sorry to get lecture-y, but we are not in a sanctioned reading competition. you set the rules for yourself and only for yourself. you can “count” anything you want. there is no correct answer that anyone else can give you to the question because your reasons for reading and your reasons for counting are specific to you.

the number of books you read has no bearing on anyone else and the number of books someone else reads has no bearing on you. 💕

We’re probably all familiar with “the classics” writ large, but I really want to hear about your personal classics—the books in your reading life that have stood the test of time, the books you’ve repeatedly come back to over the course of years. Which books have been your steady companions? Which books have been most influential in your life?

A few of my personal classics have been:

• Mink River by Brian Doyle (this book changed my view of what magical realism can look like in fiction, and every re-read is a joy)
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (a beautiful ode to ordinary people and places—this book became my gold standard for depictions of average folks in fiction)
• Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye (one of the poems in this collection, “Kindness,” changed my brain chemistry forever)

Hi! In any chance can we get an Summerween event in the future?

Guys i’m on my worst reading slump this year!!! I leave for vacay tomorrow and I have like an 12 hour train ride so if you have ANY suggestions for me please let me know 🥺

Preferably written by women on various subjects that you found interesting :)

Hello everyone, I'm really curious to know how you discovered your favorite book/s?? I discovered Perfect cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, because I was in the mood for a spies book and I just went on google and search for books with that theme! For Every Spiral of Fate by Tarehe Mafi, a friend of mine gifted me the first book of the series and i just became obsessed. 😅

So I have recently started working on a fantasy novel, and I've come to realize that my prose is absolute trash compared to what I like to read. It's bland, bare-bones, one-note, and clunky. I'm constantly at a loss for words, and everything I write is lackluster in some way. It's very frustrating. I feel like my writing is at a 6th-grade level.

I read almost exclusively in English—a wide variety of genres, and have done so for the past 10 years or so—but it's not my native language. I'm really frustrated because I used to be decent at writing in Farsi—at least I didn't have to think about grammar and vocabulary—but now it's as if I'm recovering from a stroke. I can't write at all in either language it seems.

Do you have any tips for me on how I can improve my writing? Or how not to get pissed off at myself after struggling for an entire afternoon to write a simple hike-through-the-forest scene?

I’m still relatively new to Pagebound and one of my favorite features so far that’s really surprised me is that there are separate “TBR” and “Interested” statuses. I’m still kind of working out how to use them with different intentions - it started very vibes based and now is morphing into something more concrete, though it’s still a work in progress for sure.

This makes me curious! How do other folks on here use these different classifications? What makes you choose to put something on your TBR list vs your Interested list?

I love book tracking apps, and have so many for different features I love in each but sometimes I feel like that has made reading less fun for me. Like the reading streaks/challenges, how many pages you read in a day etc. I feel like I've started thinking of it as a chore, like oh I have to read to maintain my streak, and sometimes I just close the book when I'm done for my set pages per day. But on the other hand I absolutely love tracking my reading and having all those stats is fun for me, it's just that has all this constant tracking made me read less and made it less fun for me? Would love to hear opinions on this if you've ever thought like that!

Does anyone have any tips for reading faster? I’m a slow reader but I want to start reading faster so I can read more books overall. Since coming onto this app, the amount of books I’ve read has definitely increased but my pace of reading hasn’t. I feel like I’m not reading quick enough especially when I see others who have already read 100+ or even 50+ books already! It’s so impressive and so I’ve been wondering, if you consider yourself a fast reader, how do you do it? Good time management? Skimming? Skipping pages? And how does your way of reading quickly affect your understanding of the book? Please let me know of any helpful tips!

Hellow boundlings! I hope you're having a great morning/afternoon/evening where ever you are.

I think we need to hype up unknown and indie authors more, so what are your CRIMINALLY underrated book recs? Like an almost non-existent (or just non-existent) fandom on PB.

For me, it's Last Stop by Gloria Oliver, which I finished earlier this month, at least I think so. I'm the ONLY one who's finished and rated it. Literally only one review which is mine. It has less than 10 posts as well, mostly mine probably and another person's from what I remember. There's no one to talk to about it so I'm kinda losing my mind. 😇 It's a contemporary fantasy thriller, something I don't think I've read before, but it's really unique! The characters are diverse as well, which I loved.

Fun fact, I found out about this book through a giveaway on here! If it weren't for PB, I probably wouldn't have discovered it, so thank you PB 🙂‍↕️

This is basically how it felt after reading this book:

Lately, I feel like I am just wasting SO much money on books. And it is upsetting me how I’m looking back on the majority of books I’ve read this year and my only thought was ‘what a waste of money.’

I keep having countless bad reads. I just finished a 1 star book, and now I have started a new book which I already hate only 13 pages in. I cannot get a refund or an exchange either.

It’s starting to make me lose my passion in reading and I don’t know what to do about it, because the last time this happened I went into a reading slump that lasted over a year.

All of the books I pick up that I think match my taste just end up being something I really hate. I don’t know the last time I picked up a book that genuinely stuck on my mind.

I like fantasy, with slowburn romance that doesn’t take up the whole plot. I like plot heavy stories, which rely more on worldbuilding than romance. I like kings, princes, monarchies, kingdoms and warriors with medieval settings. I don’t like sex heavy books, I like books that have no sex scenes or scenes that last less than 3 pages without going into graphic detail. But I don’t really like YA, I like adult.

I don’t know what to read, everything is just really disappointing me and making me think that reading is a waste of money.

Edit: I have just DNF’d a book that I bought TODAY. I had only been 18 pages into it but I couldn’t bare it, it was awful. I’m so mad and frustrated because I just wasted £10 on something that I couldn’t bare. I was only 1 and a half chapters into it. This is the last time I’m buying a book for AWHILE now. I’m going to try to go to my local library soon.

Hello pagebounders!! Well, I've come across a lot of videos recently talking about the cons and pros of BookTok and Bookstagram. But what I want to know is, in your opinion, does it do more harm than help to the book community? I think for me since I'm only in Bookstagram it doesn't really harm the book community since these kind of people are not very popular there however I've seen a few. However I don't know how it is in Booktok, can someone tell me??

Hey Pagebounders!! I’m hoping you all can help me pick my next read. I’m stuck between a few options and I can’t decide!

My options are:

1. The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer
2. Don’t Let The Forest In by C. G. Drews
3. What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher

I’m really getting into the thriller/horror genre and these are the books I have on hand in my physical TBR. What do you recommend I start with?