booksinmythorax
Punk-Ass Book Jockey
Librarian in the USA blogging about books, library usage, reading, and the occasional cat. She/her pronouns, 29 years old.
My URL is a reference to Welcome to Night Vale, and the title of this blog is a reference to Parks & Recreation.
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I just read that post going around about how “we only have 18 months to save the planet from climate change and also the Arctic is on fire” and I’m just so scared and tired. It seems like every time I try to fight anxiety, something comes out like “nope sorry your worst fears are true we’re all going to die within a year and a half” and I just don’t know what to do anymore. I’m scrolling through your blog trying to calm down—thanks so much for doing this, it really helps. You’re awesome!
Hey Anon!
I’ve gotten a couple of asks about that article, so I’m going to cover them all in one fell swoop.
It’s really important to remember that articles on the Internet (particularly the headline and introduction) are designed to be dramatic and attention-getting. Despite what the headline implies, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has not changed the 12-year deadline that it issued in October.
What that article IS saying:
-Some scientists believe major political and social changes need to be started in the next 18 months for us to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement
-Specifically, the headline references a quote by Britain’s Prince Charles, in which he was talking about a series of critical UN meetings on climate change that will take place in the next 18 months
What that article IS NOT saying:
-The world will end in 18 months
-Human society will collapse in 18 months
-All scientists agree that this is our last chance to stop apocalyptic climate change
-We are all doomed
A quote from the actual article:
“Whether it’s the evidence of heatwaves, or the influence of Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg, or the rise of Extinction Rebellion, there has been a marked change in public interest in stories about climate change and a hunger for solutions that people can put in place in their own lives.
People are demanding significant action, and politicians in many countries have woken up to these changes.
Ideas like the green new deal in the US, which might have seemed unfeasible a few years ago have gained real traction.
Some countries like the UK have gone even further and legislated for net zero emissions by 2050, the long-term goal that will keep temperatures down.”
Yes, we need to make big changes and we need to start making them as soon as we possibly can, but there are already many cities and countries taking big steps towards making those changes and public concern regarding climate change is increasing rapidly.
Unfortunately, the internet really likes to pass around dramatic, out-of-context screenshots, which are understandably very upsetting when they make it sound like the world is going to completely end in a year and a half.
Remember to take breaks from the bad news if you need to and focus on things you can actually have an impact on (voting for and promoting leaders that take climate change seriously, supporting causes working to fix environmental damage, making your community more sustainable, etc). You aren’t alone and there is always hope. Take care of yourself. Keep fighting.
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homeschooling in the US needs to be regulated but this is one of those conversations that immediately gets crushed by extremist conservatives and even well-meaning liberals will pipe up to be like "well some homeschooling is good!" when that's absolutely not relevant. regulation will not change anything for the homeschooling families who are serious about their children's education. the people who need to be regulated are the fringe extremists
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I hear the words "bichon frise" and my brain spends an uncountably long moment frantically overturning every memory I have, desperately trying to remember what foreign luxury car brand I have to pretend to care about in order for this conversation to go favorably. After my every mote of knowledge about cars has been thoroughly ransacked and I am on the verge of failing this social interaction, a smudged sticky note flutters into view that simply says "small white dog."
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The best thing about librarians is it presents you with a cast of characters who are allowed to be constantly deeply and aggressively enthusiastic about their fields which are never what you think they are. The sickly one who looks like a kindergarten teacher looooves to solve quantum physics in her head!! Not to show off but because it’s fun!! The guy who’s always grinning and full of himself spied on MI6 and will make you sit and watch every horror movie known to man and everything he knows comes out of the Inquisitor. And he solves stuff before people because he knows that stuff. The southern brawling cowboy won’t hit anyone UNLESS they have a really stupid opinion about 16th century architecture. His eyes light up when he’s talking about symbolism and he gushes about 15th century Spanish love poetry. The beautiful lady will disarm nuclear threats with gusto, because it’s an Art.
#for a moment i forgot about the tv show and just thought this was about people who worked in a real library#and i was just nodding my head like 'yep sounds like my colleagues'
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The noises I've made this morning as I realized Diane Duane and Neil Gaiman reblogged my Libby post were undignified and full of joy.
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Okay, friends: who's got book recommendations for/about child free women 30 and above? I'm especially interested in narratives by and about queer women and women of color.
#librarians of tumblr#booklr#books & libraries#bookblr#librarians#reading#book recs#book recommendations#childfree
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btw if you're annoyed with Google search giving you results for stuff that's similar to but not actually what you typed in, go to search tools, go to where it says "all results" and change that to "verbatim" and then it will search for what you actually asked for
why this is not the default is beyond me other than obvs enshittification but it has rescued a bunch of searches for me lately where the top results were completely unhelpful until i switched to that so. might be helpful for others
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"It's okay if you don't want to read the classics" okay but you should try. Books hit different when you're not being forced to read them.
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Ms. Inez is still at Abbott and is part of Ava’s book club!!! Huge day for annoying gay people (me)
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"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.
It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).
Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.
One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.
*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.
#OH MY GOD SEANAN MCGUIRE REBLOGGED MY POST#Seanan? can i call you Seanan? i want to tell you that the wayward children series has rearranged my whole brain and i love it so much#thank you for being you and making the things you make#and also for supporting libraries thank you so much!
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It makes my heart full, seeing all the booktok trends and such going around these last few years. I was really worried that reading books would be lost on the newer generations of kids but I’m glad we can show them reading is cool :)
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Hey New York people!
The city’s libraries have already had to cut Sunday service and limit hours. The new budget being put forward is even worse for libraries and may require the loss of another day of service.
Please contact City Council and the Mayor asking for budget restoration
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unsung benefit i think a lot of ppl are sleeping on with using the public library is that i think its a great replacement for the dopamine hit some ppl get from online shopping. it kind of fills that niche of reserving something that you then get to anticipate the arrival of and enjoy when it arrives, but without like, the waste and the money.
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public libraries are so sick. there are five books I want to read and they're all relatively new so they're only available in hardback which is so expensive but it just cost me $0 to place holds on them. five books for zero dollars. it requires nothing but clicking a button and then going to the library to pick them up when they're ready. zero dollars. that's crazy
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thinking about the poll about canon vs non-canon ships that didn't define terms, and the current fandom focus on things "going canon," so i made up a scale.
this is NOT a question about whether canon matters to what you ship (or matters at all), just how to define the phrase "canon ship."
many ships start low on the scale and slow burn their way up, so vote for the point when you would have called them "canon." i agonized over the order (especially #4-6) for a day and a half, but i went with the order in which i think joe random with a nielsen ratings box and no tumblr account would notice/call something a romantic relationship.
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