I enjoy fantasy books, but I've always struggled with the world-building because it's hard for me to wrap my brain around systems (magical, biological, etc.) that we don't experience in our reality. That led me to wondering, if our lives took place in a fantasy world, what aspects would the readers find weird or unrealistic? For me, it's gotta be toilets. Like, wdym we have special rooms with a bowl to dump our waste in? I think I'd find that crazy if it wasn't a normal part of our lives haha

Hey everyone! I love all the different ways you can mark a book on PB. I am so used to Goodreads where it’s TBR pretty much. It got me thinking, how do you guys decide whether a book is TBR or interested?

I noticed when perusing through others libraries that some people have an even split and then some have all books pretty much in “interested” and only what their immediate TBR is as TBR!

I usually just have everything as TBR because I plan to read it someday but I started marking a few as interested just to test it out.

Sooooo I've been having this really great discussion here with @JohnNickleback about what it is we look forward to most and love most in books.

For me, the absolute best part is the beginning. When I know very little or nothing, and everything is a new discovery, a first step, a new adventure! Nothing beats this feeling of something new and exciting just beginning and I crave it like I crave air. I'm also a lot like this in real life, so I think it just translates to books as well for me. Same goes for series, I love the start and get a bit bored in the middle and then the end can be exciting too. But nothing beats a great start!

On the other hand, @JohnNickleback instead loves to get into the details, the know how and how it's all working and being used. The thinking and theorizing of what can be done how and who can use it in what way. I find this exciting too, but not nearly as much as the beginning.

There is of course the end, the middle part, the grind, the slower parts where we get to breathe before the next thing etc. So many different parts of a book!

What is your favorite and why?🤔

Does it differ for you if it's a series? Is for example the middle book in a trilogy always your fave? Or maybe you prefer the actionable third?

So excited to see where people land and what is the most commonly loved part!!

(Side note, why is there a progress choice on posts in the club forum?🤔 Bug?)

I was recently reading The Priory of the Orange Tree and i was talking to one of my friends about. I was saying i thought it was really interesting and I thought that by all the elements included, he would enjoy it. He then said he might check it out since i said that, but when he was looking for the book he first saw it described as 'feminist Lord of the Rings'. We then got sidetracked and had a whole discussion about Tolkien and the society he lived in at the time of writing the books, but that is beside the point.

I got stuck in mind the idea or trend that is in describing some books by using others. I think it might have been a BookTok amplified phenomenon, which I did find interesting and fun at first, but also started to feel a bit irritated by it as time went on, because i found most, if not all, popular books being described as 'the cross between this book and this book with the emotional impact of this third book'.

I felt that having an actual description of the plot or characters might convince me more. Also, sometimes, when i see the books described through some titles, I am actually less likely to pick that book up, because I did not enjoy the one they are referencing, even if perhaps this book has a different writing style or story progression or characters I would enjoy much more.

So i was wondering what others think. Do you enjoy having that, so you can discover books more like your favourites, or do you also find that you are not the biggest fans of it?

Dolly Parton was an amazing philanthropist and singer. She was a queer ally and helped get kids free books. She did so much for education in East Tennessee. Truly a woman to look up to and her family is asking people to donate to her book program for kids instead of flowers to remember her. RIP Dolly you were amazing.

I really want to make better, more thoughtful reviews. I want to be able to form thoughts about a book that are more than my cave man brain of "book good, me like". I really want to but have no idea where to start. How do you review books. Do you go off some sort of list or guide in your mind? Do you ask yourself questions and then write the answers down? How long do you normally wait after finishing a book before you rate it or write a review? I'll take any advice I can get because some of the books I read are masterpieces and deserve a review that reflects their beauty properly. Even if all you have are examples rather than advice, I'd gladly take that as well. This also kind of goes into me wanting to be able to explain what certain books are about more thoughtfully rather than regurgitating the description.

Hey all, so with October on the horizon I was hoping to get some horror recommends from some of you all. I have been agonizing over what to read and would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Any recs will do! Be it something your reading right now or just looking into reading in the future.

Thanks!

hey guys! it's my birthday today :) haha that's basically the post. anyway what did you do on your last birthday? did you read? was it a good book?

Hi all, Looking for some advice. I started learning french by myself about a year and a half ago. I did learn mostly on duolingo to gain vocabulary and a basic sense of how sentences are strung together. Also learned a bit in a workbook. Then I started reading l’étranger by Albert Camus which honestly is fine to read but just a little long for a beginner so it makes me lose focus in between.

Currently I am finishing up ”Short Stories in French for Beginners” by Olly Richards which I absolutely love in terms of how it is made and the difficulty level. After finishing it I would like to add more books like that but maybe also some easy reads.

Do you guys have any suggestions for me? It would be very appreciated 🫶🏻

I would love for the french level to be somewhere around A2 -> B1