library

[kossai]

yesterday make visit to library , and not really find anything of interest ... and then lose favourite hat . but : did put 2 books on order , and ... turn out to not lose hat after all .

yep ! have big old panic about that , because this is hat which have for 10 years and love very much , more than any other . take off hat because library was so warm , put inside purse , and then seem to disappear . theory was that hat fall out of purse when get ipad to ask for those books on order , but staff could not find anywhere !

no , was in there that whole time ... apparently . but promise up and down that search purse thoroughly and completely empty out , and that hat was not there . this is one of those times where question how even possibly miss , and half shrug because might as well just be magic fae trick . ( not that think anyone here would do that , anyway , because this is everyone's hat . but point stand . )

anyway . not really sure of what kind of books to look for , apart from those 2 that put on order - long time since visit library , and that was in childhood , so needless to say tastes will be at least somewhat different ! think might like to look for some sort of historical fashion and architecture stuff next visit , for design purposes in art and minecraft ... but not sure about fiction , or even specific authors and books within those categories .

there is also some event stuff ! but given time of year , lots of very christmas-y themes . some of stuff that kind of pique interest also awkward or conflict with kossai stuff already :( maybe will be better after christmas is over . always want to support libraries but so hard to get fun things in schedule , just by way of unpredictable pain and disability .  

Comments

[dismallyoriented]

I can maybe rubberduck/brainstorm for fiction, though my personal tastes are pretty thoroughly Sci-fi/Fantasy inclined. What genres have you been interested in previously? I am also happy to pitch some graphic novels. (Also, are there any accessibility concerns I need to consider when making picks?)

[kossai]

remember as kid would read pretty much everything that was around , just to pass time and get through frustrations , but did especially love fantasy . favourite author was for sure cornelia funke ! these days have less energy for endlessly throw selves at books , so would say probably mostly in realm of fantasy .

hmm , not sure would really be into graphic novels as much ... was mostly into text novels , with minimal illustration if any , hehe . and would say mostly , do have trouble keep up with really flowery prose and complex language , but know can be kind of hard to judge where line is . willing to take down some mid-read notes , if need be to fully understand :'D other than that , think so long as print is not ant-size or lines squish really close , should be fine .

[dismallyoriented]

Cool, cool. I personally like graphic novels in that I find them a much easier format to read in - the art is interesting and enjoyable to look at, and the combination of visuals with text means it's overall less energy for me to read. (Though sometimes this backfires by goading me into speeding through the book much faster than I'd like,and I end up not retaining things). Just for a single rec to try if you're interested, I really liked Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed. Urban fantasy of sorts where genie wishes are real, and we follow the lives of 3 people who end up buying and using wishes from this one street vendor.

In terms of print fantasy that I remember fondly
- When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb: A Jewish angel and demon leave their shtetl after one of the humans from there goes missing after emigrating to America, in order to find her and get word back. YA novel, very good and folkloric prose, and very compellingly written characters.
- The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan: Alternate fantasy history series in a world where dragons exist. It's written like an 1800s adventure novel, about the titular Lady Trent and her entry into the field of dragonology. I love this series particularly for the worldbuilding, how real the setting feels, and how well the author conveys each region and the ecology around it. I haven't reread it recently enough to know how much it leans into Natural History jargon, so fair warning if it ends up butting against the complex language issues
- the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane: A modern day fantasy series, originally published and written continuously since 1983 but later republished to update everything to a 21st century setting and tech level. A series where wizards are granted magic by the Powers That Be, in exchange for fighting the forces of entropy and preserving life in all forms, as it is. I ended up reading this series in high school and college, and it became formative for a while. I liked how the magic system worked (wizards can talk to the universe in the Speech, the language of creation, and so spells are essentially negotiating with the universe to do what you want), I liked how animals and objects all got to be sentient characters. It is probably the least conventionally fantasy of this whole set, but I think it's worth people's time

Hopefully some of these are interesting, or at least give you a point to start looking from! If I had more time and better memory, I could probably recall my childhood and adolescent fantasy faves, particularly the ones most similar to Funke (whom I also loved, shoutouts Inkheart trilogy).

[kossai]

ooh , think all of those should be available here ! :D think next visit will also try and have to get better look at covers and such , mostly just try to learn layout so was pretty skim over everything . there is lots of stuff on ebook too - and have access to all that now - but that is main reason why visit physically , can not read ebooks very well ! which feel sort of odd , given level of control with ebooks >_>

tangent aside , really appreciate ! will wait for both of orders to come in ( one morbid curiosity , one recommend by another friend ) so might be slow , but will see from there :D