Lately I’ve been lamenting the fact that part of growing up means your books don’t have as many beautiful pictures. Not that I need them to understand the story, but I genuinely love looking at them. 👩🏽‍🎨

What are some adult books you know of that have really stunning covers and/or interior illustrations? Special editions absolutely count, but I’m also curious about standard editions. I just want something that feels visually beautiful as well as readable. ✨

Does anyone have any book recs to read for when someone is struggling with their mental health? Specifically books that you can relate to and give you a feeling of hope, comfort and inspiration rather than self help instructional books? What kind of books do you pick up when you are struggling etc?

What are your go to literature pieces that you would recommend someone trying to get into classics?

i find myself quite often going back and changing my star ratings of books (i rarely remove anything i wrote though i sometimes add updated thoughts to old reviews, clearly labeled as a edit) the main reason i find myself doing this is frankly just that putting distance between myself and the book and allowing my thoughts to fester (over weeks/months/years) allows me to form more complete thoughts (undistracted by the joy of finishing a book, and the scales [can] fall from my eyes, as Wodehouse would say.) do you do this? if so how do you normally go about? and it and what if anything causes you do want to change your ratings?

I found out some people use AI to 'read' hard books. Basically what they do is make Chatgpt summarize and analyze the story so they can talk about it as though they've read the entire thing. My question is why?? All the fun in reading is analyzing the story yourself. I genuinely feel superior to these sort of people who proudly declare to the world that they cannot think by themselves. I also hate how using correct punctuation has become synonymous with AI. You can't have em dashes or semicolons or god forbid, a writing style similar to Chatgpt or you'll get accused of using AI. I know the AI bubble will pop some day but I'm scared of how much damage it will do before it's finally gone

If you could pack one suitcase and move into any fictional home immediately - where are you going?

Drafty castles absolutely count. So do crooked cottages, dramatic cliffside mansions, hobbit holes, chaotic city apartments, enchanted libraries, and suspiciously affordable small-town farmhouses.

Are you:

🌧️ Living your best moody life in a crumbling estate?

🌿 Baking bread in a cozy woodland cottage?

📚 Secretly hoping your house comes with hidden passageways and a mildly concerning attic?

🕯️ Choosing vibes over structural integrity?

Drop the book + the home + one reason you’d survive (or absolutely wouldn’t).

Bonus: what’s the first thing you’re decorating or rearranging when you move in?

Let’s see where PageBound is relocating.

Curious if anyone else here sneaks in reading while they're at work 😂 I'm a part-time customer service rep at a grocery store while I'm in college and I always bring a book to my shifts. Usually I can hide behind the counter and read when there's no customers or anything else to do. Do you bring a book? Ebook? Earbuds for an audiobook? Or do you have to begrudgingly wait till you get home? 😂

Guys, can you recommend your favorite fantasy books where the protagonist isn’t a teenager & the character development, plots, and general level of writing are deeper and more nuanced than what’s in typical YA lit? 👀

I realised that it’s super hard to find a story set in a magical (or just an interesting imaginary/fairytale) world that wouldn’t target a very young audience and would largely avoid common tropes. No hate for YA, I just completely grew out of it (in my thirties) and can’t read novels about children romanced by grumpy 100-year-old strangers without cringing anymore. For example, novels like The girl who fell beneath the sea, As long as the lemon trees grow, Nobody in particular (the latter two in terms of writing, not fantasy) are cute and fairly well-written but they were too reductive and naive for me to enjoy. Most popular fantasy I see in recs and different lists/shelves are on that level (which makes sense statistically and from the marketing perspective but essentially drowns books for other target audiences in the flood).

It’d be fun to see how fantasy words are experienced by adults with a fully developed brain (think late twenties and onwards). I get why 16-yo are those who’d be impulsive enough to jump inside a weird portal and try to save the world against all odds, which a tired working adult would rather ignore. 😆 But there must be more to fantasy than one special teenager saving the universe. The only examples I can think of is something like Game of Thrones (which I like a lot), maybe The Magicians and Kuang’s Babel and Katabasis (although the MCs were on the younger side in those). Apart from what I mentioned above (adult MC and writing), I’m open to virtually any stories and mixed genres.

