My Father Was Right. I’d Waited Here To Kill Him. But My Father Was Also Wrong. About Pretty Much Everything

why do i keep seeing “young!ditzy!reader” or “trophywife!reader” or stupid shit like that where authors make the ‘reader’ the most fragile person in the world??

at the end of the day, this recession theory shit is real. and it is seen clearly as day on this app.

why are the inspo pics for the oneshot just blonde and skinny white girls?? why are we making the reader sweet and innocent and fragile??

and look, there’s nothing wrong about being a blonde and skinny white girl, but after seeing the same pictures as inspo for a series or a oneshot, it gets annoying and repetitive how there’s no diversity.

also, i’m not saying every post in the “x reader” tag is like this, but they just keep popping up on my feed and i had to speak my mind about it.

please, if anyone reads this, tell me if you found the same problem or i’m just going crazy.

as much as the concept of Jesus being a fairly normal lad has its charms, im personally very intrigued by the idea of him being just… extremely weird. not even in a mystical sense, just…….staggeringly BIZZARRE. 

you go to the well to get some water, and here’s Miriam’s boy, staring at the sky, completely still. his expression is unreadable. you hazard a hello and ask how he’s doing, and he slowly, unblinkingly, lowers his gaze on you (he’s 8 and is missing his frontal teeth, not that this is making you any less uncomfortable) and says “I cannot speak of the state of my being, Nathan son of Saul, my brother, but rejoice for the water you shall take today will be as pure as the soul of the children of Heaven”

…you start sweating

how to start reading again

from someone who was a voracious reader until high school and is now getting back into it in her twenties.

start with an old favourite. even though it felt a little silly, i re-read the harry potter series one christmas and it wiped away my worry that i wasn't capable of reading anymore. they are long books, but i was still able to get completely immersed and to read just as fast as i had years and years ago.

don't be afraid of "easier" books. before high school i was reading the french existentialists, but when getting back into reading, i picked up lucinda riley and sally rooney. not my favourite authors by far, but easier to read while not being totally terrible. i needed to remind myself that only choosing classics would not make me a better or smarter person. if a book requires a slower pace of reading to be understood, it's easier to just drop it, which is exactly what i wanted to avoid at first.

go for essays and short stories. no need to explain this one: the shorter the whole, the less daunting it is. i definitely avoided all books over 350 pages at first and stuck to essay collections until i suddenly devoured donna tartt's goldfinch.

remember it's okay not to finish. i was one of those people who finished every book they started, but not anymore! if i pick up a book at the library and after a few chapters realise i'd rather not read it, i just return it. (another good reason to use your local library! no money spent on books you might end up disliking.)

analyse — or don't. some people enjoy reading more when they take notes or really stop to think about the contents. for me, at first, it was more important to build the habit of reading, and the thought of analysing what i read felt daunting. once i let go of that expectation, i realised i naturally analyse and process what i read anyway.

read when you would usually use your phone. just as i did when i was a child, i try to read when eating, in the bathroom, on public transport, right before sleeping. i even read when i walk, because that's normally a time i stare at my screen anyway. those few pages you read when you brush your teeth and wait for a friend very quickly stack up.

finish the chapter. if you have time, try to finish the part you're reading before closing the book. usually i find i actually don't want to stop reading once i get to the end of a chapter — and if i do, it feels like a good place to pick up again later.

try different languages. i was quickly approaching a reading slump towards the end of my exchange year, until i realised i had only had access to books in english and that, despite my fluency, i was tired of the language. so as soon as i got back home i started picking up books in my native tongue, which made reading feel much easier and more fun again! after some nine months, i'm starting to read in english again without it feeling like a huge task.

forget what's popular. i thought social media would be a fun way to find interesting books to read, but i quickly grew frustrated after hating every single book i picked up on some influencer's recommendation. it's certainly more time-consuming to find new books on your own, but this way i don't despise every novel i pick up.

remember it isn't about quantity. the online book community's endless posts about reading 150 books each year or 6 books in a single day easily make us feel like we're slow, bad readers, but here's the thing: it does not matter at all how many books you read or what your reading pace is. we all lead different lives, just be proud of yourself for reading at all!

stop stressing about it. we all know why reading is important, and since the pandemic reading has become an even more popular hobby than it was before (which is wonderful!). however, there's no need to force yourself to be "a reader". pick up a book every now and then and keep reading if you enjoy it, but not reading regularly doesn't make you any less of a good person. i find the pressure to become "a person who reads" or to rediscover my inner bookworm only distances me from the very act of reading.

I made a what the fandom thinks of you generator

edit: please remember

1. i have to read all the tags

2. ITS RANDOMLY GENERATED I AM SORRY IF YOU DONT LIKE YOUR RESULT BUT DO NOT FUCKING HARASS ME ABOUT IT

thank you

Dutch longsword fencer Tosca Beuming

Photographed by Martin Philippo and Andress Kools

Unsolicited Witch Tip 24

Catching a falling leaf before it hits the ground is supposed to be good luck. Add it to your altar for good luck, protection, and abundance throughout the autumn season.

I do appreciate people willing to be educated on creating characters who are Muslim and wanting to be respectful but there is a whole lot of nuance in Muslims and different interpretations of beliefs that people need to understand.

The main one I’ve seen a lot is “here is how to correctly have a hijabi character” and it’s usually a headscarf covering all of the hair and modest, which is good, this is a good representation of a Muslim, but on the flip side, there are so many different interpretations of veiling among Muslims that saying only one is correct just seeks to enforce a sort of homogeneity among Muslims that disregards our own cultural traditions all over the world. Not all of us wear hijab or veil in the same way, not all of us have the same interpretations. As much as people try to understand that Islam is a religion, there are many who treat being Muslim as if its the equivalent of an ethnicity.

Not to say veiling is exclusively Islamic either, plenty of cultures and religions other than Islam veil/practice modesty, what I’m mainly trying to say is that different cultures have different cultural traditions surrounding modesty/veiling/hijab within Islam. In different cultures around the world there are also different terms for the type of hijab/veil they wear as well. Hijab will look different wherever you are looking, and the type of hijab style your character might wear may pertain to which culture they may come from. It’s important to keep this in mind while also being aware of inter-communal nuance.

(This is coming from a Muslim from cultures where people did not used to veil as many deem ‘acceptable’ now)

Just for example: both of these women are Muslim, they both wear a scarf, and neither is more Muslim than the other bc one has visible hair. Nobody has the right to determine who is a better Muslim or not for how they chose to cover, and I don’t think folks who aren’t Muslim should be upholding this kind of belief either, even if their intentions are in the right place.

This is also not to say “hey just slap a scarf on ur Muslim character bam it’s a hijab” when a lot of the posts about creating characters who are Muslims, especially hijabis, came from a place of people not understanding the hijab or it’s intention, it also comes from a fear of portraying more modest/religious Muslims which is rooted in Islamophobia - since the hijabi on the left would probably be better liked by audiences who aren’t Muslim bc some of her hair is shown (*cough* Netflix *cough*). So, there is a lot of nuance here.

Ofc not everyone is going to agree with this and there is plenty, and i mean plenty, of contested sources and voices about this all throughout the Muslim community, this is my opinion because quite frankly I’m tired of this belittling of different type of veiling because it doesn’t fit people’s view of hijab (from both Muslims and those who aren’t).

THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS SNEAK PEEK AT THE NEW DESIGNS

YOU GUYS

Glowy dark mode site skin

🎼 You would not believe your eyes, if 10 million fireflies ended up in the header of your AO3. 🎶

It's been a while since I tried glow effects, but I saw the fireflies and I couldn't resist.

CSS code under the cut.

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