forestofglory

Time to reflect a little on the media I read and watched in 2025. My reading goal for 2025 was “Reading Joyfully”. I think this worked out ok – I started out putting a lot of pressure on myself about it and stressing out, but then I backed off and used it as an excuse to think about how reading fits into my life these days.

I was somewhat hoping I could get back to really engaging with new to me SFF, and for the most part that didn’t happen. There were a couple of weeks in there where I was sleeping way better than I generally manage these days and I read several new to me books! It was great! So I think part of my problem is that I’m just not well rested enough to engage with new to me stuff very much. Which is sad, but pushing isn’t going to make me happy either.

Then after the thing with the flood damage, when the whole house was a mess, I was struggling to focus on much of anything. I ended up just reading a ton of fic, so much fic.* Which has been delightful. The comfort of the same thing again but different this time is really not appreciated enough by critics. This reading phase has been very joyful!

In 2025 I read even fewer books than I read the last several years (57) but unlike the last couple of years I don’t feel bad about it. Which was the real point of my reading joyfully goal. I’m more at peace with who I am as a reader these days and that’s really nice, even if I might never be the same kind of reader I was before the pandemic happened.

Another trend that defined my 2025 media was crossdressing girls. I love, love, love the trope of girls who disguise themselves and boys to go out into the world and do things that they wouldn’t be allowed to do. This is a trope that English language media hasn’t really been doing much with recently, but luckily for me it's popular in Asian dramas. It’s such a comfort trope for me, and I decided to really dive into this trope and watched many dramas featuring it. (And read a couple of books too)

I also continue to watch many silly Chinese reality shows, another thing that I find relaxing. Media has really was a source of comfort for me in 2025.

In terms of goals for 2026, I’m going to continue to not have a numerical goal for total books. I find those more stressful than fun. Having a theme for my media last year worked out really well though so for the first quarter of 2026 my media theme is going to be “comfort” . Then I can see I want to keep that theme or change at the end of the quarter. I also want to push myself a bit harder on reading Mandarin so I’m going to make it a goal to read six graded readers this year, which feels very doable.


*Me, very stressed out: I’ll just read this cute sounding fic in a fandom I’m not in. It will be relaxing. Me, several days, and I don’t know how many fics in that fandom latter: I guess I have a new fandom now, opps?

Here's some more recent DecRecs!

Day 18
Today is one of those days where I really wish I was capable of napping. But since that isn't going to work I'm planning on spending some time curled up on the sofa with an ereader full of fic an hopefully a cat on my lap
So for today's #DecRecs I want to rec one of my favorite fics ever "on a long journey" by twigofwillow
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29819775/chapters/73366473

This is a Lan Sizhui centric post-canon CQL fic and It's really the best!

Things I love about "On a Long Journey":
*It's beautifully written
*The characterization is so perfect!
*The way the story is non-linear and includes. memories, stories and letters (Jiang Cheng's letter is so funny and pitch prefect)
*found family and good feelings while still letting people be complex and messy!


Day 19
For today's #DecRecs I have a really cool boardgame that I first played this year Vantage by Designer Jamey Stegmaier
basically your party crash lands on an alien planet and you are all in different locations, represented by illustrated cards. You can tell the other people about the cards but not show them the cards

It's very fail forward game, so you kinda wander around and interact with the environment and maybe complete some goals. There's lots of cool stuff to do! Once I have taken a child on an adventure, almost gotten eaten by a dragon, and stolen a flying vehicle!


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25) Tonight's the first night of Hanukah so I thought for #DecRecs today I would rec the lovely Jewish short fantasy story "Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land" by Ruthanna Emrys

about finding magic in unexpected places and building community

https://reactormag.com/seven-commentaries-on-an-imperfect-land-ruthanna-emrys/

26)Yuletide has brought us two new "Fandom for Robots" fics and they are both great!

Processing Time
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61422142

This one leans into some of the darker aspects of the source material so mind the tags. Utterly gorgeous!

Interview with the Robot
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61619161

Featuring a mildly baffled but kind museum director

both lovely and worth your time!

27)I couldn't let a reccing event go by with out yelling about The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road by Xin Wen so that's today's #DecRecs

I love this book so much! It's about the nitty-gritty of diplomatic travel in Central Asia between 850-1000 CE, and it centers the city of Dunhuang, which was during this period sometimes part of various imperial states in the region but mostly an independent city state. I love that it decenters China!

A significant source of information for this book is the documents found in the library cave at Dunhuang, an important source for this time period in general.

I totally fangirl Xin Wen based on his scholar ship, he's so smart and reads so many langues and has a sharp eye for details! I especially love all the detail about the material culture of travel here

28) It's been a very busy day and I haven't actually had time to sit down at my computer. So here's a drive by #DecRecs

The House of Aunts by Zen Cho!