Hey y'all! I'm feeling curious and wanted to know, out of the books in this quest that you've completed, which did you enjoy the most/the least and why?

My favorite will likely always be The Bell Jar. I first read it in high school, and as a depressed, creative teen without the words to explain what I was going through, it resonated with me in a way that was completely unexpected. I've since read it multiple times and I always end up finding something new to pour over, whether it's our understanding of the book within the context of Plath's own life or how Esther's privilege impacts the outcome of her story.

As for least favorite, sadly it is probably The Road. I actually loved the movie with Viggo Mortensen but I just can't with Cormac McCarthy's writing style. The grammarian in me wants to take a red pen to the text and proofread the heck out of it.

Looking forward to seeing what y'all think!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the overlap between people who devour books and people who sink hours into video games.

If you’re a reader and a gamer, I’m curious: • What are you playing right now? • Do you gravitate toward story-heavy games, cozy games, chaotic multiplayer, RPGs? • Do you feel like gaming scratches the same itch as reading - or a totally different one?

And if you don’t game, I’d love to know why. No judgment - just genuinely interested in how these hobbies intersect (or don’t).

I’m fascinated by the reader/gamer venn diagram. Where do you land?

Daily question...

What is the best food use you've ever seen in a book? Think of books where the author used it as a repeated theme, shared recipes in the book or just had fun with food.

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn is shares the recipes as they become relevant, as the pov changes. It's a wonderful way to make the story somewhat interactive. Color Me In by Riley Hart has the two protagonists meet in the 24hr diner (more than once), and they earn their nicknames from their food taste.

Thank you to everyone who answered yesterday. I've created a list with them for anyone who wants to see the whole collection.

What are some of the rules you guys have regarding your reading? Mine are: I always read at least one page before going to bed And as someone who is always reading an audiobook and an ebook/physical copy I‘ve made myself the rule that at least one of them has to be by an author of colour

Hello. I am not really sure if this goes on here, if it doesn't, do let me know, please! And if you could direct me towards the correct area, I would appreciate it.

I have started getting more consistent with reading, instead of taking entire weeks to read 1 book, therefore I am gonna be more active on the book forums. And I have noticed for the first time yesterday, that there is a limit of posts we can make in 24 hours? I don't know if this is a new feature? If we can surpass it by contributing to the site/app, or I was just not aware of it due to not participating as much...

But it very annoying and disruptive. Especially when a book is specifically engaging, and I am trying to read it in 1 or 2 days, I am bound to make more than 5 posts... And I think it can get quite confusing for both the person sharing their thoughts and the people reading them when I have to compile opinions from different pages into 1 single post... I think that defeats the entire purpose of a feature like that?

And if I don't wanna compile everything together, because it ends up being messy and confusing, I have to basically keep my thoughts and not write at all. And I enjoy writing what I think as I read along, and I love seeing what everyone else thinks while reading along.

I am not going to lie, but that is the main feature I even use this app for. That's what makes this place unique for me. So the limit makes no sense.

I understand there can't be infinite posts for 1 book in such a short span of time, because people could spam to infinity and beyond, but 5 is just not enough?

I guess, I would to ask if there is any possibility into bringing the limit number a bit higher? Like, at least 10? 15? I think that gives us all a better chance of giving our thoughts on important bits and pieces we read without being too overwhelming. Cuz, again, 5 works maybe if you only read some pages per day, but if you read an entire book in 1 or 2 days, you can't fully express your thoughts.

I don't know if anyone agrees with me. I would love to know everyone's opinion, though. And sorry for rambling so much lol. I just feel stuck, like do I stop reading until tomorrow, or do I read and just not share what I think on here?