Nerd Church - Christmas Hurts, This Year

 

Warning: grief, death, serious illness, mental health issues, general trauma

I've always loved Christmas.

But Christmas? It hasn't treated me so well. Especially the whole lead-up-to part of Christmas.

In 2023, my father had brain surgery a few days before Christmas - that was stressful (he's OK now, mostly.)

My grandfather died not long before Christmas in 2018.

Eleven years ago, my other grandparents died at Christmas within four days of each other. We had a double funeral. 

...That still wasn't the worst Christmas of my life.

Poetry: Today Hurts

 

This poem was originally published in the The Brain Is A Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'coping by producing' from the lovely Lucy Dan

Today Hurts

‘Now don’t drown in your tears, babe
Push your head towards the air’
— The Editors, Push Your Head Towards The Air.

Image by Lucija Rasonja from Pixabay

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: A Writer Is Not...

 

A writer is not replaceable — each voice is their own.

A writer is not tameable — each is wild, each answers the call the way that they must.

A writer is not something definable, not something that an algorithm can create, not someone who can be easily pushed aside, not a simple money-making cog, not someone who exists to generate a profit for Capitalism’s insatiable beast.

A writer is someone you pay — art is not a disposable item; writers need to eat.

The 11 Year Blog Anniversary Post!

Warning: brief references to grief/loss and mental health problems

Yes! Dora Reads is now eleven years old.

...Somehow I've made it this far!

Poetry: Dawning

 

This poem was first published in the publication The Brain Is A Noodle on Medium, in response to the prompt "It'll feel easier in the morning" from the lovely Lucy Dan 蛋小姐.

Dawning

‘Day’s dawning, skin’s crawling
Pure morning
Pure morning’ 
— Placebo, Pure Morning

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

Nerd Church - Shout Out To Those With Mental Health Problems In This Clusterf**k Timeline!

 

Sh**'s messed up.

...Like, it's been messed up for a while, I know. But our current level of 'historical' is feeling more like 'biblical' (in terms of scale, rather than religion,) every day.

It's one thing on top of another on top of another. 

I came across a blogpost I wrote in 2018 where I was like 'the world is bad at the moment,' ...and I genuinely can't remember what I was talking about. That was 2 years before 2020, and none of us really know what normal is any more.

Maybe, five to ten years from now, I'll look back and think, 'what was I complaining about in 2025?' but I really hope not.

Against that backdrop then, I, like many people, have mental health problems. And have for 10+ years at this point.

And it's f**king tough.

So to all of those with mental health problems, or anyone struggling, right now - this is a shout out to you.

Nerd Church - Stephen King's IT Is F**ked Up

 ...which probably isn't that surprising.

Warning: this post contains discussions of drugs and addiction, and brief references to one of the most notorious scenes in IT (the child sex scene.)

**This post contains affiliate links for Amazon.com. Any purchases made via these links will earn me a small commission. Please only use my links for .COM purchases, as this is the only Amzon site for which I earn commission.**

Stephen King

        - or so the meme goes -

                    did not write Stephen King's IT 

                                - he co-wrote it, alongside IT's primary author: 

                                            Cocaine.

Poetry: Click

Originally published in The Brain Is A Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'a simple click - what can you do with a simple click?' from the lovely Lucy Dan

Click

Nerd Church - Fighting the Pointlessness

 

Warning: brief reference to feeling suicidal, discussions of pointlessness, grief, mental health, existentential dread, and all the things that make up the general sh**ty state of the world.

Things have been tough for me, lately.

When you lose someone you love... it's damned hard.

Everything feels pointless - if that can happen to them, then what is the point of anything?

What's the point of writing a blogpost? What's the point of writing anything?

And since my purpose in this life is to read and to write... if I can't find the point of that, then what's the point of me?

(...I'm actually an optimist, if you can believe that. I just have mental health issues, and have been through some tough sh**.)

3 From My TBR: South Korean Novels In Translation

 

**This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links, which allow me to earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.**

**Please only use my affiliate links for .COM purchases, as I do NOT earn from other Amazon sites**

Since my To-Be-Read (TBR) list is continually growing, from time to time I like to throw together a list focussing on some of the (often diverse) titles on there.

