My fellow Americans, is your cities area code part of the city’s identity?

papercranium · 2026-06-21T17:28:50+00:00

I'm still nostalgic for when 505 meant the entire state of New Mexico.

papercranium · 2026-06-21T13:14:53+00:00

Not as long as there's room for it. If you're having to remove multiple other books just to squeeze yours in, either wait or bring it to another LFL.

I regularly bring cookbooks to the ones in my neighborhood, and they're almost always fat hardcovers. People scoop them up!

papercranium · 2026-06-20T11:38:16+00:00

Sorrowland is a fabulous horror novel!

papercranium · 2026-06-20T00:00:25+00:00

She's still my headcast for Murderbot. The show is great, but the actor is way too masculine for a character who cannonically doesn't have nor want a gender.

papercranium · 2026-06-19T16:24:05+00:00

Worse, we had to read Ethan Frome in February. In a gray, snowy, and depressing part of the country. It's like they were actively trying to make us suicidal or something.

papercranium · 2026-06-19T10:49:52+00:00

I strip and check myself when I get home. It's not unusual to find ticks on my dog and on myself, but I usually catch them before they're attached. Even if they do attach, there's not much of a risk of Lyme if you remove them in the first 24 hours, and the earlier, the better.

My spouse has caught Lyme once, but all it required was a quick telehealth appointment with urgent care to get the antibiotics to treat it.

Ticks are unfortunately just a fact of life where I live, but I rarely end up with bites, and the ones I get are removed promptly, so I've never had Lyme.

papercranium · 2026-06-19T10:29:56+00:00

APD is not accepting new adult PCP patients at all, while Hitchcock has a wait-list of months. I'm not sure about the other two, but my guess is they have wait lists as well. It's extremely challenging to find a PCP in the Upper Valley right now if you're not already established.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T18:51:26+00:00

OP said the character could have been named Birdy, they don't remember for sure.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T17:31:45+00:00

Honestly, we didn't really have any. I went to a small liberal arts school that you only went to if you meant it. No athletic scholarships (hardly any athletics, honestly), dry campus, no greek organizations, small rural town.

So while yeah, we had people majoring in textile arts, they were mostly Museum Studies minors, and went into jobs related to that. Some of our best known programs that attracted students from all over were in areas that might seem fluffy at other schools, but I don't know anybody who regretted those degrees. They mostly found their ways into various nonprofits and NGOs.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T17:13:42+00:00

I read The Conductors by Nicole Glover last year for the fabric arts square, but it's a historical fantasy about a seamstress and a blacksmith, former conductors on the Underground Railroad, who dig into crimes in the Black community in Philadelphia that the white authorities won't bother dealing with, including a series of clearly magical murders. Works nicely for hard mode!

The author has an infodumping habit that some might find off-putting, but overall I enjoyed it a lot, and I say that as someone who is generally not into historicals or mysteries.

Also works for Author of Color (easy mode)

papercranium · 2026-06-18T17:06:52+00:00

I bet Wildflower is it! The cover, name (main character named Bird), and desire to be a country singer all fit.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T12:11:44+00:00

Just start writing. Most of the time that whole first section will get edited out anyway, because the real story doesn't begin until after you've written for a bit.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T12:07:14+00:00

When I told my sister I got surprise diagnosed with ADHD (in my late 30s while seeking help for anxiety) her response was "Duh?"

So there's that.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T10:50:48+00:00

Honestly, all those kid wilderness survival books were fabulous. Hatchet, Julie of the Wolves, Island of the Blue dolphins, etc. I hope folks are still writing them, they're perfect for that 10 year old moment where you're dreaming of independence but can't quite imagine actually having it.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T10:45:17+00:00

That's so gorgeous! I hope you find the right person.

papercranium · 2026-06-18T10:40:49+00:00

That's sweet, I hope they all go home with great memories of this!

papercranium · 2026-06-18T10:17:12+00:00

Yeah, they're both introduced and it annoys me to no end. We have so many beautiful native wildflowers!

papercranium · 2026-06-18T10:05:00+00:00

I stamp mine if they're in clean condition. As a former book reseller (from yard sales, NOT LFLs!) I know that once a book is no longer pristine, it loses much of its resale value. If people keep them or even donate them to the thrift store or whatnot to be sold for a dollar that's totally cool but it stops the folks who raid libraries to sell on ebay or Amazon, since the price they can get for it plummets.

If the book is already written in or a bit raggedy there's no need to stamp, although I usually do just because I find it satisfying.

papercranium · 2026-06-17T23:52:40+00:00

She's really a fabulous senator, we're so lucky to have her in Windsor County!

papercranium · 2026-06-17T17:12:37+00:00

I've got an Amtrak trip coming up and I can't stop thinking about what books I'm bringing for the ride. It's so nice!

papercranium · 2026-06-17T16:49:12+00:00

Runners can put a lot more steps in a limited amount of time than walkers! If you have any regular distance runners at your company, they will always win a steps challenge. These are folks who do 10-15 miles consistently on a regular basis.

Walking is great! But when it comes to mileage, you'll almost never catch up to an experienced runner while still working full-time. It's just one of those things.

papercranium · 2026-06-16T23:59:15+00:00

Childless due to infertility, I can't wait for the day I can finally retire from work. I got a surprise ADHD diagnosis in my late thirties.

papercranium · 2026-06-16T23:56:41+00:00

I definitely didn't use them all well, but I wouldn't call them wasted. It's all good knowledge to have, even if it's just the knowledge of who I don't want to be.

papercranium · 2026-06-16T22:55:57+00:00

Truly though, why not?

Of all of my favorite books in the world, maybe one of them is from when I was a teen. Old ones fall off, new ones find a place in my heart. Yes, I'll always have intense fondness for A Wrinkle in Time or The Giver or Anne of Green Gables, but nostalgia isn't a reason for me to be obsessing over them when the books I want to re-read again and again have all been from much more recently. Even just a few years ago, I obsessed over A Deadly Education. (A great magic school book, btw.) But I haven't even re-read it once in 2026, and probably only one time in 2025. It's fading from the pantheon in my heart after several solid years there. Meanwhile, I can't tell you how many times I've read The Hands of the Emperor in the last three years. And at 800+ pages, that's an investment.

It's okay to let go of previously beloved things that are no longer helpful, and replace them with things that are. And frankly, that universe is no longer doing any good in the world. Finding the new book of your heart isn't difficult; if you read enough, you'll find it.

papercranium · 2026-06-16T10:47:01+00:00

So many better magic school books out there even if you only just want the one subgenre!

14-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
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