This Is Absolutely Divine

This is absolutely divine

The bookshelf was stacked with stories about ghosts, aliens, urban legends, mythical monsters, and other assorted horrors. We’d bought them shortly after we moved into the new house. The town we’d moved into had a second-hand bookshop, and that was the first place I hit with my grandpa, right the day we moved in.

“Have you found everything you’re looking for?” he asked every time I brought him a book to hold.

“No, just wait a little bit, I won’t be long,” I told him.

He just held the pile of books against his belly and hummed a song several decades old.

Grandpa never read books. At least, I’d never seen him read any. He did read newspapers, though. We had five newspapers showing up on our doorstep, printed in three different languages. Grandpa would read every story and every ad in the papers, often nodding and muttering a commentary to himself.

“Just to be clear, you can borrow these at any time” I said to him while the owner of the shop calculated the total.

He nodded a little distractedly. “Ice cream?” he asked in response. “I think there’s a parlour if you turn the corner down the street…”

That evening, I lined up each book on the shelf, spines out and ordered by theme. It was a more fun system of arrangement than just alphabetical or chronological. With the system I used, all I had to think was “I’m in the mood for a serial killer,” and then pick up the relevant tome.

Grandpa hadn’t seen my room, so I made it a point to drag him up there and look at my bookshelf. A full bookshelf is the most consummate adornment a room can aspire to.

“How is it?” I beamed at him, hoping he’d ask about the sorting.

“It looks like a laboratory of pure evil,” he said. “Like an innocent maiden could take one look at it and faint in terror.”

“You don’t think I’m an innocent maiden?” I asked with a coy smile.

He looked at me appraisingly. “You’re the most innocent of maidens, I think.”

I never really understood what he meant by that. It sounded like a joke, but then he wasn’t really one for jokes.

Every night, before going to sleep, I’d pick a book from the shelf and read a story or two to satisfy my cravings. It made for good dream fodder. I never had nightmares about those horrors—true nightmares don’t rely on comfortable tropes like that.

One night, Grandpa entered my room while I was reading a story out loud, complete with dramatised dialogue. He studied the bookshelf and I switched to reading quietly.

“You’re finally coming around to reading books, then?” I asked after finishing the paragraph I was reading.

“Yes,” he said and ran a hand over his balding head before stuffing it into a pocket again. “I think that after all this time of reading the newspapers, I would like to learn how the real world is.”

More Posts from Katiemaycreate and Others

6 years ago
FAMOUS AUTHORS

FAMOUS AUTHORS

Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.

The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.

Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.

Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, as well as speeches from George W. Bush on this site.

Classic Book Library: Genres here include historical fiction, history, science fiction, mystery, romance and children’s literature, but they’re all classics.

Classic Reader: Here you can read Shakespeare, young adult fiction and more.

Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.

Planet eBook: Download free classic literature titles here, from Dostoevsky to D.H. Lawrence to Joseph Conrad.

The Spectator Project: Montclair State University’s project features full-text, online versions of The Spectator and The Tatler.

Bibliomania: This site has more than 2,000 classic texts, plus study guides and reference books.

Online Library of Literature: Find full and unabridged texts of classic literature, including the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain and more.

Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.

Fiction.us: Fiction.us has a huge selection of novels, including works by Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Flaubert, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.

Free Classic Literature: Find British authors like Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plus other authors like Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and more.

TEXTBOOKS

Textbook Revolution: Find biology, business, engineering, mathematics and world history textbooks here.

Wikibooks: From cookbooks to the computing department, find instructional and educational materials here.

KnowThis Free Online Textbooks: Get directed to stats textbooks and more.

Online Medical Textbooks: Find books about plastic surgery, anatomy and more here.

Online Science and Math Textbooks: Access biochemistry, chemistry, aeronautics, medical manuals and other textbooks here.

MIT Open Courseware Supplemental Resources: Find free videos, textbooks and more on the subjects of mechanical engineering, mathematics, chemistry and more.

Flat World Knowledge: This innovative site has created an open college textbooks platform that will launch in January 2009.

Free Business Textbooks: Find free books to go along with accounting, economics and other business classes.

Light and Matter: Here you can access open source physics textbooks.

eMedicine: This project from WebMD is continuously updated and has articles and references on surgery, pediatrics and more.

MATH AND SCIENCE

FullBooks.com: This site has “thousands of full-text free books,” including a large amount of scientific essays and books.

Free online textbooks, lecture notes, tutorials and videos on mathematics: NYU links to several free resources for math students.

Online Mathematics Texts: Here you can find online textbooks likeElementary Linear Algebra and Complex Variables.