I may never get to all of the 1k+ books on there, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve some attention!

I actually have a few little 3-book-long lists planned, which I'll hopefully get done and dusted and posted over the next couple of months.

I may continue with these little lists after that, I may not - depends on the vibes and my mood, tbh.

Anyway, I figured this would be a good way to get back on the metaphorical blogging-horsey and write some undeniably bookish posts which my brain has limited ways to overthink (please do not suggest any ways for me to overthink this! 😅)

As this is a TBR, I haven't read any of these, so have no idea whether or not they're any good!

Nerd Church - The Fractured Web: Our Socials are Scattering

Warning: this post refers to the bad things that happen on the internet; wide variety of topics, be careful!

The internet is fragmenting...

Poetry: Off and On

Originally published in The Brain Is A Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'a toggle switch' from the lovely Lucy Dan

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Nerd Church - A Series of Kafkaesque Events

*This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links - if you purchase items via these links I receive a small commission. Please only use these links for .com purchases, not regional Amazon sites*

Warning: this post discusses and/or references panic attacks and Anxiety, murder, grief, forced marriage, and systemic failings

There are also some (mild) SPOILERS for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

I recently found myself re-reading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: My Brain Is Unpredictable, Right Now

 

[Warning: this post discusses mental health problems and grief]

Look, I've been through some stuff lately, and it's definitely affected me.

My mental health has not been good for the last 10+ years, and now, after losing my mother in February... my head has given me a whole bunch of Very Bad Days lately.

I can't bring myself to go into details, but... it was hell. As a family, we've been through absolute hell since October 2024.

Schedule/Blogging Update

 

[Content Warning: brief references to death, cancer, grief, and mental health issues.]

For those who don't know, my mother passed away from cancer in February.

Things were pretty awful, generally, at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.

Poetry: Sweet Grit

Originally published in The Brain is a Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'how it's made vs where it goes' from the lovely Lucy Dan.

Sweet Grit

Image by Christine Sponchia from Pixabay

The Bookish Diversity Link List 2025

 

Your resource for all things bookish diversity is back! (...Finally.)

Welcome to the 10th Bookish Diversity Link List, 2025.

Due to personal reasons, this year's list is the first since 2016 (the very first list - started in August) to not go up in January.

But I was determined, given the dumpster-fire state of the world, to carry on with the list this year.

So here we are, a little late, a little metaphorically battered and bruised, but still fighting to promote diversity in books. Because it takes a lot of positivity to counter negativity - and the world has plenty of negativity right now.

Another Life/Blogging Update

(CW: death)



Hi everyone —

My mother passed away last week.

Thanks to everyone who’s been so supportive the last few months, it really means a lot.

I will get back to doing more on here and on Medium — although possibly the social interaction side of things is going to take a lot longer — but for now it’s just… awful.

Hope you’re having a better 2025 than I am.

Life/Blogging Update (...Again)

 

Cards on the table time: I have no idea when I'll be able to get back to my regular blog series.

I'm hoping to put out the odd post here and there, but I honestly can't guarantee anything for the foreseeable future.

My mother is dying.

My mental health is terrible.

I don't know if/when I'll be able to put the time and effort in that I want to.

This is not me giving up blogging - I don't think that's ever going to happen at this point. 

This is me saying that things are going to be sporadic around Dora Reads, my Medium account, and my socials, for a long time to come, so apologies for not being great at the whole social interaction thing for a while.

Life/Blogging Update + Updated Blogging Schedule

 

OK, so... life continues to be tough AF for yours truly.

So while I fully intended to bring my regular series (Comics Wrap-Up, Friday Fics Fix, Nerd Church,) back in January, for my own mental health and ability to use my free time for such luxurious things as sleeping and eating, that's not going to happen.

I'm tentatively aiming to bring them back in February, but honestly the way my life is right now, we all could have been hit by a meteor by then.

Still, I'll keep you updated when I can!

Look after yourselves, and remember to shelter from meteors... somehow.