nonfiction | Myanmar Treasures

This is a repost from my whatever-regular personal blog: EgoNoctis

I’ve received this bookmark made out of traditional Shan paper, and this gorgeous postcard from a very lovely friend in Myanmar. Thank You, kind spirit. Your mere existence, and the fact I’m not forgotten in that magical land you reside in, inspires me to do better, and be better. 🖤🐼

That bookmark is the most beautiful and unique one out of all I had. Someday I’ll show you the collection of the marvelous ones that I’ve got, my treasured being the ones gotten for me with the thought of me, or those that were actually made for me by hand.

This one’s made out of Shan paper, widely used and pretty famous for making a lot of gorgeous things. It is made out of mulberry tree, a widespread shrub in the mountains of the region, Myanmar.

The process of making paper out of it is pretty lengthy, and I’ve spent a good couple hours researching, watching videos, reading, because oh boy… So, how is Shan paper made:

First, the fibers of the mulberry trees are dipped into water, then plastered in a wood fire with a mix of clay or wood ash for five hours or so. Then, this paper lump is put onto a wood slab and beaten with wooden mallets for several minutes.

After that the dough is spread evenly on a bamboo frame covered with fine, oiled cotton fabric, and placed at the bottom of a tank filled with water. When all the air bubbles and other unwanted things are worked out of the sheet, the canvas is taken out and left to dry for long hours in the sun and air.

Sometimes, for decorative purposes in making notepads, bookmarks, umbrellas, and so on, petals, leafs, or other herbs are put into the sheet of paper before it dries. You can see I’ve got one of those in mine too, and I’m loving the motif SO much!

Beautiful, innit?

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Just reading | by pewdiepie

Here’s someone with a full time job that requires more work than a lot of people think. Here’s someone who found means and time to travel, see sights, appreciate things. And also someone who read 72 books in 2018, and I am honestly happy and impressed. Impressed not because I didn’t even expect someone this busy to read that much, and it is much, yes, but also impressed by what was read, and how he motivates people who watch him to do the same: 10 pages a day everyday is better than 300 pages and a full stop.

One step at a time.

Wish you best of luck with your reading in 2019, everyone!

Bookish: Birthday

This year the birthday went well. I think the curse is officially lifted, for meteor didn’t fall on my head, all the presents and wishes were very thoughtful, and I got enough tea to last me a month. Two if you don’t drink buckets the way I do.

I love this picture because: see the candy down there? I bought a few packs to use as package fillers for some people. And none was left for me. It was nice to receive one from someone else thus! (I really like this kind, just letting you know)

NonFiction: Reading Habits | Tag

I don’t know many book bloggers, so if anyone comes along: I TAG YOU! You’re tagged!! (introduce me, someone!) Yes, now that it’s out of the way, found this tag via Jenniely, and the original is possibly here at Dreamland Book Blog, since the original video is either unavailable for me, or at all.

1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?
3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?
4. Do you eat or drink while reading?
5. Multitasking: Music or TV while reading?
6. One book at a time or several at once?
7. Reading at home or everywhere?
8. Reading out loud or silently in your head?
9. Do you read ahead or even skip pages?
10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?
11. Do you write in your books?

***

1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
-No, I just read wherever is most comfortable in the moment.

2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?
-Preferably bookmark, but if there aint one, well, then there aint one.
3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?
-I do have to stop at either a page that ends with a full sentence, or a chapter.

4. Do you eat or drink while reading?
-Sometimes I drink tea or coffee. But I’d rather not, since it gets cold before I notice…

5. Multitasking: Music or TV while reading?
– Sometimes I listen to music. Other times I listen to sound machines. Here’s two of my favorites, with a lot to choose from (like Slytherin common room, or siren song): myNoise ; Ambient-Mixer
6. One book at a time or several at once?
– Several. Otherwise I get too attached to the one I read, and then lose the will to read more after I’m done.
7. Reading at home or everywhere?
– Everywhere!
8. Reading out loud or silently in your head?
– Silently. It’d take too long to read out loud.
9. Do you read ahead or even skip pages?
– I used to, but I don’t anymore.
10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?
– I keep it like new if I feel like this won’t be the book I’ll want to keep. So I save it, then someone else can enjoy it as if it was new. But if it’s mine, then the game’s on.
11. Do you write in your books?
– In those that I want to keep forever, yes. I mark things I enjoyed, I make notes, etc.

Bookish | Halloween

I don’t know about you, but this cooling down of the summer gave me mad Halloween vibes straight away. I mean, for real, give me skelly decorations, serious vampire books (not the stuff I flood my blog with right now), horror movies, all the things!

Epic bookmark by: Pen and Pin

Bookish | I have a problem…

New school year is about to start (condolences to all of you who are still affected by that date). Meaning every store ever has school supplies ready. And each one has different stuff. So I spent like 20 minutes circling this one table, because ooh, look at that one. And this one is just one misc among them, meaning there’s probably a pack somewhere, with varied versions of this precise one…

I also got a few pens, the ones that cost half a buck and write for about a week. But they’re really good to have on work desk, especially if you need to scan something in the most sharp possible outline ever.

