This is very cool - I'd never heard about the National Poetry Library in London until today, but apparently anyone with a UK address can get a library card, and they have a large online library for virtual borrowing, too. Join here (as I just did!): www.southbankcentre.co.uk/venues/natio...?

Oh no, I accidentally bought vol 6 of The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, manga version, but oh noooo I've forgotten where it's up to in the story. (I've read the light novel too, you see! I might get confused!) Oh nooooo, I think I'll have to do a reread. Ahem.

Review - Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, vol 2, by MXTX: the Yi City arc is really heartbreaking. This volume features some development in the relationship, too, and I was more hooked than in vol 1. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/22/r... #booksky 💙📚

If someone could get this migraine-induced spike out of my left eye socket, I would be so appreciative.

I kinda wanna write, but I'm not sure what. I usually do pretty short slice-of-life things, or play out scenarios in a fairly short space with a lot of room for imagination either side of them... Bearing that in mind, anyone wanna try to prompt something #Liushen or #Huaqing outta me? #TGCF #SVSSS

Review - Solo Leveling, vol 12, by Dubu: I can't believe a shadowy, necromantic ant soldier is this cute. Beru steals the show. Also some fun action and some very long-awaited moments! Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/21/r... #booksky 💙📚

WWW Wednesday: The usual Wednesday update on what I'm currently reading! Featuring quite a few different books because I'm scatterbrained at the moment. breathesbooks.com/2026/01/21/w... #booksky 💙📚

I hate that these supplements make me feel so sick. (For busybodies: yes, I do need to take them, on the advice of my mother's specialist and my own optometrist.)

Review - The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned, by John Strausbaugh: bashes anyone involved in the Soviet space program, dead or alive, frightened or fanatic. Kinda sexist too. Rating: 1/5 ("didn't like it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/20/r... #booksky 💙📚

Share a television show that raised you:

Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen: Bellowhead The Levellers Thea Gilmore Dar Williams Nightwish

I'm really pleased to see this issue getting coverage. AI BSL is not fit for purpose: "The NHS has already had to withdraw an AI generated BSL video about measles because the grammar was incorrect, and the meaning therefore became entirely misleading." www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Behold, someone is wrong on the internet about a danmei I love, and instead of telling them so, I have closed the tab... I deserve praise! 😅

Top Ten Tuesday: 2026 Goals. Those who know me won't be surprised that I have bookish goals to share, but hopefully it also isn't surprising that my goals are intended to be flexible, and the golden rule is to have fun with my reading. breathesbooks.com/2026/01/20/t... #booksky 💙📚

Review - Like: A History of the World's Most Hated (And Misunderstood) Word, by Megan C. Reynolds: this would've been a decent short essay, but a heavy load of personal detail made it tedious. Rating: 1/5 ("didn't like it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/19/r... #booksky 💙📚

Actually fucking light-headed with anxiety because... I have a day off. I hate whatever I have done to myself. (Two weeks off, actually. But the principle is the same.)

Someone activated the "spite #Huaqing fic" button again! That and this popped into my head while I was trying to get ready for bed. Rated M to be safe, #Huaqing with implied #Fenglian and future #XianleQuartet poly. Aftermath of a fuck-or-die scenario. archiveofourown.org/works/77916191 #TGCF

Review - Invisible Weapons, by John Rhode: a classic, almost passionless murder mystery, whichy to be clear isn't a critique. Very relaxing in how it's mostly about the puzzle and not about the horror of crime. Rating: 3/5 ("liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/18/r... #booksky 💙📚

Review - Swordcrossed, by Freya Marske: some genuinely great moments between the love interests, and I actually like the detail of the stuff about the wool industry... but it didn't quite come together for me. Rating: 3/5 ("liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/17/r... #booksky 💙📚

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post: The usual weekend roundup, this week with a bunch of books to review, some new manhwa, and of course my British Library Crime Classic. Also all my reviews/posts for the week. breathesbooks.com/2026/01/17/s... #booksky 💙📚

Happy Animal Crossing update day! Reposting my Danmei Crossing guys bc I like them 🙂‍↕️💖 [ #wangxian #hualian #ranwan #bingqiu ]

Saw a lot of headlines saying "wikipedia is embracing ai" being tossed around tabloids, and I'm pretty sure they were maliciously written to make you feel a certain way about Wikipedia. What's actually happening is that wikipedia is demanding payment for data scraping and the corpos don't like that.

Review - Loving You When the World Ended, by Gene: a pretty short manga which has kinda cute art but a rushed, weird love story. Rating: 1/5 ("didn't like it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/16/r... #booksky 💙📚

@fantasymagazine.bsky.social Weird thing happened today: I got a spontaneous email that my subscription was cancelled. I clicked the link to reinstate it and that seems to have worked. No idea what might have happened there, hopefully it didn't happen to everyone!

