I just brought this up to a fellow book reader and she hadn’t thought about it before so I thought I’d make a discussion post about it to get everyone’s thoughts!

I’m reading a book right now that is giving me the vibes that AI was used during the writing process, I could be wrong (I see a lot of AI usage at my job to assist writing so that’s why I tend to notice) and I really struggle with authors using AI.

I feel that this turns their writing into not their own and the way that it makes the writing feel more robotic. Has anyone else noticed this? i’ve seen a lot of talk of authors using AI for their covers, but I haven’t seen a lot of talk about AI assistance with writing.

As the title suggests, I'd love it if y'all shared your favorite quotes from any of the books you've read or are currently reading. Whether it be laugh out loud one-liners or the gut-punchiest, heartbreak-inducing monologues, all are welcome. Try to avoid anything super spoilery.

As for me, I've decided to share two of my favorites I think about all the time.

My favorite from a non-fiction text comes from Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life. It's a bit long but it makes me laugh every time.

"Antony was at best 'an audacious rascal,' at worst an erratic, drunken, filthy, shameless, depraved, licentious, pillaging madman. 'In truth,' asserted Cicero, 'we ought not to think of him as a human being, but as a most outrageous beast.' Certainly Antony gave Cicero plenty to work with... He had made a spectacle of himself, at one point allegedly attaching lions to a chariot for a joyride through Rome. Excess and conviviality were his middle names... There had been ample carousing, even if the 'fume of debauch' did not attach itself to Antony quite as tenaciously as Cicero insisted. He was all the same happy to retail and amplify tales of Antony's indignities. The morning he had opened his mouth to speak in the Senate and instead vomited the putrid remains of a wedding feast into his lap was not one Cicero would ever let him forget. Antony was henceforth 'the belching, vomiting brute,' prone to 'spewing rather than speaking.'"

My favorite from fiction is from Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and is short sweet and to the point but still manages to rip your heart out and ask for more.

“Camilla and Palamedes were loved by Nona," said Paul. "Pyrrha was loved by Nona. It’s finished, it’s done. You can’t take loved away.”

(Pls let me know if this is too spoilerly and I can change it to a link to the quote instead).

Does anyone have a fun way of picking a new book to read? A TBR wheel? A TBR jar?

I've tried the jar but kept forgetting to update it as I was reading/buying new books. I'd love to try the wheel because, uh, dopamin, but it would take so long to set up!

Hey, beautiful people 💫 After that post I made in the forum I felt so surprised to see so many people relate to my situation, and it was overwhelming (in the best way) to feel everyone's support and understanding. So I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to give me a little uplifting, it really made a difference.

This made me think that we really are a community of dear anonymous friends, who support each other through the love of books. Which led me to this thought: There are so many beautiful and original usernames... What's the story behind each one? (except for one_crazy_eliott, I think I understand the reason behind Mr. Crazy's username 🤭🤭🤭)

So, if you feel comfortable, share the story behind it. I think it will help bring us closer and keep everyone's anonymity anyway.

I'll start: The OGs know I started PB as fantasy.betareader but decided later to change my username to Pipsy to help me feel more connected here. This is a nickname my sister gave me when I was 3 or 4 years old, and it stuck until today. My whole family calls me by it, my friends, my teachers, my bosses, etc. Even on my passport, my signature says Pipsy. So that's basically my name 😊

So today happens to be my birthday and I've woken up wondering if anyone else has any book focussed birthday or holiday traditions?! ✨️

Here are my favourites:

1. I stay up reading until the clock strikes midnight each year when counting down to my birthday! ⏰️ Growing up we didn't have a lights out time as long as we were reading in bed - I came from a strict household but this was the most liberating rule and has made all us kids readers for life! ✨️

2. When gifting or receiving a book as a present we always write inside the front cover a message that includes the date and occasion - as a serial rereader there is nothing better than picking a book off the shelf and seeing a message from a loved one 💜

3. Whenever possible public holidays are for reading in the sunshine or by a cozy fire - depending on the season 📚

4. On Christmas Eve we read the Night Before Christmas on a group call with the family - the youngest of us are in our 30s now but some traditions transcend age 🎄

Please tell me your book related traditions so I can add to my list! 🙌🏻

Disregard plot, prose, or popularity. I'm talking about the physical attributes that make your brain go "oOOohh"!

My ideal book features include:

•hardcover, but like the old school kind that feels woven •gilded designs for the front AND back (rather than a hardcover wrap of dust jacket texture) •no dust cover because I just throw them in a drawer and never look at them again •good structure for the spine (I don't fuck with a squeaky book) •deckle edges because it makes it look like it has character •pages that have a warmer hue rather than being blindingly bright white

I'm curious to see what other people prefer in their physical book characteristics!

Hello reading friends. I've been on a disaster movie kick lately, rewatching some old blockbusters like The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012.

Are there books like this? Not post apocalyptic. I've read those by the dozen (respectfully). I'm talking the disaster is happening as we read.

• Flood?
• Earthquake?
• First days of the zombie and or robot uprising?
• Volcano?
• Tomato Eating Competition?
• Asteroid?

I'm sure there must be lots!

Waking up to new quests is such an elite feeling 🤩🥰

"Ency was shouting, "You're not animals. They're going to kill you. Run. You need to escape," as if the head could understand what he was saying."

"as if the head could understand what he was saying".... the tremendous amount of dehumanization this book describes is so much more disturbing to me than the actual death/cannibalism that's going on. i actually cannot for the life of me comprehend how people could care so little about the tragedy of people dying. i see this kind of rhetoric all the time right now, with the way people talk about the various genocides happening all over the world, and i just don't understand how people won't/don't care about mass killings because they don't view some racial/ethnic groups as "people enough"

RF Kuang said in a keynote talk once (maybe an interview??) that “reading is not political. what you do after you read is.” I feel like this book really leans into this philosophy. do you resonate with her thought?

I'm currently reading a book with insanely short chapters. At first, I loved the length because it was different and made me feel like a fast reader. I'm talking 3 to 5 pages on average...yeah, completely not normal.

But now that I'm reading other books, with normal chapter lengths, I'm all like, "Ugh! Why are these chapters sooo long?" But once I lose myself in the story, the chapter lengths don't even matter. Has this ever happened to you?

I haven't read this so cannot confirm, but am reading about it in "Gardening Can Be Murder* and apparently there are tomatoes as a plot point.

Given the ongoing Tomato War ™️ on Pagebound, I figured I should make note of this.