Science and Engineering Books for free download: These books range in topics from nanotechnology to compressible flow.

FreeScience.info: Find over 1800 math, engineering and science books here.

Free Tech Books: Computer programmers and computer science enthusiasts can find helpful books here.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

byGosh: Find free illustrated children’s books and stories here.

Munseys: Munseys has nearly 2,000 children’s titles, plus books about religion, biographies and more.

International Children’s Digital Library: Find award-winning books and search by categories like age group, make believe books, true books or picture books.

Lookybook: Access children’s picture books here.

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

Bored.com: Bored.com has music ebooks, cooking ebooks, and over 150 philosophy titles and over 1,000 religion titles.

Ideology.us: Here you’ll find works by Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, David Hume and others.

Free Books on Yoga, Religion and Philosophy: Recent uploads to this site include Practical Lessons in Yoga and Philosophy of Dreams.

The Sociology of Religion: Read this book by Max Weber, here.

Religion eBooks: Read books about the Bible, Christian books, and more.

PLAYS

ReadBookOnline.net: Here you can read plays by Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and others.

Plays: Read Pygmalion, Uncle Vanya or The Playboy of the Western World here.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: MIT has made available all of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories.

Plays Online: This site catalogs “all the plays [they] know about that are available in full text versions online for free.”

ProPlay: This site has children’s plays, comedies, dramas and musicals.

MODERN FICTION, FANTASY AND ROMANCE

Public Bookshelf: Find romance novels, mysteries and more.

The Internet Book Database of Fiction: This forum features fantasy and graphic novels, anime, J.K. Rowling and more.

Free Online Novels: Here you can find Christian novels, fantasy and graphic novels, adventure books, horror books and more.

Foxglove: This British site has free novels, satire and short stories.

Baen Free Library: Find books by Scott Gier, Keith Laumer and others.

The Road to Romance: This website has books by Patricia Cornwell and other romance novelists.

Get Free Ebooks: This site’s largest collection includes fiction books.

John T. Cullen: Read short stories from John T. Cullen here.

SF and Fantasy Books Online: Books here include Arabian Nights,Aesop’s Fables and more.

Free Novels Online and Free Online Cyber-Books: This list contains mostly fantasy books.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Project Laurens Jz Coster: Find Dutch literature here.

ATHENA Textes Francais: Search by author’s name, French books, or books written by other authors but translated into French.

Liber Liber: Download Italian books here. Browse by author, title, or subject.

Biblioteca romaneasca: Find Romanian books on this site.

Bibliolteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: Look up authors to find a catalog of their available works on this Spanish site.

KEIMENA: This page is entirely in Greek, but if you’re looking for modern Greek literature, this is the place to access books online.

Proyecto Cervantes: Texas A&M’s Proyecto Cervantes has cataloged Cervantes’ work online.

Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum: Access many Latin texts here.

Project Runeberg: Find Scandinavian literature online here.

Italian Women Writers: This site provides information about Italian women authors and features full-text titles too.

Biblioteca Valenciana: Register to use this database of Catalan and Valencian books.

Ketab Farsi: Access literature and publications in Farsi from this site.

Afghanistan Digital Library: Powered by NYU, the Afghanistan Digital Library has works published between 1870 and 1930.

CELT: CELT stands for “the Corpus of Electronic Texts” features important historical literature and documents.

Projekt Gutenberg-DE: This easy-to-use database of German language texts lets you search by genres and author.

HISTORY AND CULTURE

LibriVox: LibriVox has a good selection of historical fiction.

The Perseus Project: Tufts’ Perseus Digital Library features titles from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in English and original languages.

Access Genealogy: Find literature about Native American history, the Scotch-Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.

Free History Books: This collection features U.S. history books, including works by Paul Jennings, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Josiah Quincy and others.

Most Popular History Books: Free titles include Seven Days and Seven Nights by Alexander Szegedy and Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha G. Browne.

RARE BOOKS

Questia: Questia has 5,000 books available for free, including rare books and classics.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Books-On-Line: This large collection includes movie scripts, newer works, cookbooks and more.

Chest of Books: This site has a wide range of free books, including gardening and cooking books, home improvement books, craft and hobby books, art books and more.

Free e-Books: Find titles related to beauty and fashion, games, health, drama and more.

2020ok: Categories here include art, graphic design, performing arts, ethnic and national, careers, business and a lot more.

Free Art Books: Find artist books and art books in PDF format here.

Free Web design books: OnlineComputerBooks.com directs you to free web design books.

Free Music Books: Find sheet music, lyrics and books about music here.

