i picked up this book randomly because it kept showing up on best books of 2025 lists, but a few pages in i’m not really hooked yet… is it gonna be worth it?

Many new updates, big and small, coming at you - Please update your apps to see them!

Summary of changes:

• On the app, a new "Feed" tab has been added to book pages. You can see status and progress updates from everyone on the site, along with stats for TBR, Finished etc across the site
• Giveaways will be available next week, planned launch is Jan 19th! Once giveaways are live, you can find them on the Discover page under Books
• The Mardi Gras/Carnival Special Event readalong starts today! Check Discuss to see the selections, badge, and how to participate
• Our very first Limited Time Quest launched today, in partnership with Simon Books. Check out Discover Quests, we're very excited about this one!
• Lists have been converted from the upvote/downvote system to a pure "Like" system
• On your custom shelves, you now have a "breakdown by status" section to see how many books in that shelf are in each reading status (bonus: cool way to do personal challenges)
• You can see how many books you finished in Quests you have not yet joined
• On the "currently reading" section of the homefeed, your books are now sorted by most recently updated

Why are we moving from upvotes/downvotes to likes for Lists? The upvote/downvote system was meant for community moderation, however now that we have PageboundGuides as moderators, we're asking the community to leave list moderation to the Guides. We want to make sure folks feel welcome to make lists - if someone makes a personal list, please do not corrective comment. The Guides will take care of it :)

How do Giveaways work? We've partnered with Publishers and Authors to giveaway books to the community. Once live, the Giveaway link will be on the Discover Books page. You can browse all the giveaways there, and enter by filling out a form with contact info (so we can send you the book if you win!). We know many folks are often disappointed when giveaways are only in the US and Canada - want to share with y'all that we do not have control over where giveaways are active. That is up to the publisher and author! As we grow, we hope more international publishers and authors know about Pagebound and want to partner with us.

How does the new Feed tab work on book pages? Since forum posts are meant for evergreen discussion, and folks comment on their status cards and progress update cards to share personal updates, we wanted to give everyone a way to share those personal updates beyond their immediate followers. We also wanted to give folks a way to see who is reading or wants to read a certain book, even if they are not following them yet. The Feed tab shows all status update and progress update cards, so you can more easily discover personal convos and reading buddies.

We'll be back soon with more updates!

Thanks everyone and happy reading, Jennifer & Lucy

The Simon & Schuster flagship imprint is thrilled to present these seven stunning debuts. Join this Quest to read along with us over the next six months. We'll start with The Bright Years in January, a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards for best debut in 2025 and a great precursor to Sarah Damoff's much anticipated second novel The Burning Side, coming later in 2026. Next up is Rebecca Fallon's Family Drama, a powerful meditation on family and motherhood, available on February 3. Lai Sanders's The Plans I Have for You is a timely, razor-sharp suspense coming on March 17. A multi-generational Brooklyn family saga, Livonia Chow Mein by Abigail Savitch-Lew hits shelves on April 21. Natalie Lemle's Artifacts takes readers on a journey into the world of stolen artifacts on May 19. And finally, we'll wrap up in June with Rachel Beanland's beloved debut novel Florence Adler Swims Forever, the perfect precursor to her latest novel The Half Life out in July. Can't wait until publication day to read these books? We'll be giving away early copies throughout the duration of the Quest, so be sure to check the Giveaways page to enter for a chance to win!