Roads to Safe Places

(I'm sorry I never replied to this; it came at a difficult time but receiving it meant a lot to me.)

You can put everything into words so perfectly.
Thiiis has nearly made me cry each time I've read it. Thank you. I always feel as if I'm bumbling with my words and never quite expressing what I want to--or at least not expressing it clearly, coherently, and cohesively--so hearing this meant the world to me. It's a wonderful reminder that sometimes I can do it right!

Totally agreed on the dianic neopaganism; I remember thinking that even as a young reader. I'd definitely be interested in reading it again more than half a decade later to see what I picked up on.

I came to view it as an act of physical contact perpetrated by an active, dominant, controlling man to a passive, permissive, submissive woman not giving her consent.
I'm trying to remember how I used to view sex, at least in literature. I've always known about queer people in real life; my role model growing up was a lesbian and, while the idea of sex never interested me, I did always have the idea that it was something two consenting adults did because they found something they liked in it. I think the first time I ever read sex was in The Princess Bride. I can't remember much of it except that I was quite interested in it--and in Buttercup more than her partner. I loved the idea of how much pleasure she was getting from it. I'd like to re-read that one, too, I think; I must have read it for the first time when I was 12 or 13.

My rather large 'to read' collection of books is upstairs in my parents' house, still in my old bedroom (which is now a storage/guest room, so I suppose the same situation!). It's just about the only thing I actually have left there and I made the deal with my mother that it could stay because there was no way I'd be able to fit the shelf in my tiny little bedroom. She's also a bit more excited now that she's knows it's a "to read" pile and that she is welcome to grab any book from it at any time.

Mmm a library room. I'd love to have one with a hidden door.