One of the things I have noticed more and more whenever I go to the bookstore when I peruse the new books section and then move onto the used ones is that fantasy novels over the course of the last maybe ten or fifteen years seem to be becoming more and more "normal" as a whole. Titles are similar combinations - we all know the Um, Actually game on Dropout of A __ of ___ and ____ game they play, cover designs and artwork sometimes have very similar poses, a lot of them are these colossal tomes full of lore and worldbuilding and maps and more.

None of this is to say that that is bad, it is absolutely amazing to see the genre exploding in a way that I feel like when I was growing up in the late 2000s/early 2010s wasn't really there - or if it was, it was relegated to the YA section. It feels like an amazing time to be a fantasy lover right now, you have so much to pull from. But, my original point is this: fantasy doesn't feel as weird anymore, weird in that there are those moments where you go "Hold on...are we still in fantasyland?"

The book that specifically comes to mind is Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara, and after that the entire Four Lands and various other series Brooks' did in that setting.

When I first read The Sword of Shannara at the wee age of 12, I think, at first I was very excited cause I was like "Oooh, Dad read this one and said he liked it so now Dad and I can have a book we both like together!" Little did I know that as I read more and more of the story of the Ohmsford boys and Alannon the druid, explored more of the Four Lands, that this fantasy-on-the-surface-setting was in truth an absolute genremash of things that I was not prepared for. The books that follow in the original trilogy - Eflstones and Wishsong being books 2 and 3 - only serve to amplify that as we get more lore about the Four Lands as well as their ancient past, transforming the series from a simple sword and sorcery tale into a majestic post apocalyptic saga for survival.

To me, Shannara sits very much alongside stuff like Dragonriders of Pern, He-Man, Thundercats, and Voltron for just a few options, because while some of them might lean into more sci-fi themes, you could still make a super strong argument that they are all fantasy at their core. And that's what I mean when I say that sometimes it feels like fantasy isn't weird anymore, that the need for marketablility and influencer draw pushes stuff to be more palatable, easier to fit into boxes. That in of itself is a much larger discussion that could have an entire college economics class about it, but, sufficeth to say, I miss it.

If there are those of you who haven't read the original Shannara trilogy, I highly recommend it - some of the later entries in the world get a little confusing, I won't lie, but the first three are absolutely amazing, and I think truly deserve to get more love alongside the big names of today and then.

Here's to more weird fantasy in the future, or, is there a fantasy title you think falls into that fun genremash weirdness? Share below!

I am in the process of switching all of my reading notes over to Obsidian and it's giving me a great opportunity to refresh my reading notes template! It got me curious - for those of you who like to keep a reading journal or track info/data about the books you read - what all do you like to track? Or what do you wish you would have tracked?

As the title says - please share if you have any tips to how to maintain a book buying ban 🙏 I want to focus on reducing my current tbr rather than increasing it, but I am a weak willed creature 😭

Quick question, because I am fairly new to Pagebound; with the seasonal readalongs and special event readalongs, can you still unlock the badges for them even after their original timeframe?

And if so does it just say you've unlocked the badge after reading those selected books?

Lucy and I were going through the Roadmap today (for those that don't know, we have a public roadmap to show what we're working on - you can find it in the "more" menu on the app in the top left of the navbar, or linked in the footer on web) and realized we've had a few requests for quarter star ratings. We said we'd let the community weigh in and make a decision, but the feedback thus far has been split. So, we're opening up the convo now!

Should Pagebound have .25 star ratings?

Pros: You can get granular with your ratings, you decide if you want to use the quarter star system or not (if you don't like them, you can continue to use half stars), many folks have personal rating systems that involve quarter stars

Cons: Since we have sub-ratings on PB, there is additional cognitive load to rating things like plot and quality with quarter stars (we think only having quarter stars for overall rating would be confusing and look like a bug). It could potentially discourage people from adding sub ratings if they feel paralyzed by the granularity

Very curious to hear what you all think!

I know we all have different opinions on what makes for a good review, and there have been a few club posts about writing good reviews, but I want to know what makes a review useful to you as a potential reader. What elements in a review do you pay most attention to? What can sway you one way or the other with a book? What do you wish more reviews included - or excluded?

If I'm writing a review for other people to read and judge the book on, I want to make sure I've included what people actually care about!

Hi everyone! I think it's safe to say that everyone here loves art. I'm someone who loves doing lots of arts but sometimes has to choose one to do at the moment. But imagine if you had to pick one art to do for the rest of you life. Which one would it be? I think mine would probably be dancing (not competitive, of course). It's always been my thing. But if I had to pick other I would just go with making roses in modeling clay. Oddly specific I know. Does it even count? 😂 Edit: Forgot to say you can't choose writing. 🫠

One of the greatest aspects (imo) of Pagebound is user created lists. The possibilities are endless and really highlights the creativity of this community.

That being said, I thought it would be nice to give a little extra love to lists!

Share your favorite list (or lists) in the comments.

✨ bonus points if you provide a link to the list ✨ bonus bonus points if the list you share has less than 50 upvotes! - let’s show some extra love to some lists with less traffic!

I hope this post will help connect even one person to a range of books they may have otherwise not found, or inspire someone to try out a new genre 💜

You get a slump, you get a slump, everybody gets a slump!

Is it just me or is everyone in a reading slump? I’m not in one, which probably makes this post kind funny but everyday I feel like I see a slump post so I’m wondering if July is just that girl. The slump girl.

I’m not really not in a slump I guess either tho. Idk why but I start the year off so strong every single year and then my reading is usually very bumpy up and down road to the end. I got a busy month tho so I am behind.

What about July do you think makes it a heavy slump month? Too many of the good summer reads in June so nothing stands up in July? Too hot?