For me, the first time I truly felt seen by a book was when I read The Song of the Marked. It was the first time I’d come across a main character who openly struggled with anxiety in a way that felt so real and relatable. It wasn’t dramatized or glossed over, it was just a part of her, and it was treated with so much care. Seeing that kind of representation on the page made me feel understood and a little less alone. Excited to hear yours! Hopefully I will have some new recommendations to add to my TBR! ☺️

That might be a dumb question I don’t know but I’m always wondering who are people favourite author and why?

I've seen a lot of favourite author questions, and I never know how to answer because I don't know what would make an author a favourite. One way I guess would be how many books have you read of theirs? For me, it would be Terry Pratchett with 7 novels in the Discworld. Then all of R F Kuang's novels which would be 5. KJ Charles at 4 read. Then Jane Austen at 3, with Agatha Christie at 3. The list of two book authors would be too long.

I'm really interested in learning more about the awesome folks I've connected with on pagebound so far. I've interacted with many of you, and while we usually stick to books because it's a common love we all share, but I realized I only know a little about each of you through those conversations. That is totally fine if that is how you'd like to keep things, so no pressure to answer 😊. A little more personally about me: I'm a father (mid 30s) of 2 beautiful little girls (3.5 years and 7 months), married to an amazing woman and mother, and we also have 2 French bulldogs 😊. I'm currently a software engineer and my primary focus is infrastructure (all the boring stuff that websites like pagebound runs on behind the scenes and serves it all over the world), but I also freelance in web development still since it's where I got my start. Fun random fact: I was top 500 in overwatch season 3 🤣 Super happy to have met everyone and will hopefully continue to meet as this community grows 😊 Please don't forget to practice good internet safety when answering! 🫣

Hi everyone! We have a few product updates to share - 1. The button to edit read dates is now on the book page - instead of sifting through your library to edit dates, you can visit the book page directly. 2. You can now edit the title, progress %, and spoiler tag on your posts (in addition to the contents!) 3. Fixed various bugs related to adding books to the Pagebound catalog, Goodreads imports, and comments on activity updates. We've had some questions about non-English books and issues importing books in non-Roman lettered languages like Arabic and Greek. We do plan to address both of these issues, however it is a large project and due to the discussion and forum nature of the site, the solution isn't straightforward. For now, non-English books will remain separate from the English version to preserve single-language discussion in the forums, and you may encounter data issues importing books in non-Roman lettered languages. We ask you refrain from importing those books at this time to help keep the integrity of our database! Special shoutout to our lovely Devin for helping on the engineering side with these updates 🫶 Happy reading, Jennifer & Lucy 💜💙

I have a very very long list and I'd love to hear how you choose your next read?

I replied to a comment in "The Will of the Many" by James Islington's book forum about how I made an exception to read this book because I had heard only excellent things about it (it's all true! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) and that I was diversifying my bookshelf this year. And @seema asked me if I had any structure to my journey. I started to reply then I didn't want to clog up the OP's post so I thought it would be nice to open up the discussion to the whole community. 🩷What do I mean when I say I want to diversify my bookshelf?🩷 I was inspired by my local bookshop in Melbourne, Australia called "Amplify Bookstore" who only stock books by BIPOC authors to help people diversify and/or decolonise their bookshelves. "Over the last 20 years, the number of ‘diverse’ books published in a year has not exceeded an average of 10%." I grew up reading a lot of classics, fantasy and sci-fi (1% female - Ursula K Le Guin and 99% male and White - e.g. Douglas Adams, Robert Jordan, Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Frank Herbert, Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, etc. you get it...) All of which I loved and obsessed over so much that it practically became my personality. In recently years I did start to notice that my most loved books are by mostly (amazing and talented) male authors and I thought it was time for me to see the world (or other worlds ✨) through the eyes of women, queer people, POC and more. I just use a spreadsheet to check in once a month on my authors. I don't know any book tracking apps that gives you stats on an author's gender, race and 🏳️‍🌈LGBTQIA+ friendly (themselves and/or their characters), so I keep track of it myself. I google the authors, check their socials and their website and read some interviews etc. It's not perfect but it works for me. At the moment, 70% of my 2025 read list are by authors who identify as women, 57% are White, 37% are Asian, 4% are Black or African, 2% are Hispanic / Latinx. I have work to do for my Black / African / Hispanic / Latinx authors! If you are also doing the same, do you have any tips? Or share your thoughts on what you think of this? 🤔

