial evolution i'd love to either go back to school for an mdiv or collaborate with a theologian #to produce a pair of books: one targeted at scientific minded non-Christians and another targeted at YE-creationists #idk it's a long way off #but this feels like good practice #love you dearly anna my friend #thanks for asking this #i hope my answer was okay and that i didn't come on too strong lol #if you or anyone else would like me to recommend some of my favorite books/articles/talks on these subjects lmk #i'm abysmal at keeping track of my reading/listening so it would definitely take a while to hunt things down and compile #but i could manage it #i do have more than just cs lewis quotes in my wheelhouse but i tend to figure that he's someone we can all broadly agree on #all truth is god's truth #ask me hard questions

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

I was falling asleep because it's 4:30 in the morning but then a friend that I have a mild crush on texted me and asked what horror movies corresponds to which areas at camp, and clearly Climbing Wall is Vertigo, Aquatics is Jaws and Ecology-Conservation is The Birds, (these were her assignments) but she wanted to know whether Blair Witch fit Scoutcraft (basic scouting skills) or Handicraft (arts and crafts) more, and I said Handicraft because of the figurine things, then she asked what Scoutcraft would be, and full disclosure, I like horror movies but I don't watch a lot of them. I'm picky. Because I don't like gore or zombies and I have anxiety so it's difficult. Okay. So I literally Googled "outdoor horror movies" and tried to find one that I recognized, and thankfully Midsommar was on that list and I've seen and enjoyed Midsommar, so that's what I said. The only other horror movies I can remember seeing are Cabin in the Woods (masterpiece but doesn't fit) and one I can't remember the name of but it's about a video game and has Frankie Muniz and the guy that played Mary Lightly in Psych. And tbh, most of my horror movies knowledge comes from parody episodes of Psych. Especially the Hitchcock episode. I only knew Vertigo because of Psych. This post was a whole lot of inconsequential nonsense, but I get a pass because it's 4:30am and I'm talking to a cool girl.

#okay shes beautiful. one of the kindest people ive met #shes trans. she works at a summer camp. she knows horror movies. we became fast friends #shes so easy to talk to. we met over a one week long event and the rest of our friendship has been over text #its nice to have someone to talk to about horror movies at 4:30am (3:30am her time) #especially Midsommar because i really love that movie. im trhing to find a way to being up Cabin In The Woods #because its truly my fav horror movie and one of my fav movies period. its so good #'but austyn you said you dont like zombies or gore' stfu this movie is the exception #how can you see the travel mug bong. chris hemsworth die via atv over a ravine. the guy getting killed by a mermaid in beautiful irony #and not think that its the best movie ever written #i could talk about that movie for forever #i asked her fav horror movie and im going to watch whatever one she says #even if its gory and full of zombies. im gonna watch it. in my type of strange way of trying to connect #fuck she said the original texas chainsaw massacre. i feel like thats gonna be gory. but im a man of my word #shesaid she doesn't usually have the patience for movies or tv. truly a woman after my own heart #jk jk im really trying not to be weird i promise. but i dont usually have the attention span for movies or tv (especially movies) either #its almost 5am and i should be asleep but instead im not #now im really feeling some horror. i might make the next book i read horror again #if youve read this far and have any good horror book recommendations pls lmk #edit: i read the plot synopsis for texas chainsaw massacre and i cannot watch it. dear god.

[skitskatdacat63]

I feel like Khachaturian is such an underrated composer :<

Everyone should listen to Gayaneh >:(

#though i think most people would prob recognize sabre dance and Masquerade #but i absolutely love Gayaneh in its full form its soooooo good #and i cant recommend it to anyone UGH #like 'hey you should listen to this ballet! how long you ask? uhhhh 2½ hours.....' #though ive probably listened through the whole thing at least 10 times #ITS MY FAVVVVVVV ITS SO GOOD!!! #but i listened to it when i was reading a book. like literally only listened to this one ballet while reading it #so now whenever i listen to it i can still only think 'huh this has the essence of [novel]' #i love when music gets permanently linked in your brain with something else #so then it just has the pure essence of whatever its linked to #like i literally feel like im in the universe of that book every time i listen to Gayaneh #though its hilarious bcs the book in question is Chinese but i cant help but imagine the charas in traditional Armenian clothes instead 😭 #i sent the ballet to my chinese friend and im like DOESNT THIS REMIND YOU OF [novel] #and shes like bruh of course not 😭 #some fanart i have of a different chinese novel was drawn in a more slavic folk style #so thats now how i imagine this one book in my head #SORRY SUPER RANDOM TANGENT #anyways i love slavic classical composers by far the most absolutely nothing can beat them imo #but anyways listen to Gayaneh. the 2 hours are worth it i swear!! #im listening to Masquerade while i make gifs so i wonder if Jense and Mark will now have this essence #catie.rambling.txt

[exoticbutterfucker]

I just finished a book for the first time in a few months (and second one in years) and it was super fun and awesome. I always forget that I enjoy reading and then I pick up a book and I’m like “oh wow this is amazing.” Then I finish the book and don’t know what else to start reading.

Anyways if anyone has something good to suggest lemme know.