Review - Roses for Hedone, by Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin: discusses hedonism and the role it has to play in organising and activism. Not always stuff that felt relevant/recognisable for me, but interesting. Rating: 3/5 ("liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/15/r... #booksky 💙📚

Review - Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language, by Adam Aleksic: an interesting discussion on which the author is absolutely not objective, being embedded in it. I felt so old. 💀 Rating: 3/5 ("liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/14/r... #booksky 💙📚

Welp, the tab management add-on Toby has added AI features, so I've cancelled my subscription, exported my data, deleted my account, and requested a pro-rata refund. Any suggestions for tab management stuff? The way I used it is in the thread.

Review - Henrietta Who?, by Catherine Aird: very typically classic crime story in a way I find soothing, though it was a kinda weird attitude to adoption/adoptive parents that I didn't love. Rating: 3/5 ("liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/13/r... #booksky 💙📚

Top Ten Tuesday: 2026 Releases (First Half): A look at the upcoming books I'm interested in! breathesbooks.com/2026/01/12/t... #booksky 💙📚

Review - Greenteeth, by Molly O'Neill: really enjoyed this! For me the ending that was a twist for others is something I should've seen coming from various clues, given some of my interests... Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/12/r... #booksky 💙📚

“As soon as he grasped Liu Qingge's wrist, he realized that Liu Qingge's temperature seemed slightly high. He counted his pulse for a while, then said sternly, ‘Liu-shidi, tell Shixiong the truth. Have you dual-cultivated with someone before?’” … #liushen #shebqingiu #liuqingge #SVSSS #MXTX

What’s a little petting between friends?? #liushen #liuqingge #shenqingque #SVSSS #MXTX

Shixiong always worries… #SVSSS #liushen #liuqingge #shenqingqiu #MXTX #MDZS #TGCF

I earn a reasonable amount and pay a reasonable amount allegedly toward my student loan each year. After about five years of earning enough to pay toward my student loan each year (15 years after my first graduation, which is the only degree I had loans for), I pay just the interest back each year.

Review - Solo Leveling, manhwa vol 11, by Dubu: a fun volume with big hints about what's to come, and the usual glorious overpoweredness of Jinwoo. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/11/r... #booksky 💙📚

I feel like #FFXIV now needs a way to block sharing annoying strategy boards. "Only let my friends share strategy boards" or something. The number that are getting shared in random hunt groups that are just random nonsense really annoys me.

Recommend Reading Challenges: Asking for recommendations for reading challenges, since I find the sheer number of them a bit overwhelming and wanted some tailored recommendations! breathesbooks.com/2026/01/11/r... #booksky 💙📚

Game designers need to figure out that nobody, but nobody, wants their controller inputs while a game is minimised to count in that game and ruin their runs. Burned by that in both Pan'orama and Slay the Spire recently and it pisses me off so much.

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post: The usual weekly update on new books (a couple of manhwa), a roundup of my reviews, and a peek at what I've been reading. breathesbooks.com/2026/01/10/s... #booksky 💙📚

Discord wants to know how you feel about AI. Go tell them: discord.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Review - The Far Edges of the Known World, by Owen Rees: a history of the ancient world focusing on the borders of the civilisations we know the best, which I found pretty interesting. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/09/r... #booksky 💙📚

Review - Spinosaur Tales: The Biology and Ecology of the Spinosaurs, by Mark P. Witton and David Hone: solid, sometimes exhaustive, guide to spinosaurs, apparently a fairly hot thing in dinosaur research. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/08/r... #booksky 💙📚

There are two wolves inside me. One wants to read books I've owned for ages. One wants to read books I got recently. I will listen to both of them and start one of each, because you don't fuck around when it's wolves.

WWW Wednesday: The usual weekly update, featuring a book about cats (I knew that would get your attention, but, for real!) breathesbooks.com/2026/01/07/w... #booksky 💙📚

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books I Read in 2025. A non-exhaustive list of some of the books I really loved in 2025: a bit of non-fiction, some manga and manhwa, some fantasy, some romance, some mystery... breathesbooks.com/2026/01/06/t... #booksky 💙📚

Review - Still Waters, by E.C.R. Lorac: another fun one set in Lunesdale, with some recurring characters. A really tense stakeout scene, too! Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/05/r... #booksky 💙📚

Review - The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish, vol 3, by Xue Shan Fei Hu: the series continues to be really cute, and now there are babies too! Ridiculous and silly, and lovely. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/04/r... #booksky 💙📚

Me: In the next run of Slay the Spire I do, I really must focus on some block as well as attack. [In the next run of Slay the Spire] Me: You can't kill me if I kill you first!

Review - Love in the Palm of His Hand, vol 2, by Rinteku: another really fun volume which does great at representing different ways of using sign and non-verbal communication. Less romance than I'd hoped. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: breathesbooks.com/2026/01/03/r... #booksky 💙📚

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post: The usual weekly update, but this one featuring the remainder of my (huge) Christmas book haul! I was completely spoiled, ahaha. breathesbooks.com/2026/01/03/s... #booksky 💙📚