I just saw a quiz (readyourcolor.com) on tik tok that tells you what kind of reader you are and I thought it’d be fun to share here! There is a good mix of fiction and non-fiction and instead of telling you what genres you like to read, it tells you what you tend to like in a book. It’s 24 short book descriptions that you say how likely you are to read and then at the end you get assigned a color with book recommendations for that color group. I’ll share my results in the comments :)

Alright, if you could make one book required reading for literally everyone on Earth, what are you picking, and why? 👀 I'm taking notes lol.

Heyy yall. Just looking for some book suggests. I'd like some good horror or gothic reads, I've been wanting to get into some. Fantasies too, just a little bit easy on the super complex worlds unless there's like a glossary lol. I love romance and fantasy. I wanna sucked into these books. Any and all are welcome <3

Do you guys ever read multiple books at the same time or mainly read one at a time? Sometimes I have this urge I want to start another series or standalone book in tandem with another series I already started to read. But knowing myself I feel like I would mix the two details up when I read? It’s hard for me to jump around from one plot and then a whole new plot/world/char.

I miss when all the books had blurb on the back. It seems they are primarily filled with short statements from other authors, which I would love to see, but I want the blurb more. Sometimes, if I am browsing and not searching for anything in particular and the blurb is not on the back, I put the book back on the shelf...even if the blurb is probably just located on the back of the front cover, but still, I can't help it. I'm probably missing out on some good books because I am stubborn sometimes. Does this bother anybody else, or am I just being snobby? Please, be honest...maybe I'll change my ways haha.

I’m obsessed with PageBound’s rating system. It’s been so lovely being able to break down my thoughts into enjoyment, quality, characters, and plot and in such an easy way. Sometimes I may not think the quality of writing is the best, but the characters totally win me over or maybe there’s barely any plot but I still had the great time reading it! I think it’ll be nice for me to have to look back on as well when I’m recommending books for others too, it’s like my own little bookish cheat sheet even when I may not note it in the review itself. I also love the inclusions of emojis. It’s such a fun touch, even if I definitely spend more time picking the perfect emoji than writing the actual review😅. It’s cool seeing what emojis other people choose too because they might have caught something I didn’t or thought something was more important. Anyway, just wanted to quickly share my appreciation!

I personally can’t, despite my best efforts haha 😅. I used to worry about and honestly still do sometimes, the lack of my book memory. Thinking that maybe I should slow down, read less. I really don’t want to though because I prefer reading over watching tv shows or movies. If you’re like me, I came across this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson today and I hope you can take solace in it like I have.. “I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”

I just wanted to express how much I adore this site and the community on it. I think I check this site more than my social media just to see if there are new discussions. I am usually too anxious to chat on other sites, but you have all been so amazing and I've felt so motivated and comfortable to do so. I am really looking forward to seeing where things go from here. Thank you all for being an amazing community, and especially thank you to the wonderful owners of this site. Weirdly, I joined this site out of spite because someone was commenting on a TikTok about how StoryGraph already existed and this site didn't need to be here. I joined because they were rude and I wanted to balance out their negativity. I am so glad I did though!

