Bro

★ for personal favorites ✂︎ for short stories

i'm not including Faustus or the works of William Shakespeare because I am of the belief they were made for the play medium, and therefore should be watched not read.

Epic of Gilgamesh by Unknown (2100 B.C.) [X] First story written down. Wrestling with the hunt for immortality and doomed yaoi it's got everything you've ever wanted.

Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer (750–700 B.C.) [X] If someone tells you to skip the Iliad make sure their heart stops beating. Straight up worth the hype and I'm not kidding.

Beowulf by Unknown (500–521) [X] There's a lot of filler but that's the fun part. Gives you a higher understanding of LOTR and Skyrim which you can whip out for the clout.

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (1000-1021) [X]

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (1194) [X] Actually more interesting than it first seems, stick with it. Surprisingly woke (Jewish woman main character who does that time period's equivalent of a mic drop).

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1320) Again a fucking trek, but also fucking fascinating

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1387-1400) [X]

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (1513)

Water Margin by Shuihu Zhuan (~1524)

Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (1596) [X] It's a FUCKIN READ so prep yourself but to be fair if you made it through Beowulf you can do anything.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605-1615) [X] Has a chapter where a woman breaks apart incel ideology in front of a crowd and it's not even part of the main plot. Long asf but worth it (for the clout).

Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667) Best if read as a character study on the author himself.

Cadenus and Vanessa by Jonathan Swift (1713) [X]

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (1729) [X]

★Songs of Innocence and of Experience & Other Poems by William Blake (1724) [X] The version linked works well as the images ARE important, he drew, carved, and then printed the art with wood prints at home on his own to sell.

Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, Gao E & Cheng Weiyuan (1791)

1800s & 1900s

★Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1811) "Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale… and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful." - George MacDonald INCREDIBLY unknown for how influential it was, my theory is it's a tragedy instead of a romance, in every sense of the words. Directly inspired and is practically the mother of Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. Created the term Undine which some may be familliar with. Don't let Toby Fox fool you, THIS spelling is pronounced un-deen.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

✂︎The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820) [X]

The various works of Edgar Allen Poe (1827-1849) ✂︎ Horror: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher Detective: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, The Purloined Letter by the way he invented modern detective fiction but they don't tell you that.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818) [X] The birth of Sci-Fi

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1839) [X]

A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens (1843) [X]

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847) [X]

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847) [X]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (1848) [X]

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850) [X]

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851) [X]

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (1853)

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for men and women by George MacDonald (1857) [X] If you were wondering who he is and why he's so important earlier he directly inspired the Inklings (Tolken & Lewis)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (1865) [X] [X]

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) [X]

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (1872) [X] For younger audiences, but who gives a shit.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876) [X]

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain (1881)

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883) [X]

✂︎The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886) [X]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891) [X] If you didn't know, Oscar Wilde was convicted in 1895 for gross indecency and for practicing homosexual acts.

✂︎The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892) [X]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892) [X]

✂︎Désirée's Baby by Kate Chopin (1892) [X]

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898) [X]

★Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) [X] It's actually a collection of letters, diary entries, and newspaper clippings, etc. So the 1800s equivalent of found-footage. if anyone tried to convince you of a mina x dracula romance make sure they never again breathe

Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Lili'uokalani (1898)

I Am a Cat, Kokoro, Botchan, Sanshirō, & Light and Darkness by Natsume Sōseki (1905-1916)

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (1908) [X]

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911) [X]

Peter Pan : [Peter and Wendy] by J. M. Barrie [X] (1911)

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915) [X]

And Then There Were None, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (1919-1970)

The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore (1919)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) Gatsby's black

The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai (1935)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

★Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938) Don't let shitty movie remake trailers make you think it's a romance. It's, in all technicality, a ghost story.

✂︎Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers (1938)

Native Son by Richard Wright (1940)

The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)

Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (1948)

The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1948)

1984 by George Orwell (1949)

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (1949) Many people say this is a better version of Confessions of a Mask. Probably because it's instead about him "masking" being gay.

✂︎There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury (1950) [X] [Illustrated]

The Bad Seed by William March (1954) Was so popular it was immediately made into a play and then a Hitchcock film released 2 years later. When people read the book or saw the play, they'd stress not to tell those you'd recommend to read/see it the twist, so the first story I can at least find with spoiler culture. If you're wondering why, it's the origin of a genre trope.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955) If anyone tells you it's glorifying anything shoot them on the spot for me thank you.

