Everything I discuss here is based on the publicly known details about Dracula, so I’m not marking it for spoilers, but proceed with caution if you know nothing about who Dracula is. Also, please keep in mind the lack of a spoiler tag when responding!

I can’t help but think about how our experience reading this today, even if we know nothing about the actual story, is forever altered by the lore and legends built over time after this book came out. You’d probably be hard pressed to find someone nowadays who doesn’t already know that Dracula is a vampire. And obviously, if you read the blurb for the book on here, you’d learn that before reading as well.

That makes this reading experience so fundamentally different when compared to that of someone who read it shortly after its release. My basic understanding is that while this certainly wasn’t the first vampire story, it also wasn’t widely known that Dracula was a vampire until you actually read the book. So I’m curious to know what the experience must have been like to learn with Harker (and I assume the other characters later in the book) what Dracula is. Instead, we go into this with more information than the narrator and I don’t think that was the original intent. I definitely could be wrong though haha

I’ll be researching this as I read more I think and come back to update, but for any Dracula lovers or English majors out there, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

As far as I know, the Skyward series is not part of the Cosmere, and as such, I don’t think it should really be part of this quest. It also appears that some novellas and short stories, like Mistborn: Secret History or The Emperor’s Soul are missing.

I know it's pretty specific 😅 My 10yr daughter is very advanced in English so her teacher allows her to read a book during her English class (they're learning very basic stuff).

So I'm looking for recs of books for children or preteen, not too hard to read for a non-native English speaker, but not too childish either?

If that helps, she loves stories with animals or mischievous kids 😆 Maybe with a bit of fantasy? And she looooves everything Star Wars related! 🚀

Thanks!

I'm curious if anyone else is also interested in this/nosey as hell like me: being able to easily see what books a user has read for the badges they have.

I know you can go to People you follow in a quest and see what badge they have in that quest, but you can't see which books they've read unless you go to a specific book's page and check Activity from people you follow.

I don't know how it would work, but I've often found myself clicking on/looking through people's badges (users I follow and those I don't) and wishing I could easily see in one go which books the user has read in that quest. I just wanna be in y'all's business (in a positive and supportive way 😶‍🌫️).

Now that the new year has started, I've been wondering what people's non-numerical and non-challenge goals/plans are (if you make any). For example, mine are

• finishing Octavia E. Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy (I read Dawn last year and already have Adulthood Rites and Imago on my shelf)
• reading my first Brandon Sanderson book (I put Elantris on hold at the library; most people say Mistborn is the better place to start, but I liked Elantris's blurb much much more)
• reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke cause I loved Piranesi so much
• buddy reading I Who Have Never Known Men by Jaqueline Harpman along with Marlen Haushofer's The Wall (a friend of mine suggested reading them together and I love that idea, so I asked if I could join her)
• EDIT: reading more slowly and organizing my thoughts before moving on to the next book, ARCs notwithstanding - I got a reading journal this year just for that purpose and am excited to fill it!

Do you have any similar goals? Or less specific ones?

I know it's pretty specific 😅 My 10yr daughter is very advanced in English so her teacher allows her to read a book during her English class (they're learning very basic stuff).

So I'm looking for recs of books for children or preteen, not too hard to read for a non-native English speaker, but not too childish either?

If that helps, she loves stories with animals or mischievous kids 😆 Maybe with a bit of fantasy? And she looooves everything Star Wars related! 🚀

Thanks!

anyone else getting a little ✨‼️🥳‼️✨ feeling when you start recognizing the same usernames in comments across posts?

I’m like !!!! oh my god that’s the person from another post whose comment i liked before !!! & it’s ANOTHER good commment !!!! eeeeee!!! they’re being cool & fun & nice AGAIN!!! (ps everyone is literally SO cool & fun & nice here)

feels like when you go somewhere or see something/someone you’ve only ever seen online & it’s like !!!!! ahhh !!!!! i know this but i don’t !!!

just me?

Yayyyy. First social read with new Pagebound buddies 🖤🥹

I must gush about this I'm sorry. I'm a huge spreadsheet nerd, and for the first time I fully made my own this year with a LIST of stats to keep track of my reading with pages, genres, etc. In past years I've used other templates or downloads for my own tracking but I'm SUPER EXCITED for it to be put to use this year!!!

Curious if anyone else is a huge spreadsheet, journal or other media form for book tracking besides using an online social forum one like Pagebound?