Got a very old (as in from the year of publishing, although from a German publisher) copy of A Christmas Carol for my birthday!

"when I counted all the statues in the UK's Public Monuments and Sculptures Association database, I found that there were more statues of men called John than there were of historical, named, non-royal women (the only reason adding royal women to the figure just beats Johns is down to Queen Victoria, whose enthusiasm for putting up statues of herself
I have a grudging respect for."

Cookbook time again! Got this one from the library because I was looking for a specific shortbread recipe but alas, wrong book by the right author. Otherwise lovely recipes and charming "wee stories", although as always, people who come from small places and either stay or come back give me screaming claustrophobia.

It was... okay I guess? I had been expecting a more detailed history from conception to the present, and this was more of a meditation once the author got past some 19 century warring grammar guide writers. Which isn't bad, but it also wasn't what I wanted to read.

Kitten tax

Been prevented from reading by Adorable Kittens, but this one should be pretty fast.
(cortado with a pinch of brown sugar is my new best friend)

Something something the Greeks were always doing shitty gender things.

I was recommended this book because it was supposed to be similar in vibes to Natasha Pulley's The Kingdoms, which it's NOT.
I reckon there are two types of target audience: The Terror girlies and time travel fans. I'm the latter, and was disappointed, as it's 75% romance, 15% government thriller and 10% time travel nerdery, and I was firmly uninvested in the romance. There were about three really interesting sentences about diverging timelines.

Took me awhile to finish (mostly because I get getting weepy about 20th century swedish vacation ideals. I went to rent a cottage on the coast like we did when I was a kid!) but very interesting. Orvar is one of the most important ethnologists in sweden and he takes you a thorough tour through the history of vacationing, from Georgian sea bathers and American national parks in the 1800s through scandinavians in the 1960s Mediterranean and beyond.

Goal accomplished

Here, have some rape culture in your wilderness travel propaganda

I need this. At €46 it will have to wait until next month though.

1) ethnologists are the best and most ignored and I want to be one (not hyperbole) 2) love how Linnerhielm does a "satisfying water asmr" two hundred years early.

I had a pretty picture of this one in my living room, but then I finished it in a cute little lunch cafe on Bainbridge Island, so there you go.

I really enjoyed seeing the parallels between Welsh and other folklore I know, although I was feeling a little unsure whether all entities described really falls under the ghost umbrella. Lovely with the long Welsh passages, but some IPA to help at the start would have been a nice addition.

I ended up paying for a lightroom preset that copies vsco a6 so now I'm okayish. At least it's better than paying $30 a year.

Eleanor Janega is always terrific, although I kind of wanted a little bit drier of a tone, this is basically 90% of my interests all in one small book.
Oh well. Enjoyable read, especially tearing down weird evopsych claims about sexuality at the end.

(Although wtf is up with the blurb depriving her of her doctorate?)

(also also new photo editing software, it's gonna be a struggle for a bit)

1) language is a discrete combinatorial system that frequently creates combinations of words that have never been heard before 2) my camera has a level finally thank fuck

Inspired by @thegirlwiththelibrarybag, an A+ vampire chronicles post from tumblr. This one by user 👤licncourt

This just in, medieval brits ate senapssill

On the one hand: a nice little book that narrates to origin of mid century Danish design's popularity in the US and across the world through through the lense of two chair designs. On the other, the size (smol, not coffee table) and length (short, not a standard non fiction book) makes me wander where it fits outside of museum gift stores. I'd prefer more and larger pictures or more in-depth text (also not 100% on the translation of some terms.)

I already like Ramstedt's first, "the interior design handbook", as well as her interior design blog. If I had to criticize, it would aimed at her tendency to err towards the natural fallacy, and sometimes it's noticeable that she's coming from an economics background and not from a real social science or art
That said, interesting about anthropometry, materials, architecture, etc.

Out on may 21st! North American edition will be using imperial measurements, British edition will be using metric. Photo from Frida Ramstedt's instagram @ trendenser. I'm loving the swedish edition, it's such a great complement to The Interior Design Handbook.

Furniture Handbook giving me an impromptu refresher in geology.
Oh, and it's going to be out in English in May

I took off the dust jacket and now it's in storage ?
Anyway
Overall a really nice long form debut from Link; I wanted to love it a little more than I actually did though, mainly because it was Too Long. I can justify length if you're doing worldbuilding in scifi or fantasy, but this wasn't a 650 page story.
Still overall positive to it, @donut_jefa called it "casually dark", which is very accurate and very typical of Link.

Yes, I realize I'm not the target audience 😅. But I was OBSESSED with Momo and with The Neverending Story when I was a kid, so when I realized there was a famous Ende book I had missed, I wanted to read it. Honestly, I don't think I would have liked it as a kid either; I didn't like books without child characters, and the heroes in this one are animals. Also too much verse. Meh.

I can't say there was anything wrong with this book, but it still felt a bit laborious to get through. No stories were bad, it was just never brilliant.

Sometimes literally the only place you can find a book is a shitty libgen pdf and that's okay

Excited about both reading this one and giving it to people I like. Out in April.

