Short thoughts, notes, links, and musings by Molly White. RSS 
Belated May reading wrap-up. Lots of comfort/escapist reading this month, heavy on the litRPGs and detective novels. Favorite out of the fifteen was probably Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.
@molly0xfff May reading wrap-up, reviewing the 15 books I read this month #litrpg #progressionfantasy #cozyfantasy #detectivebooks #readingwrapup #booktok #bookish #bookrecommendations #mayreadingwrapup ♬ original sound - Molly White
there is no feeling like finishing book two in a series you're enjoying and then discovering that book three is coming out only days later
You can’t crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them. By refusing to think, refusing to change.– The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
“Don’t hurt anyone. Never bully people weaker than yourself. Help out those in need. Some would say that these rules are obvious. But the truth is, the obvious is no longer obvious in today’s world. What’s worse is that some people even ask why. They don't understand why they shouldn't hurt other people. It's not a simple thing to explain. It’s not logical. But if they read books they will understand. It’s far more important than using logic to explain something. Human beings don’t live alone, and a book is a way to show them that.”– Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books
Rintaro did his best to explain to the invisible listener.
“I think the power of books is that—that they teach us to care about others. It’s a power that gives people courage and also supports them in turn.”
Rintaro broke off for a moment, biting his lip.
“Because you seem to have forgotten,” he resumed with all the strength he could muster, “I’m going to say it as loud as I can. Empathy—that's the power of books.”
@molly0xfff Part 1 | April reading wrap up reviewing the 18 books I read this month. #aprilreadingwrapup #readingwrapup #booktok #bookish #bookreview #cozyfantasy #sciencefiction #fantasy #dungeoncrawlercarl ♬ original sound - Molly White
few things i enjoy more than unwinding with a cozy fantasy novel, but as someone who is highly suggestible to vivid descriptions of cinnamon buns i’m beginning to worry they’re bad for my health
Every so often I read a book that's so good it makes me feel like I need to recalibrate my book ratings scale. How can it be a "five star" book when it's so much better than other "five star" books I've read?
But I've always found the ubiquitous star rating scales poorly suited to my mental model of cataloguing books, which vary so widely they could never be boiled down to a plain numeric scale. Do the stars represent how much I enjoyed a book? The depth of feelings it made me feel? The quality of the prose? The ease with which I find myself turning to the next page?
I've deeply enjoyed many a book with terrible writing and clichéd plots; is that a five star book? How do I rate a book with beautiful prose and intricate plotlines, that nonetheless causes me to dread picking it back up?
And what is a "one star" book? If a book is truly unenjoyable, I likely won't finish it at all — and thus won't rate it, as it feels unfair to cast judgment on a book I've only partially read. Is "one star" a book I liked enough to finish, but just barely?
Anyway, this is all to say you should read East of Eden, which topped the charts in just about every category, whether it was the prose, enjoyment, or deepness of feelings I felt afterwards.
March reading. Quite an eclectic mix this month, with some really enjoyable reads.
@molly0xfff March reading wrap-up 📚 #marchwrapup #readingwrapup #bookrecs #bookrecommendations #booktok #booktokfyp ♬ original sound - Molly White
quite relieved to discover that the library cloud lending error i was getting yesterday was due to an app outage and not my librarians deciding i needed to be cut off
kind of a bummer to DNF a book I’d really been looking forward to (Children of Time), but life’s too short to read books you don’t want to read