i dont know if this is just a thing where i live (pakistan) but the price of physical books has gone way up and the guilt of buying a new book has started outweighing the joy of buying a new book. are people in other places in the world experiencing the same?

I admittedly didn’t read a single page of the books I was assigned in school and want to go back and see what I’m missing. So which books did you think were worth it, and maybe even more importantly, which ones do you consider a skip?

Do you have pets that come to you/hangout while you are reading? Currently reading on the bed. Kindle on a pillow stand. Hot tea and snacks. Got my ambient music on. Both kitties snuggling me. Reading time = cuddle/nap time. My little hot water bottles 🐱

Curious to hear… how do you all sort your physical bookshelves? I used to swear I’d only ever do author last name but as I’ve gotten into reading and collecting more, I now have them in their genres with my favourites more visible and the rest are sorted by “vibes” (like dragons, witches, werewolves etc) and then alphabetically by author. (YA gets sorted into the relevant genres like fantasy YA goes with fantasy instead of separating YA out.) My only hard rule is an author’s books can’t be separated even if they write different genres. An authors books must stay together. The size differences annoy me too so sometimes I separate within the vibes the hardcovers and paperbacks and then do them alphabetically in those sections. Right now, I’m squeezing stuff in where it can fit so it’s not perfectly organized by vibes but we’ll see what happens as I get more space! (I know sharing images on here is a lot of work but if you are up to it, shelfies welcome!)

Despite this being just an okay book for me, I find myself still thinking of Rachel flowers and the book series she wrote. I ADORED the small town vibes, the plots that were described, etc. Which really stuck with me, because I'm not usually a small town contemp rom reader. Does anyone have any recs for a series like that?? I prefer not any cowboys, unless its an extremely good read that will change my mind. Please help! I want to fall in love with a small town series like I did with the fictional one in this book. I cant stop thinking about it!

Was just curious if you all like annotating/highlighting books (sorry audio book enjoyers 🫠). And if you do, do you have a system you made for yourself? I personally love tabbing and highlighting books! I typically have 3 highlight colors - pink for lines that made me feel emotional, yellow for quotable quotes, and teal for any lore/world building details 🥹

Does anyone have any recommendations for short standalones? Books you could read in one sitting. I'm open to a lot of genres.

The more I read the more I like to reflect on my top favorite books or series that I can’t live without. I think my 5 would be: -The Infernal Devices series (Cassandra Clare) -The Hunger Games series (Suzanne Collins) -A Far Wilder Magic (Allison Saft) -Inuyasha manga series (Rumiko Takahashi) -Pendergast series (Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child)

Any author you would run off and get their newest release? I basically just started to read for fun again and would love to hear which authors you guys are in love with! Currently I have really enjoyed Stephanie Garber’s work, it’s just so whimsical while not adding too much smut. I enjoy how she writes your romance and being swept away in her world she presents us. As for when I was younger, I was a big Diana Wynne Jones fan. Similar reason to Stephanie but a bit more age appropriate when I was in my early teens.

I mean strangest in relation with your taste. For me, as a romance and fantasy reader, somebody gifted me "Y/N: A novel" by Esther Yi even though they followed me on Goodreads. When it happened, I just read the blurb and just 👁👄👁 Edit: I just remembered that a friend of my mom gifted me a self-help book 😂 bless her heart

In terms of the actual audiobook experience. I love when an audiobook can completely immerse me into a story. Sometimes it's not even about anything extra (but admittedly this really captures my attention!), but just the narrators themselves just doing a spectacular job. Or even when the author themselves is the narrator. Some of my favourite audiobooks: * The Inexplicable Logic of My Life (this is one of my favourite books which I'm sure I've already mentioned 😅, but part of that I attribute to how much I love the audiobook) * Lovely War * Daisy Jones & the Six * A Good Girl's Guide to Murder * Mrs Death Misses Death * I Killed Zoe Spanos

What do you prefer? I used to be adamant that physical books are it. That nothing could beat holding actual paper but the past few years, I have come to love reading ebooks (mostly because i didn't have access to paperbacks for a while) and ever since i got myself a kindle, i haven't been able to pick up a physical book (its been 8 months)!!!

What are your top 5 book genres? I'm curious which one comes out on top.