I was obsessed with historical fiction from grades 3-5. I woke up thinking about it this morning, for some reason. Now I need some good Historical Fiction recommendations. I'd prefer it NOT be U.S Colonial times or U.K royal-centric. Thanks 😊

I struggle with mental illnesses and have for as long as I can remember. But especially lately (the past several months) I’ve been struggling to enjoy anything, including things I love, like video games, paint by numbers, etc. Or with books that sound exactly like something I would like but I just can’t seem to get my brain to get into it.

I listened to the Hunger Games trilogy again recently because I know those books are some that I always love and I can rely on that love. But right now I’m really struggling to get into books I was excited about, like We by Yevgeny Zamyatin or the Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. I really want to read/listen to these and enjoy them but I just can’t seem to connect with them. It’s making me want to focus on re-reads but I also really want to fall in love with new stories.

Anyway, moral of the story- what are some books you can always count on to be enjoyable even when depression or mental illness sucks the joy out of life?

And do any of you have strategies or tricks that you’ve found help you connect back to books and hobbies that you love when struggling with depression?

How do you all organize use your home library? Alphabetical by title, by author, by genre, or another method? I’m really curious to know what everyone does. TIA!

So far this book is a LOT of tell and not a lot of show. Not really getting the hype.

Have you ever tried making any of the recipes included in fiction books? And were the recipes any good?

I haven’t tried any yet but I recently remembered that for example Jenny Colgan includes recipes in the end of her Little Beach Street Bakery and Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe and I started wondering which more books have recipes and if anyone had tried these.

I’m currently in an ambitious baking mood and maybe this is the thing I should go for?

Re-reading this gives me constantly two things to think about:

1. How much I didn't remember about it (I read it nearly 4 years ago)
2. The smallest references to Shadow and Bone which now make me super excited to finally pick up on.

Is it weird to be put off when a book on Amazon mentions TikTok in the page title? More so when it's 'Tiktok made me buy it!' (This seems to be one author on all three of their books).

It might just be a me thing haha but I've noticed I have a much easier time reading books with shorter chapters.

If a chapter is 20+ pages, something in my brain has a hard time focusing even when I'm very invested.

For example I read The Priory of the Orange Tree recently, and the book is long, but the chapters felt sooo long. Now I'm reading Heir of Fire and some chapters are 2 or 3 pages and I find it better to read this style of writing for some reason.

Was curious how others felt, or if maybe I'm just the odd one 😂

What determines whether you'll follow someone? Lately I've been occasionally scrolling through new users and depending on the compatability rating and their finished books following them, I know some follow just because they are followed, or maybe running into a user frequently, but how do you decide who you want to follow, where have you found boundling friends?

What's the lowest average rating you would consider reading?

I give most books I read a 3 star rating, but I was searching for books the other day and realised that I didn't add books to my TBR if they had a rating of less than 3.5, so I'm wondering if I need to rethink my rating system.

Update: I'm so glad I asked this question, your responses have helped change the way I approach my reading choices. I've always known what I like, but I've found it hard to own my feelings for fear of judgment. I let the numerical value of books impact whether I am proud of liking them. Also, I've felt awkward about holding my hand up and stating that I didn't like a book if it's popular because I didn't want to rain on anyone's parade. Hearing everyone here being so confident about liking what they like, and accepting the subjectivity of books has really helped me challenge the black and white thinking holding me back from book joy. Thanks 😊

UPDATE: Okay you all have officially convinced me to give the first book a try!! Despite my incoherent rambling and being unable to pinpoint my exact issues with the movies, you guys nailed it! The characters are very important to me. Based of these comments I might actually really enjoy the books!

Hello, so I feel a bit torn. I like the basics of hunger games. I like seeing hunger games book specific content, and think it sounds interesting and it makes me want to read it, but I absolutely hated the movies. The movies were slow, and I feel the story wasn't at all well explored or explained. The characters didn't stand out especially except katniss and peeta ofc. I feel like the books get so much love, but I wanna know if it's worth trying.

Now my question, is the book better than the movies and if so what's the biggest differences you see? I want to like hunger games so bad, but if the books are true to the movie then I don't know 😅 I love reading and technically these books are right up my alley, but the movies threw me off. So yeah- any opinions at all are helpful! Minor spoilers is not big deal for me either.

I've been reading this morning and I have thought of something weird to ask! This is lretty much about reading physical books because ebooks sort of.. save your place already

First, how many of you use bookmarks? How many use something else (dog-earing pages, memorizing the page number (i used to do this when i was reading one book at a time))?

For those of you that use bookmarks, do you take it out when you read and then put it back in to the new spot when you're done reading? Do you move the bookmark ahead to the spot you're aiming to read to? Do you move the bookmark with every page turn? (I've done all these 😂)