I just came off the emotional rollercoaster of reading "Under Your Scars", and I realized I needed something to help me recover—something engaging but not so emotionally draining. I had two books waiting on Libby, and since decision fatigue is a b!+ch, I decided to see if Google Gemini could help me choose between them without giving away any spoilers. As someone still new to AI, I was seriously impressed. Even though the two books were completely different, Gemini provided a perfect comparison. It focused on the 'emotional feel' of each story and even created a comparison chart for me. It made picking a 'recovery book' so much easier. I think I made the right call with Alchemy of Secrets especially since mysteries provide that 'puzzle-solving' engagement that keeps my mind busy without necessarily draining my heart. I’m really enjoying this book. I’ve been highlighting and taking tons of notes on my Kindle. I’ll definitely be using Gemini or other AI tools to help me pick books in the future—it made the whole process so much less stressful. ❓Have you used AI tools to help choose your next read? ❓Which app do you prefer? I know I've seen AI chat bots that are geared towards specific topics. I wasn't sure if there was one that was better suited for books & reading. Gemini did give me some suggestions to check out: •Claude •Readwise Reader •Perplexity AI

Hello, everyone! Happy holidays!

The last book I read in 2025 was The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer from our Winter readalong. Inspired by Kimmerer’s work, I found a small way to contribute to our already flourishing gift economy here on Pagebound. I decided to start a blog series “Courtesy of Tarot” where I do a monthly tarot reading for the collective, to potentially bring us some bookish inspiration for the month ahead.

The way this will work is: I will pull some cards for us and then write a little bit about what I’m seeing when it comes to reading inspiration for the month ahead. You are welcome to simply take what resonates from the reading and move on with your day, or, if you think of any specific books that align with what I’m describing, comment those titles down below for people to check out. These readings don’t aim to be particularly predictive, and they aren’t meant to be taken as gospel. This is simply a bit of fun, something to bring you some reading inspiration if you need it, and an opportunity for us to further connect as a community.

The deck I’m using here is called Lilifer tarot, created by Marion Costentin, published by Little Darkness. The spread is lovingly designed by me. Here are the questions we will be looking at, and the cards we got. For a better experience, I recommend viewing the pictures below on the Pagebound website!

Let’s start by looking at the first two cards, which give general reading advice for January. We have Ace of Pentacles telling us about our overall inspiration and potential for our January reads. This is a fun card to get for January because it talks about taking on a new goal, specifically something that you are likely to have great benefit from in your life. A lot of us here on Pagebound are currently setting our reading goals for 2026, and this card suggests that we are likely to start strong! Aside from this, if you look at the card, the main element is a big round coin in the center, and I’m immediately reminded of our Pagebound badges! Perhaps there is potential for us to collect some new badges this January, whether because we finish up some reads from a quest we joined in 2025, or because we take part in a new quest or community event this month. Fun stuff!

The second card talks about potential issues in our reading journeys that we may face this month, and offers us advice on how to either avoid them or handle them if they come up. For this we are being offered the wisdom of the Seven of Swords. What I’m seeing here is a bit of potential for toxic comparison when looking at other members in the community, the goals they are setting and the amount of books they are able to read. Being a part of a reading community such as this is wonderful and most of the time very inspiring, but we must take care not to allow all that shiny inspiration to overwhelm us. We are being reminded here that we all live under different circumstances which affects how much we can read, but it doesn’t necessarily have to affect how enjoyable and beneficial the reading we are doing is to us. If we ensure our goals are realistic, we are giving ourselves permission to have a meaningful reading practice that is flexible and personal to us. The year is full of potential, as the Ace of Pentacles affirms, and we should start our yearly reading journey at our own pace to ensure success. Failing to do this might make us overcommit ourselves, which can take away the joy of reading from us and in some cases lead to burnout. Let’s set our goals realistically, remind ourselves that we aren’t missing out on anything and that we aren’t in competition with anybody, and I’m sure we can make January a productive reading month for all of us!

Now let’s talk reading inspiration, starting with nonfiction. Our top row is looking rather creative here! The suit of Cups deals with emotion and creativity, and The Magician is all about putting that into action! Overall, we might be talking about some books focusing on the creative fields as well as the realm of emotions and relationships. If the Queen of Cups is telling us to look at some books about art, creativity, and/or the relationships we have with ourselves and with others, The Magician is asking us to specifically look at what blocks us in these areas, and it is advising us to try to find books which give us some practical advice so that we are able to implement some real changes into our lives. The Two of Cups is suggesting balance, which means we should look for books which approach these topics in a holistic way. Perhaps we are being gently encouraged to learn about our emotional health, and to ensure we aren’t giving more than we are receiving in relationships. For the more creatively inclined, maybe this is a call to find a resource which will encourage you to not only learn about a specific art practice or skill, but actually participate in some creative acts yourself. The cards are suggesting we listen to our heart when it comes to nonfiction and pick something that helps us connect to our sense of empathy, creativity and self-care.

Our second row is talking about fiction and it’s looking adventurous! The Wheel of Fortune in its full glory at the front of the row is suggesting books about destiny! The Six of Swords is saying that the story might be framed as a character starting over after a difficult time, and The Hanged Man isn’t making their life much easier on this journey, as it is suggesting discomfort, being rejected from the wider community, and something that requires a personal sacrifice. This journey is as much about leaving something behind as it is discovering something new. We are looking at characters who are going into the unknown in some way and they are scared. Here we might be talking about a good old adventure story, but it may also be a story about one of those moments where we meet somebody and feel like all the stars have suddenly aligned. Maybe our main character, through a wildly complex and unpredictable turn of events, ended up meeting the love of their life, or ended up with a specific group of people they would normally never find themselves with, and they go through this story together. Either way, something beyond their control got our characters to where they are, and they are navigating this as they are dealing with the ghosts of their past. _

That’s it for our monthly inspiration reading! I hope you got something out of it, if only a little bit of entertainment! If any book titles came to mind for you, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

My hot take: I think most nonfiction books don’t need spoilers. I recently read (and loved) the serviceberry. The forum was less compelling to me. I get spoilers in fiction — you’re spoiling the plot. But I’m a little lost on what counts as a spoiler in most nonfiction.

I’m not asking folks to change their spoiler behavior, but I’m curious: What constitutes a spoiler for you in nonfiction?

I was looking through some nonfiction books on here and noticed a fair number of people reviewing them without giving them a rating. I would understand this if it was fiction, as it is sometimes hard to rate a book when you know tastes are so subjective and dependant on life experiences. But I think nonfiction needs ratings and reviews way more than fiction!

Non fiction is really hard for many people to get into. There are many books on basically any topic you can think of, and we don't have time to read them all. This is why ratings are actually important indicators that help people make decisions on what to spend their time on. Nonfiction is for education, and most people don't want to waste time with bad books.

Also, if you don't give ratings, then your review doesn't affect the general book rating on the website you're on. If you're giving something a shining written review, why not give it 4 or 5 stars so it can be reflected in its general rating, and make more people want to read that book? Also, if a book has bad information in it and your review is overall negative and addressing this, why not give it 1 or 2 stars and lower its overall rating, so people are aware it's not the best resource on a specific topic?

If anybody here does this, more power to you, I'd just love to know what the logic is behind it.

just found out we can only post in a forum 5 times a day. wish it could be increased a little. when reading uncommon books/those with few posts in the forum already, more posts are needed to create discussions and share thoughts

edit: thanks all for explaining pretty kindly. I'm new to the app and a pretty fast reader which probably doesn't help, if I'm getting through a book in one day. I'm autistic and can find it hard to understand other people's points straight away so I appreciate you all taking the time to explain 🤍