Dora Reads

Nerd Church - The Neon Tragedy of Certain Dark Things (...and Romeo and Juliet)

2026-04-05T08:00:00.002+01:00

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Don't deceive yourself...this is not a love story.

- Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

He jests at scars that never felt a wound

- Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

Certain Dark Things is a vampire novel.

…It’s also entirely unique.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the author, describes the book as 'neon noir' - which is as good a label as any for this inventive, interesting, and compelling, mash-up of styles and genres.

3 From My TBR: Final Girls

2026-03-17T08:00:00.003+00:00

**This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links, which allow me to earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.**

**Please only use my affiliate links for .COM purchases, as I do NOT earn from other Amazon sites**

Since my To-Be-Read (TBR) list is continually growing, from time to time I like to throw together a list focussing on some of the (often diverse) titles on there.

I may never get to all of the 1k+ books on there, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve some attention!

As this is a TBR, I haven't read any of these, so have no idea whether or not they're any good!

This time, I've picked out 3 books from my TBR featuring 'final girls.'

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: On Updating Old Blogposts, and The Beauty of Blogging

2026-03-08T08:00:00.007+00:00

Warning: Brief refs to Depression and trauma

I've been going through a lot of my old blogposts lately.

It's both an attempt to defeat the forces of entropy...

...and to possibly get back onto Google Adsense (it's a whole thing, I talked about it a few months back, so check that post out here if you're interested.)

And... it's been interesting.

Like, genuinely interesting - way more than I thought it would be.

Basically, I was not aware of the sheer volume of stuff I have written over the course of the last 11 years - it's a lot. (Lol.)

And a lot of the things that I've written are a lot better than I remember.

(...which is probably once again proof that I'm my own worst critic 😅)

Nerd Church - The Iconic Darkness of Andrew Scott's Moriarty

2026-02-08T08:00:00.014+00:00

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Warning: this post contains brief discussions of mental health issues, and brief references to murder

I can think of very few performances as utterly iconic as Andrew Scott's Jim Moriarty.

Long before he was Fleabag's Sexy Priest, Andrew Scott was BBC Sherlock's Sexy Criminal Genius.

(Sexy being his baseline - it must be a difficult burden to bear; imagine being sexy while you pay your electric bills, or putting the bins out sexily...)

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: The Writerly Urge To Face-Plant the Laptop

2026-01-25T08:00:00.011+00:00

It's not that easy, being a writer.

Sometimes, you just want to face-plant your goddamn laptop.

I've had a frustrating couple of weeks, writer-ness-wise.

A piece of poetry I'd submitted to a magazine got rejected (again.)

I got declined for rejoining the Google AdSense programme (again.)

And I made only pennies on Medium (...again.)

Nerd Church - The Salt Path ...A True Story?

2026-01-11T08:00:00.005+00:00

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**Please only use my affiliate links for .COM purchases, as I do NOT earn from other Amazon sites**

Warning: this post discusses terminal illness and Ableism

I watched a normal-looking woman on The One Show sofa, sitting next to the actor Jason Isaacs, and talking about her memoir being turned into a movie (starring, oddly enough, Jason Isaacs.)

(The One Show - for those of you who aren't British - is a Big Deal™.)

Something about her - the woman, Raynor Winn - seemed... off.

But then, I try not to judge too much based on brief interviews - I don't know these people, y'know?

Sometimes people seem off - not least when they're not TV people, and suddenly find themselves talking to the nation in the prime-time flagship slot (Lord knows, that would def. make me seem off!)

The Bookish Diversity Link List 2026

2026-01-02T08:00:00.010+00:00

Your resource for all things bookish diversity is here!

Welcome to the 11th Bookish Diversity Link List, 2026 - my 10th year running the list!

OK, so the '25 list wasn't as complete as I'd like it to be.

...But lord knows, the list was made for butterfly-wings style positivity, and that's how it will continue!

(Also, it helps if people actually submit links - saves me some time!)

