My tbr has grown exponentially since going Pagebound which I’m going to consider a positive. The vast majority of those titles are books I never would have found or read without Pagebound, my top ten books has quickly become mostly Pagebound recs. So I want to know if there’s a book you absolutely loved which you probably never would have found or picked up without Pagebound! Bonus points if you remember who you yoinked it from or where you got it. ETA: this is a big part of why I love Pagebound! It’s helped me discover so many smaller titles, indie books, and honestly helped me really define my taste, while at the same time trying things outside of my comfort zone.

Throughout my reading (and watching) experience, I've come across tropes where I have to roll my eyes in frustration or completely abandon the boom because it ruined the story for me. Then came the subversion of tropes - and I was stoked!!

What story tropes did you hate and what subversions/developments/changes made you like this particular... um... trope alternative? I'll start with my own tropes dislikes and subversion loves:

• Love Triangle subversion: we all love each other, actually we're all gay for each other (Iron Widow and Our Flag Means Death to an extent)
• the Gendry trope subversion, i.e. the Male Best Friend realizes his Male friend is a disguised girl and addresses her as woman despite her protests, subversion: instead of going "I'm going to remind you again and again that you're a woman, or a Lady, and I won't give you the treatment of being perceived as a boy like you wish", it's just a simple "I don't give a fuck, I always knew, but you'll always be a brother to me, now can we continue being brotherly towards each other?" (She Who Became The Sun)
• when villain does [insert war crime] it's bad, but when heroic protagonist does [insert war crime] it's for the greater good trope subversion: if you want the protagonist to do [insert war crime], let's go batshit crazy and experience the horrifying reality of [insert war crime], I want my characters to suffer (The Poppy War, The Fifth Season, Iron Widow, Iphigenia, etc.)
• the white male abolitionist saviour trope subversion: move aside, dude, I present to you the post-colonial perspective from those directly affected (Things Fall Apart, Kindred, Jazz, Babel, etc.)
• Love at First Sight trope subversion: we can still be platonic friends with people of the opposite sex (Babel, Boys Run The Riot, Witch Hat Atelier, etc.)
• the Chosen One trope subversion: oops he's not the Chosen One, he's in fact the villain, or he is the Chosen One from a certain point of view (Star wars my beloved)
• the main story is the untainted hero's story subversion: We're actually following the villain the entire time (Star wars, The Silmarillion, Attack on titan, etc.)

So I was looking at my profile and my jaw DROPPED because excuse me?!? I’m ONE book away from completing my reading goal for the year?!? What the heck?????

I picked my goal this year off of what I read the year before. I managed 62 totalllll for the 2025 year, so I didn’t think at allllll that I would surpass 66 this year?! I did read a handful of graphic novels, which significantly bumped up my reading count, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been prioritizing reading more this year, so those were some unexpected things.

How do you decide your reading goal? Is it random, based on something, or just your favourite number?

The friendship between Edme and Alain is too tender 🥹