Mine is Plots, Sorcery, and Legends!

While doing some future book club activity ideas, we thought of an ice breaker for October, where everyone chooses their own PSL. Thought I would bring it over here!

Here are some starter ideas but feel free to make your own:

Pages, Plots, Princes, Princesses, Prophecies, Power, Passion, Pining, Poison, Politics, Palaces, Pegasi, Potions, Pumpkins, Parchment, Peril, Promises, Pleasure, Princes, Protectors, Pacts, Portals, Priestesses, Phantoms, Phoenixes, Pirates, Possession, Pursuit, Pride, Prestige, Pretenders, Princes, Peasants, Pastimes, Problems, Paranoia, Partnerships, Perseverance, Pettiness, Plotting, Proposals, Protectiveness, Powerplays, Possessiveness, Predicaments, Perfection, Prowess, Page-turners, Panties

Swords, Spells, Spice, Schemes, Seduction, Sorcery, Secrets, Shadows, Stars, Storms, Scandals, Souls, Spirits, Sirens, Shapeshifters, Stakes, Suffering, Sacrifice, Suspense, Strategy, Sovereigns, Suitors, Soulmates, Sparks, Slow-burns, Snark, Smoldering, Swoon, Swooning, Steam, Shenanigans, Stabbing, Survival, Skirmishes, Sieges, Secrets, Spellcraft, Swordplay, Scars, Seduction, Supernatural, Suspicion, Strife

L: Love, Longing, Lore, Lovers, Lust, Legends, Lies, Loyalty, Loss, Legacies, Lords, Ladies, Labyrinths, Light, Letters, Lineages, Loyalty, Liaisons, Longbows, Language, Liberation, Lunacy, Luxury, Lawlessness, Legends, Leverage, Leadership, Life, Laughter, Long-lost-loves, Love-interests, Love-triangles, Loathing, Lusting, Lurking, Loyalty, Lineage, Legends

what's yours?

I was reading an article this morning about immortality and whether or not it’s a good thing. The author used an example of a stamp collector to illustrate one of his points: a stamp collector knows they will not collect every stamp ever, but mortality makes the journey more interesting and fun. If the stamp collector were to live forever, acquiring every stamp would be easy, and the journey meaningless.

Of course, I had to think about how reading would work with immortality! I’m actually unsure if you could read every book that’s ever been published since the printing press, especially when new ones come out every week, even with immortality. Like on the surface it sounds like you totally could because what else are you going to do with infinite time, but there have been soooo many books since the printing press, plus indie books, both physically and digitally published, and there’s always an anticipated novel.

Not to mention, with the way we’re treating our planet, you may be immortal, but humanity as a whole isn’t, and books will probably be gone after the apocalypse, so time is limited either way.

Well, barring any existential threat to humanity itself, would you choose to become immortal so you could read every accessible published book? Or would you decline? Or maybe something in the middle: become immortal as long as it takes to read every accessible published book (not including books that will be published after today, or else you truly might be immortal)? For clarity: you’d only have to read one edition of The Lord of the Rings, not literally every edition published, and you’d need to make a good faith effort (reading every day and no DNFs until after 50 pages).

I think I would decline. I would have to become a nomad and spend my days traveling and reading, which sounds nice on the surface; the first decade or so might be amazing, but eventually every day would become the same.

I went to read discussions of one of my favorite series (Rook & Rose by M. A. Carrick, highly recommend!!), only to realize I actually don’t know how anybody’s name or title or locations are written because I listened to this series as an audiobook 💀

These books have stellar narration, so I wouldn’t change anything, but it got me thinking of how many times this has happened after listening to an amazing audiobook—too many times, to be clear 😭

Does anyone have any funny misheard names of words from audiobooks? I can’t be the only one! Or I hope so? 😂😂

Yall I have been reflecting on what my favorite thing is to read. And it all comes back to my Women’s studies minor.

I have an aversion to the second wave because of the Betty Friedan of it all, but damn I am who I am because of audre lord, bell hooks, Adrien rich, Roxanne gay, Britney cooper, and Octavia butler.

We need to stop viewing these authors or topics as heavy and difficult, but instead liberating. Please comment ur fav feminist authors and books!

I wonder: how do you feel about expressing your unpopular book opinions publicly?

There are a good number of universally loved books that I just didn't get the hype for or outright disliked, but I tend to keep these opinions to myself in fear of backlash. Sometimes, I even start to wonder if I read the book 'wrong' somehow and toy with the idea of re-reading the book to give it a second shot (but I rarely do). At the same time, I really respect people who unapologetically express their opinions, unpopular or no. So my fears might not be well-founded at all. In private, I am wayyy more outwardly critical of media i consume in general than I am online lol. Something about the internet is terrifying.

I'm curious about how other people feel about this. Where do you fall on the scale of hiding in silence or screaming to the masses?

Edit: Also, feel free to use this post to express said unpopular opinion if you're willing :P

Hey everyone! I am hoping for some help. I own the first season of Once Upon A Time and was trying to rewatch it but there is some political stuff with one of the main actors, and I am really struggling to separate and actually enjoy everyone else's work in it because of that.

I know we have a Fairy Tale Retellings quest, but the thing in this series that I loved was the creativity in blending so many stories and iconic characters into one world. So I am specifically looking for books that overlap or blend multiple fairy tales or iconic elements from these tales into a singular story. And if it is a series, preferably ones where the overlap is present in all/most of the books, and not just later on.

If anyone has any recommendations like that, I'd really appreciate it 🫶

Dw, no one will judge cuz I’ve DNFed books or stayed away from books for the dumbest reasons sometimes. So I’ll go first. I think the pettiest reason I’ve ever DNFed a book was cuz there weren’t enough paragraph breaks. Most pages would just be one big paragraph, and I just couldn’t handle it, I would just randomly get lost between sentences.

In one sitting, I can usually read for one to two hours. Then I need a break to stretch, eat, or do something else for a bit. If I push myself to read any longer, I start to feel mentally drained and lose interest in the story 🫢🤣 How about you? Maybe you're a hard (stronger) reader compared to me 😆