Alma mater mention! Well, for less than a year of grad school I don't think it counts if you don't have a degree from there? Anyway, fun fact: Lund University was founded in an effort for "swedishify" Skåne, an area that had until very recently been Danish since Lund's founding. I had philosophy lectures in Kungshuset, "the kings' house", the oldest building on campus.
(let's pretend I didn't hate Lund)

Present from friends in Sweden!!

34 pages in, I determined that this isn't a book I can read without underlining. Fortunately it was available affordable used, so it's been ordered and this copy will go back to the library. I'll continue reading the history of libraries next, and hopefully be able to pick up Curye on Inglysch after that.

I have zero recollection of where I heard about this book or when I ordered it at the library, but it showed up today so I'll read it. Sounds super interesting and I'm looking forward to reading it.

I remember liking the first one, but unfortunately, no matter how funny Munroe is (which is VERY), there's just too much math and physics for me to fully enjoy this one. That said, it's absolutely not a bad book for the more math inclined of the population.

still. Soupiter.

So for some unfathomable reason (like maybe having the LITERAL NAME of the main character in the title) I thoughts this novella was going to be about the German magical police officer, but no. It was about Kimberly Reynolds, the American character. Mostly read in a state of panic at jfk airport and more calmly with my cellphone flashlight on a six hour flight home. It's decent. Not revelatory, and Kim just isn't interesting enough.

The problem here is that Munroe is so consistently funny that I get distracted from the content.

Soupiter.

Rivers or London: I liked the entire series, but the first one does a lot of heavy lifting for the worldbuilding, while less polished I like that it's a standalone.
The Dawn of Everything is such a deep dive in anthropology and history of power, makes my head spin.
Black: The History of a Color is my favourite in the series because of black's status as both within and outside the color world, which lends more breadth to the narrative.

I read 27 books in 2023, and while I enjoyed most (no dnfs), these... challenges my patience:

The Real Valkyrie: you can't call a book factual and then have 70% of it be made up, fictional, story with the barest support in archeology.

Girly Drinks: often ignorant author who seemed more interested in going "yay, booze!" than in having any kind of in-depth analysis of how at times, alcohol has actively made the lives of women worse.

Last read of the year because I only have two more hours and the library history is way longer than that. I REALLY liked it, possibly most in Pastoureau's entire series on the colors. Due to black's on-and-off history as counting as a color, this goes a little bit more in depth in historical color ideas. Also some truly bonkers looks into medieval worldviews. Love it.

Pastoureau agrees with me! Two people in the "the 17th century was the WORST century" club!

I mean. This didn't really provide me with any groundbreaking news about user interface design but it had some interesting resources for different types of color blindness.
Formatting for ebooks was awful though, do better abookapart.

"I confess that I have never believed in a universal system of colors independent of time and place and shared by all civilizations. On the contrary, I have always stressed that the problems and stakes related to color are cultural, strictly cultural, and prohibited the historian from disregarding eras and geographical areas."

Good to know that I'm agreeing with an expert.

Not the strongest in the series (and a standalone that deals with Tobias Winter of the German magical police) about a murder in the German wine making town of Trier. Not bad either though, I just prefer Peter Grant. Winter is convincingly written, he's just not my kind of character. Aaronovitch is obviously a little into Roman Stuff, which, okay. Not by cup of tea either. But interesting case and I liked Vanessa.

1) at home with gastric distress instead of at the coffee shop 😡
2) the library had this book in book format! Kinda weird as they don't have most of the rest of the series, but I'll take the win, especially as I don't want to buy the not-Peter books
3) WHAT is up with the style in this one. Aaronovitch is using the sentence structure of someone with a German accent and it's weird so far, but at least Tobias isn't using Peter's voice?

"Personalized illustrations were a key component of any luxury Book Of Hours; ranging from the ubiquitous coat of arms to full-page portraits of the owner and their family /... /These delicate and sumptuous miniatures ensured that such books were prized possessions, passed down to children or other members within the ruling dynasty."

Decent start. Not pictured: the most absurd pistachio croissant

It's starting to stretch the limits of what I can believe Aaronowitch, a middle aged white man, can write, but for a novella I still think he sells Abigail's voice, although it's suspiciously like Peter's. I like Abigail, but I like the talking foxes with spy delusions more, and overall this is still a hit. Now I'm really really out of Rivers of London books until the next one comes out.

What a fucking book! On the one hand, 95% of it is valuable historical research on the effects of colonialism removing swimming skills from colonized people in the name of civilisation, and, once swimming became a valuable skill, keeping marginalized people from developing swimming skills.
On the other hand, the remaining 5% is an absolute batshit insane hatred of the breast stroke and some truly unhinged word choices.

Real fucking tired of this fucking attitude in this otherwise excellent fucking book. Breast stroke is not a less good way of swimming? It's certainly slower, but makes up for it in using less energy = allows the swimmer to stay afloat for longer. Each swim stroke has its pros and cons?
Cunty fucking attitude.

More a "sure, why not?" than an enthused yes, but still a pick, because I would like more rivers of london content right now please. Some thoughts: I don't feel like wossname from the west mercia village felt genuine as a queer character in first person, Abigail's foxes are quickly becoming my favorite characters after Peter, I still don't care about Germany.

"It's not easy, being a bookseller" , said Warrick Anderson -- bookseller. "
Caved and bought the short story collection and one of the other novellas, but the novella hasn't made it here yet.

Some days make for less nice photos than others.