Hi all. I’m participating in my first indie book store crawl and am working on my personal plan for the weekend !

1. Any tips if you’ve done one before? I’m hoping to make 6 stops to earn a prize
2. Any recs on books for me? Here are my top books: Remarkably Bright Creatures, Yellowface (Kuang), Anita De Monte Laughs Last, and My Friends (Backman). Ahhh.
3. Any new releases you’re excited about? I’d like to spend wisely and would like to pick some new releases. Would love to hear what others are hoping to pickup, whatever genre!

Here, though rarely seen, queen bumble bees dig themselves down into cozy beds of fluffy soil and earthy dead vegetation. They remain groggy and inactive throughout winter, like hibernating bears. Pumped full of their own biochemical antifreeze, they withstand repeated freezing and thawing and the massive pressure of heavy snowpack. Some bee researchers believe that bumble bee queens select cool, north-facing slopes, the last places to warm in spring. This lets them remain in hibernation until the aboveground world has flowers ready for them.

I am constantly amazed by how intelligent and efficient bees are! I have a question, though: do all bees go into the soil to wait for winter to be over? And why is the queen bumblebee alone? I always assumed that the other bees accompanied queen bees at all times, and that they stayed in their hive for the winter, or is it that bumblebees act differently? Or maybe this is the usual procedure for all bees, and I wasn't aware.

I’m going to try and stop myself from ranting about this for too long but my god! When people find out I read a lot and enjoy reading, the response I usually get is “oh I haven’t read ten books in my whole life how do you do over a hundred a year?” Or “I haven’t picked up a book up since I was a kid” and I just think???? What? How can you take pride in aiding the statistics that suggest that we, as as a collective, are not as well-read as generations before? I get people live busy lives, but to take pride in just not picking up a book since you were a kid is a horrifying thought to me.

Edit - my GOD y’all came with such good arguments for and against this and all the discussions are so considerate and polite so thank you all for creating a safe place for people to share their opinions on this 🩷

Anyway, rant over 😭

hey alll🫶🏻 how do you guys decide what your next read is gonna be? like do u plan ahead or do u just go through ur tbr and check what peeks your interest the most😭?

Indie bookstore appreciation day is this Saturday, April 25! What do you love about your local indie bookstore? I love my bookstore's curated displays and staff recommendations, I always leave with half a dozen books added to my tbr I wouldn't have otherwise found ✨

And heads up that libro.fm is having 🔗 a big sale on hundreds of audiobooks this week to celebrate indie bookstore day!

Okay Boundlings, tell me the strangest/unconventional/craziest place you’ve ever read!

Did you catch some side eye? Were you asked to please leave? I want to hear some stories! 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️