For Reading Addicts

@forreadingaddicts.bsky.social

287 Followers 6 Following

British bibliophiles brilliantly babbling 'bout books, bookshops, bookshelves!

I’m proposing a bookshop cafe. Not just a bookshop where you can sit for coffee, but a bookshop where you walk in and say things like “I’d like a latte and a book with dragons and no romance, please” and the barista would serve your coffee and pull out the perfect book for you!
I opened my book I turned to my page and tumbled right in was gone for an age I lift up my head and see to my shame another day passed I’ve done it again I’ve sat for a moment a quick read that’s all but hours have flown by whilst I was enthralled I’d had plans today done nothing at again there’s always tomorrow I’ll tidy up then. Shan W (forreadingaddicts)
BOOKS: Better weapons against evil and ignorance than BOMBS
It’s funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty, bun-topped bespectacled women. The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community. Librarians have stood up for freedoms, sat down and read with toddlers, and reached out to illiterate adults. Librarians cannot be shushed forreadingaddicts
Every book you have read every story you’ve heard is just twenty six letters It’s true, every word. Yes those twenty six letters From A through to Z Make up every word That you’ve ever read Shan (forreadingaddicts)
#WordNerd In Victorian Slang a muffin walloper was an unmarried woman who enjoyed meeting up with friends for gossip and cake.
🥓 #WordNerd Kummerspeck (German, literally “grief bacon”) The extra weight you put on from emotional overeating — sadness, stress, heartbreak… all measured in slices of cake and late-night snacks. It doesn’t mean actual bacon, but it perfectly captures that feeling when comfort food becomes a coping strategy. So next time you reach for the ice cream after a bad day, just call it Kummerspeck — it sounds way more sophisticated than “stress eating.”
✨ #WordNerd ✨ Tmesis (pronounced T-MEE-sis) The splitting of a word or phrase by dropping another word right in the middle — often for emphasis. Examples: 👉 “I haven’t seen her any-blooming-where.” 👉 “Abso-f*cking-lutely, baby.” It shows up most in informal speech, but it’s been around since Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. A fancy name for something we all do when we’re feeling extra dramatic.
✨ #IDIOMFACTS ✨ Did you know that “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” originally meant doing something impossible? The phrase began life as an adynaton — a type of figure of speech for an absurd or impossible task (like “when pigs fly”). After all, you can’t literally lift yourself off the ground by tugging on your own boots! Over time, though, the idiom flipped its meaning. Instead of mocking impossibility, it became a metaphor for achieving success through one’s own effort — especially in American English. So next time you hear someone tell you to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” and you can’t it’s because you’re being asked to do something impossible! For Reading Addicts
A penny for your thoughts, she said My dear you’ll need much more The imaginings that fly around my head are myriad For I am a reader, a writer a dreamer and my mind is filled with tales more valuable than gold But here sit beside me, for I have a tale begging to be told Shan W (forreadingaddicts)
“On rare occasions there comes along a profound original, an odd little book that appears out of nowhere, from the pen of some obscure storyteller, and once you have read it, you will never go completely back to where you were before. The kind of book you might hesitate to lend for fear you might miss its company. The kind of book that echoes from the heart of some ancient knowing, and whispers from time's forgotten cave that life may be more than it seems, and less.” ~ E. J. Banfield
Oh these books? No, these are my emotional support books, they’re not for reading. They simply exist in my peripheral to one day be buried with me in a huge coffin as though I were a pharoah.
#HotTake No piece of dystopian fiction has ever predicted the future. All dystopia is a representation of the present. Orwell was not a mind reader who could see the future, but a man who understood human nature and exaggerated the surveillance system he could already see building. Many dystopian worlds in novels, already exist. Margaret Atwood didn’t predict the future, she took things happening to marginalised people and applied them to you.Dystopian writers are not oracles, they are satirists. Their predictions came true, because they were already true, and in truth, there is no cruelty under the sun that is new.~ for Reading Addicts
If you don’t think that representation in literature matters, then you’re probably already well represented.
You’re not buying books you’re buying immortality; a library is nothing but a deal with the universe that you’ll live long enough to read them all.
There’s something about reading that just slows time down. No autoplay, no scroll—just you and the page. It doesn’t rush to the next scene; it waits, lets your mind fill in the colors, the voices, the sky. It’s quiet, but loud where it matters.
"Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" was banned in China in 1931—because it portrayed animals acting like humans. Censors claimed it was "disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level" and feared it would teach children to treat animals as equals. So, the Cheshire Cat’s grin and the White Rabbit’s waistcoat were considered a bit too rebellious!
Your assumptions are a window on the world. scrub them off once in a while, or the light won’t get in.
Today we may have ‘fortnight’ (fourteen nights)but while we have kept that, we have lost ‘sennight’ (seven nights) and replaced it with ‘week’. We’ve also lost ‘yestreen’ (last evening), ‘ere-yesterday’ (the day before yesterday) and ‘overmorrow’ (the day after tomorrow)
