Real Adult™ Tip From A Real Adult™ With Executive Dysfunction

"I'm in my late 20s and I'm scared I've already peaked" just don't peak then, idiot. what do you mean like you're going to just stop trying to think harder and build taller and learn more and get luckier and read deeper and dress better and fuck weirder and run faster and draw crazier and smoke danker and dance bigger and steal better and stun everyone with your cunty charm and zeal because, what, you think those are the rules? get real. get up. you have another 50 years and you're not going to use them??? give them to me.

10 books to read in 2025

(tagged by @hunxi-after-hours)

Let's ignore the fact that it's already 1/3 of the way through the year, shall we?

I'm narrowing this down by keeping it to non-webnovel fiction only (I keep separate lists for webnovels and nonfiction, both of which are long enough on their own). I'm also excluding anything I've already started reading (which eliminates another uh... more than I'd like to admit). Anyway, that puts us in the part of my reading list that I vaguely structure by language, so:

The Iliad, trans. Emily Wilson - I found her translation of The Odyssey (and her commentary on it and the translation process) to be an interesting read, so I'm curious to see what she does with The Iliad. Also I just really like the story and will happily take the excuse to 'reread' it.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - I heard such good things about it and then never got around to reading it.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - I went through this phase when I was younger where I thought I hated all scifi, and then I realised I just hated a lot of the 'classics' of the genre written in, like, 1950-1980, and that there's a lot of the genre I do actually quite enjoy. I have read a fair bit of it since, but I still have some catching-up to do.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - I just feel like I should have read this by now. My excuse was that I was waiting until I was in a place to acquire more physical books but really I've just been kind of scared of it.

《长安的荔枝》 (The Litchi Road) by  马伯庸 / Ma Boyong - I recently read another of his novels (《太白金星有点烦》 / The Annoyance of the Gods, about the overworked gods who coordinate the whole Journey to the West behind the scenes) and very much enjoyed it, so went looking for more. I like the premise of this one as another behind-the-scenes take on a well known story, and am looking forward to seeing where he goes with it.

《三国演义》 (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) attributed to 罗贯中 / Luo Guanzhong - I've read abridgments. I've read adaptations. I've read poems and commentaries and inspired-bys and let's not even start on dramas. But I have let the OG unabridged version gather dust on my shelves whilst I stare at it like a coward.

El Problema de los Tres Cuerpos (三体) by 刘慈欣 / Liu Cixin, trans. Javier Altayó Finestres - This is a project of sorts that I kind of stumbled into, where I'm trying to read this novel in every language in which I am literate. I first read it in the original Chinese and then went straight to Ken Liu's English translation (The Three-Body Problem) because I had heard such good things about the translation, and wanted to study it under a microscope. Then I happened across a translation into a different language with an interesting-looking foreword, and picked it up on a whim. And it spiralled from there. I wouldn't call this a favourite novel, yet here I am, reading it for the 5th (and last, unless I learn another language or decide to torture myself with Italian) time. But it's been interesting seeing how the translation differs between target languages, and I will definitely try something like this again with other novels.

Les fiancés de l'hiver (A Winter's Promise) by Christelle Dabos - I'm well-read in the French classics but woefully out of touch with more contemporary novels, and have read almost no original French speculative fiction at all, which felt like an oversight. So I asked for recommendations at a local multilingual bookstore and came away with this one.

La plaça del diamant (The Time of the Doves) by Mercè Rodoreda - for reasons of trying to get a good grade in immigrant.

Permagel (Permafrost) by Eva Baltasar - I was browsing the indie bookstore near me for language reasons and it was featured prominently on the queer lit recs shelf.

Tagging @redbelles, @kelsiers, @veliseraptor, @venndaai, @stripedroseandsketchpads, and anyone else who has a reading list you feel like sharing (if you think 'I want to do this but I wasn't tagged' please do it and say you were tagged by me so I can steal recommendations from your lists)

LINK: tinyurl.com/oldgaySF

I'd like to share with y'all a project I've poured my heart and soul into over the last couple of years: a database cataloguing every single older queer science fiction book I've managed to track down, consisting of just over 200 titles with LGBT characters/themes & by LGBT authors, spanning over a century (1880-2000) 🚀

The database can be filtered by representation, subgenre, whether the book is currently in print, and more; additionally, it includes my own ratings & brief thoughts on the ones i have read, if anyone needs a suggestion on places to start! (or feel free to shoot me an ask for a more personalized recommendation)

We need to talk about tumblr's systematic fatphobia.

Posts of fat people are being marked as "sexual content" even more frequently than they used to, but now we have this fun little addition as brought to my attention by a friend;

That's right. Not just blatant kink-shaming, but now, if you make posts about or with fat people, you can now be flagged as "promoting disordered eating"! Multiple completely innocent posts of fat people literally just existing in their own bodies have already been flagged this way.

Raise hell about it. Reblog and share fat content more than ever. Don't let this shitty website tell you that your bodies are "wrong" or that you aren't allowed to exist publicly.

Tumblr staff, if you care about eating disorders (you fucking don't), stop promoting this sense of shame and fear and disgust towards the idea of weight gain. Stop shaming and censoring people for posting about their own bodies and experiences. Fatphobia kills. Fatphobia causes disordered eating. Fatphobia is the disease you should be worried about.

This has also been disproportionately affecting fat trans people, because of course it has.

Don't stop talking about it. Don't let this bullshit ceo silence you.

SPREAD THE WORD

AUTISM IS NOT A DISEASE.

WE ARE VALID AND WE ARE BORN LIKE THIS FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES.

THERE IS NO CURE TO AUTISM. WE. ARE. NORMAL.

Reblog this post with the hashtag 'protect autistic people', we need to get this to as many people as possible- this is DISGUSTING. My little brother is fucking beautiful and he does not have a damn disease.

Please reblog this. This cannot happen.

@kage-meows-around, @eclipce-the-cat, @deviatedscientist, @eroswmorals, @twilightowl, @kameonerd566, @greenevilclaws, @theradiodaemon, @worstvillian, @amanda2119, @tankthrust-bored, @xking-george-iiix, @xxxangel-dustxxx, @tumblrnews, @tumblrbot, @pixiestickkk, @helluvamealyah, @helluva-kat, @cipherthewhore, @glitzbot, @godforsakencryptid, @goldsnek, @envy--draws, @eline-131106, @ironperfectionwizard, @itzay0910, @jennsypuff, @jen-derless, @jeniferdavid18, @warblogs17282, @werewolf-transgenderism, @stardatextoday, @sobadbad, @sugwrpwzz, @onthemeander, @oh-no-its-another-alastor-fan, @nettle-milk, @miyakuli, @angel-dust-rp, @ariesnhope, @danielsarmand, @daddyhoothoot, @blitzbittz, @stolitzsings, @onehelluvafan

Yeah you could say I’m doing numbers on tumblr. And that numbers? One

LINK: tinyurl.com/oldgaySF

I'd like to share with y'all a project I've poured my heart and soul into over the last couple of years: a database cataloguing every single older queer science fiction book I've managed to track down, consisting of just over 200 titles with LGBT characters/themes & by LGBT authors, spanning over a century (1880-2000) 🚀

The database can be filtered by representation, subgenre, whether the book is currently in print, and more; additionally, it includes my own ratings & brief thoughts on the ones i have read, if anyone needs a suggestion on places to start! (or feel free to shoot me an ask for a more personalized recommendation)

Arches National Park, Utah photo: Elliot McGucken