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo (1955)

★The Once and Future King by T. H. White (1958) You ever watch Disney's A Sword in the Stone as a child and wonder why it was all Arthur as a kid? that was not an original idea it was based solely on this book. Written very cleverly and whimsically.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (1958)

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (1960)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962) Book that makes it very clear Shirley Jackson was developing very bad agoraphobia. Not a horror novel if you're avoiding them.

The First Promise by Ashapurna Devi (1964)

✂︎An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1963) by Ambrose Bierce [X] Got an adaptation via an episode of The Twilight Zone [X]

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (1967)

★The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (1967)

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (1972)

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.

Games

A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.

corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.

Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.

Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.

Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.

sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.

Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.

Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.

The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.

Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.

The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.

Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.

Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.

The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)

Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.

Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.

EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.

You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.

The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)

Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.

Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.

ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.

PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.

Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.

FarmRPG - simple, mobile-friendly, text-based farming RPG.

Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.

PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike

Tools

Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)

Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.

Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)

Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.

PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.

Non-Games

Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.

Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.

17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.

Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.

The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)

Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)

Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)

If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.

r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.

r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.

Monster Theory - Really great anthology to start with, especially the first reading, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's famous "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" which is a personal favorite

The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts - A general SF/F journal, but there are definitely a lot of great monster theory and gothic horror readings sprinkled throughout. Consider taking a look at Veronica Hollinger's "The Vampire and/as Alien," the special issue on Dracula, and Faye J. Ringel's "Genetic Experimentation: Mad Scientists and the Beast," among others

Werewolf Histories edited by Willem Blécourt - Phenomenal anthology on werewolf scholarship, especially if you're interested in the connections between werewolves and witchcraft and/or witch trials in Early Modern Europe

Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by Jack Halberstam - Of interest to those who are interested in the connection between the gothic and gender (among other topics). Halberstam has written extensively on both

The Journal of Dracula Studies - Exactly what it sounds like.

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural - Another journal, which focuses on the connections between witchcraft and occultism, monsters, demonology, and the like.

Susan Stryker's "My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix" - An absolutely landmark piece of writing on Frankenstein and the transgender (and in particular the transfeminine) experience; one of my favorite pieces of academic writing of all time.

Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology - Another solid monster theory anthology

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene - A really, really good anthology about the ecological gothic that I cannot recommend enough. As a known werewolf guy I especially like the piece "Wolf, or Homo homini lupus" by Carla Freccero

The Vampire Lectures by Lawrence Rickels - So many vampires

Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader - Another anthology, I in particular recommend Rosalind Sibielski's "Gendering the Monster Within: Biological Essentialism, Sexual Difference, and Changing Symbolic Functions of the Monster in Popular Werewolf Texts" in this one.

"The Trans Legacy of Frankenstein" by Jolene Zigarovich - Definitely a good read if you enjoyed the Stryker piece earlier; it's a more general survey of the idea but might give you some ideas for further reading

TransGothic in Literature and Culture - A whole anthology of works on transgender identity and the gothic!

Twenty-First Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion - Not to be confused with the other similarly named anthology earlier, this one is on various modern perspectives on the gothic.

"Christians and Jews in the Twelfth Century Werewolf Renaissance" by David A. Shyovitz - Stand-alone article but really really interesting

Wonders and the Order of Nature: 1150-1750 by Lorraine Daston & Katherine Park - Incredible volume that gets into several different subjects surrounding the fantastical in the medieval and early modern eras, monsters among them. The same authors have written some other fantastic work, such as "Unnatural Conceptions: The Study of Monsters in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France and England" and I honestly would recommend any of their work.

Monster Anthropology: Ethnographic Explorations of Transforming Social Worlds Through Monsters - A more anthropology focused volume, I particularly like Rozanna Lilley's "Drawing in the Margins: My Son's Arsenal of Monsters—(Autistic) Imagination and the Cultural Capital of Childhood"

Marvels, Monsters, and Miracles: Studies in the Medieval and Early Modern Imaginations - Another anthology, this time with a historical perspective

heart locket gif maker

minecraft advancement maker

minecraft logo font text generator w/assorted textures and pride flags

windows error message maker (win1.0-win11)

FromSoftware image macro generator (elden ring Noun Verbed text)

image to 3d effect gif

vaporwave image generator

microsoft wordart maker (REALLY annoying to use on mobile)

refseek.com

www.worldcat.org/

link.springer.com

http://bioline.org.br/

repec.org

science.gov

$1,445,000/4 br/5700 sq ft

here is a master list of great art tools that can make your workflow easier! 👇 (updating, please consider supporting me on kofi or check out my other works)

By metatext I mean like tagging, summary, and authors notes (especially initial authors notes at the beginning of a fic). The means by which we communicate to our readers what they’re getting into.

