“It doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.” There’s so much pressure to “leave a mark on the world” and I think this quote really simplifies it down to it just being important that you understand yourself well and operate in the world from that understanding, not from societal pressure or expectations.

Do yall have a favourite word and get really excited when you see it written in a book because most of my kindle highlights are either the word petrichor or iridescent? Petrichor is also my favourite smell in the world 🌧️☀️and iridescent is just a fabulous word 💜💙🩷

What are everyone’s favourite words (in any language) and do feel free to leave the definitions too because we can all learn some new words today ✨

Have a lovely Sunday whatever you’re doing ✨

Hello boundlings! Lately, I've been pondering the idea of what it means to be a reader in a community of readers (like Pagebound). Reading can be such a solitary activity and it is a joy to see how that activity can be used to bring people together. I think most of us here acknowledge that community is actively built and maintained; it is a place where we can connect, support, and uplift each other. However, I do wonder if bookish spaces (especially online) can become over-relied upon.

I think there is a lot of room for misinterpretation here, so let me outline what I am specifically referring to: As more users join PB, I feel I see more club posts along the lines of "which of these five books should I read next," "should I do this," "should I do that," and so on (with no other information, and no one truly engaging with each other---they could be Instagram polls, essentially). I find a lot of these posts disconcerting because they often read as though the user isn't looking for advice, but rather explicit decision-making by others. I feel like this defeats the purpose of being in a reading community, but also of being a reader in the first place. Reading is such a major channel for autonomy, intentionality, and expression---I feel like those things are taken away when relying on others to make every decision about one's reading journey. (To be clear, I'm not referring to advice/rec posts in general, nor any specific users/posts. Just a prevailing trend.)

I don't want to seem like I'm trying to tell people how to act in a community space---that is not my intention. If this posts comes off that way, please let me know and I will reevaluate my words.

Ultimately, my questions are,

• How do you feel about these types of posts? (Am I reading too much into them?)
• What does reading, as part of a community, look like to you?
• How did you find confidence in your decision-making as a reader?

I do know it takes time and experience to develop this aforementioned confidence; perhaps these posts are a new way of doing that in the age of technology. I'd love to know your thoughts.

If you could invite 3 writers, living or deceased, to lunch. Who would you invite? Would you go to lunch with them all together or individually? Any particular reason you would want to go to lunch with them? I would probably go to lunch with all my invites individually because I am greedy and would want to monopolize their time.

1. Terry Pratchett would be first on my list. I have read that he was a delightful person and can't imagine we wouldn't be laughing soon after sitting down. It would be a lunch full of joy.
2. Shirley Jackson would be a clear invite for me. Her writing gets in my veins. I know very little about her and would use this as a chance to meet a writer who means a lot to me but is mostly a mystery in my brain.
3. Joe Abercrombie for a lot of the same reasons as Terry Pratchett. He is my current favorite living author, and I would love to share a pint and figure out exactly when he went off his rocker and pulled all of us down into the quicksand with him.