HP Rec Fest 2024

It’s a Tumblr event where every day throughout December, people make Harry Potter fanwork recommendations in response to a set of prompts. And I took part! I didn’t have a rec for every day, but I did for more than half, and the exercise helped clear some of my rec backlog. It was also an opportunity for me to use some of my artwork! In what follows, the background of each banner is my very own scanned watercolor or acrylic painting. 😊

Books of 2023, part 2

If my Goodreads summary is to be believed, I managed to read 53 books by the end of 2023. I don’t think that’s exactly right, but it might not be very wrong either. Some of these “books” were novellas that felt more like really long short stories. Others were actual short stories that are, for the lack of a better alternative, also labeled as “books”. If five substantial short stories or two novellas make a “book”, then the honest count would be 45. But, this year I read dozens of short stories that are not on Goodreads at all; also, I read some (gasp!) book-length fanfiction. So I’m good with “around 50”. It’s still twice as many as usual.

Let’s dive in!

Devoured by Baldur’s Gate 3

What it says on the label, darlings. I picked up BG3 in the first week of September and haven’t been able to drop it for more than a couple hours at a time since. It so happened that I was kind of bed-ridden in this period due to trivial but annoying illness, allowing me unprecedented levels of unchecked obsessing. And here I am, at last, to tell you all about it. (The obsession, not the actual game. Shocking, I know.)

Books of 2023, part 1

It’s not even June yet, and I’ve already read 25 books. If I keep this up, I might reach the unprecedented count of 50 books in a year! This is the first time I’ve had reason to split my yearly reading report in two parts, and it feels good.

As Meat Loves Salt: On the meaning of the title

This is the second post in the series about the book As Meat Loves Salt by M. McCann, which has wounded me so deeply that months after reading it, I still can’t pass a full hour awake without thinking about it. In the first post, I made some introductory remarks and then talked about the cover and the blurb. In this one, I’ll talk about the title, and what it means.

As Meat Loves Salt: On the cover and the blurb

I read As Meat Loves Salt, a historical novel by M. McCann, in December last year, finishing it (unwisely) on Christmas, so that I found myself barely able to communicate with the merry aliens around me during the family feast. The book confused me, shocked me, charmed me, warmed me through, worried me sick and in the end, shattered me. For a while I was so distraught that I wasn’t even sure if I liked it or not.

But I have since come to my senses. As Meat Loves Salt (AMLS from now on) is the best book of my adult life. No other has affected me this profoundly, nor stayed on my mind so long. Three months into this new obsession, I’m almost done reading it the second time; I’m drawing fanart, and writing fanfiction for it. Yet somehow I’ve not yet managed to put my thoughts and feelings in sufficient order to blog about it. And I may never write a comprehensive essay: there’s just too much to say, and I lack the patience, and my writing time and energy are better invested elsewhere. But there are some relatively standalone bits and pieces for a series of shorter posts.

One thing I do not plan to do in any of them is retell the book. I will also make no attempt to avoid spoilers. These posts are addressed to fellow fans.

I’ll start with front and back matter: the amazing cover and the dismal blurb.