Free Fashion Books: Costume and fashion books are linked to the Google Books page.

MYSTERY

MysteryNet: Read free short mystery stories on this site.

TopMystery.com: Read books by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton and other mystery writers here.

Mystery Books: Read books by Sue Grafton and others.

POETRY

The Literature Network: This site features forums, a copy of The King James Bible, and over 3,000 short stories and poems.

Poetry: This list includes “The Raven,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.”

Poem Hunter: Find free poems, lyrics and quotations on this site.

Famous Poetry Online: Read limericks, love poetry, and poems by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Lord Byron and others.

Google Poetry: Google Books has a large selection of poetry, fromThe Canterbury Tales to Beowulf to Walt Whitman.

QuotesandPoem.com: Read poems by Maya Angelou, William Blake, Sylvia Plath and more.

CompleteClassics.com: Rudyard Kipling, Allen Ginsberg and Alfred Lord Tennyson are all featured here.

PinkPoem.com: On this site, you can download free poetry ebooks.

MISC

Banned Books: Here you can follow links of banned books to their full text online.

World eBook Library: This monstrous collection includes classics, encyclopedias, children’s books and a lot more.

DailyLit: DailyLit has everything from Moby Dick to the recent phenomenon, Skinny Bitch.

A Celebration of Women Writers: The University of Pennsylvania’s page for women writers includes Newbery winners.

Free Online Novels: These novels are fully online and range from romance to religious fiction to historical fiction.

ManyBooks.net: Download mysteries and other books for your iPhone or eBook reader here.

Authorama: Books here are pulled from Google Books and more. You’ll find history books, novels and more.

Prize-winning books online: Use this directory to connect to full-text copies of Newbery winners, Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer winners.

5 years ago

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

— Louis L’Amour (via wordsnstuff)

3 months ago
Just Some Sketches Of Eli Shane. Been Obsessed With This Show Lately.
Just Some Sketches Of Eli Shane. Been Obsessed With This Show Lately.
Just Some Sketches Of Eli Shane. Been Obsessed With This Show Lately.
Just Some Sketches Of Eli Shane. Been Obsessed With This Show Lately.

Just some sketches of Eli Shane. Been obsessed with this show lately.


Tags
6 years ago
This Variant Of The Goldentail / Bastard Moray Is Known As The Banana Eel Due To Its Colouration And
This Variant Of The Goldentail / Bastard Moray Is Known As The Banana Eel Due To Its Colouration And

This variant of the Goldentail / Bastard Moray is known as the Banana Eel due to its colouration and markings resembling a ripe banana.

(source)

3 weeks ago
Okay Guys I’ve Got Another Comic Going On Now :). This One Is Actually Written By @ineedseveretherapy
Okay Guys I’ve Got Another Comic Going On Now :). This One Is Actually Written By @ineedseveretherapy
Okay Guys I’ve Got Another Comic Going On Now :). This One Is Actually Written By @ineedseveretherapy

Okay guys I’ve got another comic going on now :). This one is actually written by @ineedseveretherapy and it’s called Truth Or Dare. I kid you not this made me cry. Call me sensitive but man I couldn’t get this out of my head until I decided I HAD TO DRAW IT.

So with permissions from the creator (thank you again, by the way) I started drawing. I struggled so hard to not put as much detail and color and attention into this comic like Warfare because I really like the story, but I knew if I did my main comic would suffer, so I hope you guys are okay with messy sketches haha.

But for real, give this story a read I really like it and there are two parts. Please mind the trigger warnings and tags. This comic and the story does cover heavy topics about suicide so please be careful. Thank you all so much for the love and support you guys are all incredibly amazing. God bless you all! ✝️


Tags
7 years ago

Beautifully said

“My heart swings back and forth. I think too much. I feel too much. The distance is killing me. The uncertainty is killing me. This is love. It consumes me whole. How do I let it go? How do I let you go? They say, if you don’t hurt for it, then it’s not love. Then this must be love. Thought we were life partners with souls intertwined. Are we unmatched minds who just feel confined? Should we bear the sorrow and leave each other behind? So, my heart swings back and forth. Waiting on our decline.”

— declining love // Hina Syeda @abillionlittlethoughts

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katiemaycreate - katiemaycreate
katiemaycreate

| Believer ✝️ | Character Designer | Illustrator | Friendly hello hi! I love drawing, character designing, and doing animations in my free time while listening to some good music. Love anything TMNT, but ROTTMNT has a special place in my heart at the moment. ❤️🧡💙💜 | TCEST & NSFW DNI |

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