Saw someone with gender critical (code for TERF if you didn't know, now you do) in their bio which immediately made me feel immensely uncomfortable SOOOO lets flood this thread with your fave trans books and why you love them!! 🏳️‍⚧️🫶

I have so many faves that it's hard to pick, but one of my top faves is definitely Heir to the Autumn Court by Elle Porter! It features a fae princeling putting together their court, which happens to be a bunch of beautiful (mostly trans) guys.

I'm asking because Lee Knox Ostertag (author of The Witch Boy, The Girl from the Sea, The Deep Dark, etc) as far as I know* no longer uses the name his work is currently listed under. Apologies if this is the wrong place for this post I wasn't really sure where to put it. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Knox_Ostertag#Personal_life

This post is based on some thoughts I had after watching the video "performative readers, ‘book girlies’ & the aesthetification of books", by The Book Leo. It is a great video, I do recommend you to watch it!

But, basically, she gives her thoughts about how nowadays, especially with BookTok and similar, reading is becoming 'a performative act', and an aesthetic created around reading. She also talks about how people judge others based on what they read, like if someone only reads fantasy, then this person is not a true reader, is shallow, and all that blablabla that I believe most of us have already heard one day. And there is also the other extreme of people who follow a certain aesthetic and only read (or at least they appear to read) classics, are intellectuals, and simply put are the contrary of what she called 'book girlies' aesthetic.

Well, all that said, the video got me thinking about my own position as a reader, and what reading actually means to me:

A little background: I am graduated in language and literature, Portuguese and Ancient Greek in Brazil, and now I'm getting my PhD, in Classical Literature. So reading is a part of my job, and a big one. Not only that, but also reading the classics. Iliad, Odyssey, tragedies... and it is tiring. To the point that I took a break from reading as a hobby, and just now I'm getting back at it. And as a hobby, I only read the fantasy romance stuff. Am I less of a reader for it? Comparing to someone that read classical literature for fun? No. My point is: I don't think we should consider less of a reader someone that only read fantasy, romance, or fiction in general. Or think that a person is more intelligent than another because they've read classics only. Coming from a country where the latest researches show that the number of readers is decreasing fast, if you read, YOU ARE A READER. The type of literature doesn't matter. Just read what you like, and think, criticize, take notes, interact with the book you're reading.

Thank you for reading this long post! What are your thoughts on it?

is anyone else still using their storygraph account? i feel funny going back and forth between the two but i love the charts and data that storygraph presents you (guess i'm a nerd)

if you're not still using it, what are you using instead?

Hey everyone! For a little over a month now (what is time, even?) a small, dedicated team of Pagebound Librarians have been amalgamating book entries - as in cataloguing all editions of the same book so they just have one spot on an author's list, and then you can change the edition by using that option on the book page.

This cleans up the author pages, making it much easier to browse their catalogue. Each Pagebound Librarian has been working away on their own lists (starting with authors who have books on quests they created/manage, then working their way out), and I've personally been making a game of picking random lists to process those authors, or using the books in the daily emoji category, or authors mentioned in Pagebound club posts, but now I want to open it up to all of you.

Are there any specific authors whose pages you would like to see catalogued sooner rather than later? If so, comment below so they can become a priority.

As a courtesy, please check the author page to make sure it hasn't been cleaned up already before suggesting your author. That'll make things go a lot smoother!

As a side note to my fellow Pagebound Librarians on this project - if you want to process any of the entries from users in the comments of this post, go for it! Just reply to that user's comment "I'm on it!" or something like that (but only do so if you are literally starting that author in the moment; don't try to call an author for later).

Happy reading, everyone!

Idk if this was mentioned in some recent update, but I just saw people on my feed with an unfamiliar pfp and now I found out there are a couple new profile pictures! Just wanna say how adorable they are!!! I love the new versions of dragons (I was originally the reading dragon haha) and will be forever grateful for all these cute designs! I have heard mixed opinions abt this but I really love the limited (and pagebound-specific) choice of profile pictures - somehow it feels like it makes everyone more "equal" and makes a pfp choice so much easier!

(I searched if anyone has posted something like this, so forgive me if it’s been discussed.)

How do y’all feel about mean reviews?? Personally, I think it’s unnecessary to bash a book/author if it didn’t suit your personal tastes. Like, you can say you didn’t like something without being an a-hole.

Edit: I’d like to clarify I don’t mean negative reviews, I think those are absolutely necessary. What I mean is saying stuff like “you’re stupid if you liked this” or “how did anyone enjoy this” because I think insulting other readers doesn’t foster the judgement free zone we want these apps to have.

Do you judge a book by its cover... be honest 👀

I do judge a book by it's cover. I'm not a fan of real people on book covers unless it's a biopic or something.

so im like only a couple chapters in and this book is really hard to get through. like im struggling to actively read this without falling asleep or screaming at snow like crazy. I know this is like a good book and it would be concerning if I did like snow as a character but still ... its hard to read a book when you don't like the person who is telling the story ya know? broo I want to be into it like I was with the og trilogyyy but its so harddd

Quick announcement of some smaller updates -

We have new avatars for levels 3 and 4. Level 3 has two new dragons to choose from, and level 4 has three food-inspired avatars 🥐🌶️🍚

We also have two new feeds on your homepage. You'll see your Main Feed (the normal feed you're used to), a Following feed (just activity from people you follow) and My Books (the feed that is currently on Discuss, this is just posts from books in your library). Many people have been asking for a following feed :)

In your Main feed and My Books feed, you will no longer see posts from TBR books that are marked as spoilers.

We're aware of an intermittent bug on the app when posting in the book forum (from the book page specifically). The feed updates + a bug fix for this is out on iOS, please update your app to see these changes. On Android, we're still awaiting app approval - in the meantime there is a workaround : use the currently reading card on your home feed, which has a "Post to Forum" button, to post rather than going to the book page.

Browsing this forum and it's many wonderful quests and lists (as well as great recommendations I've picked up from the club posts - my TBR is ever growing) it made me wonder.. Have you ever finished (or DNF'd ) a book that was recommended to you that did not fit your taste at all,something that made you question 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐'𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴?

I vividly remember mine - although I don't remember the book title at all. A friend of mine lent me a book after I mentioned that I'd like to read something more light and romantic. She sang praises of how this book is so light, so 'feel good'. She repeatedly mentioned the romance plot being amazing.

Well... When I tell you it was anything but - the main character was a carer for older people. I don't mind a slice of reality, but this character 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 their job. Whole chapters of grim, graphic descriptions of cleaning up bodily fluids, how she hated her job, how she hated her clients. Fiction or not, it honestly traumatised me a little thinking anyone with such an important role would speak or think of their clients like that. It was thoroughly depressing, if there was any romance somewhere in the plot my brain has blanked it out. I remember returning the book to her after finishing it, her still beaming that it was such a heartwarming story and me being so confused. Thinking 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦, 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. I wonder if she just didn't pick up on the looming elephant in the room in that book. Our friendship fizzled out but I still wonder to this day if it was some sort of a prank.

So tell me yours - have you ever had something similar happen? Have you picked up a recommendation somewhere that everyone had a completely different perception of than you?