Hi everyone ! I just joined this app, I’m excited at the possibility of getting to read more 🙂 I didn’t know this app would be gamified, and now I kind of want all the badges, but most of the quests really don’t have the books I want to read. I’m afraid this will take me away from my actual goal of downsizing my tbr. So I wanted to ask all of you experienced users, if you’d be so inclined to share, how do you feel about the gamification, and how has it affected your reading ? Thanks in advance 🙏

off the top of my head, i strongly disliked monstrilio by gerardo sámano cordova and strange pictures by uketsu. i absolutely loved the premise of the former, but the writing style and overall execution didn’t work for me. i found the latter to be extremely spelled out and lacking in any type of writing style altogether—it just laid out events and held my hand the entire way.

ultimately, it seems like writing styles make or break books for me or can even deter me from reading a book at all. i know some people feel that way about characters or other aspects of books, so i’m curious :-)

The other day, we laughed a lot with @mom.is.a.geek because she discovered the expression "to bust a nut" while reading Razorblade Tears. And it's true that as a non-native english speaker, I sometimes find myself discovering new expressions while reading, that i can't really translate literally in French. And I find this fascinating! 😌

Expressions and idioms are all uniquely related to each language, culture and history, and it's crazy to think how many different ways we have of describing something abstract using images and concepts, sometimes varying depending in which region of your country you live in. Pagebound is a wonderful international community with Boundlings coming from all around the world. We all have a ton of different idioms we use in various situations.

So tell me, what are your favourite expressions/idioms in your language and how do you use it ? 🤭

For me, French has a loooot of very funny expressions, but one of my favourite would be (sorry it's a little bit vulgar lol) : "il n'y a pas à tortiller du cul pour chier droit" meaning literally "no need to wiggle your ass to shit straight". You basically use this to say that you don't have to do things in a complicated way when there is an easy solution 😅

So, last night I was reading and there was a line that flawed me for a hot second. Then it made me think. The line was: "N, E, S, W. Or Never Eat Soggy Waffles, as her tutor use to say." I was stunned! I live I Australia, and we learnt a similar expression, except it's weet-bix. Never Eat Soggy Weet-bix. For those of you playing at home, Weet-bix are a type of breakfast food, they're a bar of wheat and other such foods, that you serve with milk, honey, fruit, sugar or yoghurt. I'm wondering if anywhere else in the world has another version of this, because, of course they do! I just never thought about it 😂 So, please tell me where you are from and how you say it, or if this is just weird you y'all just say North East South & West.

EDIT! I just remembered, all the kids would say "never entertain sexy women" once they were "old enough" (over 10)