about me
Hi!
You’ve reached bookycnidaria, a cranky little book blog staffed by an opinionated talking dictionary. There’s a million things I haven’t read, but just you wait.
Way More Than You Need to Know
I’m Carolyn, First of My Name, Queen of the Layout and the Paragraph Styles, Hugger of Pikachus, Breaker of Typos, and Mother of Mad Characters. I’m a novel-writing graphic designer and book blogger with way too much time on my hands. Special skills include technical editing, drawing, and spontaneously reciting Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I’ve been book blogging (read: spewing book opinions on the internet) on and off since about 2016, but all my blogs sank into the swamp until I founded WyrdGurls with two friends in 2019. In 2020 I started a bookgram named bookycnidaria because I take too many damn photos of my books to connect with the reading community on Instagram, and, though I wasn’t originally planning to create a separate book blog, clearly I’ve changed my mind. This blog is the aftermath of my TBR, a unique palimpsest of memes, book-hurling, and spicy ramen. I’ll probably also be ranting about The Handmaid’s Tale whenever that comes back.
General Warning: Posts will contain profanity and spoilers.
And, no, I’m not interested in taking them out.
Posting Schedule
I post every Wednesday and Saturday. Sometimes I post on a Friday if I know I’ll be out of the house on Saturday, and sometimes I hop on for an unscheduled rage post. This typically happens during Handmaid’s Tale season, but has recently extended to House of the Dragon.
Reading Habits
I usually read contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy, though I occasionally venture into mystery and YA, albeit with mixed results. I’ve also been reading a lot of nonfiction, most recently Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath (Bill Browder). I’m trying to read 100+ pages a day, but rarely succeed.
Rating Scale
Wish I could give it zero.
Really bad.
Not bad, but not amazing. I also use this for books that are well done, but aren’t really my cup of tea.
Really good, but there’s a few things I would change.
I will try to force my friends to read this.
Current Goals
I always seem to crash and burn in the bottom half of the year. 2020 set an unprecedented level of success (107 books with an original goal of 60) that I have since been unable to match: in 2021 I got to 62 books out of a goal of 72, but last year I only made it to 37. Third time’s the charm, supposedly, so the 2023 goal is still 72 books, and it will remain 72 books every year until I succeed, with the caveat that mangas do not count. In the past I have cheated wildly by bingeing mangas to make up for reading deficits, to which quoth I “NEVERMORE.” As always, I am still holding firm on my overarching goal of diversifying my reading list. If you’re looking to diversify your own reading, I keep a running list of works by BIPOC writers here (currently 414 strong and counting)*. I vet every entry very carefully, so if I were you I’d take my word for it.
* Because people are people and people are stupid, I also have a fake BIPOC list here.
Bookshop
I have a bookstore! If you’ve ever wanted to get your hands on my books while supporting local bookstores, now you can. As a side note, I am currently advised by a team of wombats, who tell me I have to make it clear that I am an affiliate and will receive a small commission on books purchased through my store.