This might be very niche but sometimes it bothers me that, no matter what fiction I read, there is always a lack of vegan food. I get that it is not the most popular diet/ way of living but as someone mostly vegan I can’t help but wanting to see it represented. So my question is, how do you feel about this and also, do any of you have rec for fiction with vegan food included?

Why is everybody acting so weird ? Or it's just me ? What is going on in this book T_T

whenever i read at a coffee shop/the subway/outside my house in general, i tend to listen to music in my headphones to neutralize ambient noise and help me focus. this has culminated in me occasionally making playlists for specific books to match the vibes of what i'm reading.

does anyone else do this? if yes, what kind of music do you listen to for different books? do you make playlists or do you choose one theme song per book and loop it while you read (something i also do for some books lol which probably counts as auditory stimming)?

Happy Lunar New Year and Pancake Day!

I hope this time is filled with good fortune, prosperity, food or however you celebrate during this time!

For those who celebrate Lunar New Year, tell me how you celebrate!

And for Pancake Day: What's your pancake topping of choice? Would it be weird to make a book sculpture out of pancake? 👀

Our next Special Event will celebrate Japanese literature, culture and its influence on the world. Like the sakura (cherry blossom) trees Japan gifts other nations to promote cross-cultural exchange, we hope reading these books together will connect the global Pagebound community. We've intentionally selected a broad range of genres and authors to spotlight, so everyone can find a book they're interested in. This event will run from March 15 to April 15.

Check out the Special Events page (in the More tab on the app, or click the pink banner on the Discuss page on web).

The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop by Takuya Asakura: a translated Japanese magical realism novel about a mysterious bookshop that appears during cherry blossom season (vibes: cozy, poignant)

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki: a metafictional novel about belonging & home, identity & immigration. Ozeki is the first practicing Zen Buddhist priest to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize (vibes: literary, meditative) - check triggers

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji: a 1987 translated Japanese murder mystery novel (vibes: a classic "whodunit")

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki: a memoir from Japan's most celebrated geisha in Kyoto's Gion district during the 1960s & 70s (the UK title is Geisha of Gion). Iwasaki was one of the geisha's interviewed by Arthur Golden for his book Memoirs of a Geisha that fictionalized her story. It included many inaccuracies, and here, Iwasaki sets the record straight.

What's a Special Event? Each quarter, we run a short 1 month readalong showcasing diverse voices in literature. Read one of the selections and comment or post in the forum during the Readalong to earn a special badge. Unlike Seasonal Readalongs, you do not earn a special badge for reading all the selections.

Excited to see the discussions for this event!

Happy Reading, Jennifer & Lucy

hey all!

in perfect timing for my winter break, i just tested positive for flu b 🙄

with the massive amounts of brain fog i have rn what are your best sick day reads? i’m thinking of something low energy and light - enough to keep me engaged but doesn’t require too much brain power! Thank you!

This is a first world problem for sure, and apologies in advance for a bit of a rant 🤣 but it ticks me off a lot when this happens when we all love our books so much.

I was planning on slowly over time buying a series of books (The Game Changer Series by Rachel Reid) one at most per month to help save myself some money and read one book at a time. I thought this a pretty safe bet as it's pretty much the most popular book series at the moment so they were highly unlikely to be hard to get ahold of over the year.

I thought it reasonable to assume that they wouldn't do a cover change for a long while as these versions have just come out in January..... then they decided to put an unnecessary, massive, permanent, printed-onto-cover 'sticker' to advertise the Heated Rivalry TV show, only a few weeks after the initial ones without them on came out..... WHY?!

I then decided to get the series before all the copies without these permanent stickers were no longer available anymore. Yes, I could still have waited to buy them and just had the stickers on them, but I really didn't want them. They look awful to me and would make me a little disappointed to see them everytime I picked them up to read, especially when I know what they look like without them. I know it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's just so bizarre to me that publishes do this!

Does anyone know why publishers do this? The only thing I can think of is publishers trying saving in labour costs for someone to physically put removable stickers on them, but a lot of popular books get removable stickers on them. I used to do it myself when I was a bookseller myself a little while ago (and I hated it with every fibre of my being! 🤣).

I feel it not only ruins the cover but is pretty insulting to the cover artists, and it seems unnecessary when an actual removable sticker would do fine to advertise the show? Or print an extra page in the back of the book itself to advertise it!

Also, why print the ones without the permanent stickers in the first place if you were going to print them only to be irrelevant/obsolete in a few weeks time? I'd understand it more if they were doing the print run with stickers for lower costs if they didn't print two separate print runs, one with, one without.

If you are going to print both types anyway, with permanent stickers and without, why not allow customers to have the choice of which version they'd prefer, rather than being forced into getting the ones with stickers because the ones without are now suddenly finite?...... I guess that's why they do it, force sales of ones without stickers because they know people don't want them!

What does everyone else think of this? Does it bother you too?

I convinced my dad to take me to a local used/new bookstore (my dad is a very bookish man, and as a kid, he'd be cheap when it came to me and my brother's toys, but books? Totally different story pfft) and get me a book for Valentine's day, and now I'm wondering how often you guys buy new books and what factors into that.

I haven't bought a new book in months and months, but I moved recently so that's been a pretty large factor in book buying. (Can't buy a book if you're packing, can't buy a book when you're unpacking. Sad times...) But! I also moved right next to a library so that's been supplying me well.

If libraries weren't so easy to come by in my city, I'd spend a lot more money on books, probably.

(I got A Psalm for the Wild-Built and An Unkindness of Ghosts!!! Super excited for these!!)

Do y'all ever put yourself in a reading slump after a huge clash with books?

I've just read a 5 star read for me and then my next read after that was a 2 star read

Now I have no motivation to read my current reads but both have deadlines 🙈

I don't know what to do

What book do you think you’ve reread the most? Is it because you love it or another mysterious reason?

I think I’ve reread The Great Gatsby at least 25 times! It turned into a comfort book for me & I own a copy of the audiobook and I used to listen to it on repeat. I don’t think I’ve read it in about 3 years now but I was religious about it for my entire college experience!