It's time. My head is still spinning from everything that's happened in the previous book and I don't think I had enough time to digest it, but, since I really want to start reading Mockingjay and see how this all will play out, it's time for my unhinged theories. I think they're more chaotic than ever, as I'm so confused. So, please be kind. 1. I somehow feel like Katniss might be President Snow’s granddaughter. Her mother was from a higher class once...maybe a disgraced Capitol family? That whole rose-scent thing? Symbolic of her hidden Capitol heritage?? 2. Effie is leading a secret Capitol resistance cell. She knows how the Capitol works and she’s done with the wigs and the fascism, so she becomes some kind of Spy Barbie. Maybe she saves Peeta? 3. Katniss will never agree to be a symbol for the rebellion since the Rebels couldn't save Peeta, but they will force her to play this role. Again, she will have to perform, just like she was forced to perform for the games by the Capitol. Eventually she will have to die, so that the symbol she is, the Mockingjay, can live forever. She will be like a martyr sort of figure. Could the Rebellion be similar to The Capitol in some ways, then ? 4. District 13 uses nuclear energy to grow plants underground. (Lol it's a dystopia alright? maybe science works differently in the future haha). I remember from book 1 that District 13 used to have nuclear power. Since they specialized in nuclear tech, what if they somehow made it safe to run artificial grow systems underground? So that they could survive? 5. Gale was able to hunt all these years and not get caught when in District 12, not only because he was very careful and extremely skilled, but because Madge, being the mayor's daughter, covered for him in multiple instances, because she was secretly in love with him. 6. Prim might be the key to some things. I still don't know what. The fact that she's so good with healing and so good with animals. I don't know but that goat she had...It feels like a mix of "Do Androids dream of electric sheep" and a symbol for everything that's healing and pure. So I really feel that she has a major role to play actively in the story. But maybe the fact that she even exists as she is and being a symbol for everything that's hopeful, healing, pure, is enough on its own. Phew, that was a ride. I'm off to start the book. I don't know what awaits ahead, but I feel safer knowing I won't be alone.

It's time. My head is still spinning from everything that's happened in the previous book and I don't think I had enough time to digest it, but, since I really want to start reading Mockingjay and see how this all will play out, it's time for my unhinged theories. I think they're more chaotic than ever, as I'm so confused. So, please be kind. 1. I somehow feel like Katniss might be President Snow’s granddaughter. Her mother was from a higher class once...maybe a disgraced Capitol family? That whole rose-scent thing? Symbolic of her hidden Capitol heritage?? 2. Effie is leading a secret Capitol resistance cell. She knows how the Capitol works and she’s done with the wigs and the fascism, so she becomes some kind of Spy Barbie. Maybe she saves Peeta? 3. Katniss will never agree to be a symbol for the rebellion since the Rebels couldn't save Peeta, but they will force her to play this role. Again, she will have to perform, just like she was forced to perform for the games by the Capitol. Eventually she will have to die, so that the symbol she is, the Mockingjay, can live forever. She will be like a martyr sort of figure. Could the Rebellion be similar to The Capitol in some ways, then ? 4. District 13 uses nuclear energy to grow plants underground. (Lol it's a dystopia alright? maybe science works differently in the future haha). I remember from book 1 that District 13 used to have nuclear power. Since they specialized in nuclear tech, what if they somehow made it safe to run artificial grow systems underground? So that they could survive? 5. Gale was able to hunt all these years and not get caught when in District 12, not only because he was very careful and extremely skilled, but because Madge, being the mayor's daughter, covered for him in multiple instances, because she was secretly in love with him. 6. Prim might be the key to some things. I still don't know what. The fact that she's so good with healing and so good with animals. I don't know but that goat she had...It feels like a mix of "Do Androids dream of electric sheep" and a symbol for everything that's healing and pure. So I really feel that she has a major role to play actively in the story. But maybe the fact that she even exists as she is and being a symbol for everything that's hopeful, healing, pure, is enough on its own. Phew, that was a ride. I'm off to start the book. I don't know what awaits ahead, but I feel safer knowing I won't be alone.

I just wanted to express how much I adore this site and the community on it. I think I check this site more than my social media just to see if there are new discussions. I am usually too anxious to chat on other sites, but you have all been so amazing and I've felt so motivated and comfortable to do so. I am really looking forward to seeing where things go from here. Thank you all for being an amazing community, and especially thank you to the wonderful owners of this site. Weirdly, I joined this site out of spite because someone was commenting on a TikTok about how StoryGraph already existed and this site didn't need to be here. I joined because they were rude and I wanted to balance out their negativity. I am so glad I did though!