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Diversity | Who are your heroes?

I’ve a few questions for you today, if you’d give me a moment of attention, please!

• What kind of different characters have you met in your favorite books? What kind of books with different, diverse people you’ve read recently? How were they unlike the “default”*?
• What kinds of characters you hate from the start of it? Mary Sue? The Plane Jane? Mister Baddest of the Bad, but kinda good?
• What kinds of characters you love from the start of it? What are you favorites?

*the white and the hetero-normative fall into “default”. “Default” is in quotes, because they’re not default, not on this damn blog at least.

2017 In Books

I usually don’t do any of these summaries. Or maybe I just didn’t do them, for I didn’t have much material to write from before. But this year I managed to reach my book goal, and since I challenged myself through the whole year, I figured there’s no reason to stop on the last day either. So, thanks to Goodreads helping me keep track, I decided to apply the one day / day one here too, and tell you what I achieved this year among the books.

• Officially I’ve read 101 book. Unofficially a 103, one still awaits a review, and one more is reviewed, but waiting (and will wait as long as it needs) for a little cookie entry in my new favorite blog: [Pen&Pin]
• The longest book I’ve read this year was “Blood and Gold” by Anne Rice, with 752 pages. The shortest one was “The Smuggler and the Warlord” by K.J. Charles with mere, but so very glorious 3 pages of awesome.
• This year I’ve read “1984” by George Orwell, fully for the first time.

The Best:

1. Felicia Day “You’re Never Weird on the Internet (almost)“
2. V.E. Schwab “A Gathering of Shadows“
3. Jeaniene Frost “Bound by Flames“
4. Laini Taylor “Strange the Dreamer“
5. A.R. Torre “If You Dare“
6. Neven Iliev “Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests“
7. Adrian Tchaikovsky “Guns of the Dawn“
8. Andy Weir “Artemis“
9. N.K. Jemisin “The Fifth Season“
10. Angie Thomas “The Hate U Give“

The Worst:

1. Hugh Howey “Wool“
2. Kristin Cashore “Graceling“
3. Stephanie Garber “Caraval“
4. Dmitry Glukhovsky “Metro 2035“
5. David Ebershoff “The Danish Girl“
6. Jessica Day George “Silver in Blood“
7. Stephen King “The Gunslinger“
8. Anthony Horowitz “Moriarty“
9. Seth Grahame-Smith “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies“
10. Stephen Seitz “Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula“

• I’ve only read 3 paper books this year, the rest were one way or another all in digital form. I regret nothing.
• I’ve read 5 biographies / memoirs
• I finished 12 series, among them being the whole of Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

I hope your book year was good too, and the next will be even better. Have a great Yellow Earth Dog 2018 Year!

BIRTHDAY SALE!

BIRTHDAY SALE! I’m a December baby, to those who don’t know. So in celebration of my birthday to come, I’m giving YOU presents! ❤

soukyan.etsy.com

 -28% with code: BLACKFROSTING 

 Anyone with over 5eu spent post applying the discount enter a contest to win any chosen piece from the shop on my bday!

 Anyone with over 14eu spent post applying the discount receive a gift in addition to entering the contest!

Tag: Halloween 2

So far I’ve been lucky in finding one spooky tag a week, well see how it continues to go! As per usual, if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged. The original was created by Clever Fox, I’m leaving you with her video:

1. What goes bump in the night?: Name a book that has legitimately scared you while reading it.
– “Metro 2033” by Dmitry Glukhovsky, some place in the dark tunnels.

2. Jack O Lanterns and Classic Costumes: A book you always reach for during halloween time.
– I don’t have such, but hey, I do always like me a vampire book on this time of the year.

3. Black Cats and Magic Mirrors: A book you love that is laced with superstition and/or magic.
– Does high-fantasy count? If so, Victoria Schwab “Shades of Magic” trilogy, and if it doesn’t count, then K.J. Charles “A Charm of Magpies” trilogy.

4. Witch’s Brew: Favorite witch character in any book/series.
– Stephen Day from A Charm of Magpies trilogy, or Hermione from Harry Potter.

5. Ghouls and Ghosts: A book that still haunts you to this day (good or bad).
– In a good way, the very first to start haunt me, and stay with me to this day, so the oldest one on the list is C.C. Humphreys “Vlad: The Last Confession”

6. Haunted Graveyard: You’re all alone in a haunted graveyard, you get ONE book to give you comfort, which is it?
– Haruki Murakami “Afterdark”

7. The Undead: Favorite supernatural creatures to read about (i.e. vamps, zombies, werewolves, etc).
– Do elves count as supernatural, or are they a different category? If they do, then The Witcher Saga by A. Sapkowski. If not, then vampires, and there’s many great books with those.

8. In the dead of night: Pick a book with a black cover.
– Victoria Schwab “This Savage Song“!

9. Trick or Treat?
– Treat, thank you. Unless it’s a toy, then trick please!