#the book I just finished was called a lady for a duke and I really enjoyed it #my friend recommended it to me so I could always ask him #books #booklr #lgbt books

[casukaga]

You Should Read Gideon The Ninth

i’m well aware i should and i’ve heard good things, but i’m really bad at sitting down and reading books bc every day i wanna do nothing else but draw, so i probably wouldn’t have the time or patience hjhdjs

#i have a pdf of the book #and my friend was reading it last year and kept telling me how good it was and recommending it to me #but i’m just not a reader #i can read fanfics of the things i’m into bc that’s like pre-established characters i already know and love #but actual books i need to make time to invest in and i just haven’t been able to give myself that with my scattered brain hjhsjd #casu asks

[catgirlwarrior]

we are mutuals and weve never talked or anything and im not even super active on here, but today i wished we were friends so i could personally recommend you a really funny book im reading that i think you would like. and then i thought that maybe i should recommend it to you through an ask, but then i felt too embarrassed by the possibility of you not liking the book, or by it being too strange to receive a recommendation from a stranger, or or or. but, i figured youd like to know that strange creatures on the internet think of you

Awww wait anon please feel free to DM me, for book recs or otherwise! Especially if we're mutuals, but even if I'm not mutuals with someone- I LOVE making Internet friends and talking to folks. I'm honored you thought of me and thought I would like your book suggestion. I'd love to be your friend on here if you'd have me, or even if you'd rather just stay mutuals but send the recommendation I'd love to check it out.

#anon #ask #I'm always down to get a book recommendation or to make a new friend!!! #my dms are always open

[asofterepilogue]

I enjoyed glass onion but after knives out it was a little bit jarring in that martha was so compelling a character and so clearly the protagonist that I'd have never thought there would be a sequel about the smart and kindly detective who was ultimately just there to help an audience put together martha's story. I miss my girl, hope she's sipping delicious whatever on her mansion balcony.

#knives out #glass onion was very entertaining but I wouldn't think to recommend it to people #like yeah it's a good movie and if someone asks I'll say definitely watch it but knives out was better #and also a lot of the twists in glass onion were very predictable. a lot of fun still but I suspected early on #what would happen to the mona lisa+the fuel thing+it was all miles+the poisoning+blanc's little game #and it didn't feel like oh I'm so smart it just seemed pretty transparent #although my friends disagree so who knows maybe I've just watched too many movies and read too many books lol #mine

[firenati0n]

my friends are so sick of me but the ones who know my Extended Fandom Lore know this is extremely rare lmaoooo

#you know what i did today instead of doing my actual job? #I wrote most of my first rwrb fic armed with only a heating pad and relentless fucking optimism #and then I worked on a spreadsheet of book recommendations that is turning into a 500 row behemoth simply because a friend asked for a rec #i am truly living up to my consultant job title and it's EMBARRASSING #my post

[searidings]

how do you decide what books to read?

oh! i have many devious methods. i get recs from friends/family/mutuals, i plough through the entire works of authors who have written one book i've liked, i check rec lists e.g. on library websites or goodreads, and awards lists e.g. the man booker prize, but my fave way is to go and browse in a bookstore for 7 hours, scope out the books i'd like to read, write them down, then go home and borrow them from my local library (for free!!! support your local libraries kids!!!!) and THEN only if they're great will i keep a lookout for them in second hand stores and eventually get myself a copy

#my friends and i do 'author sweeps' #which is where you like an author so much that you're like ok. i am going to read everything they've ever written #i currently have about 20 authors on my sweeps list :))) and i've read almost everything for all of them this year :))) #but man i cannot recommend more utilising your local library #for books AND audiobooks bro i have not paid for a book that i haven't already known i love in advance in YEARS #try it out for free first!!!! this method is foolproof!!!! #and then i love to buy secondhand like my brother in christ i'm not spending 40 bucks on one god damn book #i have so many secondhand book pipelines lmao i'm like a dealer #the great thing about reading is the more you do it; the more you figure out what you do and don't like #and the easier it is for you AND other people to do the whole 'oh you liked that? you'll LOVE this' thing #even here on tumblr!! whenever i post a reading list and highlight the ones i like #i invariably get replies like oh i read that too and like it AND i liked this similar book!! #sharing the reading love :) #hope you find some fantastic books to read in the very near future my good bro!! happy holidays and have a lovely day #asks

[le-velo-pour-dru]

Look at this little guy

I LOVE THE LITTLE GUY SO MUCH!!!!!!!! :OOOO It's so beautiful, wow ❤❤❤❤❤ Thank you so much for showing me, it's so pretty and I love it :3 <3333

#dru speaks #my friend all your asks have been BANGERS btw <3 #a nevermoor/idkhow crossover... a book recommendation... pictures of dallon weekes... a brobecks reference... a pretty moth... #you truly Get Me X3 ❤ #asks #infinity on hiii

[tantaliax]

I literally only watched the first season of black butler but I really enjoyed it. But I'm confused - as I've only heard from the grape vine about the new season - isn't Ciel fucking dead?? What the hell is going on?! Is Sebastian back? That's all I care about really xD

HAHA I finally understand your confusion— the anime actually totally departs from the manga after episode 7 I believe! so everything from then on is a separate canon from the actual timeline, which picks up in book of circus, not season 2.

so, in the manga/canon timeline, ciel never “died”, and also yes, sebastian is back, because he never left! at least for very long

#this is actually funny to me because way back in 2014 i started as a manga reader #and I actually never got around to finishing season 1 until my friend forced me about a month ago #did not enjoy it #HAHAHA #i surprisingly like season 2 though 👍 it’s funny #if you want to pick up black butler again I really recommend starting with book of circus then going-> book of murder-> book of atlantic #or just read the manga :) #i promise it’s soooo much better than season one #asks