This post is 100% inspired by @ayzrules who lit this fire by creating post 1 and post 2. Here are my contributions! (For most, I provide multiple options.)

1) Purple Immersion // Purple Reign

On PB, we wear purple.

Featured Badges: Cozy Fantasy, One and Done Fantasy, Universe Quest: The Cosmere + Cytoverse, Flights of Fire, Gothic Literature

2) She’s a Lady (and ladies shouldn’t be messed with)

Heels, nails, blade, mascara. Fit check for my napalm era.

Honorable Mention (for the nails):

Featured Badges: Supporting Women’s Wrongs, Feminine Rage, Sapphic Vampires, Feminism Without Exception, The Monstrous Feminine

3) t.i.t.s.o.a.k. collection

for those who celebrate hoa hoa hoa szn

Featured Badges: Sapphic Vampires, The Werewolf Within, Plants, Fungi, and Trees – Oh My!, The MacLeaniverse, Quiet Novels

4) Dark Mode

The skeleton’s torso and skull have now been reunited.

Featured Badges: Dark Academia, True Crime Starter Pack Vol I, Poetic Stories, Forgive Us Our Trespasses: Religious Horror; Gothic Literature

5) Monster F*cker Collection

Monster smash.

(The alien? I’m picturing Ice Planet Barbarians. Yes, Chef.)

Some may choose to end their session with a blade, a smoke, or a lippy touch-up.

Featured Badges: Sapphic Vampires, The Werewolf Within, Those Who Lurk Among Us: Monster Manga, Botanical Horror, The Monstrous Feminine Monster Romance Series Starters, Skeletons in the Closet, Strange Plagues, Sci-Fi Charcuterie, Mermaids After Dark, Flights of Fire

Supporting Women’s Wrongs

6) Happily Ever After…? I just couldn’t leave this at three icons, but you can if you want that HEA. 😉

Featured Badges: Beyond the Bodice Ripper: Historical Romance, Universe Quest: Lord of the Rings & Tolkein’s Legendarium, Fairy Tale Retellings, Universe Quest: The Cosmere + Cytoverse

7) Outdoorsy (aka the forest/mountains will kill and absorb you)

Featured Badges: The Werewolf Within, Universe Quest: Maasverse, Southern Gothic Fiction, Queer Horror, Plants, Fungi, and Trees – Oh My!

8) Cosmic Queer Love

Featured Badges: Men Loving Men in Literary Fiction, The MacLeaniverse, Fever Dreams & Strange Realities, Achillean Across Genres, Fated Mates Book Club: Romance Books for Novel People Lady Knights Who Like Other Ladies, Found Family in Fantasy, Black Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Speculative Fiction, Sapphic Across Genres, LGBTQ+ Middle Grade

9) Horror Story, Vol I.

Featured Badges: From Bookshelf to TV, Those Who Lurk Among Us: Monster Manga, Thriller Starter Pack Vol I, Horror Starter Pack Vol II, Queer Horror

And that concludes baby’s first PB Club post!

I feel like I have been away forever. I have had a busy summer and haven't been on Pagebound nearly as much as my brain would like. I should be back and posting more regularly from here on out. I miss the interactions and writing about books. I posted over on Substack this morning about how important reading has been to me in my life. It got me thinking about a few very important people in my life. They were both teachers, third and fourth grade, respectively. They went out of their way to foster a love of reading and keep me in books. They both bought me books because we couldn’t afford to buy books. They showed me the power of comics and the library. I read history books to this day because Mr. Nycum (4th-grade teacher) would go to the school library with me, sit down with a giant stack of books about US History, and help me find ones I wanted to read. Inevitably, I would read them all.

Reading gave me a path out of the chaos of my childhood and helped to shape me into the adult I would become. I would have many adults along the way who would help, but I will always have a special place in my heart for Mr. Nycum and Mrs. Llamas, who looked out for a small, shy kid who needed a helping hand.

How about all of my Pagebound friends? Who are the people in your life that you will never forget because they helped foster and nourish your love of reading?