Hello Boundlings!

There were a number of people who expressed interest in joining a 75 Booked challenge last week.

Unfortunately we lost our OP (unless they have returned with a different user name) so I thought I would pop up a check in post for anyone playing along (mainly by virtue of the fact that I’m in Australia and it’s already Friday night here).

How has your week gone? What has gone well? Does anything need tweaking to make things work better for you?

(A note on “the rules”:

I just wanted to note that this challenge should look exactly how you want it to so it works for you - your challenge, your rules.)

I had a pretty good week for reading although I didn’t do as much as I would have liked a couple of days. The biggest win for me though was discovering that just writing a couple of lines in a journal and adding a couple of cute stickers is very good for my mental health. Who knew?

Happy Friday, Boundlings! 💜

Do you have plans this weekend? Are you doing something adventurous and bold or keeping it lowkey and chill?

Drop your weekend vibes with a gif or string of emojis!

Wishing everyone the best weekend! ✨

Hello boundlings! I want to hear about songs that remind you of books. It can be a direct reference to a specific book, a general vibe that matches a genre or theme, or a totally obscure link that’s maybe only a connection for you personally (tell us why!).

Backstory here is that in response to Spotify’s immensely disappointing AI-generated Wrapped experience last year, this year I have an ongoing 2026 playlist that I am curating for myself by adding songs that speak to me in a specific moment in time. It’s 100% vibes based, and because I also kinda measure my life in books, unsurprisingly several of the songs I’ve added so far are also connected to books. Made me curious to hear if anyone else out there connects songs and books like this!

Here are my bookish songs and why:

Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” and Tame Impala’s “Dracula” - obvious connections there 😁 Delta Rae’s “Bottom of the River” and “I Will Never Die” - these give dark witchy feminine vibes, which is a main theme of a lot of what I read. Also a Gothic vibe, I think Southern Gothic, though I don’t have a lot of experience in the Southern Gothic genre yet. Glass Animals’ “A Tear in Space (Airlock)” reminds me of Atmosphere even though the song has nothing to do with the themes of the book 🙃 It’s just that every time I hear the chorus of the song, I picture Vanessa in space and imagine a single tear rolling down her cheek (or rather, not rolling down her cheek, because space). Mika’s “Relax, Take it Easy” - The lyric ”Relax, take it easy, for there is nothing that we can do” reminds me of this line from Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir All The Way to the River: Letting it [life] unfold, like an opening hand. Despite my resistance, without my command. (Don’t get me started on how problematic that book is, but I’m problematic too because I got a ton of relatable quotes from it 🙃)

Tell me your bookish songs!!

I don’t mean “I stayed up late and regretted it” unhinged. I mean question-your-life-choices, why-am-I-like-this??? unhinged.

For example: I’ve been reading Yellowface as of last night and I’ve fully developed a habit of muttering the most unfiltered, rude commentary under my breath while I read. Like I’m in a private roast battle with the book itself. The problem? I’m reading it on my phone in public. So now I’m just sitting there looking calm while apparently saying things that are earning me concerned side-eyes from strangers. Whoops.

So I need to know I’m not alone in this chaos. Drop your stories. Join me so I know we’re all a little unwell in the same way. 😵‍💫🙂‍↕️🫣

Okay so for the people who have read the Shatter Me series and now the New Republic, please what do I do? I have some thriller books to read, but I just can't. I WANT James, Warner, Juliette, Roasabelle, Kenji, everyone. I want my story. I'm waiting for the 3rd book to come out, and idk what to do. I miss reading fantasy/dystopian - new world books. I literally don't wanna read anything BUT my fantasy hit. What should I start, to get that full GOOD fantasy vibe. I love Shatter Me, Assistant to the villian (still waiting on book 4!), Powerless....give me some books guys I need my hit. I miss you Shatter Me world 😘🫠😅

Anyone that wants to talk about the Shatter Me series or the Assistant to the Villian series. Please do reply I need to vent lol. And look at my already read books if you wanna chat about those 🫶🏻🩷

What do you look at on other people's profiles? I like looking at everybody's My Taste books, but I feel like that's usually not enough to know if we'll have the same taste in other things. I do like stalking other users' library shelves, but not everyone uses them. I feel like I haven't been able to use the percentages in common enough to identify what percentage range is actually similar in taste. What's the highest percentage in common you've come across?

if you could choose any mmc/ fmc to step out a book as an actual person, who would it be?