I’ve already smiled and laughed a few times and I’m not even four pages into the first chapter 🤗This is giving 90s-00s romcom vibes and I am HERE FOR ITTT

This strangely feels like "A Wizard of Oz" retelling with the variety of companions described lol

hiii! as we near the end of the year, i've been reflecting a lot on my reading journey this year and wouldn't feel right not taking a moment to praise pagebound (although i already do this all day everyday to anyone who will listen :p).

i was very much the matilda-lover (for many reasons) as a child and identifying with her love for reading was definitely a main reason! i would spend all day in my room reading, my gifts were always books, you get the picture!

however, as my mental health declined more and more rapidly as i got older, i found myself not being interested/able to focus on reading anymore and that was a heartbreak and grief journey in itself. i feel like i've been on that grief journey ever since (i'm 28 now and probably stopped reading-reading when i was around 11/12) because as much as i maybe was able to pick up a book here or there or go on random "reading eras", it was never the same way as when i was little, that is until i found pb!

i started using pb in august and since then, i went from thinking i wasn't even going to hit my 20 book reading challenge for the year to now having read 25+ books in one month both last month and this month! it is really reminiscent of when i was little and would leave the library with baskets of books and that is something that warms my heart so deeply. i feel like my inner teen (and myself in general) is finally healing a part of themselves that they grieved for so long. it feels like coming home! to myself! and i have pagebound to thank for that!

the book organization options (yes i'm a virgo stellium, yes it's very obvious), the quests and readalongs - all of the fun features, attention to detail and the very obvious desire to foster community all keep me so entertained and wanting to contribute. i thought maybe i would just fixate on this for a while and move onto something else but book lover has always been in my heart and i think it's here to stay (i've already created 3 separate reading challenges for myself to work on in 2026! amongst just whatever books i want to get to! i'm a mix of a mood-reader and a planner!) 💗

anyway, hopefully others can relate and want to share their favorite thing about being on here or favorite memory on pb! memory/moment-wise for me would have to be a tie between having connected with so many cool people and having discovered such incredible reads this year!

i look forward to reading y'all's sweet moments! thank you for reading all of this if you did 💗

Firstly i think the 2026 one is bugged as it says that 2025 has already happened, and that 2026 is up next…

Secondly, i plan on reading Emily Wilde! i’ve been meaning to for ages and now i finally have a reason. but if it remains bugged, and 2026 is up next then im not sure what ill pick as nothing seems too interesting. maybe A Wizards guide to Defensive Baking?

eta; yes i know many people have pointed out that its not a bug, but i found it very confusing 😅. i probably wont participate this year as theres just other things id rather read on my very long tbr (mine is physical, so if it doesn’t fit on my shelf then im not allowing myself to buy a copy to put it there). if they spanned more genres or had more options that would’ve been great, but i also sometimes like how concise they all are and limiting your choices

for me: i don’t read classics- they’ve never agreed with me. i like romance in moderation and im already planning on reading two in december, i don’t read adult fiction, and the last pick sounds okay, but not something id jump on.

i’ll ready emily wilde next year or in spring, but i love that everyone is excited for this winter!