I’m already bored of the world building but there’s not one chance that I’m going to fail to finish this by the 30th for the read along. Anything for the shiny badge.

Okay so, I need book recs for books that left you HOLLOW for at least a week. I'm talking stuff like If We Were Villains or They Both Die At The End, anything that ripped your heart out - don't ask me why. I just need to feel the pain sometimes!!!

I think poetry books/ collections are beautiful and important but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to read them. Do you read the entire thing like a normal book? Because then you might not have much time to reflect over the poems. Do you read one poem every now and then and give it a think? In that scenario it might take ages to get through. What works best for you Pagebound folk? 🩷

Everyone on here always recommends the most amazing books. The ones they loved, the ones that changed them.

But give me a fantasy book or series that you wanted to rip apart- that you only finished out of SPITE

I very much enjoy reading 1-star reviews of books to see if I would hate the book too, or if it would actually be for me. People are more honest about a book if they hated it 😆 (in my opinion)

So give me a fantasy book you hated, and why?!

Why would anyone have those kinds of emails sit in their drafts for so long though 😭 My anxiety could never 😭 I'm always ranting that shit out and then immediately, okay yup weight off my chest time to get rid of that!

So I've been reading through the reviews written by people I follow (love being able to filter the feed on profiles!) because I'm nosy and looking for recs - and to help me learn to write better reviews.

It got me thinking about what type of reviews I like to read and are helpful to me, and I just know that everyone has different 'requirements' for what makes a review good for them. It's making it really fun to look through them, knowing that what doesn't quite work for me will work for someone else.

For example, I prefer an almost negative amount of 'spoilers' (this is probably just my disinterest in hearing/reading premise recaps - if I wanted to read the blurb I would have, and I generally don't), an overview of the vibe (including tone, setting/time, genre/sub-genre), and a couple of reasons why the book worked (or didn't work) for the reader.

What about you? What do you prefer to see, and write, in reviews?

For members of any and all marginalized groups, what books have made you feel seen and/or are books you consider "the most" accurate representation? I've come across a lot of books that, while touted as representation, feel a little flat or stereotypical. Not all members of marginalized groups are going to be the best spokespeople through the written word, and everyone has a different experience, so not every book is going to be great representation for every person.

So which books really resonated with you and your experience, fiction or nonfiction, hopeful or devastating, overtly about marginalization or not?

I read a lot this year, and in August I kind of started slumping but I was able to keep going by reading weird books I would normally never read, but eventually that wore off as well. I was fine with not reading for the rest of the year, but I know that if I don’t push myself out of the funk it might carry on for years (like it has before) SO:

If you have any fun, short, interesting books PLEASE let me know. I like romcoms to get out of my slump, but a fantasy will do as well! 🧡