UK Boundlings With the heatwave, have y'all been struggling to read too?

I'm so exhausted from lack of sleep and the heat draining me that by the time I try to read, I just fall asleep!

And I've lost the ability to think which doesn't help 🥴

~ For the international peeps: the majority of us don't have A/C and the heat feels like standing next to the exhaust of a bus.

Does anyone else have this insane urge to read while at work and then as soon as you get home it's gone? Every now and then i'll get this insane urge to read at work where i'll be actively planing out my reading time for when i get home, going through my tbr and genuinely feel so giddy and excited for my booooks...and then i get home and the excitement is gone? Is this just part of the slump? Does this happen to anyone else? Like you fantasize about reading while stuck at work and as soon as you have actual time to read you do something else instead?

Im currently reading yesteryear and this came to my mind.

Does a character being bad* make you NOT want to read a book? Does it lessen your enjoyment when reading the book? Or would it deter you from reading a book?

*bad as is morally bad. Like, evil, racist, ...ect.

For me, honestly, no. I think it might even makes the book more enjoyable. Makes me want to read the book even more. I feel like for me, the mc doesn't have to be a good person for me to enjoy or read the book. Bad characters are most of the time (for me) more intresting to read than good characters. Like, their train of thoughts, ideologies, how they think..ect. i find it so intresting. I love going "wtf, what's wrong with this character😲" while reading.

For example when i read blood over bright haven, in sciona's head it was so intresting. I feel like if the book was mainly from thomils pov it wouldn't be as intresting. Not saying it would be bad but not as intresting. Do yall get what i mean? Like, Seeing how racist she is and how she think was so enjoyable. Like, i spent the whole book surprised by how she think of the kwen and such.

Another example is joe from you and june from Yellowface. They're both bad people but it mad me WANT to read the book. I was enjoying reading the books so much because it was from their pov. Like, again, if the book was from beck's pov it wouldn't be as intresting as it in joe's pov.

So, what about yall?

helloooo, like mentioned i need more recs like lady tan’s circle of women, waywerd, seven husbands of evelyn hugo.

something that follows the story of one (or in waywerd’s case, generations of) women that Will make me wanna bawl my eyes out.

idk something about books that make me cry immediately end up in my 6* list. 😭

or even like babel. i love etymology soooo much. but that’s not the Only part i liked, i think im really drawn to tragedy ahahah. i don’t care much for romance in this genre. i don’t mind if it’s there and i don’t mind if it’s not.

any and all suggestions are welcomed !!

Have you read any books that have surprised you this year? Maybe it far surpassed your expectations, maybe it was actually terrible, or funnier, or more profound than you thought.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Yellowface - I’d put it off after seeing so many mixed reviews over the years, but definitely one that consumed me for the time I was reading it!

Another was The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Again, I’d seen mixed review and so was expecting it to be a little mediocre, but it really worked for me!

and does that influence you to read a book? do you gravitate towards your favorites, or do other colors compel you more?

personally, my favorite colors are green (sage, but really any muted, earthy green) and deep purples. i did buy the pretty green edition of Legends & Lattes over the standard cover because the color is gorgeous. i feel like i don't see much purple around—maybe i'm just not looking hard enough?

but it's red and black covers that really catch my eye. separate or together, but mostly together; it's one of the most striking color combinations to me. my favorite example is Clown in a Cornfield (i promise this post isn't just another way for me to promote Clown in a Cornfield). maybe it's just because i read a lot of horror, but i feel like it's hard to make a red and black cover look bad. is that just me? does anyone else have any great combos?

bonus question: would you buy a physical edition of a book you really didn't like if the color would look good with the aesthetic of your room/living space?

Hi Boundlings🪄 I just wanted to know if anyone here has literally no physical books to read because of many reasons... I dont have any physical book (fam probs, no money🫠)... Is anyone there like me🫣

since pb is anti-ai, i wanted to highlight this. i found out about it today from a bookseller friend.

in a recent interview, tokarczuk (drive your plow over the bones of the dead, the empusium, etc) stated that she used AI to help write her most recent novel. here is an article about it on lithub.

it seems to be a recent interview and therefore new information, so there isn’t too much on it yet besides some horrified reactions on insta/threads. i’m planning to look into it more when i’m home from work and update with more links as necessary!