#books!!!!!

Thank you for the tags @ratbagjasper @blightwashed (thank you for the reminder that plays can count!!) and I think @dags-over-caravans and @sorrygoldfish? Am I making that up?

I started working on this a day ago and the way it gave me a little bit of an existential crisis. Books that have changed my life as an adult? Books that fundamentally altered how I saw the world at any point? Books that were so fucking good that whether or not they changed me they're just in my heart forever now? Oh god—

Anyway I went with four books that I found young and which each wound up being completely vital building blocks for who I am today. Yapping under the cut.

the main character is this guy called Zachary Ezra Rawlins, who one day picks up an old book of short stories in the library of the university he goes to (he studies video games), and starts reading it, and then realises that one of the stories is about him. it's a bit from his childhood, where he discovered a painted door on his way home from school, and almost almost tried to open it, but didn't cos it was just paint. he went back to try open it the next day, but it had been whitewashed over, but he never really forgot about it. the story ends with him *not* opening the door, and teh last line is 'and so the son of teh fortune-teller does not find his way to the Starless Sea. Not yet.'

he never told anyone about the door, but it was written in a book older than he was. he gets kinda freaked out about that, understandably, and tries to figure out why exactly he's in the book. on the back of the book is three little symbols, a bee, a key, and a sword. he tries searching for these symbols, but all he can get is one picture of a woman at an annual literary party wearing a necklace with the bee key sword on it - the next literary party is a few days away, so he buys a ticket and goes looking for clues.

he meets mysterious guy called Dorian who tells him a story about the Heart of Fate in the dark, and Dorian gives Zachary some strange instructions to break into a building and steal a book, and then some stuff happens and he meets this woman Mirabel (who was the one with the necklace, he works out later) who pushes him through a painted outline of a door, and he ends up in a magic elevator going down into the magic library place, which is full of piles of books and strange paintings and cats, and is really really cool. he and Mirabel have to rescue Dorian from the building he broke into, because there are some people who are trying to stop anyone ever getting into the magic underground library, and they'll do anything to stop people getting in there.

the place (it's called the Harbour, it's a Harbour on the Starless Sea) is sort of... crumbling?? it's very very old, and almost no one lives there anymore--it used to be full of people, but that was a really long time ago, and it's sort of a tragic shadow of what it used to be. but Zachary loves it, feels more at home there than he has anywhere else. 'homesick for a place you've never been' is the phrase used which i think is just so beautiful. and they have to work to save it, and he and Dorian have a bit of a crush on each other as well, and have to save each other a little bit AND I WON'T SAY ANYMORE OF THE PLOT COS I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL IT BUT OUGHHH IT'S SO GOOD

the cool thing is though, the book that Zachary finds himself, it's called Sweet Sorrows, and the book he steals for Dorian is called Fables and Fortunes, and we get to read those too, interspersed with the main plot. and the further you get through the book you realise that the things happening in those books are things that happened in the Harbour, some a very long time ago, and there are characters who were the same person, and all these metaphors winding together, and it gets kind of complicated but once you work it out it's SO BEAUTIFUL AGNSGNASG. it's all one interconnected story. and it's kind of sad but hopeful as well and hrmhrmn i've read it a bunch of times and every time i read it the beauty of all the stories just gets me completely and i notice new connections and oughhanganasgn

it's my favourite book ever and i love it so so much. everything is described so beautifully and it's incredibly well written and it's so magical and i love it i love it i love so muchhhh

anyways that's a quite a lot i hope you enjoyed my braindump :D <3

OH MY THAT SOUNDS INCREDIBLE I NEED TO READ THIS NOW! awjsjjshsjahshwkshsjwj

Me: Thank you, but I do sincerely wish the world is kind to you! Can't wait to meet again!

Seller: Wait! Actually, I have *displays wares* these two unlisted, hardcover books if you'd like to buy them as well?

Me, knowing that buyer's remorse is a thing and therefore so too is seller's remorse but good gravy what a shiny treat: Oh yes I would love to-! I mean if they're still available, maybe I could-! I mean if it wouldn't trouble you if I might-

Rules: Answer 10 questions and ask 10 new ones.

I was tagged by @beautifulpaxielreads​ who is lovely for noticing me liking everything they post :)

1. Have you ever finished a book out of spite? Like you weren’t enjoying it, but you were determined not to let it beat you?

Yes. Recently. Sex and Sunsets by Tim Sandlin because I loved the movie that is based off this book called The Right Kind of Wrong (mostly because it was filmed in Banff) and because I paid for the book. It really sucked but I owed it to the movie to get through it.

2. Do you prefer ebooks, physical books or audiobooks? Why?

I like physical books but not the space they take up. I like ebooks but not the way they feel kind of impersonal. I don’t love audiobooks that much.

3. What’s the longest book you have read?

Probably Lord of the Rings. 

4. What’s the shortest book?

I have a really nice picture book of poems but I can’t finish it without crying. It’s called if If Sarah Will Take Me. Its about a man who became a quadriplegic after an accident and its beautiful and heartbreaking and about love. 

5. Do you read more than one book simultaneously? Why or why not? If so, what’s the greatest amount of books you have read at the same time?

I do. I might start a book or get quite far but not finish it straight away for a number of reasons. It’s about 50/50 if I go back to it but if I keep thinking about it, usually I do. Probably the most at one time is 3 or 4. At the moment I have 4 that I've started but I think I'll only finish 3 of them.

6. Have you ever attempted to read a book that is not in your native language?  (both English and non-English speakers can answer) If so, how did it go?

No. But when I get better at French I'd like to read a book like Harry Potter in French. Something I've read so many times that if I don’t know the language that well I can still figure out what’s happening. 

7. Do you prefer to borrow books from the library or buy them at a bookshop?

I love buying books but I am not made of money. I love the community at the library and don’t mind borrowing from there. Most of the books I own are from secondhand shops or op shops though because they hella cheap. 

8. Have you ever bought a book from an online store?

I buy books from book depository or the kobo store quite often. Especially during these quarantines.

9. Is there one genre or style of book that you will never read?

I don’t love thriller or horror, but I wouldn’t say I would never read them. I have read some of them actually and even enjoyed a few. 

10. When you come across typos in your reading, does it bother you?

Yes so much. 

____________________________________________________________

I would like to tag anyone who would like to do this - I doubt I can think of 10 people who would answer!!

My Questions (also book related because I love this theme):

1. Who is your favourite author and why?

2. What was the last book you completed and what are your thoughts about it?

3. Can you read in the car/travelling?

4. What cliche do you hate to see the most in books?

5. How do you sort the books you own (by genre, alphabetically by author, colour, size?)

6. Do you own any coffee table books?

7. What is your favourite movie or tv show adaptation of a book?

8. Do you own any multiple versions of the same book?

9. Do you use bookmarks or do you dogear pages?