Another round! Setting up a suggestion thread in the comments if you have one you would like to see next round!!

1. Characters who feel real OR characters who feel larger than life
2. A story that takes its time OR one that grabs you fast
3. Chapters you fly through OR chapters you sink into
4. A plot that keeps you guessing OR one that lets you breathe
5. A romance that sneaks up on you OR one that hits instantly
6. A cozy, familiar world OR a wild, unpredictable one
7. A narrator you trust OR one you’re not sure about
8. A book that leaves you smiling OR one that leaves you stunned
9. A cast you click with right away OR one you warm up to slowly
10. An ending that ties everything up OR one that lingers in your mind

Hello everyone! I hope this post does not come off as rude or nit-picky, please bear with me. I started using Pagebound a few weeks before the app was released, but then stopped for a bit because life got busy. I've finally started using it frequently again (so many new and awesome users!) and have noticed that forum etiquette seems to be...lacking (I make these comments based on the pinned club post that details forum etiquette). I find my feed full of forum posts saying things like "no way" or "from 0%...so excited to finally start this!" I find this to be the opposite of what Pagebound is meant to be --- ENGAGING. I understand forums to be a space for conversation, analysis, and sharing impactful excerpts, but that doesn't seem to be how they're used by a lot of people. Sometimes I see posts on books that I read a few months or a few years ago and I'd love to connect with people that are currently reading them, but I just have nothing to comment on their posts because they are so vague.

I know it does not make sense for forums to be "monitored" (for lack of a better word), so I'm just wondering...are these short comments becoming the new normal for forums? I understand that as an app grows and more users join it becomes hard (impossible) to regulate things like this. What are your thoughts on forums and forum etiquette?

Edit: Thank you to everyone commenting their thoughts on this! I love reading everyone's opinions, even if I don't have the energy to reply to all of them. There seems to be a consensus of not engaging, which I understand; it is a nuanced situation. I also appreciate the love for memes, haha. I'm glad this was able to stimulate some discussion and hopefully other users find the thoughts here helpful (I know I did😄). Edit 2: Going from reading all of these replies back to my feed and seeing exactly the kinds of two-word posts we're talking about is....I can't think of a good word but it sure is something!😅

Without doxing yourself plzzz

Some of you are reading so much with full time jobs😭 I gotta know what y’all do and how many hours you’re doing it. I know a few people are lucky enough to get to read on the job! That’s the dream.

i'm intrigued - does anyone else have a classic (or just super popular) book that they think is sort of underrated? like a book that is well-known and well-respected, but isn't getting its due for the right reasons? or a book with a reputation that makes people less likely to read it?

for me, i think the handmaid's tale gets the right amount of credit for worldbuilding/speculative work, but i've never seen much appreciation for atwood's narration itself, especially her depiction of re-living trauma. also, i was taught othello in school as important for its discussion of gender and race. all true, but i've seen lots of people go in thinking it's quite serious, and totally missing all of the jokes (which is half the point)

would love to hear new perspectives on old favourites!

I have a very strict way of scheduling books to choose what to buy. First, when I'm interested I store them in the interested here. Then I go through my list, look at the plots and trigger warnings of books and store the ones I actually would buy for how things are on a Google document.

I still keep the other ones here, cause in the future they might make it into the Google sheet list.

Right now I count 108 books in my document, waiting for the right moment.

This isn't the only process I go through. Obviously choosing from 100 books it's difficult. I start reading the blurbs again and I open the Amazon links only of the ones I kept reading till the end.

After that, I ask myself what genre I want to read, or what vibe I'm looking for and close all the Amazon tabs of books that don't fit that.

Later I come back on pagebound and see the general ratings and the bad reviews only. I eliminate at least an option based on that.

If there's still too many tabs I read the excerpts. Anything that doesn't have one is discarded immediately.

I make a list of pros and cons and eliminate one at a time until I didn't round it down to two.

Finally if they would cost max 25 euroes together I buy them. If not I ask my friends for advice on which one to choose.

Does anybody else have such a specific method?

I was thinking about this this morning when I woke up (thanks to my brain for always waking me up in such an interesting way 😅), but what do people think about ghostwriters? In my mind, an author is someone who creates a world and characters, creates a story, but also writes the novel. I know (from supposed ghostwriters on social media) that several authors we love don't actually write their books... Do we like it? Don't we? What are your opinions? I'm not sure I like the idea…

And yes, I can already see the argument for using AI as a ghostwriter... no. Just no. AI will never replace a human. Thank uuu.

Edit: I'm not talking about celebrities who use ghostwriters, because I don't get the impression that celebrities market themselves as authors. I'm talking more about authors for whom it's their job to sell their "writings" and don't disclaim that they uses a ghostwriter, aka takes credit for the writing 🤭

Hello! Canadian here 🥳🇨🇦

I am looking to read more authors from the great white north and would love to hear your fave Canadian books/authors!!

Shes just really throwing the term linguistics around willy nilly and it is really starting to irk me.. how is Alice's magical theory linguistics based? Linguistics is an actual field and shouldn't just be synonymous with "language based study" to contrast Peter's maths based theory... i feel like Kuang loves to throw the term around without actually understanding the field.. she could get away with it in Babel but here it just feels like she's using a term to sound more academic. It's really affecting my judgement of the book 😅

My in-person book club decided yesterday that for our February meeting we can all read whatever book we want as long as it’s pink. We’ve thought of a few titles but I’m sure there are tons we haven’t thought of. Pink book recs?

It occurred to me, everyone has a reason for reading their favourite genre. So what's your why?

For me, romance has such an important place in my life. It's an escape, it's about happiness and it allowed me to gain a lot of comfort with the idea of romance, closeness and intimacy (both emotionally or otherwise). When I started out, I was gaining a sense of myself as an adult, and exploring romance really helped me come into my own as an independent adult by learning through these stories. I kind of just picked it up on my own, so it was one of the first things I learnt I loved on my own without my friends or my family, even though I eventually found friends through books. It also allowed me to determine what type of things I like and don't like, what traits I find attractive in others and in myself.

It also allowed me to find a community that allows me to feel like myself.

So that's my why for my genre. What's yours?

i saw someone make a post abt icks so i wanted to know what makes you guys giggle and kick ur feet when ur reading! my top one has to be where a character tears off a piece of their clothing to bandage the others wounds AHH its so cute always no matter how many times i see it!!

How’s everyone enjoying their Sunday? I’m listening to the Atlas Complex while knitting with a cup of tea and a lit candle on the table next to me. The vibes are immaculate 👌📚