Okay, this is pretty random 😂 but all my fellow introverts and people who were “the quiet kid” what’s something you hated hearing growing up? I hated when I would get labeled as quiet, unfriendly, or shy. I hated it because I wasn’t really quiet, I had a lot to say, but didn’t always feel comfortable, but when I got to know someone I love talking and having fun!

Just curious as to how everybody’s using these two shelves. I’ve just been putting everything into TBR but I’ve been thinking maybe I should put the books I immediately want to read in Interested? Or maybe I could even go the other way where I put the books I will definitely read in my TBR and the books I’m not so sure about in Interested?

We can get through the next two days of socializing and masking. It will be exhausting but we will persevere. And at the other side? Plenty of alone time, to spend with books or other hobbies, we can do it!!

Do you guys ever pick up a problematic book/author intentionally?

I started reading James by Percival Everett yedterday, and I skimmed some passages in the first chapter of Huckleberry Finn and realized quickly that this book is capital P Problematic, probably. I haven't read the book so I don't know for sure, and I'm not American so it's not a book that is talked about over here.

What I was wondering was what constitutes a problematic book for the PB community? Is there a problematic book you love? Hate? Is it ever worth reading a problematic/"problematic" book intentionally?

Hi everybody,

I need some other perspectives on my ''issue''! Quotation marks cus it's not an actual issue..

I love reading but also gaming, knitting, crocheting, doing puzzles, coloring books, diamond painting, you name it. How do you divide the time between these? Okay knitting etc. is easy with audio books but audio books are not my fave, so I rarely listen to them.

I just got a new game that I love and want to play allll the time but then obvi I can't read and there's so many books that I have to read. Also I've been knitting a beanie for myself for like two years that I would very much like to finish but alas, something else always comes up :D It is a never ending cycle and I always end up feeling like I'm neglecting a hobby.

Edit:// Thank you everybody for the great advice and kind words! 🫶 I do realize (now especially..) that I have way too high standards for myself and am impatient as hell, not everything needs to be done immediately. 😂

“tesla” “chaotic good” “alexa” “swiftie” STOP😭😭

Hello guys!

I'm in need of very specific recommendations and I hope some of you can help me out🫱🏻‍🫲🏼

My german mother (54) has been learning english as her second language on duolingo for years now and she's gotten sooo good and it's given her such confidence, I love it so much.

I'm home for the holidays and she told me today that she picked up my current book that was lying around (Iron Widow) and read a couple sentences and that she even largely understood them. That gave me the idea to perhaps gift her her first english book to read! But 99% of what I read is fantasy and - as far as I know - that's not my mums taste. Shes not the biggest reader as a whole, mainly she just reads a bit on her summer vacation every year, so shes not DEEP in the book game either. The most recent books I've seen lying around at home were darker romance books tho (namely things like 50 shades of grey) which is a genre I'm sooooo lost in too 😭 I do think that I have seen her read other genres before like mystery too? Im not too sure though.

So, do you guys have recs for books that are:

• easy language
• short (novellas or short story collections are fair game too!)
• not YA (it needs to read somewhat adult-y even if the characters are in their 20s)
• romance? Perhaps dark-ish and spicy-ish? (But keep in mind that it's for my MOTHER😭 My family is chill but I do have s o m e boundaries😭)

That's it I think, honestly your recs don't even have to be solely romance, it can have mystery or thriller aspects maybe, but it needs to stay relatively easy in language and content!

I hope you guys have some ideas for me here!🙂‍↕️ (and that asking for smut recs for my mother to read is not too weird a concept ahahahah)