EscapismReader

I read for escapism, no matter the genre. I swing between chaotic and neurotic. I don't know, I'm inconsistent.

236 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)

EscapismReader finished a book

Intermezzo

Sally Rooney

An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family, from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney. Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

EscapismReader finished a book

2025 on Goodreads

Various Various

Whether or not you've had time to write your own reviews, here's a chance to review your entire 2025 reading and post it under this title so that others can see what your reading year was like. Together, all the reviews of 2025 on Goodreads should make an interesting and varied catalogue of books to inspire other readers in 2026. For those of you who don't like to add titles you haven't actually 'read', you can place 2025 on Goodreads on an 'exclusive' shelf. Exclusive shelves don't have to be listed under 'to read', 'currently reading' or 'read'. To create one, go to 'edit bookshelves' on your 'My Books' page, create a shelf name such as 'review-of-the year' and tick the 'exclusive' box. Your previous and future 'reviews of the year' can be collected together on this dedicated shelf. Concept created by Fionnuala Lirsdottir. Description: Fionnuala Lirsdottir Cover art: Paul Cézanne, Vase of Flowers and Apples, 1889-1890 Cover choice and graphics by Jayson

EscapismReader finished a book

Great Big Beautiful Life

Emily Henry

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry. Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century. When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game. One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over. Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition. But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.

EscapismReader paused reading...

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote to Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

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Literary Fiction Starter Pack Vol I 🖼️⭐️📔

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An introduction to Literary Fiction, these books are part of the cultural zeitgeist or the 'canon' that many would recognize. Look for more niche titles in later Starter Pack volumes.

EscapismReader wants to read...

The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)

Viet Thanh Nguyen

It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

EscapismReader commented on a post

hearts.n.arrows

Reread HP first??

Im dying to FINALLY read this, especially before the trad publish version comes out 😭 it's been years since I've read harry potter, should I reread the series first to get the full experience?

EscapismReader commented on a List

Palestine reading list

by Mofteratu

20 books

I am in no way an expert on this topic but me and my reading circle has been meaning to incorporate more Palestine Genocide relevant books in our readings.

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

EscapismReader commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

DrSoda

Edited

200 pages or less?

I had a bit of a slow September (reading wise) so I'm thinking of reading some shorter books, to get the feeling of ✨speed✨

Do you have suggestions for books that are under 200 pages?

I read mostly fantasy, but I'm trying to expand my horizon, so all suggestions welcome!

This is on my list so far: Sweet bean paste (ok, it's a little over 200) All systems red A wizard of earthsea What moves the dead Upright women wanted

(I have read Thornhedge and the Monk & Robot books (those would be my go to suggestions))

EscapismReader commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

superllaine

Edited

Sometimes all we need is a good cry

I'm here asking the good and wise people of Pagebound, what book has made you cry, AND has a happy ending!

I kind of hate sad, tragic endings. Even vague, ambiguous ones piss me off. I end up feeling like I wasted my time and I unfortunately don't know how to appreciate them. It's not you (the book), it's me (the weak) 😔

I have a go-to list of fics and manga/manhwa(i'm weak to initial rejection eventual regret/redemption type plots) for instant-cry needs since they're much shorter. I thought it'd be good to see if there were any books I can try when I'm trying to schedule a cry but without the urgency. I've hit the roof on my pent-up stress and frustration today, but I have an event tomorrow so I have to lock in for at least 12 more hours. And then I'll have a (good) cry after and feel so much better 🙂‍↕️

EscapismReader commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

fried.rice731

Point of DNFing??

Hey all! At what point do you decide to DNF a book? I’ve been so curious about this after seeing a similar post on here!

For me, I usually decide to DNF a book if I’m not interested by the plot (sometimes it’s really bad and I DNF a book after like the first chapter lol 😂)

EscapismReader commented on a post

EscapismReader

I think about this book an unhealthy amount

I've reread Funny Story 3 times since last year. And I genuinely love this couple so much and especially Miles. I find myself thinking about this months later, even though I normally find most romances so forgettable. I hope they adapt it into a movie soon! Anyone else obsessed here?

Post from the Funny Story forum

EscapismReader

I think about this book an unhealthy amount

EscapismReader commented on a post

robyn00

Thoughts from 57%

spoilers

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EscapismReader commented on a post

seema

Edited

Thoughts from 34% (page 152) - Transaction vs Reciprocity

spoilers

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EscapismReader commented on a post

robyn00

Thoughts from 7%

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EscapismReader commented on a post

robyn00

Thoughts from 4% (start of ch 2)

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EscapismReader commented on a post

sonorous

Thoughts from 5% (page 22)

something about sally rooney's writing style is different this time around... i'm not sure how i'm liking it

EscapismReader commented on a post

ladyfire

Thoughts from 3%

Soo.. I'm hooked, I'm in. I'm actually intrigued. I've only admittedly only ever skimmed through you-know-what, so I'm mostly in without any previous knowledge, and honestly it grabs you right in.

EscapismReader joined a quest

Historical Fiction Starter Pack Vol I 🏰⏳📜

💎 // 455 joined

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An introduction to Historical Fiction, these books are part of the cultural zeitgeist or the 'canon' that many would recognize. Look for more niche titles in later Starter Pack volumes.

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