I am yet to have a 5 star read this year, which is very rare for me as it is usually one of the most common ratings i give books (i am an optimistic rater LOL)

so!! convince me to read a book you loved, sell me on it! i read pretty much anything and everything, and my TBR listed here is all books i own if you want to take a look, but i am very open to any and all recs.

I have a bunch of questions that have been gnawing at my head for a while.

– Am I the only one who barely ever reads one book at a time? I simply love to read different books within the same timeframe. I promise I never get them mixed up.

– Does anyone else hate taking book recommendations? I just don’t enjoy someone giving me recs because I never read them.

– I don’t enjoy new releases as much as old books🥲

Also, this post was made to make friends. I’m 22, Nigerian and Catholic (if that’s important). I love old movies and I love to cry. Thank you💕

my physical TBR is way too long, i have no idea where to start. i have the problem of buying books but never reading them, which i am hoping to change. right now i’m 70% of the way through Alchemised, with plans to finish this weekend!

right now, i really want to read:

⛓️‍💥 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

🌅 Sunrise on The Reaping - Suzanne Collins

🐲 The Shadow of the Gods - John Gwynne

a few books that have sat on my shelf for too long:

🤬 The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

🗾 Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

🕰️ A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

i have so many more books i could add, but i think a list of six to choose from is more than enough. i appreciate any input!

If you don't know what HRCYED is, it's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do. It spans the whole year, from july 7th 2026 to july 6th 2027. I made a post with all the details 🔗over here earlier this year. You can of course join anytime. There's the normal challenge (75 to 150 books needed to finish) and a simpler version with only 25 books needed. There's even a kids and teens version.

How did this week go for everyone?

It was a very slow week for me. I finished my qwest book, Snow by Ronald Malfi, which fits both something frozen and blood on the cover. It was very entertaining with some problematic issues (the fatphobia was wild). And that's all I finished.

Current reads are A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock, which I'm having a weird relationship with. I don't want to pick it up after I put it down, but I can't put it down when I pick it up 🤷‍♀️ It'll fill the familial prompt

Imaginary Homelands from Salman Rushdie which is my bookception book and is soooo good. It's a collection of essays written between 1981 and 1991 so I wasn't expecting much to be honest but it is really good. I'm reading a couple essays a day and it's disheartening to see how little things have changed.

The Secret History of Sharks by John Long is my audio nonfiction. I'm enjoying it a lot, it's a mix of cool facts about sharks and paleontology. It'll fill my animals on the cover prompt (I plan on reading 5 nonfictions about specific animals for this one)

Share your progress with us! Any loved book? Any dnf?

I keep hearing adverts for the new romance book(s) which are written about real-life couples who met on Hinge, so I was curious - would the romance readers out there be interested in a real-life romance or is that crossing a line?

I don't personally enjoy reading romance, and my view on this is that I'd find it too weird so I wouldn't read it, even if I liked romance, but I'm interested to hear your views!

Please tell me I'm not the only one who loves going through forums of books I don't plan/intend to read. I find hilarious, because I have no context. Am I the only one? Am I sounding crazy? 😅🤣

I haven't seen many people talk about video games on this site, so I thought I'd start a conversation. Lately I've been in the mood for city builders, mainly Kingdoms Reborn.

Hey (: ! I’m currently reading a series that has 7 books, and I just finished book 3! 📚✨

The next books are pretty chunky, so before I start book 4, I want to read a quick palate cleanser.

What are your favorite palate cleanser book recs to read in between series? 💌 I’m looking for something light, fun, easy, and not too emotionally heavy! 🫶🏼

How/why are users able to leave reviews and ratings before a book is published? I understand ARC reads, but if a book receives a lot of ratings just in anticipation of a book coming out, couldn’t that really skew the ratings in the long run? I think this is a big issue on Goodreads, too, & I thought PB was trying to get away from that. I could be misinformed - so please clarify! Thanks 😊