It takes a lot of positivity to counter negativity - and the world has plenty of negativity right now, so here I am, once again, holding up a little sign marked 'hope,' and I hope (lol) that you like it 😊

3 From My TBR: Books With House or Home in the Titles

2025-12-17T08:00:00.010+00:00

**This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links, which allow me to earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.**

**Please only use my affiliate links for .COM purchases, as I do NOT earn from other Amazon sites**

Since my To-Be-Read (TBR) list is continually growing, from time to time I like to throw together a list focussing on some of the (often diverse) titles on there.

I may never get to all of the 1k+ books on there, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve some attention!

As this is a TBR, I haven't read any of these, so have no idea whether or not they're any good!

This time, I've picked out 3 books from my TBR which have 'house' or 'home' in the title - check 'em out:

Nerd Church - Christmas Hurts, This Year

2025-12-07T08:00:00.008+00:00

Warning: grief, death, serious illness, mental health issues, general trauma

I've always loved Christmas.

But Christmas? It hasn't treated me so well. Especially the whole lead-up-to part of Christmas.

In 2023, my father had brain surgery a few days before Christmas - that was stressful (he's OK now, mostly.)

My grandfather died not long before Christmas in 2018.

Eleven years ago, my other grandparents died at Christmas within four days of each other. We had a double funeral.

...That still wasn't the worst Christmas of my life.

Poetry: Today Hurts

2025-11-27T08:00:00.004+00:00

This poem was originally published in the The Brain Is A Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'coping by producing' from the lovely Lucy Dan

Today Hurts

‘Now don’t drown in your tears, babe
Push your head towards the air’
— The Editors, Push Your Head Towards The Air.

Image by Lucija Rasonja from Pixabay

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: A Writer Is Not...

2025-11-02T08:00:00.015+00:00

A writer is not replaceable — each voice is their own.

A writer is not tameable — each is wild, each answers the call the way that they must.

A writer is not something definable, not something that an algorithm can create, not someone who can be easily pushed aside, not a simple money-making cog, not someone who exists to generate a profit for Capitalism’s insatiable beast.

A writer is someone you pay — art is not a disposable item; writers need to eat.

The 11 Year Blog Anniversary Post!

2025-10-31T08:00:00.005+00:00

Warning: brief references to grief/loss and mental health problems

Yes! Dora Reads is now eleven years old.

...Somehow I've made it this far!

Poetry: Dawning

2025-10-19T08:00:00.005+01:00

This poem was first published in the publication The Brain Is A Noodle on Medium, in response to the prompt "It'll feel easier in the morning" from the lovely Lucy Dan 蛋小姐.

Dawning

‘Day’s dawning, skin’s crawling
Pure morning
Pure morning’
— Placebo, Pure Morning

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

Nerd Church - Shout Out To Those With Mental Health Problems In This Clusterf**k Timeline!

2025-10-05T08:00:00.007+01:00

Sh**'s messed up.

...Like, it's been messed up for a while, I know. But our current level of 'historical' is feeling more like 'biblical' (in terms of scale, rather than religion,) every day.

It's one thing on top of another on top of another.

I came across a blogpost I wrote in 2018 where I was like 'the world is bad at the moment,' ...and I genuinely can't remember what I was talking about. That was 2 years before 2020, and none of us really know what normal is any more.

Maybe, five to ten years from now, I'll look back and think, 'what was I complaining about in 2025?' but I really hope not.

Against that backdrop then, I, like many people, have mental health problems. And have for 10+ years at this point.

And it's f**king tough.

So to all of those with mental health problems, or anyone struggling, right now - this is a shout out to you.

Nerd Church - Stephen King's IT Is F**ked Up

2025-09-07T08:00:00.019+01:00

...which probably isn't that surprising.

Warning: this post contains discussions of drugs and addiction, and brief references to one of the most notorious scenes in IT (the child sex scene.)

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Stephen King

- or so the meme goes -

did not write Stephen King's IT

- he co-wrote it, alongside IT's primary author:

Cocaine.

