acidicchaos

34 She/Her. Polygenreous Reader. Forever the student who believed the curtain WAS blue for a reason and I desperately wanted to discuss why.

2928 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Reading...

He Who Fights with Monsters (He Who Fights with Monsters, #1)

Curious Coffins and Riveting Rituals: Death Practices Around the World

Alexander of Russia: Napoleon's Conqueror (Grove Great Lives Series)

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

The Outward Path: The Wisdom of the Aztecs

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)

acidicchaos TBR'd a book

Tilly in Technicolor

Mazey Eddings

Tilly Twomley is desperate for change. White-knuckling her way through high school with flawed executive functioning has left her burnt out and ready to start fresh. Working as an intern for her perfect older sister’s start up isn’t exactly how Tilly wants to spend her summer, but the required travel around Europe promises a much-needed change of scenery as she plans for her future. The problem is, Tilly has no idea what she wants.Oliver Clark knows exactly what he wants. His autism has often made it hard for him to form relationships with others, but his love of color theory and design allows him to feel deeply connected to the world around him. Plus, he has everything he needs: a best friend that gets him, placement into a prestigious design program, and a summer internship to build his resume. Everything is going as planned. That is, of course, until he suffers through the most disastrous international flight of his life, all turmoil stemming from lively and exasperating Tilly. Oliver is forced to spend the summer with a girl that couldn’t be more his opposite—feeling things for her he can’t quite name—and starts to wonder if maybe he doesn’t have everything figured out after all.As the duo’s neurodiverse connection grows, they learn that some of the best parts of life can’t be planned, and are forced to figure out what that means as their disastrously wonderful summer comes to an end. Tilly in Technicolor is Mazey Eddings's sparkling YA debut about two neurodivergent teens who form a connection over the course of a summer.

acidicchaos TBR'd a book

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories

Alice Munro

In the her tenth collection (the title story of which is the basis for the new film Hateship Loveship), Alice Munro achieves new heights, creating narratives that loop and swerve like memory, and conjuring up characters as thorny and contradictory as people we know ourselves. A tough-minded housekeeper jettisons the habits of a lifetime because of a teenager’s practical joke. A college student visiting her brassy, unconventional aunt stumbles on an astonishing secret and its meaning in her own life. An incorrigible philanderer responds with unexpected grace to his wife’s nursing-home romance. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is Munro at her best, tirelessly observant, serenely free of illusion, deeply and gloriously humane.

acidicchaos commented on Tiffers's update

Tiffers set their yearly reading goal to 40

Tiffers's 2026 Reading Challenge

0 of 40 read

acidicchaos made progress on...

He Who Fights with Monsters (He Who Fights with Monsters, #1)

Shirtaloon Shirtaloon

25%

acidicchaos commented on JoyceBari's update

JoyceBari earned a badge

16h

Level 6

3000 points

acidicchaos TBR'd a book

18h

Lincoln in the Bardo

George Saunders

In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other—for no one but Saunders could conceive it. February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul. Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction's ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices—living and dead, historical and invented—to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?

acidicchaos made progress on...

20h

He Who Fights with Monsters (He Who Fights with Monsters, #1)

Shirtaloon Shirtaloon

20%

acidicchaos started reading...

23h

He Who Fights with Monsters (He Who Fights with Monsters, #1)

Shirtaloon Shirtaloon

Jason wakes up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters. It’s not easy making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer. At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil. He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters...and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need pants. After cementing itself as one of the best-rated serial novels on Royal Road with an astonishing 13 million views, He Who Fights with Monsters is now available on Kindle. About the series: Experience an isekai culture clash as a laid-back Australian finds himself in a very serious world. See him gain suspiciously evil powers through a unique progression system combining cultivation and traditional LitRPG elements. Enjoy a weak-to-strong story with a main character who earns his power without overshadowing everyone around him, with plenty of loot, adventurers, gods and magic. Rich characters and world-building offer humor, political intrigue and slice-of-life elements alongside lots of monster fighting and adventure.

acidicchaos commented on a post

GoosePicnic

Thoughts from 4%

Picked this book up as a joke because despite what the romantasy booktok fans say, I’ve heard it’s pretty bad 😂 the cover is unbelievably ugly and some of the descriptions make no sense (why does Carrion have three hair colors all at once!?). The FMC is so ridiculously like “omg i’m just not like other girls” i’m going insane lmao.

I know I’m not this book’s target audience, and yet I’m reading this anyways lol

acidicchaos commented on a post

acidicchaos

A Year of War and Peace - Day 0 - Introductions!

Welcome to A Year of War and Peace (AYoWaP)!

This is an evergreen, long-term reading project where we'll be reading one chapter of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy each day/ The goal is not speed or completion pressure, but slow, thoughtful engagement with the text and conversation that can grow over time.

How the Reading Works

We'll read one chapter per day, I'll start creating the daily posts on 12/31/25, but you are welcome to start your day 1 whenever you like!
I'll post a daily discussion thread with: A few optional discussion questions (pulled from other AYoWaP groups and past reading guides) and the last sentence of the day's chapter to help align different editions (I'm using the 361-chapter version of the novel which seems to be more common).
Everyone is welcome to answer the questions, start their own discussions, ask clarifying questions, jump in whenever they like!

This is designed to be evergreen so if you discover this thread weeks, months, or years from now, you are still very much welcome!

Posting Schedule & Naming Convention

Daily threads will be titled like this AYoWaP Day 1 Part 1:1 and I'll tag it at the % read of the 361 chapter.
I'm in the US Central Time Zone - but I am NOT a morning person, so daily posts will generally go up the evening before.
The first post will be on 12/31/25, kicking off with Part 1: Chapter 1 (If you'd like to read the intruction beforehand or on that day, feel free!)

