Warning: this post discusses war, death, and atrocities
Some people in the media and politics somehow think that's it's disrespectful to protest for peace on this particular weekend. This post is my response to them.
Dora Reads is the book blog of a Bookish Rebel, supporting the Diversity Movement, bringing you Queer views and mental health advocacy, slipping in a lot of non-bookish content, and spreading reading to the goddamn world! :) (All posts may contain Amazon links, which are affiliate, unless marked otherwise. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. USA ONLY - please do not make UK purchases with my links)
Warning: this post discusses war, death, and atrocities
Some people in the media and politics somehow think that's it's disrespectful to protest for peace on this particular weekend. This post is my response to them.
Warning: brief references to Depression and Anxiety
A lot of the time, when I write, it's not so much a choice as an exorcism.
(Metaphorically, ofc 😅 )
Don't get me wrong - I love writing.
But sometimes it's the case that, if I don't do it, these words are gonna rattle around my head and drive me to distraction.
Not necessarily in a bad way. It's just... they gotta come out, y'know?
Originally published in the Medium publication Promptly Written, for the following prompt set by Ravyne Hawke:
I recently took up spinning my own yarn from wool - because apparently I wasn't doing enough weird old-timey crafts for my brain's liking.
So, yeah, in addition to my previous heritage (i.e. ye olde timey,) crafts - knitting, weaving, embroidery, and cross-stitch - I now also spin wool fibre into yarn.
...Honestly sometimes my brain just, entirely out-of-the-blue, is like, 'we should learn how to abseil while painting stained glass windows!'* and I'm just like, 'yeah, sure, why not?'
(I do some non-heritage crafts too. Because I am like this, apparently. 😅)
*Don't panic, it hasn't actually suggested doing that. Yet.
Anyhow, it got me to thinking - we don't know enough about how stuff gets made, about where stuff comes from.
We in the modern world - especially in the West and the global North - have become so far removed from the means and methods of production that we can't even fathom it any more.
(Can you tell I was raised by South Wales Valleys (i.e. Socialist,) working-class hippies? Yeah? Great. 😅)
September.
(Yes, I know we're halfway through October - I have a lot of metaphorical plates spinning, and sometimes I drop one 😅 )
Iesu Effing Grist, September.
Well, it wasn't the worst month of this year - by a long shot. But it, uh... it crammed a whole lot of stuff in there.
...I am very, very, tired.
Warning: this post discusses all kinds of general horror themes (as you probably guessed,) as well as briefly mentioning mental health problems
I love horror - films, books, whatever, I am there.
Perhaps that's a bit stereotypical, given I'm a Queer millennial smol emo child with mental health problems, but I figure being scared of fulfilling stereotypes just gives them more power over me - and stereotypes can shove it, tbh - so here we are! Lol.
Path descending towards the Rhondda Valley by Gareth James, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons |
Blogging takes a lot of time and work.
I don't wanna be one of those 'poor me, blogging is so difficult' bloggers, because at the end of the day, if I didn't love it, I could find plenty of other ways to spend my time.
But bloggers do a whole lot more than you might think.
(Warning: this post discusses low self-esteem and self-hatred. It also briefly mentions self-harm.)
With series 2 of Loki creeping ever-closer (eep!), I thought I'd discuss something about series 1 that tends to get missed in the online talky-talks (aka 'The Discourse™.')
Before we go any further though - this post is gonna have SPOILERS for series 1 of Loki.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERRRRSSS!!!!!
Warning: this post briefly discusses Depression
July. Ugh.
Well... let's look at the positives.
Once again, nobody in my life - either human or animal - died, almost died, or had a life-changing diagnosis.
Which is a low bar for a win, but that's the bar that I have - so it's a win.
Honestly, I have no idea. This is one of those posts that just kind of... happened. 😅
General Content Warning for... I don't know. The state of the world? You'll see.
It can feel like you're shouting at the clouds, with the world burning down all around you.
...Who made the world this way, do you know?
Because all we're doing is fighting within systems in systems in systems - and all it does is benefit those few at the top, who've always been well off.
The only division that should matter is between love and hate - and there is a right answer (hint: it's not hate.)
I don't understand how the world can be so beautiful and wonderful and yet...
And yet.
Warning: As you probably figured out from the title, this post discusses Depression.
Disclaimer Time: I'm not any kind of medical, psychological, or mental health professional. These are my own experiences - nothing more, nothing less.
I love watching tennis.
Like I love it.
It's the one sport that I've followed regularly and consistently since I was a kid.
And for a British kid, there's nothing bigger in tennis than the Wimbledon Championships.
Warning: Vague discussions of mental health issues
Disclaimer Time: I am not any sort of psychological, medical, or healthcare professional. I am a chick with an internet connection: nothing more, nothing less.
Does anyone else find it hard to figure out what sort of self-care they need?
Because it's not all bubble baths and scented candles
- in fact I have to be careful with bubble baths in case my skin allergies freak out, and I don't like lighting candles anywhere near the cats because that's just an accident waiting to happen...
And apart from all that, the consumerist, one-size-fits-all, version of self-care does not, in fact, fit all.
Warning: this post discusses sensitive topics, including but not limited to - missing people, unexplained death, accidental death and drowning, murder, internet harrassment, mental health problems
Links may also contain distressing content.
Disclaimer time: I am not any sort of scientific, legal, sociological, or psychological expert. I'm a chick with an internet connection.
May was hard. May was very hard.
But that's actually an improvement as far as 2023 goes, for me.
No-one in my life - including both pets and humans - died, nearly died, or had a life-changing diagnosis, so it's all good.
And, unlike last year, I did not catch Covid, so we're calling it a win.
(I need the win, OK? I'm so tired.)
...aka she's back on that existential crisis train again.
Is Dora Reads a book blog?
I mean, yes. But...
Is it, though?
Certainly, I've been calling it a book blog for the past 8+ years, but that doesn't automatically make it one, does it?
I write very few posts which actually, actively, talk about books.
My last review was some time last year, (a mini-review of Klara and the Sun, which you can see here, if you're interested - gotta get that self-promo in!) and I rarely write book lists or discussions.
(For the record, I always intend to write more reviews, and even more lists and discussions, but life has this knack of getting in the way... 😅)
Warning: this post may have a negative affect on people who experience Climate Anxiety
As part of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the world made a commitment to stopping the rate at which the world was warming at 1.5C by the end of the Century.
...Which was always going to be a big ask, because, sadly: people.
People and capitalism and governments and big oil and all of that.