The trials and tribulations of being a Malaysian teen vampire with six aunts

https://giganotosaurus.org/2011/12/01/the-house-of-aunts/


(I know I didn't include today's rec, but 1. I haven't posted it yet and 2. I want the final post to include more than two recs)

17)Today I’m reccing one of my favorite cdramas ever: The Long Ballad

It has so many of my favorite things: A super smart chaos muppet who is also an extraordinary young woman succeeding at typically masculine pursuits, an girl who is not like other girls and her best friend who is, badass older women, and also really excellent character arcs

I could go on about this forever but instead I’ll just link you to the primer and rec list I wrote last year https://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/361221.html

18)For #DecRecs today I bring you an academic paper: “‘What Do Barbarians Know of Gratitude?’ - The Stereotype of Barbarian Perfidy and Its Uses in Tang Foreign Policy Rhetoric” by Shao-yun Yang

Now many of you know that I dislike Tang Taizong rather a lot so I appreciate this paper for calling him out on his BS. But It's just really interesting paper especially if you are interested in ethic identity in Chinese history
https://www.academia.edu/5290394/_What_Do_Barbarians_Know_of_Gratitude_The_Stereotype_of_Barbarian_Perfidy_and_Its_Uses_in_Tang_Foreign_Policy_Rhetoric?sm=b

19)Today for #DecRecs I'm reccing Laid Back Camp!

I have recently started rereading the first several volumes of this charming maga (with the intention of then reading the volumes that I haven't read yet) There is also an anime which is great too!

It's a slice of life story about high school girls going camping, with lots of food, friendship, and pretty scenery. Very lovely and warm and also likely to make you hungry!

20) Reccing fic for #DecRecs today!

"Spring Splendor" by ayeshah

This is a fic based on Song of the Long March, the manhua which is the inspiration of The Long Ballad, but basically reads as historical RPF about Princess Yicheng of Sui, who is the loose inspiration for a character in both the manhua and the drama.

She seems really interesting and badass and I'm sad that men didn't write down more about her life
So I really love that this fic digs into what we know about Princess Yicheng and tried to image what her life would be like!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/15235845

(This set accidentally ended up Long Ballad themed)

Harmonious Kinship (20935 words) by Forestofglory
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 长歌行 | The Long Ballad (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ashina Sun/Li Changge
Characters: Li Changge, Ashina Sun, Li Leyan, Ashina She'er, Mimi (Chang Ge Xing), Princess Yicheng of Sui
Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Arranged Marriage
Series: Part 1 of Harmonious Kinship
Summary:

Changge goes along with her mother's plan and is sent out of Chang'an to safety. Soon after she returns to the city, the emperor arranges to marry her to Sun to satisfy his agreement with the Ashile. Changge goes along with this for her own reasons and soon finds herself embroiled in complex politics.

I've been very slowly mentioning this fic in various online places, because 1) self promotion sucks, and 2)this fic is less polished than what I usually post and I'm a bit ashamed about it. I've been working on it on and off for over a year, slogging through bad hands, a sometimes bad brain, and I am just ready to be done with it. So I finished the draft and I had it SPAGed (You do not want to try to read my work without copy-editing) and posted it.

I did do a lot of research for this fic so I'm working on an Annotated Bibliography which is pretty fun. I'm trying to make it readable to people who aren't into The Long Ballad and haven't read the fic because I think there's few of you who are interested in my research and such even if you aren't in the fandom.

After this I'm planning to take a break from fic writing and focus more on translation which I'm enjoying more than writing.

Here are the last five days of my DecRecs:

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For the last day of DecRecs I'm taking requests. Reply to this and I will rec you a thing! You can request something if you want or I can do my best to pick something I think you will like!

Fire Light (200 words) by Forestofglory
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 长歌行 | The Long Ballad (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Li Leyan, Ashina Sun
Additional Tags: Double Drabble, Mostly Fluff, Grief, references to canonical child death, woodcraft
Summary:

Leyan watches Sun light a fire

I recently finished watching The Long Ballad and I'm still very obsessed with it! I really wanted to write something for it, but most of my ideas need a bit more time and research. So I decided to try writing a drabble -- a fic exactly 100 words long. These always seemed very challenging to me! Anyways it didn't quite work out as planned instead I ended up with a double drabble, but getting it to be exactly 200 words wasn't as hard as I thought!

End Racism in the OTW | Desk Tour: Dr. Jiang Yanli (2196 words) by coreomajoris, Forestofglory
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jiāng Yànlí, Luó "Mián Mián" Qīngyáng, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Fanart Welcome, Textiles - Freeform, artifact fiction, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic
Series: Part 1 of Fragments
Summary:

Transcript of video interview of Dr. Jiang Yanli, textile historian at the California Institute for Magic and Cultivation.

I co wrote this for End Racism in the OTW!

This was the first time I've co-written a fic and it was super fun. I showed Coero my draft of this which was just a list of items and they where like 'This would be better as an interview can I help you with that" and of course I said yes, and as a result you all get a fic that makes much more sense.

Also it was an utter joy to just nerd out about textiles

The stuff going on with respect to racism and other problems with the OTW is super bad, and I hope it can be fixed. (I'm not to hopeful) But I was super impressed with this event!

New post at ladybusiness : "The Joy of Artifact Fanfic: a Rec List" I really love artifact fiction (stuff that includes letters, emails, news articles or and other found documents) so this was super fun to put together. I did a lot of reading and rereading and got to reflect a bit on how these stories work. This list ended up being mostly cdrama fic.

This the forth rec list in my write a rec list every month project I'm attempting this year! So far it's going well.

2022 was not a great year for me writing wise. I have been dealing with tendonitis in my right wrist for over a year now. It's harder to write when I'm in pain. Several things that I used to do to help write no longer work. I'm slowly learning ways to work around it but that is taking some time.

I once again wrote both criticism and fanfic. I’m going to talk about each separately.

( criticism )

( fanfic )

I wish I had been able to write more in 2022, but I’m happy with the things I did write. I hope that in 2023 I can continue to find more ways to work around my tendonitis and write a bit more than I did last year.