Joyousreads Tech

Two Reading Rooms, Two Kinds of Welcome I keep thinking about two rooms I’ve never stood in together. One is a neighbourhood branch in Scarborough, the other a vast state library in Chennai. I was born in Chennai and I live in Scarborough now, so these two rooms sit on either side of my reading… Continue reading Two Reading Rooms: A Scarborough Branch and Chennai’s Anna Centenary Library

There is a period at the end of the word on this shirt. That is the first thing I noticed, and it is the thing I keep returning to. The native garment preview shows very small, centered lowercase meh. lettering on a dark shirt. No animal illustration is present. No flourish, no punchline, no second… Continue reading The Period That Says Everything: On the Small Lowercase ‘meh.’ Shirt

The first thing I notice is the empty circle. It sits at the upper left of the design, a dashed outline, like a coin slot waiting for a coin. Below and to the right, a solid white ball rests on a flat ledge at the bottom of a curved ramp. Between them, the words I… Continue reading The Ball That Never Rolls: Reading the ‘I Had Potential’ Physics Shirt

There is a rectangle on the shirt, and inside that rectangle is a smaller rectangle, and inside that smaller rectangle is a ghost. The ghost is outlined, not filled. Beside it sits a pumpkin, also outlined, also patient. Above them, in the white ruled label that anchors the whole design, the word COMPOSITION sits in… Continue reading The Notebook That Wears You: Reading the Composition Notebook Costume Shirt

Two lines of text, one arrow, and a joke that only works if someone is standing beside you. The design is plain enough to describe in a breath: TWEEDLE DEE across the chest, I’M WITH DUM beneath it, and a left-pointing arrow tucked into the layout. That is the whole thing. No illustration of a… Continue reading The Arrow That Points at Your Person: Reading the Tweedle Dee ‘I’m With Dum’ Shirt

GREETINGS sits arched above the cat like a banner over a shop door. HUZZ sits below it, flat as a doormat. Between the two words, an orange tabby stares out with the expression of someone who has just been handed a lollipop and has not yet decided whether to accept it. The lollipop is a… Continue reading The Cat That Waits for You to Finish the Joke: On the Greetings Huzz Shirt

There’s a white bird in an orange jumpsuit, and it is holding a black mugshot board. Above it, in plain block capitals, the words GOT TOO SILLY. That’s the whole design. No caption, no punchline, no explanation of what the bird did or who arrested it. The joke is finished only when someone else looks… Continue reading The Joke That Needs a Reader: On the ‘Got Too Silly’ Bird Mugshot Shirt

Two lines of text, one arrow, and a joke that only works if someone is standing beside you. The Tweedle Dum I’m With Dee Matching Halloween Costume shirt reads, in the supplied visual observation, TWEEDLE DUM and I’M WITH DEE, with a right-pointing arrow. That is the whole design. No illustration, no teacup, no flag.… Continue reading The Arrow That Finishes the Sentence: Reading the Tweedle Dum ‘I’m With Dee’ Shirt

The Reading Life as an Emotional Practice, Not a Task List I’m Priya Chandrasekaran, and I write from Scarborough, Toronto, about contemporary literary fiction as discovery and comfort. I was born in Chennai, and my reading life has always been a conversation between places — the books that found me in one city and the… Continue reading How to Read More Without Making It Feel Like Homework

… ” } I need to be careful: inside the JSON string, any double quote must be escaped. I have curly quotes “ ” which are not straight quotes — safe. No other straight double quotes. Let me now write the complete html string. Also — the figcaption for image 1: “The kind of easy… Continue reading The Best Books About Friendship That Feel Honest