I'm reading HR for the first time and I'm confused. Can anyone give me an overview of the two teams that Shane & Ilya are in? I'm not sure whether it's their actual team names or renamed because legal issues.

And what does their hidden relationship got to do with their sport reputation? I know toxic masculinity & homophobia and all, but how exactly does that look like? Will there be blacklists, online backlash, etc.?

I feel like I'm missing what the stakes are supposed to be. Hockey fans, pls take the floor!

I was checking how I'm doing for my yearly challenges and I got curious: what reading challenges are you all working on right now?

My main challenges this year are: 1.Reading as many books as possible from my "purchased" TBR (this includes both physical books and ebooks). I'm currently at 1/6 for my purchased ebooks and 3/18 for my physical TBR. With 9 months left in the year, at my minimum of 1 book per month pace I'll get to 13/24, and if I do 2 per month that'll get me to 22/24 which would be great! 2.Reading at least 50% of books in my mother tongue (I'm counting both books in Spanish and Catalan for this). I'm curently at 60% of books I've read being in English, so this one is not going as well 😅 3. Getting to Gold in the Queer Horror quest This is a more recent addition after joining PB a couple of months ago, but I am already one book away from silver so I think it's definitely doable!

"Soft" challenges include getting most of my books from the library and reading more books than audiobooks. I consider these "soft" challenges because I've been hitting them for a few years in a row so I don't need to put much effort into accomplishing them.

What about everyone else, what challenges are you currently working on? I may steal some of your ideas for next year! 🤭

I have been in London for the weekend and decided to stop by Gay's the Word, a queer bookstore. I'm not sure if I can describe the emotions I felt being in that store, but I'm going to try my best. From the second I walked in, everything seemed to liven around me. The music, the gay men shoulder-to-shoudler, staring at a wall of gay books from 100 years ago, 20 years ago, yesterday. Holding these books in my hands, books that I've often read multiple times, yet had never seen physical copies of...I don't consider myself very spiritual, but it was a spiritual experience. This text does no justice to those people, books, the store, the lovely gentleman behind the counter...but I needed to share the experience with people who might understand. Have you ever had an experience like that?

If you're queer, how does your queerness show up in your reading habits? Does it affect the way you take up space in book spaces, or the spaces you enter in the first place? What role have books played in your personal journey?

(Also...when I got back to my hotel after leaving that shop, I opened my phone to see I had been gifted 3 months of PB royalty. What an emotional day😭😭)