Helpful Resources If you'd like extra support, here are some optional, spoiler-free resources.

Reading Schedules for both the 361-chapter and 365-chapter versions.
Spoiler-free character list (extremly helpful early on)
Free Public-Domain Editions of War and Peace Audiobook: LibriVox Ebook (EPUB, Kindle, HTML, Plain text): Project Gutenberg Google Play eBook

Discord - optional, more casual I've also set up a discord server for anyone who'd like a more casual, chat-oriented space alongside the forum discussion. The Pagebound forum will be the main archive though!:

Discord Link

If anyone who uses Discord regularly would like to help keep things organized over there, feel free to reach out - very low pressure! (Also note for 2026 cohort, I literally learned how to create a Discord server today... so there is not much there... bear with me).

Introductions!! If you'd like, feel free to introduce yourself in whatever way you feel comfortable! Including but not limited to: Why you are interested in War and Peace? Is this your first Tolstoy, first time reading War and Peace, a reread? How are you reading (print, ebook, audio)?

Looking forward to reading along side you all!

Post from the War and Peace forum

acidicchaos

A Year of War and Peace - Day 0 - Introductions!

Welcome to A Year of War and Peace (AYoWaP)!

How the Reading Works

We'll read one chapter per day, I'll start creating the daily posts on 12/31/25, but you are welcome to start your day 1 whenever you like!
I'll post a daily discussion thread with: A few optional discussion questions (pulled from other AYoWaP groups and past reading guides) and the last sentence of the day's chapter to help align different editions (I'm using the 361-chapter version of the novel which seems to be more common).
Everyone is welcome to answer the questions, start their own discussions, ask clarifying questions, jump in whenever they like!

This is designed to be evergreen so if you discover this thread weeks, months, or years from now, you are still very much welcome!

Posting Schedule & Naming Convention

Daily threads will be titled like this AYoWaP Day 1 Part 1:1 and I'll tag it at the % read of the 361 chapter.
I'm in the US Central Time Zone - but I am NOT a morning person, so daily posts will generally go up the evening before.
The first post will be on 12/31/25, kicking off with Part 1: Chapter 1 (If you'd like to read the intruction beforehand or on that day, feel free!)

Helpful Resources If you'd like extra support, here are some optional, spoiler-free resources.

Reading Schedules for both the 361-chapter and 365-chapter versions.
Spoiler-free character list (extremly helpful early on)
Free Public-Domain Editions of War and Peace Audiobook: LibriVox Ebook (EPUB, Kindle, HTML, Plain text): Project Gutenberg Google Play eBook

Discord Link

Looking forward to reading along side you all!

acidicchaos is interested in reading...

Deathless

Catherynne M. Valente

Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century. Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

acidicchaos commented on a post

omgplsread

Thoughts from 48% (page 154)

spoilers

View spoiler

acidicchaos TBR'd a book

The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Robert Jordan

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Moiraine Damodred arrives in Emond’s Field on a quest to find the one prophesized to stand against The Dark One, a malicious entity sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction. When a vicious band of half-men, half beasts invade the village seeking their master’s enemy, Moiraine persuades Rand al’Thor and his friends to leave their home and enter a larger unimaginable world filled with dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.

acidicchaos commented on notlizlemon's review of Three Holidays and a Wedding

notlizlemon

Dec 20, 2025

1.0

Enjoyment: 0.5Quality: 1.0Characters: 1.5Plot: 0.5

🙄

🌨️

👯‍♀️

This book really tested me. I loathed it.

Disclaimer: when I read romance, I typically like them to have a little more heft to them and be well-written. An Emily Henry suits me very well. I also am not a holiday joy type of bitch, and Hallmark movies make me deeply uncomfy. So. Am I the target audience? No. (Not least because I was 11 during December 2000, and so actually remember that time.)

The most annoying thing about this book to me honestly was that the premise was actually interesting, but the execution was incredibly clumsy (and too long). While it was great to have representation from three different cultures/winter holidays, it really didn’t redeem the book. I found the dialogue to be verrry stilted and awkward. The inconsistencies and anachronisms were ubiquitous. And I didn’t really like any of the characters, including the ones we were meant to root for, with the exception of Dadu (of course). But in general for a romance, it probably is a really bad sign if I am shipping the two leads with each other from the jump, instead of their love interests.

I did listen to the audiobook, and the narrator was bad. Unfortunately, she really struggled with doing male voices, accents, and I am still recovering from the young child voice. She also just had a hard time reading in a way that flowed smoothly.

I’m honestly relieved to be done with this one.

acidicchaos commented on a post

acidicchaos

2026 A Year of War & Peace Buddy Read?

A while ago on a club post I mentioned doing a "chapter" a day in War and Peace and people seemed interested in doing a group buddy read so I thought I would make a post here!

I'm planning on starting on 1/1/26 and if you include the chapters from the 2 epilogues, there are 361 chapters (about 2-5 pages on average each) which gives a couple of buffer days to round out the full year. (The one chapter a day isn't a hard rule by any means, more so a way for my ADHD brain to break down this behemoth into more manageable chunks.)

I'm not 100% sure how things would work on Pagebound, but I don't want to clog up this forum - so I was thinking maybe if whoever wants to start in January can connect on this post first, and then we can do updates/check-ins/discuss thoughts on that chapter via our progress updates once we start reading. We can save bigger thoughts/conversations for this forum following the Pagebound guidelines for creating posts.

If you are interested in joining in and/or have ideas on how to best do this, let me know! I just wanted to start the convo early in case anyone wanted to secure a physical copy (since War & Peace is in the public domain, you can get free digital copies!) before January.

acidicchaos commented on acidicchaos's update

acidicchaos made progress on...

Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel

acidicchaos made progress on...

Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel

acidicchaos TBR'd a book