*Dedicated to K2 and my favorite childhood librarian who let me check out all the books.
“When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.”-Isaac Asimov
“Cutting libraries during a recession is like cutting hospitals during a plague.”-Eleanor Crumblehulme
“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”-Albert Einstein
“Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can’t go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can’t get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.”- Katherine Paterson
“Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities.”-R. David Lankes
“I’m of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.”-Barbara Kingsolver
“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession
“The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding–which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the pages together–blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work. When someone is burning a book, they are showing utter contempt for all of the thinking that produced its ideas, all of the labor that went into its words and sentences, and all of the trouble that befell the author…” ― Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril
“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have as much censorship because we won’t have as much fear.” ― Judy Blume
. “What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.” ―Stephen King
“You know what they say: When people start burning books they’ll soon burn human beings.” — Cornelia Funke
“Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of ‘The Giver’: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.” — Lois Lowry
“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”-Dr. Seuss
“One of the best things about folklore and fairy tales is that the best fantasy is what you find right around the corner, in this world. That’s where the old stuff came from.”-Terri Windling
“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”-Albert Einstein
“Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.”-Terry Pratchett
“The best fantasy does not offer an answer to our lives, it is an offering that acknowledges enough of the truth to resonate and add to the understanding about the human condition.”-Isobelle Carmody
*A solo RPG Adventure based on Ella Lim’s Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop.
Character Description (Very Wind in the Willows-esque:)
Nora is a Capybara who has traveled around the world and is far from home, ready for a slower paced life. Nora is a stout capybara who has world weary eyes and has some gray fur about her muzzle. Despite that, she is strong from a life of adventure and doesn’t like to stay in one place for too long. She has independent means to do as she wishes, as she doesn’t need very much to keep her content. She loves reading and meeting new people. She’s fiercely protective of young ones and other vulnerable folx and uses being underestimated to her advantage when needed.
Nora was born on the 12 day of Brink (approximately autumn) Moon. She is creative and capable. She’s particular about her comforts and how others treat her and happiest when going on adventures or creating new things. She enjoys tinkering and since she has been on her own, knows a lot of random knowledge about a lot of things. She always wears overalls- for the pockets, most are slightly shabby and patched with creative patches. She has many cardigans and sweaters, some of which she has made and others that were gifts. She always has a book close by and has a small pair of glasses that perch on her nose. On very hot days, she wears a visor hat that looks like an old time accountant would wear.
Nora has been staying in Thistledown, which is the town at the top of the river over the Brisk (Winter) moon. While there, she has discovered an abandoned riverboat/bookshop. She’s able to buy it after the previous owner had passed away.
Bookshop Description:
Excerpts from Nora’s Journal titled
“A Dubious Beginning–
The roof was a splintery mess- a faded mess of patchy paint and dry wood. The sides of the boat looked intact, but definitely needed a new paint job and perhaps a deeper inspection by a carpenter or boat maker, just to make sure of its river worthiness. The window facing the dock was patched with what looked like oil cloth on the outside. Even the sign looked poorly. I could tell it was charmingly carved, but some of the letters and the sign itself had succumbed to the weather so now it hung at a lazy angle and stated “ook op” in faded wood letters. The whole boat looked a little hodgepodge and while I didn’t normally mind that look, it was a bit more daunting up close.
Struggling with the cabin door, which seemed to be swollen shut against the humidity along the river, I didn’t answer directly, just gave a vague nod in her direction. Then straining, I pulled at the door and much to my surprise, it finally gave way, almost knocking me back into the mayor. A poof of dust came out, making me cough and I cautiously peeked my head in for the first look at my new home.
The first thing I saw in the dim light inside was books. Directly across from the door, I could see the edges of a bookshelf. Picking up my mage light lantern (open flames and houseboats don’t generally do well in the same spaces, after all.) A long curved desk sat to my left by the entrance with what appeared to be a half open door behind it.“
Hello and welcome to a new and hopefully charming experience that I invite you to share with me. The more I’ve gotten into tabletop role playing games, the more I’ve realized how much I love the games that are either silly, cozy, mysterious (but not too scary,) or a combination of all three. In fact, my most recent friend game was run by my lovely brother and featured 3 of my friends and I playing as racoons in a trench coat trying to be a person to do peopley things. (Look. It was wonderful! We saved the world by accidently stealing some kind of nuclear waste, giving it back, and got an unlimited buffet of trash. Racoon heaven!)
None of this is surprising to me, by the way. I have always been fascinated by fantasy stories and mythology. I’m a bit of a dreamer. In fact, in elementary school, I got in trouble for staring at my much more interesting pencil than actually doing math and don’t think I stopped even after they gave me plain boring yellow pencils. After cutting my fantasy teeth on Anderson’s Fairy Tales, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, the thought of magical places where talking animals roam and life is idyllic and charming seems like utopia.
