Thorn Wilde

Good luck!

My dad read me The Hobbit when I was 7, I think. I liked it a lot, but the 'back again' part got boring. The copy in my bookshelf is in Finnish and illustrated by Tove Jansson, the creator the the Moomins, if they ever made it across the pond. She was a wonderful illustrator, and when The Hobbit was first translated into Swedish, it was with her illustrations. For the 100th anniversary of her birth the book was rereleased with her drawings, but sadly only in Finnish, which I don't speak. I bought it anyway. Narnia was my first fantasy series. My mum read them to me as soon as I was old enough to understand anything at all. Before that there were some books by Swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren, who wrote wonderful fantasy stories for kids, though. I got the first Harry Potter book for Christmas '97, when I was 9 years old. I still have it, it's a first edition. Nearly all of them are, except the second and third books. I pre-ordered those things, got them the day they were released. I wrote and read so much Harry Potter fanfic... I recall one in particular I read that actually predicted Snape and Lily's friendship before The Deathly Hallows even came out. It was very good. The first sci-fi I got into was a YA series called Animorphs. There were 54 books in the series, plus a few extra novels. The books weren't long, you could read one in an afternoon if you didn't have much to do. They were not great books, but I devoured those things and I loved them so much. I still have them all. I think of them as a gateway drug. At the time they seemed amazing, but they got me into some much heavier shit later. Heinlein's politics aside, he did write some wonderful books. The Door Into Summer comes to mind.

Not entirely certain I'd call most of those... armour... exactly... *fans self*

No, you're A. I can tell from the Skyrim character with the skimpy armour.

I did. It was a few months ago... Never left a comment, sorry.

My mum gave me the Earthsea trilogy (her old copies) when I was about 11 or 12. I loved them straight away. I think The Tombs of Atuan is my favourite. My mum's a huge Le Guin fan, so she pushed me in that direction pretty early. Left Hand of Darkness is definitely my all time favourite, because the whole gender thing is just such a fantastic idea, but I also love The Dispossessed. Speculative fiction is what I like best about sci-fi in general. There are so many good stories in the Hainish Cycle. All of those short stories are fantastic. I've got The Found and the Lost and The Unreal and the Real, so I think by now I have basically all her short stories and novellas. As for her novels, The Word for World is Forest is amazing, and one of the more recent ones, The Telling, I really enjoyed.

Looking good. I should get a screen grab of my guy... He's a bit more vanilla. I use Total Character Makeover, which is just a texture overhaul. Do you play Witcher as well? Also, for all of five seconds there I was like, has A's account been hacked?? It is a good story, though. And I'm not usually one for vampires.

No worries. It would have turned up eventually anyway.

Yay for writing sci-fi! I wish you all the luck. Don't suppose you've ever read any of Ursula K. Le Guin's science fiction? If you haven't you should check her out. I can recommend The Left Hand of Darkness, which is super interesting and I think definitely counts as a queer novel, as well. Also any of her science fiction short stories, of which there are many.

Yeah, poor Daniel. And his troubles are only just beginning, poor thing. Also, Michael is nearly 16, he's in the year above Daniel.

The laugh is for the 411,000 people. Have a heart for the dinner part:

Leigh was an awesome friend to Julie. Too bad she's no longer around...

That's the thing with most conspiracy theories, isn't it? Answering the question of why these things are being lied about or covered up.

Oh, but it's worse, though! Because these people even claim that you can't see the curvature of the Earth when you fly, BUT YOU CAN, THOUGH! Have they never been on a plane? You can observe it! And if the Earth was flat you'd be able to see all the highest mountains in the world from anywhere on earth! And we have all this technology now, we can prove that the Earth is round, but even the ancient greeks knew that it was, because mathematics! So frustrating.

I do not envy those of you who work in customer service... Though being a sound tech can be annoying af as well. Everyone has an opinion, people are always coming over while you're working trying to tell you why you're doing it wrong. I was working a musical once, and the lady who managed the children's chorus actually came up to me while I was trying to mix one of their numbers to complain that I didn't use enough reverb the number before. Yes, thank you, now I fucked this one up, too. People can be awful. And lololol at flat earthers, omg!! How are these people even alive??

That all sounds lovely!

Glad to be of amusement, lol!

Ah, too bad. Well, then, there's no point in my watching it. I adored those books as a teenager... They were wonderful.

I like cuddle piles... Also, I'm an idiot with poor reading comprehension and no self-esteem, so I totally didn't get what @Mikiesboy meant at first. 😅

So you're about my mum's age. She's 60 next year. Also, you can't see it in that photo (I have more bookshelves; I'm a bibliophile), but I do have some much older books as well, some physically much older. Such as a beautiful copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets from 1903. (It was given as a Christmas gift in 1904 from one woman to another, and I choose to believe they were lovers.) I also have the complete works of Henrik Ibsen in huge, old leather-bound tomes that are about my grandfather's age...

Genre books, YA, and superhero comics is where it's at with me.

How old are you, then? Cause my grandfather was born, I believe, in the 1910s, and I kind of doubt you're that old... My dad was born in '48. Hey, I'm not judging. I read fantasy, sci-fi, and YA novels. I find most 'grown up books' dreadfully boring. EDIT: Plus some classics. I will readily admit that I love Jane Austen. EDIT EDIT: My bookshelf.

Mittens are the best. I also wear mittens when it's properly cold. Knitted ones, proper solid wool. Well done, A!

Wow, never had it that cold here. That's like Siberia cold, tears freezing on your face cold. We're lucky we have the Gulf Stream come by over here, makes sure things don't get too cold.

It's all YA with you, isn't it @Page Scrawler? I got Jack of Hearts on Audible, looking forward to listening to it. I'm so busy reading and writing things online that reading physical books is nigh impossible. Audiobooks are good for commuting, though.