When reading a book, I like to imagine where it currently falls on the star scale based on how I'm liking it so far, then adjusting depending how the story/characters/themes progress (a funny pieces of dialogue—add a star to the rating.... Pacing too slow? Minus half a star, etc.). Often if I'm feeling like 2 stars or less by 50%, I'll DNF Someone told me that I'm jumping the gun and biasing my own final rating by doing this! Does anyone else rate books like this or does everyone else not think about the rating until the very end???

I want to ask this specifically of the older users on PB!

I am an elder gen-z, so I grew up not using the internet much, but it really started to take hold during my childhood and social media began to take off before I became a teenager. I was a tumblr teen™️ and then later fell victim to addictive algorithms in my early twenties.

As a consequence (potentially?) I associated an immersive, carefree reading experience with childhood. Recently though, I’ve been cold turkey from algorithmic-driven social media for several months. I’m currently reading I Capture the Castle and I feel like a child. It feels like I’m truly there and the world around me melts away. I’m enamoured with the story and the setting and the characters.

This has me wondering. How much of my inability to feel this way in my adulthood is because of growing up, and how much is because of the digital age?

For those who grew up before the internet: how did your reading life shift between childhood and adulthood?

ETA: I never stopped reading! The experience just didn’t feel as magical as it previously did. But I’m hoping I can get some of that back the longer I’m off social media

[reposted due to messing up the hyperlink first time i posted]

hey everybody, i was glancing through past founder announcements recently and saw one that caused some worry in me, link here

i’ll copy here the specific section of the post that concerned me, so you don’t have to click through and read the full announcement if you don’t want to: “We will start a new program, community-voted Member of the Month (exact language TBD). Each month starting in the Fall, the entire PB community can nominate a user they believe embodies PB values. The user with the most nominations will be awarded a badge and the ability to create a Quest.”

i’d love to hear what other people here think about this feature. personally, i’m concerned that it could turn into a popularity contest/a value system based on who is the most active on PB and which usernames are recognized by the most people. i really hope that there will be something in place to prevent that sort of result, because a popularity contest doesn’t feel like the PB spirit i know. i just don’t believe that voting for a member-of-the-month will be the community-building exercise that it is intended to be.

How do other people interact with epigraphs? I always read them and think “hmm I wonder how that’s going to relate to the book” and then immediately forget about them.

Does anyone remember them or remember to look back? Do other people have the same issue as me? I’m trying to do a better job bc I know authors put a lot of thought into choosing them!