It’s hard to get friends together regularly though and not everyone wants to be a cute talking animal doing Hobbity things. Or racoon things, or badger things.. You get the idea. So when I found a solo RPG journaling adventured titled Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop: A Year Upon The River, it was in my online cart before I finished reading the blurb about it. I’ve never tried a solo game before so I wasn’t sure how it would work, but it seems relatively easy. The game is written by Ella Lim and is available here through The Lost Ways Club if you want to follow along with your own floating bookshop. There are also a few more that look fun as well. Here is the website: https://www.lostwaysclub.com/shop
The idea behind a solo journaling RPG is that you use dice and cards to help give you a prompt for what happens during the day/night/time of the game. In multiplayer tabletop games you would have a game master who gives the players those prompts instead, but sometimes you maybe just want to take a little journey on your own!
So for the next few weeks, I’m going to try to post a weekly excerpt of my journey along the river, possibly asking for prompts from you as I go along. My world setting will be something like Narnia, Wind in the Willows, or Redwall. Lots of fun pastural scenes with different animals, wacky interactions with customers, cozy days reading in the rain on my houseboat bookshop. I will at some point, adopt a pet, but who knows what it will be? Maybe a butterfly or a tiny lizard? The possibilities are endless!
Don’t worry, if the storytelling isn’t your thing, I’m still going to try to get some updates about the garden and Piggy’s tomato stealing ways, life in general, and other fun things happening in my life. I have still been sewing and doing some cooking, although lately not so much with the cooking. The Husband and I got Covid after 4 years of narrowly avoiding it. Luckily it’s mild, but it’s made cooking extremely tiring and I was already been in a slump anyway.
For now though, I’ve left some music to inspire you to join me on my river journey.
“Can I ask a question?” “You can always ask,” said the old wizard. “You should always ask, in fact. Questions make the world go round! Whether I’ve got an answer is another matter.” ― T. Kingfisher, Minor Mage
“Albert grunted. “Do you know what happens to lads who ask too many questions?” Mort thought for a moment. “No,” he said eventually, “what?” There was silence. Then Albert straightened up and said, “Damned if I know. Probably they get answers, and serve ’em right.” ― Terry Pratchett, Mort
“We should have stories in common, I found myself thinking. We should have stories, and jokes no one understands, and memories that we know will stay alive because neither of us will let the other forget.” ― Kamila Shamsie
“I feel as if something has been torn suddenly out of my life and left a terrible hole. I feel as if I couldn’t be I — as if I must have changed into somebody else and couldn’t get used to it. It gives me a horrible lonely, dazed, helpless feeling. It’s good to see you again — it seems as if you were a sort of anchor for my drifting soul.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams
“Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.” ― Sydney Smith
“But aren’t small things exactly what friendships are made up of? Frayed string bracelets and late-night texts and compilations of your favorite songs? When you take those things away, what do you have left?” ― Ann Liang, This Time It’s Real
“With the exception of love, friendship and the beauty of art, I don’t see much else that can nurture human life.” ― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them.” — Viola Davis
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis
“Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.”-Terry Pratchett
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”-Carl Jung
“People with disabilities have abilities too and that is what this course is all about – making sure those abilities blossom and shine so that all the dreams you have can come true.”-Mary McAleese
“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”-Sarah Ban Breathnach
We managed to get to our favorite book sale- Bookstock- this year, even though we thought we might not be able to. Definitely still want to go to the 1/2 price day thought. We ended up with three bags, I think. I got some fun books for my annual Books of Christmas gift for my friends’ kids, some good cookbooks, and very surprisingly, one of my favorite Steampunk series!
Here are the pictures!
Cookbooks! I’m excited to try some from all of them, especially the popsicles.
Some kids books- the Kids’ Book About Failure went to my office and The Husband picked out Celebretrees, so I think that one is staying with us. I also kept Porch Lies- it’s a book of Southern/African American folk tales. Home At Last is also going to the office. It’s about an adopted child and adjusting to his home. I might have to get a couple of them for the kiddos too though, they’re really fun!
Paper backs- The Husband and I both found some books we like. I was surprised to find Heart of Iron by Bec McMaster. It’s a steampunk based romance and mystery.
The one I was super excited to find though is this one:
Gail Carriger is one of my very favorite authors! She’s so lovely and her books are so cool and steampunky. They have great characters and I would definitely recommend them. I’m super excited to read them and will note that I did, in fact. get rid of some books and straighten some shelves to fit them all in. Now, off to read!
“do not look for healing at the feet of those who broke you” ― Rupi Kaur, milk and honey
“The human heart has a way of making itself large again even after it’s been broken into a million pieces.” ― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County
“Don’t be ashamed to weep; ’tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there must be sunlight also. A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us.” ― Brian Jacques, Taggerung
“I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.” ― Frida Kahlo
