“Cracking the eggs, he whisked them and poured them into the pan. As she watched, he mixed in scallions that he produced from a pants pocket, as well as a tomato. Caz scooted forward. “You had a tomato in there?” Larran shrugged. “You never know when you’ll need one.” “I think you really do know,” Caz said. “How many tomato emergencies do you encounter?”

As a solid tomato hater, I’m like Larran.. I’m trying to like you here 🍅🤢

One-star reviews are so useful when deciding whether to read a book, and I'm curious what "negative" aspects that other people call out actually draw you towards a book even more.

For example, every time I see negative reviews mention that the book feels "pretentious" or has "purple prose" I immediately add it to my TBR lol. I like my prose lush and sumptuous, dripping in decadence and self-indulgence. I want Oscar Wilde rolling in his grave out of jealousy at a turn of phrase.

Another thing I love is when people talk about an unlikable female character, specifically one that is maybe too cold or ambitious or morally irredeemable. I eat that up! I like my female characters evil and owning it.

Conversely, if a one-star review even mentions the word "juvenile" when it comes to the writing or characters, I'm out. Don't even need to read the rest of the review. If I even catch a whiff of the phrase "feels like YA," I click out and never look back.

What red flags for other people are green flags for you?

Do you all add books that you read when you were a kid or generally just before you started tracking in spaces like PB to your "finished" list?

I'm talking like...I read To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, probably back in 2006 I think. Would you add it to your finished list?

Look, I know there is no original author and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice was an oral tradition passed down, but does anyone have recommendations for books/music/other revolving around the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice? Give me the obvious ones and the not so obvious ones, I love their story.

Do you think this was a true omniscient narrator and if yes, was it well written?

What I think is that in the beginning it wasn't established that this is an omniscient narrator and that's why those sentences that didn't fit the pov threw me off. Then towards the end the narration was clearer. Also, it didn't feel very omniscient when the story focused on Casiopeia, but it did when Martín was the focus. I think that's because the narrator seemed to be Casiopeia, as in used a very distinct voice that sounded like her. It felt very juvenile, the word choice was very fitting, and that made it so I thought it was a deep 3rd person limited narration, at least when there weren't these all-knowing sentences that threw me off. Additionally, some descriptions seemed to be the character's observations and that wouldn't fit a distant narrator.

Am I just not used to it? Was it actually well written, because I never confused the characters.

I somehow like the stylistic choice of using an omniscient narrator, but at the same time don't think it was necessary and led to a lot of "telling". Does that mean it wasn't well done?

Well, writing this down confused me even more. What do you think?

oh, joy, is Kiela a privileged white woman who doesn't realise EVERYTHING is political ?

How is everyone using the new "interested" feature?

My TBR on Pagebound was close to 400 books. I have well over 1200 books in my e-reader currently. When Pagebound announced the "interested" feature, it gave me an unique opportunity in tackling my ever-growing TBR and sorting it. So for now I am slowly working through a system where I put all the books I am, well, interested in reading, in the correct category. My TBR is now planned from month to month, to make it more manageable (and fun!) for me, while also not "missing out" on new and interesting books for future reads. Having thought up this system for myself, I am curious to hear how everyone else utilizes the new feature!