Heyy so I recently watched a lot of youtube videos about book overconsumption and now I'm curious about your opinions. 🙂‍↕️ At what point do you think a person is overconsuming books? Do you judge people who buy a lot of books/make big haul content?

Here is my take on the situation: I bought too many books for a long time period and kind of regret it. In like 2020 I started to read more books than mangas again, because finally more queer books got released. I watched a lot of book content and read a lot of booktok books that were available in my library. I bought a lot of cheap books second hand, even ones I was only a little bit interested in, because I was still defining my taste and didn't think enough about this. This was also around the first time I had a real job and more than enough money to buy anything I wanted, so I bought A LOT new queer books, because me and queer books are like a child in a candy store ig. 😂 Also I have my own bookstagram account and got a lot of free books from publishers and authors. This lead to a HUGE tbr. Now a few years later I kind of regret buying that many books, because I don't have that much space and should have saved some of that money. Now I'm deliberately trying to make my tbr much smaller and only buy books that I think could become 5 star reads, because everything else is not worth taking my space and money. (For books I'm not sure I'll like I use the library, but when they don't have it, I just don't read it.) So my point is that people may have their reasons for getting carried away, buying too many books and make haul content. For some people reading is their only hobby and it makes sense they have a big budget. Some people will regret buying too much and learn from that. (I personally define overconsumption in this context as buying more than you can read or more than you have space/budget for.) In a lot of youtube videos the criticism is very harsh and I partly agree, because some people only buy that amount of books for content and views and make crazy unhaul videos a few months later, in which they unhaul like 100 books they recently bought and didn't read, because they didn't think a second before buying.  🫪 But I think we shouldn't forget that a lot of book influencers are just young people with first time adult money in a bad economic situation (will never be able to afford big purchases like house, so companies encourage spending all your money on smaller things like subscribtions/skincare/fast fashion). I just get the feeling that some people are a little bit too much outraged/scandalized by people who overconsume books. It's worth critisizing it and asking if someone really should buy that many books, but at least on youtube this discussion got a bit too judgy for me personally. 😅 Like "omg how can she buy that much, that's crazy, this kind of consumption makes me sick, it's ridiculous". Often you don't even know how much that person really reads and not everyone has access to libraries. Also books don't expire like skincare, so it doesn't matter if you read it now or in ten years. If you have the space and money and are confident you'll like a book, buy as many as you think are acceptable. Critisizing consumption and talking about more mindful consumption is great, but shaming people who buy a lot of books in general? Srsly nah. Reminds me of the discussion about people who "read too much, don't they have a life?".

I was just thinking about this common adjective, being a well-read person, and my next thought was: what a great topic for the book club!

In a general sense I've been trying to become a more cultured person through my reads (of course I still read silly fun things), mainly because I love to catch conexions and references in movies or in books. A lot of media has inspirations, symbols and metaphors, like the black cat from Poe tales, and this is used to convey more profound meanings and adding an extra layer. It helps me to inhabit the world better, to interpret what surrounds me. I also love to just create this conexions myself hahaha.

Books are also a really cool way of getting to know other cultures, like the japanese or the russians. That's why I like reading classics from different places, times and authors. And ngl, quoting a random book or recommending a read to a person that is going through something really specific is always cool. Furthermore, the more you read, the harder it is to deceive you. Now, enough yapping from me. I want to hear your opinions.

🔸What traits must someone have for you to consider them a well-read? 🔸Are you actively doing something to be well-read?

What’s everyone’s favourite habit tracker/productivity app? I’m trying to maintain zero social media usage and could use some help.

I’ve used finch in the past but am interested about what else is out there!

Hi everyone! I’m new to Pagebound, and looking forward to engaging with new people about my favorite books!

Since finishing The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston, I’m looking for more magical realism recommendations (adult and ya). If you have any that you’ve enjoyed, I’d love to know!

Thank you! <3

Hey Boundlings,

I am hoping to start a bookstagram and am looking for some tips with where to begin.

I know there is a website called Canva which can be used but I don’t really know how that all works.

Has anyone used Canva for their bookstagram ? Are there any tips for a newbie starting out ? What kind of content do you share ? Do you set a weekly posting schedule ?

Any tips/ advice would be greatly appreciated 🥰

Anyone partaking in some Summerween reading this year? I'm not active on social media so I don't go heavy into posting or anything buttttttttttt it does tend to fall during a week I'm on holidays from work so I do have some extra reading time which is perfect!

It's kind of a shame I just finished Summer Slasher by E.L. Chen because it is a PERFECT Summerween book, honestly.

Otherwise, I'm trying to keep it pretty loose TBR-wise but I've got loads of options! These are some titles on my radar for the week:

Widow's Point by Richard Chizmar Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher Make Me A Monster by Kalynn Bayron The Body by Bethany C. Morrow Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward The Reformatory by Tananarive Du Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo by Adam Cesare Small Spaces by Katherine Arden The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

To be clear I won't be reading all of them LOL but some I've already started, some of them are ARCs I'm behind on, and some are library check-outs I gotta try to get to soon so we'll see what happens! My reading is so dependent on my mood so it'll greatly depend on what vibe I'm feelin in the moment. And the rest I'll just continue picking away at throughout the summer anyways hehe.

If you've got any Summerween reading plans (whether for the week or just...the summer!) I'd love to seeeeee!!

I wanna start off by saying im aware PageBound is focusing on genre specific quests rather than universe/author ones and that the existing ones are quite old. This is just for fun and im curious to see what others think 🤭

Hypothetically if you were able to create a universe/author specific quest right now, which would you choose and why? The more niche and unique, the better! And ofcourse as a bonus, what badge should such quest have? :0

Im honestly unsure myself, as some authors have books that are unconnected and won’t fit nicely in a quest and some universes are so small they’ll barely fill up a side quest 😩 looking forward to seeing yall’s ideas ✨