I want to confess that I've been downloading books since I got access to the internet for the first time. I grew up in a tiny town and we didn't have a lot of new books here even in the closest big city. And if I wanted to read something out of library stock I had to search for .txt files and read it on my mp3-player.

Now, there are so many things available to me: tons of bookshops, online shopping, huge libraries. Still I pirate some books because I don't think it's right to buy them if they aren't available in my local library. I mean mostly the books written by celebrities and rich people (or rather written by ghost writers for them): those people certainly don't need my £20 if they can afford tickets to Met Gala, for instance. I don't want to support them with my scarce money; I'd better support some indie author or charity. Also I buy physical copies of books that I pirated and loved because I want to thank the author.

So my question is: do you think it is ethical to pirate certain books? Textbooks, nonfiction, fiction, whatever?

i just found out that the Patternist series is having a revamp by Grand Central Publishing, including the previously out of print Survivor. the choice to include Survivor is pretty controversial because of Butler's feelings about the work. she often called Survivor her "Star Trek novel", in that she was not proud of its contents and admitted she rushed its publication to fund her research for Kindred, which is why she decided not to have it reprinted

here's an article i read that talks about the decision-making process behind the reprint

it's definitely a complex decision as it would be naive to think that it's not partly an opportunistic release, especially given that Butler can't fully consent. i do appreciate the reasoning given behind the decision and see how much thought was put into it behind the scenes

i especially liked the conversation featuring Butler's long-time agent, Merrilee Heifetz, who said that Butler couldn't have predicted her rise in popularity in 2020, how mainstream her books have become and how important they are now to so many people. it's impossible to guess what Butler would have wanted if she were alive, so i believe that this decision was not made lightly by any means

also... THE COVER??? even if i don't want to get tangled up with the reprint of Survivor, i cannot wait to see the new covers for the other books 👀👀

what do you think? are you interested in buying the reprint, or do you think it should be off-limits due to Butler's past opinions on the work?

Everyone here loves books. What sorts of things that are adjacent to books do you like? Pens and notebooks are my big ones--I have many of each (far more than I need, admittedly). I also like cool bookmarks, though I tend to misplace them.

There is a bookstore near me that serves tea and the owner will get different blends and post them along with the name of a character that she thinks would drink that tea. I like tea, so that's fun.

I've been in a couple of bookstores that had cats in them. Not really a book-adjacent offering, I suppose, but I like to read when cats are around.

I know these days people make a business of book-adjacent merch and services. Which of them do you enjoy?

safe to say I’m particularly sick of how men write women now that I’m re-reading The Great Gatsby, so I thought, why not get everyone to comment the best and worst male writers for writing female characters.?? I’ll start with Ian McKewan as he writes women very well

Are there any upcoming books you’re particularly looking forward to? Yes, I’m going to mine the comments for recs.

I can’t wait for Kimberlé Crenshaw’s new memoir (in two days) and also for Code and Codex by Yoon Ha Lee because if you put “language” and “fantasy” in the description I’m sat.

I listened to a podcast about why having special interest is so important to generate your own personality and to be human and i want to talk about microfixations specially art related ones (music, books, movies, art pieces, video games even..)

I think out there there's the perfect piece (or pieces) of art for everyone and not all people have the fortune to find it. by perfect piece i talk about any piece of media that resonates with you in a deeper level than any other art piece has resonated with you. For me that would be Twin Peaks, i haven't even finished it (im on the third season) but i never felt the interest i'm feeling with this show with anything else, i could talk about it for hours. It has also happened to me with the Hunger games, i think is a contemporary classic, i even made my final highschool project about the representation of dystopia in fiction and the real world with the hunger games as my main piece of reference.

what are your microfixations?

Got too caught up in my book yesterday and forgot about the chicken on the stove. Imagine my surprise when the smoke alarm started going off.

Anyone else done this to themselves?😂

i’m a bit surprised by the lack of lists and quests—especially the absence of books within quests—on judaism and antisemitism, so i decided to create my own.

it can be found 🔗here

Hello PBees 🐝

First of all, I would like to thank the founders for the huge work they've put into bringing the stats to life!! As a stats gremlin, my heart is full of love for this app and I'm so impressed to see how it keeps on getting better each month! The roadmap delivery is insane and I hope that they can also relax and take care of themselves at some point 🫂💕

On today's topic, I'm so curious about how everyone star-rating is spread and how do you personally interpret it?! Show us!!

I'll start!

I'm pretty happy with mine, I think it shows that I mostly know to pick books that I would probably enjoy, while also getting out of my comfort zone sometimes ⚖️

-Insert dancing cows here-

Happy May, everyone! Hope everyone has a great month filled with love and happiness!

What goals or plans do you have for the month? These can be book related or just random goals you have!

I'll go first - my goals for the month are to read at least 4 books and a non-book related goal is to finish my uni assignment for the summer break!

So imagine you read a book. It's the first one in a series, and the rest of the series is already out. Assuming you enjoyed that book, do you then immediately go read all the books in the series, or do you take breaks in a series to read something else?

Similarly, if you really enjoy one or two books from an author, do you then go immediately grab all their works to read?

For me it definitely depends on series length. I can read maybe 3 books of the same author/style/characters/plot before I need a little pallet cleanser, depending on overall length and how "complete" each individual book feels without immediately continuing. I feel like i can power through a trilogy, but need more breaks in a longer series of like 4+ books.

This has probably been discussed so many times before, but I don't know how to feel about the downvote button. Now that there are PB gudies, we don't really need it anymore to moderate the forums.

Like, I just got downvoted, which is totally fine! I just actually wish that the people who downvote me would interact with that post (i know it was a content guide violation, i just expressed something slightlyyy negative about a book). Like please give me your opinions as to why I am wrong!! I love to discuss it.

I have seen some people here before who feel very discouraged to make negative posts in the forum because of this, but I feel like if everyone just expressed themselves politely the forums would be such a nice place to share all kinds of experiences!