Poetry: Click

2025-08-20T08:00:00.010+01:00

Originally published in The Brain Is A Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'a simple click - what can you do with a simple click?' from the lovely Lucy Dan

Click

Nerd Church - Fighting the Pointlessness

2025-08-03T08:00:00.003+01:00

Warning: brief reference to feeling suicidal, discussions of pointlessness, grief, mental health, existentential dread, and all the things that make up the general sh**ty state of the world.

Things have been tough for me, lately.

When you lose someone you love... it's damned hard.

Everything feels pointless - if that can happen to them, then what is the point of anything?

What's the point of writing a blogpost? What's the point of writing anything?

And since my purpose in this life is to read and to write... if I can't find the point of that, then what's the point of me?

(...I'm actually an optimist, if you can believe that. I just have mental health issues, and have been through some tough sh**.)

3 From My TBR: South Korean Novels In Translation

2025-07-28T08:00:00.010+01:00

**This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links, which allow me to earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.**

**Please only use my affiliate links for .COM purchases, as I do NOT earn from other Amazon sites**

Since my To-Be-Read (TBR) list is continually growing, from time to time I like to throw together a list focussing on some of the (often diverse) titles on there.

I may never get to all of the 1k+ books on there, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve some attention!

I actually have a few little 3-book-long lists planned, which I'll hopefully get done and dusted and posted over the next couple of months.

I may continue with these little lists after that, I may not - depends on the vibes and my mood, tbh.

Anyway, I figured this would be a good way to get back on the metaphorical blogging-horsey and write some undeniably bookish posts which my brain has limited ways to overthink (please do not suggest any ways for me to overthink this! 😅)

As this is a TBR, I haven't read any of these, so have no idea whether or not they're any good!

Nerd Church - The Fractured Web: Our Socials are Scattering

2025-07-06T08:00:00.004+01:00

Warning: this post refers to the bad things that happen on the internet; wide variety of topics, be careful!

The internet is fragmenting...

Poetry: Off and On

2025-06-26T08:00:00.004+01:00

Originally published in The Brain Is A Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'a toggle switch' from the lovely Lucy Dan

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Nerd Church - A Series of Kafkaesque Events

2025-06-01T08:00:00.010+01:00

*This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links - if you purchase items via these links I receive a small commission. Please only use these links for .com purchases, not regional Amazon sites*

Warning: this post discusses and/or references panic attacks and Anxiety, murder, grief, forced marriage, and systemic failings

There are also some (mild) SPOILERS for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

I recently found myself re-reading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: My Brain Is Unpredictable, Right Now

2025-05-04T08:00:00.005+01:00

[Warning: this post discusses mental health problems and grief]

Look, I've been through some stuff lately, and it's definitely affected me.

My mental health has not been good for the last 10+ years, and now, after losing my mother in February... my head has given me a whole bunch of Very Bad Days lately.

I can't bring myself to go into details, but... it was hell. As a family, we've been through absolute hell since October 2024.

Schedule/Blogging Update

2025-04-09T08:00:00.004+01:00

[Content Warning: brief references to death, cancer, grief, and mental health issues.]

For those who don't know, my mother passed away from cancer in February.

Things were pretty awful, generally, at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.

Poetry: Sweet Grit

2025-03-28T08:00:00.004+00:00

Originally published in The Brain is a Noodle publication on Medium, in response to the prompt 'how it's made vs where it goes' from the lovely Lucy Dan.

Sweet Grit

Image by Christine Sponchia from Pixabay

The Bookish Diversity Link List 2025

2025-03-11T08:00:00.018+00:00

Your resource for all things bookish diversity is back! (...Finally.)

Welcome to the 10th Bookish Diversity Link List, 2025.

Due to personal reasons, this year's list is the first since 2016 (the very first list - started in August) to not go up in January.

But I was determined, given the dumpster-fire state of the world, to carry on with the list this year.

So here we are, a little late, a little metaphorically battered and bruised, but still fighting to promote diversity in books. Because it takes a lot of positivity to counter negativity - and the world has plenty of negativity right now.