Darcin is a pheromone found in male mouse urine that plays a significant role in sexual and social behaviour. It’s a protein that attracts female mice and stimulates them to learn and remember the location of the male who left it — essentially increasing their sexual interest and helping them find him again. It’s named after Mr. Darcy, the famously brooding and desirable romantic lead from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
To the man who called me an old hag How Dare I How odd, to spit “old” like it burns on your tongue, as if years are a curse and not songs I have sung. How dare I have wandered through decades of skies, with laughter and heartache engraving my eyes. How dare I have gathered my stories and scars, my wisdom, my mischief, my battles, my stars. How dare I be living, still fierce, untamed if “old” is your insult, then long may I be named. ~ Kath Cross (copyright)
Respectable Men Respectable men in their polished shoes, With Sunday smiles and well-worn views. They shake their hands, they bow, they nod, And carry their hatred neatly shod. Respectable men with their tidy lives, Two sweet children, immaculate wives. They read the news and sip their tea, And say who counts as “you” or “we”. Respectable men sign papers at dawn, That drop like thunder on cities torn. For every deal, a body falls, While they hang their diplomas on quiet walls. Respectable men on a coastal street, Say “let them drown” to keep it neat. Their garden blooms, their hedges trim, While the ocean swallows a thousand limbs. Respectable men, we know your names. You sit in churches, you play the games. But when the world weighs heart and hand, Will “respect” be how you stand? Perhaps it’s time we draw the line: Respect is not a suit and tie. Respect is who you choose to save, And how you treat the lives you crave. Kath Cross (copyright)
Fog On Her Glasses Fog on her glasses From the still steaming tea A book in her hand As she casually reads. A catch in her breath As the climax grows near She’s deaf to the world: The book’s all she can hear. She’s completely lost now, Or perhaps she is found In this strange paper world That’s far from the ground. Unknown
Sometimes I think about how weird reading is. Our eyes are able to scan these different symbols and our brain constructs scenarios and concepts they describe. These concepts, all imagined from strange symbols, have the power to twist our emotions, make us laugh, make us cry, and stay with us forever. What a wonderful gift the written word is! ~ For Reading Addicts
A book historian will tell you that if you listen to audiobooks then you are enjoying the medium like most people would have right up to the 18th century. We have lived through centuries of oral storytelling, and since then centuries of endemic illiteracy. Reading by eye is a new phenomenon. A book snob will tell you that audiobooks are cheating, that it isn't really reading. Followers ask me all the time, "do you really consider audiobooks reading?" and I think "If you see a blind person reading by braille, do you consider that reading?" That is my answer.
The Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Brazil The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading was founded on June 14, 1837. Construction began in 1880 under the direction of Portuguese architect Rafael da Silva. The initiative to establish the library came from a group of 43 Portuguese immigrants who aimed to foster a cultural and literary hub for the Portuguese community in Brazil. Completed and opened to the public in 1887, the library was designed in the neo-manueline style. The exterior, crafted from limestone, features statues of Portuguese figures, celebrating Portugal’s age of exploration and its historical impact. For Reading Addicts
Here are some interesting facts about the Oxford Union Library: 📚 1. Part of the Oxford Union Society The library belongs to the Oxford Union, the famous debating society founded in 1823. It is housed within the Union’s buildings on St Michael’s Street in Oxford. 📚 2. Open to members only The library is a private lending library and reading room for Union members — students of Oxford University and some others who join the society. 📚 3. Gothic Revival architecture The library sits in the Union’s striking Gothic Revival buildings, which were designed by Benjamin Woodward and completed in the 1850s. 📚 4. Pre-Raphaelite murals One of the most famous features of the Union Library is its Pre-Raphaelite murals, painted directly onto the walls by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and others between 1857–1859. The murals depict scenes from Le Morte d’Arthur, inspired by Arthurian legend. 📚 5. William Morris’s influence The library decorations were one of the earliest collaborations of the group that would later define the Arts and Crafts movement. Morris himself reportedly designed some of the furniture. 📚 6. A working library Despite its artistic and historical significance, the space still functions as a working library with a lending collection and quiet study areas for Union members. 📚 7. Part of Oxford’s cultural fabric Alongside the famous debating chamber and bar, the library adds to the Oxford Union’s reputation as a hub for intellectual, cultural, and social activity. If you’d like, I can also draft a short “fun fact”–style post about it for social media, or expand on any of these points! Let me know.
When Timbuktu was under threat from extremists in 2012, one librarian led a daring rescue of over 350,000 ancient manuscripts — by smuggling them out in boxes, sacks, and even canoes. His name was Abdel Kader Haidara, and thanks to his bravery, centuries of African scholarship on astronomy, medicine, law, and poetry were saved from destruction.
“Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.” ― Carl Sagan