Because we kind of all have to learn it by osmosis and there are conventions but nobody’s really taught them at the start, so there’s inconsistencies and misunderstandings or people just not knowing things through no fault of their own.

This ends up breeding frustration and confusion and in the worst cases resentment, hurt, and aggression.

I’m severely tempted to make such a handbook and get it circulating.

Go here for the PDF, or here to view the whole document as a tumblr post.

I recommend the PDF.

morpho books

figure drawing for all it's worth (+ creative illustration)

framed ink

will eisner comics and sequential art

will eisner graphic storytelling and visual narrative

understanding comics (+ making comics)

folder of various animation production art

burne hogarth drawing dynamic hands

perspective for comic book artists

michael mattesi force drawing

the animator's survival kit

color and light james gurney

Apparently it's also very funny.

"An accessible family cookbook that offers solutions rather than tricks to empower the food-averse, autistic, and picky eater, with 46 recipes. This much-needed cookbook combines tips and techniques with a dash of understanding about food aversion and how to help your kids—and yourself—cook beautiful meals in an empowering way, and is a groundbreaking resource for anyone who has ever been called “picky” or “discerning.” Learn how to alter the texture or taste profile of a dish, or even fit it within a specific palette with a unique color-coded guide. Delicious, nutritious, and easily tailored recipes (including for gluten-free and vegan eaters) include:

the perfect smashed cheeseburger

Italian sausage and potato soup

the best omelet

stuffed focaccia 

chocolate pinwheels

and dozens more

For Jackass: stop hiking your shoulders up to your ears. This is pretty much a stress thing, it’s human instinct to protect our neck when we’re under stress so that predators can’t get at it. Easiest way to do that is be elevating the shoulders, so. Periodically take not of where your shoulders are at.

Absolute Fuckwaffle: stretch out your chest. The rhomboids on the back work to keep our shoulder blades back, so when we’re hunched forward they are constantly straining to do their job. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as telling you to stand up straight, since our pectorals get chronically tight and prevent us from doing so. Step one: pectoral stretches. Hold for at least 20 seconds.

🩷 LESBIAN BOOKS FOR EVERY READER 🩷

QOTD: What’s your favourite book with a lesbian main character?

It’s lesbian visibility week and that means it’s time to add some lesbian books to your tbr!

No matter your favourite genre, I’ve got you covered with this rec list, so no more excuses for not reading lesbian stories!

Please note that a main character is the character(s) whose POV the story is from, not love interests or other key characters.

[instagram]

if you're in the US or Canada and interested in learning a language using a free app please get a library card and download MANGO. it's very good and extremely free with a library card (there are many public libraries and universities using the service, so make an account and use the search feature here to find out if there's one near you).

mango currently has 72 available languages and dialects (that's right! different courses for french or canadian french! spanish or latam spanish!). it's set up basically like an audiobook with text. the idea is that the narrator explains the words while you read, and you repeat after them or say the translation out loud when prompted. there's a daily review where you go through flashcards. you can also use the flashcards at your leisure and create your own. at the end of each chapter there's a listening comprehension quiz and a reading comprehension quiz. i cannot emphasize how effective this all is. and it's free with a card.

if you're not in the US or Canada and/or looking for something more like duolingo (don't use duolingo btw tldr they fired translators and replaced them with "ai"), then try BUSUU! it only has 14 languages atm but the lessons are really descriptive and effective. it also has a feature where you can correct other people's open-ended speaking/typing exercises. you set your fluent languages, and exercises by people learning those languages will appear in your feed for you to correct. you can even add others as friends! and, much like duolingo, it has a streak and leaderboard system for you to strive for, minus the guilt-tripping owl.

busuu is free (you watch ads to unlock lessons and they're all skippable after like five seconds), although it also has paid premium/plus versions (i don't use the paid version—the language courses are available for free, and the ad system is Really unobtrusive).