I don't know if its just me, but when I'm reading books I kind of just have stock characters from like tv shows and stuff that I imagine with the characters instead of trying to visualize them from character descriptions. I'm trying to do better but also I feel like this is just a skill I haven't build up and find I keep falling back on what I was doing before. If anyone has any ideas of how I can get better at this that would be great!

Why do so many American writers drop words out of sentences? “A couple seasons” should be “A couple of seasons”, shouldn’t it? Or am I letting my English Language and Literature A Level turn me into a nitpicker?

had truly forgotten how much "males" and "females" is used in this series 😅

What is something you wish authors would stop doing when writing FMC's or MMC's?

For me, giving all the MMC's shadow powers. Bler I want to see something else!

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE! 🌈

I think you all know by now, that I, being bisexual and what not, have always thought that WLW books don't get much love. So I've been trying to read more WLW books for past few months and since it's pride month, I've decided to ONLY read WLW/lesbian led/ bisexual woman led books! I've picked up 12 books from TBR and created a shelf. WISH ME LUCK

Edit: here's the list for anyone that would like to pick up one of these!

The Wives of Herrick Hall - Julie Lew The salvage - Anbara Salam The Fox And The Devil - Kiersten White The Isle In The Silver Sea - Tasha Suri The Devil She Knows - Alexandria Bellefleur The Secret World Of Briar Rose - Cindy Pham Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil - V.E Schwab A Treachery of Swans - A.B Poranek The Sky On Fire - Jenn Lyons Last Night In The Telegraph Club - Malinda Lo In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado (currently reading) Our Wives Under The Sea - Julia Armfield.

This is not an entirely serious question, but I wouldn't be surprised if people actually have some passionate opinions about introductions in classic books.

What inspired this was a video I saw the other day, where a man complains about how every single classic he reads "needs to have 30 pages before it gets to the actual book" (the book he is holding is Wuthering Heights.) He goes onto say, verbatim: "I don't care if the author stubbed their toe when they were twelve and that's why the character is a bad person. If I wanna know that stuff, I'll look it up on my own! If I have to flip more than five pages to start reading something relevant, your forward is too long."

Now... I'm taking what he's saying with a grain of salt, because it's probably just him trying to get content out with engagement bait. I can respect the hustle. But it really makes you think! How many people really think this about classic introductions?

It's a little disheartening to see someone say this (assuming he's being completely serious), because the solution to his problem isn't actually hard. All he has to do is not read the intro — skip past it. He seems to forget about this nice invention called the Table of Contents, which, in my version of Wuthering Heights, is literally two pages into the book... It's a little strange to see someone complain about introductions as if, because he dislikes them, all introductions are useless and should be removed from classics entirely. Unfortunately for him, the world doesn't work exactly to his preferences.

I can understand where he's coming from, to an extent. I don't think introductions are useless. Sometimes I read them, sometimes I don't. It depends on if I want to read the classic more for the plot or for the themes! One gripe I have, personally, but that's just me. A girl can dream, but I don't expect that to change. In any case, I can look it up if I care enough at the time. Some classics actually do add spoiler warnings, I believe! I can understand it's frustrating when I read an intro and it completely spoils the ending for me...

Many classics are really difficult reads, you might need the introduction to — well, introduce you to the book. Classics introductions can also let you in on themes and questions you might want to be asking yourself while reading, in case you're someone who likes to analyze the book while you read it. I know that a lot of people have misunderstandings about classic book introductions, and they end up getting overwhelmed or intimidated when they open the book. Some book publishing houses even cut back on introductions! So, if you don't like the intros, you can buy those houses.

Regarding the "I don't care if the author stubbed their toe..." comment, this annoyed me a bit, even though I know he's being hyperbolic. Introductions aren't there to give you useless, trivial information like he makes it out to be. I feel like this is just scaring new readers! 😣 Intros can give you a lot of good insight about the author and why they wrote what they wrote!

For example, in Wuthering Heights, the preface tells you that this book had been seen as a monstrosity for years, because of how the author's sister, Charlotte Brontë, purposefully made Emily Brontë out to be a childish, rebellious, simple woman who had little responsibility in writing her book — albeit, she was trying to save her sister from critique. It even tells you that Charlotte even made her out to be an "unthinking vessel through which 'Fate or Inspiration' pours." Isn't that so fascinating? Not even Emily's own sister could bear the fact that her own kin wrote such a terrifying story filled with unredeemable characters. The introduction, afterwards, continues to provide keen insight into the upbringing of the Brontë sisters and how that inspired Emily's works.

TLDR: Introductions in classic are so important to add context to the book's themes and creation. But, even without them, the classic still stands strong by itself.

What do you guys think??

Happy pride month! I’ve been in read romance trying to find out what kind of romance I like. So far Outdrawn by Deanna Grey made me swoon and kick my feet. I was wondering if anyone has sapphic rivals to lovers romance recommendations because I’m having some trouble finding them.

I am struggling a bit with this one. It feels really dense and slow going. Like each page feels like it takes forever to turn.

I want to keep going and see what happens, but ugh... help.

I just realized this year is almost half over! I’m thinking about all the books I’ve read so far & wondering which ones I will read next!

What’s been your favorite read of 2026?

I think mine was Sula by Toni Morrison or Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell !!!